SCN: How long have you been with AVI-SPL, and what are your responsibilities?
John Zettel: I joined AVI-SPL back in April of 2000. Hard to believe it’s been 25 years. I started as CFO, focused on strengthening our financial side, and about five years later I stepped into the CEO role. My role is to ensure we’re moving in the right direction and creating the kind of company where our people and our customers can be successful.
SCN: How has the recent acquisition by 26North impacted AVI-SPL?
JZ: The partnership with 26North has been very positive for us. It gives AVI-SPL financial backing and strategic support to accelerate our growth, expand globally, and continue investing in innovation. What’s important is that our leadership team and culture remain intact, so our customers and employees get the benefit of added resources without losing what makes AVI-SPL unique. It really helps us to deliver even greater value to the organizations we serve.
SCN: Speaking of acquisitions, AVI-SPL sure does a lot of them, including CCS Southwest not long after the 26North acquisition was completed. What’s the strategy here?
JZ: CCS Southwest is a very respected provider of AV and UC in Arizona. Bringing them into the AVI-SPL family strengthens our overall presence in the Southwest and helps us expand into new market verticals that we previously did not have to focus on, like education. The cultural fit is what makes this acquisition especially meaningful. Over the past 34 years, CCS Southwest has built a strong reputation for helping clients transform how they communicate and collaborate, and we see a strong cultural alignment that’s dedicated to doing what’s right for our teams and communities.
Acquisitions are an important part of our growth strategy. They help us reach new markets and go deeper in the ones we’re already in. But the truth is, less than a third of AVI-SPL's growth comes from acquisitions. Most of it is organic, driven by the great work our teams are doing and the deep relationships we have with our customers.
SCN: How important is sustainability to AVI-SPL, and are you seeing it growing in importance for your customers?
JZ: Sustainability is central to how AVI-SPL operates and creates value for our customers. It’s not a separate initiative. It’s embedded in how we design, deliver, and support technology solutions worldwide. We’ve now published two annual ESG Impact Reports to demonstrate this.
The pace of change, supply chain pressures, and higher customer expectations are real challenges in our industry.
Our customers are on similar journeys. Many now include ESG and sustainability criteria in RFPs and procurement decisions, looking for partners who can help them reduce their carbon footprint, manage electronic waste responsibly, ensure cybersecurity, and verify their impact with real data. Sustainability is moving from being a differentiator to being a core expectation.
SCN: How important has managed services become for AVI-SPL?
JZ: Organizations today need more than just great technology. They need a partner who can make sure that technology runs reliably, scales globally, and adapts as their needs evolve. That is where AVI-SPL’s managed services come in. It is one of the fastest-growing parts of our business, because it allows our customers to focus on their core priorities while we ensure their digital workplace is performing at its best every day.
SCN: What can AVI-SPL’s Symphony do for customers, and how popular is the service?
JZ: AVI-SPL Symphony takes the complexity out of managing collaboration technology. It gives IT and workplace teams one powerful platform to monitor, manage, and support meeting spaces across their entire organization. Today, Symphony is trusted by many of the world’s largest companies, managing tens of thousands of spaces globally and proving the real value of simplifying how the world works and connects.
SCN: Is hiring still an issue for Pro AV integrators?
JZ: The demand for skilled talent continues to grow as the market expands and technology evolves. At AVI-SPL, we have put a lot of focus on building strong career pathways, investing in training and development, and creating a culture where people want to stay and grow. In 2025, our global employee retention numbers reached 91%. We’ve made the training and certification of our employees a key advantage in the marketplace, and our employees, in turn, are happier and stay with us longer. Hiring top talent remains a focus, but it’s the retention and upleveling of our existing talent that must also be a priority.
SCN: What are some of the other significant challenges facing integrators today?
JZ: The pace of change, supply chain pressures, and higher customer expectations are real challenges in our industry. What sets AVI-SPL apart is that we have the scale, partnerships, and expertise to turn those challenges into opportunities and deliver consistent, innovative solutions worldwide.
SCN: What’s the secret to AVI-SPL’s success?
JZ: We have built a company over the last two decades that we believe is uniquely differentiated in terms of our size, presence, and platform of what we offer. All of that has allowed us to work with global companies and be their strategic partner throughout their lifecycle, which not only goes into design and integration, but also the services that manage that on a continual basis. The secret comes down to our people and their commitment to our customers. With rapid changes in our industry, our team continually adapts to customers' needs by staying abreast of the changes in technology, committing to training, and obtaining certifications to instill confidence with our customers.
SCN: What’s the next big thing for the Pro AV industry?
JZ: It's all about elevating the user experience. That means creating immersive environments where people can see, hear, and truly feel the technology at work, while also enhancing everyday life in meaningful ways. The technology we deliver should make work and life easier, more flexible, and more enjoyable. A specific example of the continued evolution within the industry is the deeper integration of AI and data analytics into the workplace experience. We are moving beyond just connecting people to enhancing how they collaborate, using intelligence to make meetings more productive, spaces more efficient, and support more proactive. Coupled with continued advances in immersive technologies and sustainability, we are on the verge of a new era where AV is not just enabling work but actively shaping the future of how people engage and create together.
