In the beginning in Kitsap County, there was light. Boxlight, to be precise. In what resembles a biblical story in the Kitsap business community, complete with a visionary industry leader, a set of wise disciples, a maternal organization named Boxlight and the offspring which it begat — companies with names like Activelight, Cinelight, Projection One, PC Projection, and now Visual Apex, a startup on track to break $5 million in sales in its first year, an epic business adventure has unfolded here.
The groundbreaking story has evolved amidst a virtual promised land, both Kitsap County and the whole of Puget Sound on the one hand, and Poulsbo’s Powder Hill Office Park, built from the ground up as home base of a new tech fiefdom, on the other. In the process, our area has become a land overflowing – if not with milk and honey then audio-visual ingenuity, in projection video technology, and in latter day, in the latest gas plasma video display systems for the business and home entertainment world.
In the Charlton Heston role, there is Herb Meyers, the paternal founder of Boxlight who came to Kitsap County from California to find a better quality of life and found a better caliber of company, one that would quickly earn a national reputation from its start in 1989 as a high value reseller with exceptional tech support and customer service. Boxlight grew from two phone lines and a basement office to virtually redefine the field of video projection display products, the science behind the art of the audio-visual business presentation. Consequently, it emblazoned its name on the Inc. 500 List of Fastest Growing Companies in ‘95-‘96-and ’97.
In the early days, Boxlight assembled a small but mighty team of technical and sales specialists. Among these early “prophets of (video) boom” were technical gurus Paul Gilmore and Jeremy Meyers, sales wunderkind Charley Moore, and marketing communications pundit Elizabeth Dourley. Fast forward to October 2001. After venturing away from Boxlight on their own, Paul, Jeremy and Charley reconverge to launch Apex Visual Systems on Bainbridge Island and install Elizabeth as Marketing Director. A new generation of leadership has begun.
Visual Apex specializes in the cutting-edge field of liquid crystal display (LCD) projection devices, large format gas plasma screens and other visual display systems. Whereas LCD screens are ushering in the new era of ultra-thin, flat-screens that can hang on a wall, they only are cost-effective up to 24” in diagonal screen size. For larger screens, from 24”-61”, gas plasma technology becomes more cost efficient and the 3-1/2” to 4” thick flat screens can be can be ogled at a 180-degree viewing angle.
The path to its first $5 million has led Visual Apex to customer installations across the nation, ranging from Macy’s to the in-studio set of ESPN television to Portland Airport’s directional signage, to Bank of America’s corporate headquarters and even a top-secret project delving into anti-terrorism strategies for the city of New York.
With a client roster chock full, and leading edge technology that looms large, Visual Apex still strives to preserve the best of the Kitsap lifestyle, getting to work at 6 a.m. to tend to east coast customers but leaving by 2 p.m. to leave time for family and fun.
And the source for some of the gas plasma products sold by Visual Apex? None other than Activelight, the gas plasma division of Boxlight. The state-of-the-art in video display is finding new forms around the world. And it all starts without leaving Kitsap County. |
