The AV Awards 2020. It was an awards ceremony like none we’ve ‘attended’ before and it came towards the end of a year like no other we’ve ever experienced – pretty fitting really.

So, on Friday 20th November 2020 we all tuned in to the first ever virtual AV Awards with just a little more excitement than usual for this big night in the AV industry calendar, because we’d made it as finalists in the SME Business of the Year category.

About two thirds of the way through the event our category was up and host for the evening Rich Hall handed over to AV User Group Chariman Owen Ellis to announce the winner.

And then massive excitement for us as our name was read out and our logo jumped up on screen. We’d won!

A massive moment for us to receive this recognition during such a challenging year but the very nature of awards ceremonies means it was just that on the night. A moment.

For this reason, we thought it would be both useful and interesting to jump into the detail of our awards entry and why the AV Awards judges, after a rigorous process, selected One Digital Signage as the SME Business of the Year.

Our story over the last 12 months has very much been one of a year of two halves and this is exactly what the judges for the AV Awards were presented with.

During late 2019 and in to early 2020 our core product range of digital signage solutions was growing through product development driven by a number of key project & client wins. Our business plan for growth was based around this and a commitment to continual innovation within our digital signage solutions range.

But, even as this was progressing to plan, rumblings within our componentry supply chain connected to China suggested that a new coronavirus, which we’d heard so little about at that point, was about to become a big problem not just for business, but for our society as a whole.

Indeed, it wasn’t long before it became apparent that Covid-19 had the makings of a global pandemic. It was at this point we focused on equipment previously prototyped and developed but which had never really been anything more than a side project for our business – a range of infection control solutions headed up by our LED screen-integrated digital signage hand sanitisers.

Now, at the end of 2020, it’s not really surprising this was a pivot that came to define our year. However, at the time during the early days of the pandemic, nobody really knew the destruction the Covid-19 virus would wreak on the economy and our lives in general. Business is often about making educated predictions though, and this is exactly what this was from our management team.

In addition to solid decision-making, the effort made in switching focus to our infection control range also demonstrated to the award judges our business and team’s adaptability. Alongside this all, it showed our commitment to develop the products needed at a time of crisis and create quality AV technology for good.

This year has also seen our business strengthen existing partnerships and establish new relationships with the likes of Northamber PLC, which we may have previously seen as out of reach. These new distribution partnerships with industry heavyweights helped expand the reach of our solutions and impressed the judges.

Finally, in a point we’re particularly proud of and which was emphasised in the award announcement, we were also congratulated on our commitment to diversity, equality, community engagement and the development of our people. We’re passionate about technology and delivering incredible service to our clients, but to be congratulated on our people-focused approach to business was the icing on the cake!

And so there we are, how we picked up our AV Award for SME Business of the Year 2020.

We’ll round out this story with the closing paragraphs from our application because we think it sums things up quite nicely…

Through our positive approach to economic conditions and delivering in-demand products to the market, we are now a stronger business than 12 months ago. The journey has been somewhat different to how we planned but the results have been beyond what we could have expected in a “normal” year.

Today, we are a local business with national clout in our industry. We’re providing jobs within our community and developing genuinely innovative products. This leaves us poised for future business growth, built on hard work through a difficult economic period.