Page 21: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2023)

“We moved into more of a specialized, rugged, even more reliable systems following military grade standards ... our Mission

Specialist technology. As a result, we’ve been selling fewer, but

All images courtesy VideoRay more expensive systems. While we’ve seen our volume go down, we’ve seen our revenue go up, increasing 20 to 60% a year for the last four years.” – Chris Gibson, CEO, VideoRay sion to make: Did we want to make a lot of low-cost systems,

Chris, to start us off please give a or did we want to make fewer, higher-end systems? We made ‘By the Numbers’ look at VideoRay today.

We have more than 4,000 systems sold to 1,700 customers the decision to make fewer, higher-end systems better.

in 75 countries using our products, supported both directly

When you look at the VideoRay you joined more and indirectly through sales and support channels, leveraging around 30 international dealers.

than 20 years ago, how was it most the same; how

Our business changed a lot over the last ? ve years when we is it most different?

made a strategic decision in 2017 to refocus our business.

What’s most the same is our focus on customer service. Scott

Prior to 2017, VideoRay was a low-cost provider of relatively

Bentley founded the company with Bob Christ, and myself as reliable, rugged, football-sized ROV equipment. well as a lot of other people here at VideoRay have software

But we saw changes coming.

backgrounds. When you are doing software, you have to pro-

We decided to move into more of a specialized, rugged, even vide a high level of customer service. Our customers expect more reliable systems following military grade standards; we it, and we brought that to the maritime industry. We smoth- did this for business that we were working on with the US ered them with customer service, and that’s stayed true. That

Navy, which coincided with the launch of our Mission Spe- customer focus directly correlates to solid, reliable products, cialist technology. As a result, we’ve been selling fewer, but because that’s what customers want: when they put the unit in more expensive systems.

the water, they know it’s going to work.

While we’ve seen our volume go down, we’ve seen our rev-

The biggest difference, especially over the last six months enue go up, increasing 20 to 60% a year for the last four years, since I took over, is that we’ve doubled the size of our leadership which is mirrored by the success that we’ve had with the US team, surrounding myself with experts (both promoted from

Navy Maritime Expeditionary Stand-off and Response program.

within and brought in from the outside) as we grow the business.

You said you “saw changes coming.” Can you

Your career parallels an evolution and maturation elaborate?

of the ROV market. Can you point to one or two

We saw a lot of low-cost providers coming into market. At technologies that you think have most signi? cantly the time, VideoRay was selling a Scout system that retailed added to ROV adoption, use and growth?

for around $4,500. When we looked at that scout system,

We see some big changes happening now that mirror the ear- and looked at the technology that was coming on market, we ly days of VideoRay. In the early days commercial divers were didn’t feel with that we were competitive, so we had a deci- www.marinetechnologynews.com 21

MTR #5 (18-33).indd 21 7/24/2023 8:56:52 AM