HiViz Lighting, Inc. was founded by serial entrepreneur, volunteer firefighter, and professional EMT Sam Massa in 2011. Today, the company’s FireTech brand of lights boats an entire portfolio of the most innovative, reliable, and durable scene and warning lights for fire apparatus and ambulances, backed up by the industry’s only advanced exchange lifetime warranty. Here, Sam and graphic designer Marina Hunter share how KeyShot has played a big role in the company’s success.
What’s the inspiration behind HiViz?
Sam: I was frustrated working on the side of the road at 2am and not being able to see due to faulty, low-quality lights on the department’s fire truck. I had a background in stage lighting from my former DJ business, and an interest in off-road/towing lights from my biofuel business days, so emergency vehicle lighting was a natural transition for me after joining Lillington Fire Department. I got to work on bringing new, higher-quality LED scene lights for fire trucks and ambulances to market and HiViz Lighting, Inc. was born. Today, the company is run by me and my wife Kaoma, working as CEO and COO, respectively.
What are you proud of achieving?
Sam: We always remember the first responders we serve. This has ensured we always do the right thing for the customer, even if it costs us more. That’s led to a huge emphasis on our customer service, innovative and durable tech, and marketing that supports the first responder as a whole person.
I am also proud that we hold our own against competitors who are ten times our size, and that we have played a large role in pushing the industry forward. We disrupted the ‘old guard’ and did what everyone said we could not. The first year we hit $5 million in revenue was a huge milestone that made the company feel more established.
How has utilizing KeyShot helped HiViz save time, money and enhance quality?
Sam: Many of our new products are still in development. This last year we’ve needed visual assets of these new products to communicate their existence to the world leading up to their release, but we didn’t have the physical products on hand yet. Our graphic designer, Marina Hunter, leaned into KeyShot and has learned how to make really realistic visual representations of our future products. This has given us the ability to create marketing materials as well as internal/external trainings. Without this tool, we likely would have had to wait until after the release of the products to have any visual assets.
What KeyShot features are most helpful to you?
Marina: The most helpful feature for me is the mutli-material feature since our lights have different LED color options and even different housing color options. This helps me be able to set up different colored lights and switch back and forth super easily. It also helps when I am fine-tuning a clear plastic lens because it takes a lot of trial and error to find the correct settings, depending on the lighting and environment. With the multi-material I can easily duplicate a material and adjust settings and then compare the differences to decide the one I like best. I am also a big fan of using the Network Rendering queue to set up a whole bunch of renderings and let the computer work overnight.
Why would you recommend KeyShot?
Marina: KeyShot has been the hero in my world this year as we needed to get print materials sent out before we could get hands on physical prototypes to photograph. It gave me the tools to create renderings that replaced product photography and kept us on track to meet deadlines. It became the answer to so many questions that were up in the air for our team, and for that I highly recommend KeyShot to others. It could be the answer you have been needing.
See more at https://hivizleds.com/
