CE Pro December 2023 - 42

INDUSTRY
CE Pro Masters
David Moore, Snap One
DAVID MOORE has been
one of the behind-thescenes
people who has
turned Snap One into what
it is today. Moore is the
executive vice president
of engineering and technology
at Snap One and
was hired nearly 14 years
ago to build the product
development team in the
start-up years of Snap.
Before joining them, Moore
put his stamp on Elan
Home Systems solutions,
for six years heading up
the product development
teams responsible for the
company's control system
and user interfaces.
Both manufacturers can
consider themselves lucky
that Moore made his way
into custom electronics.
" I was fortunate to find
this industry by accident!
I worked my way through
Electronic Engineering
school as a CEDIA integrator
in Greenville, S.C., and
Knoxville, Tenn., " he says.
" This 'get-through-college'
job as an integrator made
me realize that many products
I worked with were
'Built by Engineers for Engineers'
and lacked installer
features that made them
easy to install, program,
and service. This fueled my
passion for building great
products that are easy to
install and drive value for
our integrators. "
After graduating from
engineering school, Moore
transitioned from the
dealer/installer side of the
CEDIA channel to the manufacturing
side, where he's
been building products for
over two decades.
In terms of his industry
education, Moore points
to Cat Toomey and Paul
Starkey as two of the " best
people leaders I've had the
privilege of working under. "
He adds that he's grateful
to dozens of industry
leaders who have invested
in him, including SnapAV
founder Jay Faison, who
Moore says taught him how
to align business cases with
his technology vision; and
current Snap CEO John
Heyman, who " leads from
the front and exemplifies
servant leadership. "
Moore's passion for
solving problems has helped
him envision and create
prototypes for myriad
products, but he says one
of his favorites came about
originally for selfish reasons.
" I've done a ton of
international travel in my
career, and it never failed
that the technology in my
home would misbehave
when I was halfway around
the world, " he remarks. " My
wife has lived in a 'beta
house' for 20 years and
grew accustomed to the instructions:
'Unplug the box
for 30 seconds, then plug
it back in.' To short-circuit
Murphy's Law, I built a surge
protector that would ping
the network and automatically
reboot power to the
network devices that were
not responding, and the
WattBox brand was born. "
Having witnessed the influence
that DIY and Big Tech
products have brought to the
custom integration industry
via greater awareness and
demand among consumers,
Moore is eager to push Snap
One forward and deliver
deeper customer experiences
and expanded ecosystems.
" There are so many
opportunities to solve
integrator and consumer
problems with technology.
AI and Data Science will
completely change the
way consumers interact
with technology, " he says.
" Technology is evolving at
an unprecedented rate, and
I'm excited to build new
hardware, software, and
services that propel our
integrators to new levels of
success and profitability. "
COURTESY OF SNAP ONE
Mel Schilling, Music and Sound
A CAREER in Hi-Fi seemed
inevitable for Mel Schilling,
who started building loudspeaker
and amplifier kits
while he was in high school
and maintained a passion
for music and audiophilia for
more than a half-century in
the industry. Schilling passed
away in January 2022, but his
legacy lives on and CE Pro is
42 | CE Pro December 2023
grateful to his son Howard
for posthumously nominating
him for this honor.
" Dad viewed Hi-Fi as a
means to an end, a way of
capturing and experiencing
his fervent love of music and
the performing arts, " says
Howard Schilling, who is in
the integration industry as
director of sales for PureLink.
" He played and taught piano,
attended concerts yearround,
and always preferred
to discuss art rather than
science. While he appreciated
the industry's immense
growth, its increased focus
on products rather than
music troubled him. I recall
countless conversations Dad
had with other industry legends,
where they talked for
hours about performances,
musicians, orchestras. Rarely
about gear. "
The elder Schilling studied
music at the prestigious
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CE Pro December 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CE Pro December 2023
