The heartbeat of Zavala Technical Services, Steve Zavala is a tireless, multifaceted individual; a renaissance engineer. Involvement in music and theater at a young age provided a love of the performance arts, while a lifelong technological fascination has developed his ability to rapidly understand, improve and master systems, networks and devices of all kinds. Reel to reels & Heathkits, broken stereos and junker cars were fodder early on. A disdain for distortion began a life-long quest for more perfect recording & playback technologies. The love of learning and applying how things work led to a science, math, & engineering study path. He was rebuilding VCRs, motorcycles, phone systems and heavy tooling machinery while studying system architecture, lasers & microwaves. He also tutored high school and college students in upper level math and sciences. When his daughter attended a performance magnet school, he became the Dad filming every event so families could enjoy the DVDs agin and again. Before long iMovie couldn’t do all he needed, but working through 700 pages of training manual gave him full control of his new editing suite. Years of working with the latest equipment and systems, & delivering in multiple formats has kept him learning continuously.

Adept at 3D CAD and the internet since the 80's, he has designed systems, circuit boards, multi-chip modules and fixtures. In 1985 he built a networked DC-microwave final test station for characterization & documentation of military & commercial switching systems. Production issues in 1994 led him to architect a quality tracking database that helped recover over $200 million in materials. A VP requested him to lead a skunkworks project for an imminent SemiCon demo, to great success. Working in cross-functional engineering teams, he has excelled at rapid prototype development, design for manufacturing, and new design debug, and has deep understanding of analog signals, power and digital controls, test equipment and methods, failure analysis & reliability. He learns who gets things done in each area and builds crucial synergies between groups.

Then seeing computers to be an interesting career path, Steve transferred into the corporate helpdesk & Information Technology department right before the Dot com crash. But there was still plenty of work in broad office and engineering support, on-call network management, server migrations, data backup and security hardening. Then the fun of network partition and integration and server room moves due to corporate spin-offs and acquisitions. And of course efforts in Sarbanes-Oxley auditing & compliance. But the corporate VIPs still called on him for his personal and exacting service in making their laptops, corporate videos, demos, presentations and gadgets work at their highest levels. His ability to translate between high tech lingo and plain English (and Spanish) allows him to discuss details of technology with everyone.

A few years with a local marketing firm as Chief Technology Strategist gave a chance to spec and build a mobile multi-cam HD video studio, and shoot lots of excellent video with it for commercials, testimonials, conferences, training sessions, etc. He worked closely with high-asset clients and event staff, led video crews, and demonstrated steady hands at AV system controls during large events. He also built a network of video workstations with all the trimmings, and used them for pristine quality Audio Engineering and Video Production. He kept all the gear and systems running smoothly for the team, in the office/studio and on the road. He maintained Lists & Recipes for specific projects & processes to ensure repeat success. He managed all cloud and network services for the firm, did security assessments, and identified and applied key technologies for business needs. He debugged and optimized video encoding and streaming services. He facilitated web based presentations and provided vocal talent. And he learned quite a lot about the marketing business in the process!

Since the big corporate days, Steve has been busy providing independent professional services in two main areas: Media services, and Technical services. Wearing his Media hat he produces creative superior quality video and audio content for Corporate Messaging, Bands, Schools, Communities and anyone needing great video. With full-spectrum cinematic experience, he delivers Broadcast Quality media. At other times he puts on the propeller beanie and the uber-geek comes out, applying best practices for servers and users, building cloud based services for small-medium businesses, networking of all kinds, maintaining office and home computer systems, developing optimized solutions focused on reliability & security, debugging hardware and software systems, data backup, training – and everything else that small/medium businesses and homes need in Technology support.

Most recently he is honing his software chops, so look out for some projects coming from that effort. From punch card machines to the latest smart phones, time sharing & toggle switches to cloud services and flash drives, he enjoys absorbing it all and making it easy to understand. You’ll be surprised how smooth experience can make things. Get him on your team and receive the top shelf VIP treatment you deserve!

For larger jobs and live events, other skilled team members are brought in to assist.

Do you have a project in the planning phase? Give us a call to see how easy we can make it! (408) 219 1018 Or send an email to ask questions or schedule a meeting. Do it now!