Jacqueline Hochheiser, Corporate Communications
Thousands of people around the world settled in behind television screens from August 29 to September 11 to watch the US Open, the final and most anticipated tennis competition of the season. While other spectators were lucky enough to attend the event in person at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York, none were the wiser to the potential disaster that was narrowly avoided thanks to the capable team at Mini-Circuits.
On September 7, two team members from a global broadcast solutions company contracted by the US Open, realized that their equipment had malfunctioned and they needed a replacement part for the system used for broadcasting sound. In a moment of panic and desperation, the two Googled where they could find the exact RF component they needed on short notice to avert disaster. Mini-Circuits was the first search result. The team proceeded to drive from Flushing Meadow, Queens to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn where Mini-Circuits’ headquarters are situated, and arrived late that evening.
Although the two US Open team members were unfamiliar with Mini-Circuits, they were impressed with their first experience. Minutes after the US Open technical team’s arrival, Elkhan Meirov, Mini-Circuits’ Director of Production Control, received a call from HR that there were two men from the US Open looking for a replacement part for their system and it was urgent. After learning the requirements for the broadcasting system, the Mini-Circuits team was able to determine that the attenuator BW-S3W2+ would be an ideal fit for a replacement.
The problem now was that the product was not housed at the Neptune Avenue headquarters where the US Open customers had shown up. Instead, the part was stored at the Deer Park facility on Long Island. As the working day was coming to a close, Meirov moved quickly to get in touch with David Barnett, the head of the sales team there. Barnett was able to enter the order into Mini-Circuits’ system, while Nabil Mahmood, Deer Park’s warehouse manager, held up the UPS truck to keep it from leaving without the US Open order while it was being processed and packaged.
The attenuator was successfully delivered to the US Open technical team on premises early the next morning, completing the urgent request – from definition to delivery – in less than 24 hours. In the process, Mini-Circuits saved the day for the US Open broadcast and tennis fans worldwide, and made two new friends in the process.
“This just goes to show how important customers are and have always been to Mini-Circuits. We fight for every single customer no matter how big or small they are, and we help them out,” said Meirov. “The US Open guys really appreciated our help. They actually sent me a text the next morning to let me know that everything worked out. We saved the day!”
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