ICYMI – Novel Electronic Designs, Inc. was featured in the August edition of Chillicothe’s Hometown Voice newspaper. The article “What’s the Buzz on 3rd St.“ recaps BuzzerSystems.com’s 30th anniversary & our Open House back in April.
What’s the Buzz on 3rd St.
Novel Electronic Designs, Inc., a Chillicothe business, celebrated its 30th anniversary with a ribbon cutting on April 25th. From an unassuming facility at 143 N. 3rd St., they design and build “lockout” systems for quiz games. These products are popular with schools (scholastic bowl), churches, TV stations, and businesses that use them for corporate training.
The business began as a hobbyist project in 1994 when Durwin Nigus was asked to repair a local school’s quiz-lockout system. Durwin remembers, “I looked at the system and realized I could fix what was broken, but the system would soon break in other places.” So instead of repairing the system, Durwin offered to make a new system from scratch and challenged the coach to describe the best system she could imagine. “Our first goal was to make it reliable, but we wanted to make a system that had all the features she wanted.”
The new system debuted at a Brimfield scholastic bowl event on April 25, 1994. “Several coaches at the event wanted to buy our system. I never intended to make more than one, but the excitement gave me the confidence to manufacture more systems.” The summer of ’94, Durwin and his wife Pam began building ten systems by hand. Early sales came from word of mouth. “A school would take their system to a tournament over the weekend and the next week we’d have several orders.”
Two years later the fledgling company was asked to supply the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) scholastic bowl state finals. The IHSA partnership is still going strong 28 years later.
Initially, the growth of the company was modest. “At first, we only had Illinois customers. But when we launched our website in 2000—BuzzerSystems.com—we began selling nationally and sales increased dramatically. We outgrew our basement in 2004, and eventually moved into our present location on 3rd Street in 2007.” The internet provides international exposure resulting in sales all over the world. To date, more than 20,000 units have been sold to all 50 states and over 27 countries.
A point of pride for Durwin is his high standard of quality and customer service—something he attributes to his late wife and his dedicated employees. “Our team ensures every unit is built to last and no product goes out the door without being tested first. If the customer can’t find the product they are looking for, we explore what system best meets their needs. We strive in every attempt to make sure our customers are satisfied,” Durwin explains. His customers agree. The business’ impact is so meaningful that Pam and Durwin were co-recipients of the Friends of Scholastic Bowl Award from the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association in 2007.
“Quiz games have an established presence in Illinois, but our customers are always finding new ways to use our products,” Trevor Nigus, Operations Manager, adds. “We will continue exploring how we can better access these new markets. However, nothing sells our products better than satisfied customers.”
This article was published in print in the August 2024 issue of the Chillicothe Hometown Voice.