This is a story of an unfortunate split between two groups operating the Megavoice brand – but one has just announced a name change.
Megavoice is known for producing audio Bibles, and has distributed over 3.6 million Bible machines, and featuring 7,907 languages and dialects, across the globe since it was founded 37 years ago.
Australian Tom Treseder was one of the key founders, and recalled for The Other Cheek last year a prayer back in 1982. ““May we design a Bible that will allow absolutely everyone to access and hear of the love of Jesus and be guided into His open arms.”
Treseder sketched the idea for a device that looked something like the ipad which was decades away. Tom’s idea was turned into practical reality by Ken Crowell, who already had a factory in Israel manufacturing shortwave radios for missions. The audio Bible powered by solar with no moving parts became a reality. Megavoice was formed .
But now the Australian branch has had a change of direction, rebranding as Vivlos, and adopting other technologies and suppliers.
Announcing the name change Vivlos CEO Adam Burt emailed supporters “We’ve always been passionate about providing physical audio Bibles to the world’s most vulnerable – the 7-8% of the global population living on less than $2 a day – and we will continue to serve them, with a new product line. But we’re also seizing a new opportunity: with 93% of people over 14 owning a mobile phone, we can now reach the 73-74% of the world’s population living on $2-$32 a day through our cutting-edge digital platform.”
The Other Cheek asked about the change of name and technology. “Regarding your first question, we still have access to MegaVoice players and continue to value their role in our mission,” Burt responded. “However, our name change to Vivlos reflects an expansion rather than moving away from anything. We’ve actually broadened our range of physical devices, including innovative options like TheWell, which creates a local WiFi network with learning content that can be accessed without an internet connection. This is perfect for remote villages and schools.”
The name Vivlos was introduced as the name of an app last year, reported by The Other Cheek, and has now been adopted as the name of the local organisation. According to the ACNC register, the organisation’s legal name is Megavoice Australia Limited.
However, Treseder, with the international Megavoice operation remains committed to the original vision of producing stand alone audio Bibles. The local branch voted Treseder off their board, he tells The Other Cheek. UPDATE Burt emails a response “Tom was not nominated for re-election and was not ‘voted off’.”
The Other Cheek does not imply the board acted inappropriately.
According to Treseder the Vivlos organisation has been selling what he regards as “knock off devices” from a Chinese supplier under the Megavoice brand rather than only relying on the factory in Israel for supplies. But with the name change that may no longer be an issue.
UPDATE: Burt emailed a response “The MegaVoice players are also manufactured in China and not Israel. All our other sourced players are clearly branded as Vivlos and have not been sold under the MegaVoice brand.” The Other Cheek accepts Burt’s account, but notes the organisation was known as Megavoice at the time.
The name change announcement followed (but The Other Cheek does not know if it was a result of) Treseder’s group asking for a name change.
The two organisations now have different technological visions based on their views on how best to reach people with the gospel; Vivlos embracing a wider suite of technologies, with the implication that the internet is the more appropriate tech for a large part of their operation, while Megavoice International wants to keep producing and distributing their players.
Vivlos is at vivlos.com
The continuing Megavoice is at megavoiceinternational.org
Image: Listening to a Megavoice Audio Bible. Image Credit: Megavoice.com
Correction: I have removed some commentary about IP and internet registrations.