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Home » Grass Valley Makes Moves to Set Software-centric Approach to Growth

Grass Valley Makes Moves to Set Software-centric Approach to Growth

When the new Grass Valley CEO addressed a group of reporters assembled to hear the company’s pre-NAB plans, they didn’t hear about the roll-out of yet another piece of ‘big iron’. Instead, Tim Thorsteinson acknowledged that Moore’s Law effected even this once staid company. Now, said Thorsteinson, “our value has shifted into software.” The increasing pace of commoditization meant that the company’s traditional switchers and routers would, at some point, be replaced by smart software such as the company’s Stratus initiative.

Tim Thorsteinson has seen a lot of change in his years at the helm of various companies making traditonal broadcast gear.

Over a decade ago, Thorsteinson ran Grass Valley as Tektronix closed on a deal to acquire it. He left to run Leitch, another broadcast equipment provider, which then was bought by Harris. After years running their broadcast division, he recently returned for his second go around as its CEO. Grass Valley, which was sold by Technicolor in 2011, is now owned by private equity firm Francisco Partners.

With computer platforms becoming ever more capable, noted Thorsteinson, the company will move further into delivering products based on its Stratus application framework. Stratus is a service oriented architecture (SOA) fronted by a user configurable Grass Valley-designed GUI. This combo is key to the company’s new product offerings, indeed its whole future.

The latest version of Stratus includes new toolsets to simplify use of its automated, rules based file operations. Also new in the latest release: EDIUS XS, a non-linear low-resolution proxy editor. 

Pointing up how crucial such software is becoming to the company’s bottom line, Thorsteinson said that Grass Valley would begin selling software licenses for their products within the next year or two, which should provide “a nice revenue stream.”

He also noted that since most of Grass Valley’s products are used for live production, the company sits in a good spot that should lock in future revenue growth. The market for live production, live content, and live sports does offers a sweet spot for the company’s portfolio. How’s that? If you’re making something that has to go out live, you won’t look for the lowest-priced product but for the bullet-proof one, whatever it costs.

Graham Sharp also presented at the event. Sharp, who also once worked as a Grass Valley exec, is now returning as chief marketing officer and senior vice president for corporate development. 

Sharp, who most recently worked as a marketing head for Avid, saw the Grass Valley’s future in offering “nonlinear production” solutions for live and other broadcast events. His use of the term nonlinear production, he said, was indicative of what needed to change in the traditional live production realm. Grass Valley’s upcoming gear will break down the “silos” that have been built into live production. These silos—Chryon, switching, mixing, etc—will fall aside as GV’s integrated Stratus platform approach prevailed.

Stratus works by abstracting the hardware layer below the User Interface, said Sharp, allowing production staff to become less dependent upon individual pieces of gear and more concerned with the creative tasks at hand. The Stratus platform will also help Grass customers automate the distribution of content to multiple platforms, or “create once, publish many,” said Sharp, recognizing the multiple platforms onto which today’s content lives.

While the company divulged several new products and product strategies for the NAB Show, they are embargoed until March. Check back with NYCPPNEWS for updates on the specific gear that Grass Valley thinks will bring it back to its place as the leading provider of broadcast gear.

 

 

About Dan Ochiva

New York City-based journalist and NYCPPNEWS founder Dan Ochiva writes and consults on film, video, and digital media technology.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

NJ – Governor Murphy signs $14B Incentive Program Bill – the NJ Economic Recovery Act of 2020

 Film tax credits — amending existing programs to include provisions for so-called New Jersey film partners and New Jersey film-lease partners and allowing an additional $200 million of tax credits annually over 13 years.

Click this link if you want to read the full article on the Lexology site. http://bit.ly/35NtDx6

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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