Thomson Grass Valley unveiled its latest round of new products, scheduled for display at NAB2005 during its pre-NAB press conference in Palm Springs, CA. While some of the products were enhancements on many of the systems revealed at last year’s show, there was some exciting news.
One new tidbit is that Grass Valley will be expanding into the professional audio/video markets. Marc Valentin, the company’s executive president, only hinted at some of the new opportunities that exist for the company. Interestingly, these new opportunities mesh well with the strengths (and more importantly, to the longer term interests) of its parent company, Thomson.
IP and telephone connectivity in the pro/AV marketplace were two areas mentioned for future development. With Thomson’s interest and expertise in telephony, the IP angle should be expected. Grass Valley products will increasingly be IP-capable and connectable to a wide variety of IP gateways and systems. For professional applications this may open the American branch to the creation of an array of new IP-based products.
Expect the company to be active in the technology needed to deliver content to a variety of platforms: cell phones, mobile, PCs, cars and VOD. This, of course, melds nicely with an often-repeated phrase: “Any content, anywhere, anytime.” An example of this new paradigm, according to Jeff Rosica, VP Strategic Marketing and Business Development, was DIRECTV’s new sports channel. It will provide viewers with the simultaneous display of up to six games on their TV sets.
Rosica also talked of the increased emphasis on service for Grass Valley products. This has historically been among the top service-after-the-sale companies. But now, with products increasingly complex, companies often need even more support. Rosica said Thomson customers would be able to select a variety of support levels, customized to their needs.
For a full look at the Thomson Grass Valley lineup of new products, don’t miss the March and April issues of Broadcast Engineering magazine. Meanwhile, we’ll tease you a bit with peeks at individual products in our newsletters.
For more information, visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com.
