NEW YORK—Harris Broadcast is transforming into Imagine Communications and GatesAir.
The transmitter business is being renamed “GatesAir,” and will be headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, with its manufacturing, supply chain and fulfillment center in Quincy, Ill. Harris Broadcast has been making over-the-air TV and radio transmission products for nearly 100 years.
Imagine Communications will be headquartered in Dallas, with “Centers of Excellence” in Denver, Toronto, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Beijing.
“Imagine Communications will lead the media and entertainment markets to a future defined by IP, software, the cloud, and TV Everywhere, with an architecture vision for delivering and monetizing multiscreen content. Likewise, GatesAir will continue to lead the next-generation TV and radio over-the-air market, with a focus on providing wireless innovations that reduce power consumption and carbon footprint, while leveraging the growth in digital radio and TV transmission across the globe,” said Charlie Vogt, CEO of Imagine Communications and GatesAir.
The television industry is moving away from proprietary technology, Vogt said.
“They have been burdened over the years by costly, legacy infrastructure that limits their expansion options and flexibility to transition to new models,” he said. “Our customers, channels and business partners around the world are enthusiastically embracing our new paradigm of service-oriented, software-based architectures that utilize commercial off-the-shelf technology and the virtualization of network functions.
Imagine Communications also is introducing Software Defined Workflows, a capability enabled by the company’s MultiService SDN architecture. Media companies currently operate in a hybrid environment of both baseband and IP workflows. SDW is said to allow the entire workflow to be software-defined, bringing all media into the IP layer and separating the media content components from control. Additionally, the company anticipates that significant investments in TV Everywhere will boost Imagine’s MediaCentral and Multiservice SDN frameworks, further reducing the infrastructure required to allow for the multiple formats of the evolving multiscreen world – from ultra HD to smartphones and wearable devices.
Imagine Communications will be releasing additional details on numerous initiatives in the coming weeks leading up to and at 2014 NAB Show in Booth N2503. GatesAir, showing in Booth N609, will also be releasing additional details on its portfolio and roadmap in the coming weeks.
