EVS Broadcast Equipment — Frédéric Garroy

(click thumbnail)Frédéric GarroyQ. What kind of products or services does your company offer for broadcasters?

EVS Broadcast Equipment designs hardware and software for the production and playout of sport, news and TV programs in both live and near-live environments. We broke into the market with our Live Slow Motion system, originally used in sports broadcasting in the early 1990’s, and have been improving our tapeless technology ever since. Now, our technology is not only a standard for sports and other live broadcasting, but is also used around the world in editing and HD television.

Q. What’s new that you will you show at the NAB Show and that TV broadcasters should look for there?

EVS will present several product evolutions at NAB 2008, including several upgrades to our XT[2] production server, as well as some serious improvements in third-party integration abilities, specifically for editing and post production. Our biggest news is the XT[2]’s native support of Avid DNxHD and Apple ProRes 422 post production codecs, which opens up a world of opportunities for post production with the XT[2] server. Another advancement is the recent addition of a gigabit Ethernet connection to the XT[2] production server, which allows various applications to access content on the server without slowing down the workflow. The Media Importer plug-in option on Apple Final Cut Pro is one of these applications, and now users can import any clips and media available on the XT[2] server directly into the timeline editor. Also for editing, EVS is introducing two innovations in our own product line: the XT[2]-EditRec VTR replacement solution for linear editing workflows, and the IPEdit online editing application of the IPDirector. The XT[2]-EditRec solution offers advanced functions like networking, edit while recording and playout while edit functions in a linear suite environment. The IPEdit function of IPDirector is a new online editing application that offers unique on-the-fly editing possibilities, including real-time editing functions for the most demanding speed-to-air workflows.

Q. How is your new product offering different from what’s available on the market?

We are very proud to say that EVS’ XT[2] is the first production server on the market to offer native support of both Avid DNxHD and Apple ProRes 422 codecs. On top of that, however, the one thing that sets EVS’ new products apart from others on the market is an unmatched history of quality. EVS’ products have distinguished themselves in the past because of their reliability and interoperability, and our newest innovations build on that established superiority to offer broadcasters the very best solutions anywhere.

Q. Where are you based, and how many employees do you have? Anything else we should know about your company?

EVS is based in Liège, Belgium, and we employ about 190 people worldwide. The US headquarters in N.J. is the biggest EVS office outside of Belgium, with 17 employees.