Thomson Grass Valley Unveils New Brand, Details Major Orders, Debuts New Products and Key Technologies at IBC2002
(International Broadcasting Convention 2002 – Booth 8.151) Amsterdam, 12 September 2002 – Just five months after making a series of commitments to deliver on key products, workflow solutions, and technologies. Thomson Grass Valley today unveiled a new business branding strategy, debuted powerful new products and product interoperability capabilities, and detailed millions of euros in major orders and the standardization by media leaders on several of its product lines.
"At NAB, we promised to swiftly combine our product lines, drive interoperability, and, by continuing to make the industry's largest research and development investment, accelerate new product delivery," said Marc Valentin, vice president of the Thomson Grass Valley business. "At IBC, we are delivering on those promises. Our product roadmaps are set. We are offering several interoperability demonstrations, including that between our routers and control systems, our Viper FilmStream™ Camera system and our Specter Virtual Datacine. And we are showcasing new products and technologies ranging from expanded vision mixer and modular/interface offerings to a digital wireless camera system, our Spirit II system and the most complete digital news production workflow available."
Valentin also underscored the continued success of the Thomson Grass Valley server and shared-storage systems. "The business has shipped more than more than 50 Profile® Open SAN Architecture systems," he said. "And, it has further extended its lead in format capabilities with the support of the MXF format by the Profile XP Media Platform."
A New Brand, A Completely Integrated Business
Emblematic of the fully unified new business is the formalization of its name—Grass Valley™, a Thomson brand. This identification leverages the leading and long-standing equity of the Emmy® award-winning Grass Valley brand in the worldwide broadcast market and the strength of Thomson multimedia, a highly successful worldwide leader providing a wide range of video (and enabling) technologies, systems, finished products, and services to consumers and professionals in the entertainment and media industries.
"This is an exciting development for us, for Thomson, and for our customers," said Valentin. "It also underscores the long-term commitment of Thomson to the broadcast and TV/film production industries. We have made one of the largest investments in the industry through our acquisition of strategic businesses—and we are investing 15 percent of annual revenue in research and development, one of the highest reinvestment rates in the industry."
A formal launch of the new brand is planned for this fall. A new consolidated Web site, launched today, can be seen at www.thomsongrassvalley.com.
Media Leaders Standardize on Thomson Grass Valley Solutions, Place Millions in Orders
Customers continue to respond to the ongoing commitment of Thomson Grass Valley to the broadcast industry as the business continues to make one of the industry's most significant investments in new product research and development. Today the business announced recent major orders from:
- NEC – the Japanese electronics leader has placed multi-million euro order for standard- and high-definition (SD and HD), Profile Open SAN Architecture systems for program and commercial playout applications;
- Liberty Corp. – the U.S.-based television station group is planning on standardizing its 15 broadcast properties in the U.S. on the Thomson Grass Valley Zodiak™ Digital Production Vision Mixer;
- The Hospital Group – a new venture funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will incorporate a wide range of HD production equipment from Thomson Grass Valley, including camera, vision mixer, server and router technologies, for the most advanced production and recording facility in Europe for music, art, and film professionals;
- MyTravel – a leading, U.K.-based provider of leisure travel values and information, has selected Thomson Grass Valley as its technology partner and is purchasing key components of the Thomson Grass Valley Digital News Production Solution, including the NewsEdit™ nonlinear editor and the PVS 1100 Profile XP Media Platform, as well as LDK 100 DPM cameras and a Zodiak™ vision mixer; and
- Bell ExpressVU – Canada's largest direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcaster has placed a multi-million euro order with Thomson Grass Valley for the Trinix™ 512 digital video routing switcher for what will be the largest single-rack installation of SD and HD routers in Canada.
At IBC this week, Thomson Grass Valley will unveil a series of new and enhanced products, and offer a series of interoperability demonstrations within its key product lines, including film imaging, routers and control systems, and digital news production. Highlights include:
- Kameleon™ Media Processing System and Gecko™ 8900 Modular/Interface Lines. The Thomson Grass Valley Kameleon Media Processing System integrates discrete video, audio, and data functions in a single, programmable module. The Gecko 8900 Signal Processing System offers a comprehensive range of discrete products for signal conversion, distribution, multiplexing, de-multiplexing, encoding, delay compensation, and synchronization. Users can deploy Gecko 8900 products discretely, or in the same frame with Kameleon multimedia modules to create a custom signal-processing system that exactly fits their needs.
- Specter FS Technology Demonstrations. As part of an integrated demonstration of its Digital Film Applications (DFA) family, Thomson Grass Valley will provide technology demonstrations of a new virtual datacine system, the Specter FS (FilmStream). From feature films and documentaries to episodic television and commercials, the Specter FS system is designed to provide a server-based, post-production solution for HDTV, SDTV, and digital cinematography applications, including those using the Thomson Grass Valley Viper FilmStream™ Camera System. It also complements the rest of the DFA family, which includes the Phantom Transfer Engine, VooDoo Media Recorder, Scream Grain Reducer, and Shout restoration tools.
- Expansion of the XtenDD™ Digital Vision Mixer Line. The Thomson Grass Valley line of digital vision mixers, which also includes the award-winning Kalypso™ Video Production Center, XtenDD SD and HD vision mixers, and the Zodiak Digital Vision Mixer has expanded with the introduction of a compact XtenDD HD system. The new 2 mix/effects (M/E) system requires only 7 RU of space, making it a perfect fit for OB vans and space-limited studio control rooms. Highlighting the popularity of its digital vision mixers, Thomson Grass Valley also announced today several key orders for standard-definition XtenDD systems that will be installed in OB vans for a variety of live remote productions.
- New Digital Wireless Camera System. Supporting the LDK 100 and LDK 200 cameras, the Thomson Grass Valley Digital Wireless Camera System enables camera operators to reliably capture close-up images and unique point-of-view (POV) shots at live sporting and entertainment events, as well as in the studio, without any triax cable or antenna receiver assistant.
- Digital News Production Updates. Continuing to expand its portfolio of digital workflow tools for next professionals, Thomson Grass Valley today delivered several key updates
to its Digital News Production Solution. Chief among them is the integration of the entire
Thomson Grass Valley NewsEdit product suite—which includes the FeedClip™ interactive feed capture system, NewsEdit nonlinear editor, NewsQ™ manual playback system, NewsQ Pro playback control system and Profile® XP Media Platform—with the NewsShare™ storage area network (SAN). Thomson Grass Valley also debuted its NewsBrowse™ desktop browsing/editing system and delivered new key features for its NewsEdit system and NewsEdit LT laptop-based nonlinear editor.
- Trinix/Encore/Series 7000 Interoperability Demonstration. Making good on its pledge to quickly integrate its newly expanded router and control system product lines, Thomson Grass Valley is demonstrating interoperability between its Trinix routing switcher family and its Encore™ facility control system and Series 7000 control system at IBC this week – only six months after committing to do so.
With sales of 10.5 billion Euros (U.S. $ 9.3 billion) in 2001 and 73,000 employees in more than 30 countries, Thomson (Euronext: 18453) (NYSE: TMS), provides a wide range of video (and enabling) technologies, systems, finished products and services to consumers and professionals in the entertainment and media industries. To advance and enable the digital media transition, Thomson has five principal activities: Digital Media Solutions, Displays and Components, Consumer Products, Patents and Licensing and New Media Services. The company distributes its products and services under the THOMSON, RCA and TECHNICOLOR brand names. For more information: www.thomson-multimedia.com.
A business within Thomson Digital Media Solutions, Thomson Grass Valley delivers open, integrated digital products that work together along the entire digital video chain to support a variety of workflows, from content capture and acquisition through production, post production, and transmission. With a proven track record in broadcast, including 17 Emmy® and multiple industry awards, it offers an award-winning, robust product portfolio that touches more high-quality content than any other; product and systems expertise that has yielded hundreds of patents and a number of industry standards; and worldwide software engineering expertise and customer support teams that are second to none.
For information about Thomson Grass Valley products please visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com.
Grass Valley Group, 400 Providence Mine Road, Nevada City, CA 95959. Tel: 888-526-8554 ; Fax: 503-627-5224.