MONTREAL—Grass Valley is launching AMPP Edge Live, a purpose-built production system designed to bring professional production capabilities to enterprise teams. The company will unveil AMPP Edge Live at InfoComm 2026 in Las Vegas, June 17 to 19 (North Hall: N7369-MR).

Media production teams within enterprise organizations such as education, government, corporate communications, houses of worship and live events are often asked to do more with limited resources, yet existing production systems often lack the flexibility to support new workflows without significant additional investment, Grass Valley said.

AMPP Edge Live addresses this challenge by providing a flexible production foundation that grows with organizational needs, by combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration and AMPP OS in a single solution, according to the company.

“Production requirements are constantly evolving as audience expectations shift, creating challenges for enterprise organizations whose production infrastructures were not designed for today’s demands,” said Jonathan Lyth, Product Director for Enterprise Media, Grass Valley. “Businesses need production platforms that combine operational agility with the confidence of reliable performance. AMPP Edge Live delivers both, enabling organizations to adapt and scale production capabilities without adding operational complexity.”

The solution is available in two models that serve different production demands:

AMPP Edge Live 4000 is ideal for live event production and provides the performance to run solutions such as Event Producer X, which brings production switching, graphics, audio mixing, recording, streaming, monitoring and production control into a single browser-based interface.

AMPP Edge Live 6000 adds processing performance for more demanding production requirements and supports Sport Producer X, which combines switching, graphics, scoring, timing, data integration and instant replay for sports production.

Across both models, operators can manage workflows that previously required multiple specialist systems and dedicated personnel, all through one production environment, Grass Valley said.

AMPP Edge Live also simplifies lifecycle management through a unified ownership model. Grass Valley designs, validates and supports AMPP Edge Live as a complete solution, managing hardware validation, software compatibility, updates and support through a single point of accountability. This removes much of the integration burden associated with multi-vendor environments while helping ensure organizations remain ready for future production requirements.

AMPP Edge Live is built on a short-depth 4 RU chassis with redundant power and modular AMPP I/O cards, so connectivity can be tailored to each workflow. It includes enterprise-grade security, centralized management and role-based access controls, and forms part of the Grass Valley Media Universe, supporting on-premise, hybrid and cloud-connected workflows.

AMPP Edge Live is available now in the L4000 and L6000 appliance models, with SDI 8 and SDI 12 AMPP I/O card options and media storage choices of 2 TB or 4 TB.

MONTREAL and RASTATT, Germany—Grass Valley has announced a technology collaboration to validate orchestration, control and media exchange integration between Grass Valley AMPP and Lawo HOME.

The collaboration is aligned with the open system approach of the companies. It supports the EBU Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) initiative and the Media eXchange Layer (MXL) project.

As media organizations move toward hybrid production environments spanning on-premises systems and public cloud, media organizations increasingly require best-of-breed platforms to work together predictably and without custom integration burden. The collaboration reinforces the companies’ commitment to open and operationally flexible media infrastructures across software and hardware by connecting Grass Valley’s AMPP and Lawo’s HOME platforms.

The collaboration will initially focus on validating practical interoperability between AMPP and HOME across control, orchestration, media transport and exchange, and operational monitoring with security-first deployment principles at the heart. This includes exploring use cases such as multi-platform routing, cross-environment resource visibility and MXL-aligned exchange between software-based media functions.

“At Grass Valley, Open by Design is a foundational commitment to helping customers build the future of media infrastructure on their terms,” said Grass Valley CEO Jon Wilson. “The industry is moving toward dynamic, software-based media facilities where customers need confidence that leading platforms can interoperate across control, orchestration and media exchange. By collaborating with Lawo, we are together helping to show how DMF principles can be applied in real-world, multi-vendor deployments.”

The collaboration supports the broader strategy of Grass Valley and Lawo to enable organizations to modernize their operations while protecting choice and flexibility. Both AMPP and HOME provide a software-based foundation for live production and media workflows, enabling users to deploy across cloud, edge and hybrid environments.

The collaboration is intended to bring increased value by reducing integration friction, improving deployment confidence and accelerating the practical adoption of open, dynamic media facilities. Rather than creating another closed ecosystem, the focus is on validating the orchestration and interoperability patterns required for multi-vendor media operations to work at scale.

“Lawo shares Grass Valley’s commitment to open, interoperable media infrastructure,” Lawo CEO Jamie Dunn said. “Lawo HOME is designed to support the management and orchestration of modern IP-based media environments, and this collaboration with Grass Valley reflects the importance of practical interoperability between the market-leading software infrastructure platforms. Together, we are enabling customers to implement dynamic media facilities today without concerns about vendor lock-in or restrictions.”

More information is available on the Grass Valley and Lawo websites.

MONTREAL, Quebec—Grass Valley has named Sam Craig as vice president, global pre-sales.

In the new U.S.-based role, Craig will work closely with Grass Valley’s regional pre-sales leadership across the Americas, APAC and EMEA to further strengthen collaboration, standardize back practices and support strategic customer initiatives to accelerate adoption across the Grass Valley Media Universe, the company said.

He returns to Grass Valley from Diversified, where he was vice president of advisory services, leading its technical consultancy and solutions organization.

“Sam brings a unique combination of technical expertise, operational leadership, and deep knowledge of the media technology industry,” Grass Valley Chief Revenue Officer Tim Banks said. “Having previously played an important role in the evolution of our global pre-sales organization, he understands both our customers and our business. We are thrilled to welcome him back to the team.”

In his prior, seven-year stint with Grass Valley, Craig had been VP, global pre-sales. A 20-year veteran with experience in broadcast engineering, enterprise AV, live production, IP-based media infrastructure and cloud-enabled workflows, he has held leadership roles across systems integration, broadcast operations and media technology operations, Grass Valley said.

“Our customers are navigating a rapidly evolving media landscape, and they need trusted partners who can help them move forward with confidence,” Craig said. “Grass Valley’s unique combination of software-defined innovation, proven mission-critical hardware and deep workflow expertise gives customers a practical path to modernize, transform their operations and protect their investments. I’m thrilled to be returning at such an important time and to help accelerate the impact we can deliver for customers around the world.”

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom production operations as part of the move to a new national headquarters.

The deployment replaces a long-standing legacy system with a cloud-based production architecture, enabling more than 250 journalists, editors, and producers to collaborate through browser-based workflows. The platform now supports the delivery of over 1,500 hours of content each week across broadcast and digital platforms.

“This transformation has fundamentally changed how we operate as a newsroom,” said Jesse Hicks, deputy head of operations and innovation, Sky News Australia. “Our teams can access editing tools from anywhere, collaborate in real time, and turn around content faster without compromising quality. It gives us the flexibility needed for modern news production while maintaining the reliability required for a 24/7 environment.”

ANC deployed the AMPP ecosystem, as part of a relocation project replacing an SQ based news production system from Grass Valley’s Quantel lineage. The solution includes Framelight X for browser-based editing, Playout X for cloud playout, and integrated asset management, ingest, and storage services. Journalists can now create and edit content directly in a web browser, removing reliance on physical workstations and accelerating production workflows.

The new workflow also supports fully distributed production, enabling teams to work across the newsroom, field locations, and remote environments. By streamlining processes and reducing manual tasks, ANC is reporting improved efficiency and its employees have been able to spend more time on content creation.

“Undertaking a full newsroom transformation alongside a headquarters relocation is a complex challenge,” said Jon Wilson, CEO, Grass Valley. “ANC took a clear, strategic approach – moving to an integrated software defined model that delivers greater flexibility, scalability, and resilience across its operations. This project reflects our long-standing partnership and a shared commitment to modernizing news operations live production.”

Since going live in November 2025, the platform has delivered continuous 24/7 operation without downtime, demonstrating the reliability of cloud-based production at scale. As an early adopter of AMPP for newsroom workflows, ANC continues to work closely with Grass Valley, providing operational feedback that informs ongoing platform development.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has announced that U.K.-based systems integrator dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass that feature Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras and K-Frame production switching technology.

The trucks will be used for live sports production across the UK.

Designed for high-end sports broadcasting, the compact, fast-deploy OB units combine UHD, HDR and high-frame-rate production capabilities with a modern IP-based infrastructure. The trucks support centralized production operations and evolving remote and distributed production models, enabling Cloudbass to deliver premium-quality coverage across top-tier football and major live sporting events.

The deployment features 32 Grass Valley LDX 150 native IP camera systems, delivering the imaging performance, operational flexibility and Native-IP connectivity required for premium live sports production. The cameras support SMPTE ST 2110 workflows directly from the camera head and are designed to help production teams transition efficiently to scalable live production environments.

The project also incorporates Grass Valley’s Creative Grading tools to support centralized camera shading workflows, alongside K-Frame production switching capabilities as part of the overall live production architecture.

“Sports broadcasters and production providers are increasingly looking for ways to expand UHD and HDR capabilities while maintaining operational efficiency and flexibility,” said Mark Gardner, senior vice president of sales, EMEA at Grass Valley. “These new Cloudbass trucks demonstrate how native IP production, centralized shading workflows and scalable live production technologies can be combined in a compact environment built for the realities of modern sports production.”

The new units feature fully IP-based workflows and are designed to support remote operations, dynamic configurations and evolving broadcast requirements. The integration was led by dB Broadcast, a long-standing Grass Valley partner with extensive experience in complex broadcast systems integration.

“This project was about delivering a future-ready IP architecture without compromising the operational practicalities of live OB production,” said Mike Bryan, technology director at dB Broadcast. “By standardising on Grass Valley’s LDX 100 native IP camera platform, Creative Grading and K-Frame technologies, we can provide Cloudbass with a consistent production environment from acquisition through to live production switching.

Supporting around 15 cameras per truck, including UHD and HDR high-speed production workflows, the new units are optimized for long-term sports production contracts while maintaining the flexibility required for evolving sports production workflows.

Grass Valley will be showing these and other solutions at booth B55 at MPTS at Olympia London on May 13–14, 2026.

The GV Forum offers broadcasters and other media professionals the chance to address the pressing issues of the day.

At this year’s forum, April 18 at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas, those issues ranged from software-defined workflows and new operating models for live and linear media production to artificial intelligence and aligning business and tech strategies.

The following snapshot from GV Forum offers a glimpse into some of the insights and experiences of media pros who spoke at the event.

Dynamic Streaming

The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy, offered CBC/Radio Canada a chance to see if the concept of a Dynamic Media Facility could deliver on its promises of agility, flexibility and scalability, said Francois Legrand, the broadcaster’s senior director at its Innovation Hub.

“We wanted to find a way to improve the production value of our digital streams without increasing the cost and maybe at the same time generate additional revenue,” said Legrand.

For its streaming coverage of curling, CBC replaced an entire production control room with a Grass Valley AMPP-based software-defined production workflow running on a server and an operator controlling the production from a laptop via a custom, CBC-built interface.

“We wanted graphics, video, audio—everything—in the same tool to have the same unified interface, not multiple windows and multiple screens,” he said. The operator could also add commercial breaks via the interface.

CBC found it to be much easier to build the interface than expected due to the “great API,” said Legrand, adding the interface enabled the operator to do bumpers and stings, add graphics, lower-thirds and perform squeeze backs.

The broadcaster targeted operational simplicity when creating the interface, providing only “the right amount of tool to do the job assigned,” thereby minimizing the amount of training time needed and operator expense, he said.

The software-defined workflow proved to be a success. Not only did it support insertion of 676 branded promos during multiple games, production of 144 hours of content and delivery to some 500,000 streaming viewers for some matches, but it also proved to be quite agile and flexible, said Legrand.

Automation, Orchestration and AI

Globo, like other broadcasters, is being asked to address the appetite of viewers for more live sports coverage without significantly larger budgets, creating the need “to do more with less,” said Mauricio Felix Vasconcellos, Globo executive director of technology.

The first step in achieving that goal is to have the right technology in place. “We need a platform that can guarantee that we can orchestrate it and change quickly,” he said.

“We believe we can reduce the operational requirements a lot with automation, orchestration and using artificial intelligence,” said Vasconcellos.

While technology costs money, it can also enhance the efficiency of staff to enable Globo to do more with less. “Today we operate in a control room with six or seven people,” he said. “How can we reduce that to two multi-skilled people so we can do more events at the same time?”

The right technology can make workflows more efficient, transforming the business to achieve this productivity goal, he said.

Getting to a platform that can unlock these workflow benefits, however, will require Globo to transition to IP to leverage the benefits the IT world brings to the table, he said.

“With IP, we can have the flexibility to use the network and infrastructure as we want,” said Vasconcellos. “This is where we want to get, and that is why it is important we keep focusing on our partners.”

The technical component to workflow efficiency also involves an orchestration layer with the intelligence to enable production of multiple sports at the same time or multiple newscasts simultaneously while accommodating the specific capabilities and characteristics of different operators, he said.

The cloud, too, will play an important role going forward. “I see that three years from now, we are going to improve the interoperability between cloud and on premise. MXL is coming. I think in two or three years things are going to get simplified and streamlined.”

Software-Defined Live Production

Enhancing production efficiency is a priority at Warner Bros. Discovery, said company vice president, operations, Chris Brown, and the media giant’s “integration rooms,” the production control rooms sitting between multiple sites, game sites and its studios, have been a great place to start.

“We looked at where we could save a little bit of money, become a little bit more efficient because of all of what it [software-defined production] promises as far as the reduction of staffing,” he said.

Deployed for “some time now,” the GV AMPP-based software-defined live production workflow is enabling Warner Bros. Discovery to run those rooms consistently with no engineering.

To a casual observer, the Warner Bros. Discovery’s integration rooms look a lot like a traditional control room. But upon second glance, there are only control surfaces and some monitoring—no other equipment. “There are just HEVC streams coming from the cloud or on-prem, depending on where you’re running it,” he said.

Production teams simply enter an integration room, decide what they want to do and provision the room as required via GV AMPP’s API orchestration, he said.

Pressing a single button provisions the room to the production requirements of a specific live show. “It will spin up an AWS machine, deploy the GV workspace, spin them all up and wire them all together,” he said. “Then what you see are monitors light up and pictures appear so you can do the production.”

“What we’re hoping to be able to get to is a place where we can then begin to realize an economy of scale with the [Elgato] Stream Deck [control surface] in conjunction with AMPP,” said Brown. “Ideally, we are hoping to keep it that simple.”

AI and simplification: It’s not so easy

One of the biggest challenges facing Sky is the complexity of delivering content across multiple platforms via IP, said Dave Travis, group director of content, broadcast and platforms, at Sky.

“That puts a lot of pressure on our team,” said Travis. “So, our biggest priority is managing that demand and trying to simplify. Simplification is absolutely critical, not just to Sky but to the industry at large. I think in the future, we need to make it easier across the board.”

Artificial intelligence holds the key to simplification, but it is not without risk. Noting Sky would like to introduce AI to address a range of issues, including its software development lifecycle where it could accelerate how Sky develops code, Travis said adopting artificial intelligence remains a challenge due to concerns over security and corporate compliance.

“It is a real big challenge. Some are doing AI really quickly,” he said. “If you're a small organization and don't seem to have the same corporate compliance obstacles, that may be possible. But we're a big organization, and we want to protect ourselves.”

One path forward may be promoting collaboration among various stakeholders in the industry. Still, he fears even these collaborations could lead to “an arms race patching” vulnerabilities—something he is unsure about managing. “I think our CTO conversations and technology leadership calls are going to very much focused on that properly for the foreseeable future. We have to really learn together and find a solution for that problem.”

About Grass Valley

Grass Valley drives the future of media production with seamless, scalable solutions that empower top content creators. Its integrated ecosystem—featuring industry-leading hardware, the AMPP Media Operating System, and a robust Alliance Partner network—enables efficient content production, management, and distribution.

From live global events to browser-based independent projects, Grass Valley maximizes content value, streamlines workflows, and future-proofs media operations.

With over 65 years of innovation and a commitment to open, agile solutions, Grass Valley is leading the media revolution and shaping the future of storytelling. https://www.grassvalley.com/

LAS VEGAS—Calrec (Booth:C6907) and Grass Valley (Booth: C2408) are announcing a long-term broadcast audio technology partnership that they will be showing to attendees at the 2026 NAB Show.

The companies are combining their industry expertise to deliver a software-defined production environment that will see Calrec's ImPulseV virtual DSP software integrated with Grass Valley's AMPP cloud-native live production platform. The deployment will provide broadcasters with a unified environment for managing live broadcasts.

Coupling Grass Valley’s solutions in video production with Calrec’s broadcast audio expertise, ImPulseV, strengthens audio workflows within Grass Valley’s AMPP market leading Ecosystem.

The companies noted that the partnership provides all the benefits of close integration and orchestration with proven applications from renowned broadcast partners on a single platform. Calrec’s pathway into AMPP OS will start with AMPP Control integration and evolve towards a fully native ImPulseV application running on AMPP.

The collaboration also strengthens AMPP's tier 1 audio capabilities alongside its tier 1 video production strengths, creating a single platform for high-end live productions.

The integration comes at a time when the industry is moving towards software defined production, open standards and collaboration. As hybrid workflows continue to develop, the partnership gives broadcasters the confidence to define and scale their own infrastructure requirements, and to fully utilize their resources.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Grass Valley, an organization that shares our belief that innovation, people, and technology define the future of our industry. In today’s fast-moving production landscape, strong solutions and trusted collaborations are more critical than ever,” explained Sid Stanley, managing director at Calrec. “Our virtual ImPulseV technology, combined with the Grass Valley’s AMPP Ecosystem, creates a powerful proposition, uniting best-in-class solutions to give broadcasters the freedom to build, scale, and adapt without compromise. This marks the next evolution of Calrec’s strategy, empowering our customers with true choice, flexibility, and control in a software-defined world.”

Adam Marshall, chief product officer at Grass Valley, added that “with the integration of Calrec’s ImPulseV into AMPP, we are extending the power of software-defined production with tier-one audio workflows. Media organizations can now deploy premium audio capabilities in a fully software-defined environment while maintaining the quality, responsiveness, and familiar operator control expected for high-value live production. Whether on-prem, in the cloud, or across hybrid environments, it all operates within a single, unified platform”

Stanley stressed that “as our industry transforms, the need for agile, scalable, future-ready solutions has never been greater. Together, Calrec and Grass Valley are setting a new standard, combining cloud, virtualization, and multi-vendor integration into one seamless ecosystem for next generation production.

“The introduction of ImPulseV into this ecosystem is a key milestone, enabling customers to deploy everything from micro-control rooms to global production environments with speed and precision - shaping infrastructure around their needs, not the other way around,” he added. “This is not just an important announcement for today, but a meaningful step towards the future. Both Grass Valley and Calrec are deeply committed to continuous innovation and investment - because in a world moving this fast, standing still is not an option.”

Both companies noted that audio has remained one of the most challenging workflows to virtualize without compromising quality, latency or the operator experience. The cohesive Calrec ImPulseV and Grass Valley AMPP integration is designed to meet these challenges, by delivering:

• Common orchestration
• Shared control
• Scalable infrastructure
• Cloud and on-prem flexibility
• Elastic resources aligned to live production demands

Calrec's ImPulseV creates flexible workflows across COTS hardware, public and private cloud, existing processing hardware and distributed resources, contributing to an efficient, flexible hybrid production environment. ImPulseV is part of Calrec's Ecosystem, powered by True Control 2.0, which unifies the company's high-end control surfaces with remote production capabilities. Broadcasters can use True Control 2.0 to manage up to five Calrec consoles or processing cores simultaneously.

By integrating ImPulseV with AMPP, broadcasters' flexibility to manage their assets is further expanded. One control surface can adapt – without loss of quality – to local, cloud and remote productions.

Both ImpulseV and AMPP provide OpEx based deployment models, enabling broadcasters to expand event coverage. The integration delivers audio capabilities that scale, without compromising the operator experience.

Calrec is exhibiting at the NAB Show between April 19 and 22 on Booth C6907, and Grass Valley is on Booth C2408. The integrated ImPulseV and AMPP workflow will be demonstrated on the Grass Valley Booth C2408.

NEVADA CITY, Calif.—Telestream has announced a strategic collaboration with Grass Valley to enable deeper interoperability between Telestream’s workflow automation, processing, and monitoring solutions and Grass Valley’s AMPP (Agile Media Processing Platform).

Telestream Vantage for file-based workflow orchestration, Pulse for end-to-end observability and Telestream UP for cloud-native media processing are being integrated with AMPP, Grass’s software-defined production platform enabling live and distributed workflows across on-prem, cloud or hybrid environments. The integration supports modern media operations, giving customers greater flexibility to build scalable, hybrid infrastructures without vendor lock-in.

The collaboration builds on existing integrations between Telestream Vantage, DIVA and Grass Valley solutions, extending these capabilities to include Telestream UP and Pulse within AMPP-based workflows.

“Media workflows that were created 10 years ago are now becoming a constraint to forward progress,” said Charlie Dunn, vice president of Product, Telestream. “By working with Grass Valley, we’re helping customers bridge live production and file-based processing within a unified, open architecture. This collaboration is about giving media organizations the power to streamline existing workflows and deploy them in the most cost-effective environments, with the flexibility to scale as the business grows."

“Open, interoperable workflows are now a requirement for modern media operations,” says Adam Marshall, chief product officer for Grass Valley. “Our continuing collaboration with Telestream further extends the AMPP ecosystem, enabling customers to connect live production, playout and file-based workflows within a unified, hybrid architecture. By integrating capabilities such as orchestration, processing, and monitoring, we are giving media organizations the flexibility to build workflows that scale, adapt, and operate efficiently across any environment.”

The companies said their strategic partnership “ensures robust interoperability within customer environments, combining Grass Valley’s leadership in live production, content management, and playout solutions, with Telestream’s strength in workflow automation and observability.”

Grass Valley’s Framelight X plays a central role in this vision, enabling the full content lifecycle—from capture and access to editing, collaboration, and publishing—within a browser-native, story-centric environment. Rather than relying on fragmented toolsets, Framelight X brings content into a unified workspace where stories can be shaped and delivered faster, with less friction.

Built on AMPP’s open and extensible architecture, Framelight X integrates with best-of-breed technologies across the content lifecycle—storage, graphics, AI services, automation, and distribution. Telestream’s workflow automation, processing, captioning, and quality control capabilities extend this ecosystem, ensuring that content moving through Framelight X can be automatically processed, quality-controlled, and delivered across platforms, at scale.

Telestream’s ability to integrate across the media supply chain, from ingest and processing to QC, metadata, and delivery, positions it as a key enabler of hybrid workflows that span multiple systems and environments. Grass Valley AMPP enables flexible deployment models, allowing customers to optimize for performance, cost, and operational requirements. This alignment ensures that workflows can scale dynamically while maintaining visibility, control, and consistency across distributed environments.

Both companies are aligned around a hybrid-first approach to infrastructure, recognizing that media organizations must operate across a mix of on-premises systems, private infrastructure, and public cloud environments.

MONTREAL—During the 2026 NAB Show, Grass Valley will showcase its latest Alliance Partner ecosystem innovations and demonstrate how integrated solutions within the AMPP ecosystem are being used to address real-world operational challenges across live production, content creation and distribution.

“At NAB Show, we are focusing on how customers can operate across multiple production models, innovate and scale, all without increasing complexity,” said Matt Yates, director, strategic alliances at Grass Valley. “Our Alliance ecosystem extends AMPP across key workflows, allowing teams to connect best-of-breed technologies, scale resources and deliver content more efficiently through a unified operational environment.”

The improvements are designed to address the fact that broadcasters, sports organizations and media companies continue to operate across multiple environments, often supported by separate systems. This creates challenges such as duplicated infrastructure, fragmented workflows and increased cost, forcing teams to choose between operational speed and production quality.

The Alliance ecosystem solves these challenges through AMPP’s open-by-design approach, enabling customers and partners to retain the freedom to choose best-of-breed solutions while benefiting from a more connected, cohesive and flexible platform environment. In doing so, teams can reduce duplicated tasks, improve agility and simplify operations in line with the Dynamic Media Facility approach.

The Alliance Partner ecosystem will be exhibited at Grass Valley’s Central Hall booth (C2408), with partner companies demonstrating real-world AMPP integrations that are actively benefitting media organizations today.

Across content creation, Grass Valley is showing how its partners are enhancing storytelling possibilities. For example:

• Speed to market is critical in Social Media and News. Digital Joy’s Newsroom NRCS is integrated natively with Framelight X and production playout, reducing friction between story conception, production, distribution and playout.
• Telestream Vantage is natively supported within Framelight X workflow engine, ensuring that using the industry’s leading transcode tool is as seamless as possible.
• Graphics are a critical component of content production and are made easy with native support for MXMZ scalable HTML5-based graphics across live production, playout and content editing workflows, while the new RT Software Swift native AMPP apps extend AMPP’s support for advanced 2D and 3D scene-based graphics offerings.
• Motion Impossible’s Agito robotic camera system operates with Grass Valley’s LDX C180 to support dynamic camera movement with planned AMPP control integration, while Vislink’s INCAM module natively integrated to the LDX 100 RF camera lineup enables new wireless production workflows using public and private 5G networks.
• As venue experiences become more demanding, new Daktronics Show Control integration within K-Frame provides a cohesive production experience combining the control of broadcast outputs and venue displays all from the same production switcher surface. This includes control of the latest generation Daktronics 1.2mm COB dvLED display which will be demonstrated live on the Grass Valley booth showcasing high-resolution, uniform image quality optimized for live production environments all under Show Control and K-Frame control.

Addressing TCO efficiency and platform scalability, the Alliance ecosystem includes innovative solutions that optimize resource use across production environments:

• LayerCake enables automated provisioning of AMPP production environments on demand, stitching together end-to-end workflows, allowing infrastructure and costs to better scale in line with requirements. Cuez provides a unified automation layer across hybrid hardware and software workflows, while NEP Platform showcases how one of the world’s largest managed service providers are integrating with AMPP to automate the deployment and configuration of software-defined workflows at scale for remote and facility-based workflows.
• AI-Media integrates real-time captioning and transcription directly into production workflows, saving manual effort and Digital Joy Insight provides visibility over cloud and AMPP-related costs, enabling real-time monitoring and optimization of resource usage through FinOps capabilities.

As infrastructure becomes more flexible, allowing applications and workflows to be hosted and deployed wherever needed, Grass Valley reported that there is a growing expectation that platforms can support any required format – compressed or uncompressed – within a single, cohesive orchestration layer.

Native support for the latest generation of NDI 6.3 is now available within AMPP, enabling IP video sources, including HDR workflows, to be routed directly into and out of the platform.

Native Dante support connects AMPP with professional IP audio production workflows, while the newly announcing TVU MediaMesh gateway application provides direct access to TVU’s globally distributed contribution feeds directly within AMPP compute.

Zoom ISOcloud enables remote participants to be brought into production as discrete sources and together with TVU MediaMesh is one of the first applications to directly leverage MXL inside AMPP.

While not all broadcasters can move immediately to software-defined workflows, TSL Hummingbird helps bridge those worlds by providing protocol conversion that allows legacy systems to be controlled alongside AMPP.

The growing range of alliance partner applications natively supported within AMPP is built on the platform’s open architecture and publicly available SDKs, with increasing use of the newly supported Media eXchange Layer (MXL) as a common transport and interoperability layer. This allows applications to operate within the same compute environment without requiring point-to-point integration and will be demonstrated by Alliance Partners at NAB Show 2026 as part of Grass Valleys demonstration of a Dynamic Media Facility in action. As software-defined workflows become more established, the pace of innovation continues to increase, with the introduction of MXL further accelerating integration across the AMPP ecosystem.

“We know from our customers that they need systems that integrate reliably across production, infrastructure and distribution,” added Yates. “The Alliance is built on a common architecture, so applications can operate together without additional integration overhead. As new capabilities are added, they extend across existing workflows without increasing complexity. And we’ll see that in action at NAB Show as we welcome a new partner to the Alliance.”

Grass Valley and its Alliance partners will be at the Grass Valley booth (C2408) in Central Hall at NAB Show 2026 April 19-22, to demonstrate how the connected ecosystem supports production across multiple formats, locations and platforms within a unified operational framework.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has launched the Future Playmakers Program, a new global initiative designed to support and develop the next generation of professionals in sports production and media technology.

Timed ahead of NAB Show, the program reflects Grass Valley’s continued investment in education, workforce development, and long-term industry growth. The effort is designed to help students gain practical experience while enabling higher education institutions to strengthen their production programs with access to professional-grade tools and workflows.

The Future Playmakers Program combines scholarships, hands-on learning, technology access, and institutional collaboration. It is designed to create a sustainable pipeline of talent trained on industry-standard solutions used across live sports and event production.

“Developing the next generation of talent is critical to the future of our industry,” said Jon Wilson, CEO of Grass Valley. “The Future Playmakers Program is about giving students real access to the tools, workflows, and experiences that define modern live production, while strengthening our partnerships with the institutions shaping that future workforce.”

Through the program, Grass Valley will select up to 10 students annually from participating partner institutions. Selected students will receive financial support alongside access to experiential learning opportunities designed to bridge the gap between academic study and real-world production environments.

A central component of the program is the Grass Valley Montreal Technology Experience, where students will engage directly with the company’s technology and teams. The experience includes a factory tour, hands-on product demonstrations across cameras, production switchers, AMPP, and orchestration solutions, as well as live production workflow sessions and access to industry experts.

“The industry is evolving quickly, and there is a clear need for talent that understands both production and technology,” said Greg Doggett, vice president of sales, NAM Sports, Grass Valley. “This program is designed to give students that exposure early, while helping higher education institutions build programs that reflect how live production operates today and gaining important exposure to where the industry is headed.”

Participating institutions will benefit from scholarship opportunities, increased industry visibility, and closer collaboration with Grass Valley through technology alignment and program engagement. The initiative is open to higher education institutions and production programs investing in next-generation broadcast and live production workflows.

Grass Valley said that it will share additional updates on participating institutions as the program expands.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a new broadcast production control room for the University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics: Fighting Illini Productions.

The installation work, which was completed ahead of the 2025 football season, primarily supports football and basketball videoboard productions, with secondary integration into Big Ten+ broadcasts.

The project is Phase 1 of a multi-phase buildout, and required Grass Valley and Tab M Solutions to deliver an entirely new broadcast infrastructure within an existing facility, presenting space and thermal constraints. Tab M Solutions designed a hybrid SMPTE ST 2110/SDI architecture that allows staff to maintain familiar SDI workflows while leveraging IP where it delivers infrastructure efficiency and scalability.

The deployment includes five Grass Valley LDX 150 cameras with super slow-motion licenses, one LDX 135 RF wireless system, and a CCS-ONE camera control server. The LDX 150 cameras are deployed natively over ST 2110, eliminating traditional baseband CCUs and enabling direct connectivity from venues to the core IP switch. CCS-ONE centralizes shading and supports remote monitoring.

“Our objective was to elevate our game-day production while positioning Fighting Illini Productions for long-term growth,” said Derryl Myles, associate director of athletics, Fighting Illini Productions & Technology. “The hybrid architecture allows us to incorporate IP strategically while maintaining familiar workflows, and the LDX 150 cameras provide the image quality, flexibility and performance we need to meet the expectations of Big Ten and our fanbase.”

By eliminating traditional CCUs and reducing hardware density, the design lowered rack space requirements and thermal load while simplifying integration within the existing control room footprint.

“This was an intentional transition strategy,” said Kevin Tucker, partner & CTO, Tab M Solutions. “The hybrid 2110/SDI architecture preserves operational familiarity while leveraging IP where it creates tangible benefits. Deploying the LDX 150 cameras natively over 2110 reduced rack space, heat load, and integration complexity while creating a scalable foundation for future expansion.”

Phase one establishes the technical platform for the University of Illinois’ long-term production vision to enhance its storytelling capabilities while future-proofing its infrastructure. “It’s another example of the innovations we’re proud to be bringing to collegiate sports production with our partners at Tab M Solutions,” says Greg Doggett, VP of Sales, NAM Sports at Grass Valley. “Fighting Illini are now equipped with a production control room and hybrid infrastructure that positions it perfectly to meet the needs of today while building scale and flexibility for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow. We’re delighted to be supporting them on that journey.”

Network18 Media & Investments, one of India’s largest media conglomerates, has deployed Grass Valley’s Playout X solution based on its AMPP OS to modernize the network’s news playout operations. The deployment is now live across Network18’s linear, OTT and web services.

The collaboration extends a relationship between the two companies that has spanned more than 15 years. Network18, operating over 25 television channels and with a growing OTT and digital presence, wished to consolidate and streamline its operations under a single solution that could support its broadcast and digital workflows.

It selected Playout X for its open, format-agnostic architecture and its ability to integrate seamlessly across multiple platforms, ensuring a unified approach to playout while futureproofing operations.

“With Playout X, we now have a unified platform that brings together our linear, OTT and web channels under one interface,” said Rajesh Sharma, senior vice president of Technology and Operations at Network18.

“Previously, we relied on multiple vendors to provide separate solutions, but Grass Valley’s open, integrated and flexible approach has allowed us to simplify operations, reduce costs and accelerate workflows. This deployment not only addresses our immediate needs but also positions us strongly for future growth and innovation.”

The new system, deployed across Network18’s facilities in both Noida and Mumbai, India, introduces a fully integrated ecosystem for playout, ingest, secondary recording, ad-replacement, watermarking and OTT delivery. By replacing fragmented, multi-vendor solutions with a single, consolidated AMPP OS-based platform, Network18 is gaining efficiency, operational simplicity, and scalability for the future.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley and NETGEAR have announced a strategic partnership to serve the broadcast-AV segment of the market.

The collaboration combines NETGEAR AV’s live media optimized switching and secure IP networking with Grass Valley’s software-defined production tools and hardware platforms.

“NETGEAR has long focused on making high performance AVoIP networks easy to deploy and manage,” said Laurent Masia, senior director of product line management at NETGEAR. “Our partnership with Grass Valley aligns perfectly with the needs of enterprise customers who want reliable, secure, and scalable video operations without the friction traditionally associated with live media workflows.”

Enterprise organizations, including corporations, universities, houses of worship, esports and venues, increasingly require broadcast-quality production capabilities but have faced prohibitive costs and complexity. The new partnership addresses that gap.

Grass Valley and NETGEAR share a common vision of interoperability, built on major standards, including NDI, SMPTE ST 2110, Dante and SRT, alongside an approach that simplifies user experiences and delivers powerful tools, they said.

“The Enterprise Media sector represents one of the fastest-growing opportunities in our industry, yet these organizations have been forced to choose between consumer-grade tools and broadcast systems designed for major networks, with the associated cost and complexity,” said Matthew Yates, director of strategic alliances at Grass Valley.

“By pairing cost-effective, user-friendly NETGEAR AV products with the industry’s most advanced software-defined production platform in AMPP, Enterprise organizations can deliver video experiences that match modern broadcast productions, while retaining the simplicity and flexibility customers expect.”

More information is available on the Grass Valley and NETGEAR websites.

MONTREAL—Television Mobiles (TVM), a leading independent outside broadcast provider, has completed a major refurbishment of its midsized OB3 unit with Grass Valley’s Sirius 800 SDI Router at the heart of the unit’s routing backbone.

The investment supports TVM’s continued focus on reliable, high-capacity serial digital interface (SDI) workflows for live sports and events and remodels the truck’s core routing infrastructure.

Headquartered in Ireland, TVM delivers outside broadcast services across a broad production portfolio, including domestic coverage of GAA (hurling and Gaelic football), English Premier League soccer and major international events, such as the 2024 Paris Olympics, where its fleet supported swimming coverage.

Refurbishing OB3 required a complete rebuild of the truck. Central to the project was a full upgrade of the unit’s routing infrastructure. TVM sought a modern SDI platform that would support existing operational workflows while fitting within the physical constraints of a compact, high-capacity OB unit. TVM selected the Sirius 800 SDI platform to satisfy its need for reliability, flexibility and high performance in fast-turnaround environments.

“We took OB3 off the road for a full rebuild, a key component of which was installing a new routing system that was robust, simple to service and aligned with our established SDI workflows,” Bart Arnold, managing director at TVM, said. “The Sirius 800 SDI met all of our requirements. Grass Valley delivered on schedule, and their support throughout the installation allowed us to get the truck back on the road in time for the start of the GAA Club Championship season for TG4 [the free-to-air Gaelic-language public-service broadcaster].”

The Sirius 800 SDI serves as the central routing backbone for OB3, providing a stable SDI infrastructure that integrates seamlessly with TVM’s existing Grass Valley equipment. The compact footprint of the truck required detailed planning to ensure the router and associated cabling could be integrated efficiently.

Grass Valley and TVM worked together to finalize layout, commissioning and testing within a compressed delivery window. Despite the challenges, the truck successfully returned to service on schedule for TG4’s football coverage at the start of the GAA season.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has delivered a 4K Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) outside broadcast (OB) truck to Guangdong Radio and Television (GRT), in partnership with Beijing Sailing Hightop Technology Development.

The handover ceremony, attended by senior executives from GRT, Sailing Hightop and Grass Valley, marks a milestone in China’s evolution toward next-generation IP-based broadcast technology.

During the ceremony, a Sailing Hightop spokesperson expressed appreciation to all project partners, noting that seamless collaboration across system design, integration and commissioning ensured the project was completed on time, on budget and to the highest standards.

According to a GRT spokesperson, the new OB unit will enhance the broadcaster’s ability to produce and transmit large sports and entertainment events in 4K UHD, providing strong technical support for the upcoming events.

The OB truck is the first native-IP UHD system in China and represents a transformative shift away from traditional baseband infrastructure. By adopting a fully IP-based architecture, the unit delivers new levels of flexibility, scalability and efficiency for live production, Grass Valley said.

Equipped with Grass Valley’s LDX 135/150 cameras and the Grass Valley K-Frame CXP switcher, the system supports 4K and 8K live production with high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG) capabilities, while its distributed workflow enables real-time remote collaboration and future cloud deployment via GV Orbit SDN and AMPP (Agile Media Processing Platform). The design also maximizes space and energy efficiency and enables multi-platform content delivery through native landscape and portrait conversion, the company said.

“This project is a powerful example of what’s possible when innovation, collaboration and vision come together,” said Alain Wang, Grass Valley sales director for China. “We’re proud to support Guangdong Radio and Television and Sailing Hightop in delivering China’s first native-IP UHD OB truck, a future-ready solution that sets the standard for 4K and 8K live production in the region.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

Many industries have seen big-ticket hardware turn into software. Switchers, though, demand a combination of real-time performance and sheer bandwidth that has only recently become achievable in software, and has taken a while to begin affecting the high end.

Greg Huttie, vice president of production switchers for Grass Valley, said the company’s designs have long relied on both silicon and code. “Every production switcher we’ve ever put out has software involved in it one way or the other,” Huttie said. “Across the board, I’ve got hardware engineers and software engineers. The world is becoming hybrid.”

Level of Trust
That world, though, interfaces with working practices which change slowly.

“When you talk to a vision mixer or technical director, they’re basically piano players,” Huttie said. “They have a tactile feel. I sat in director’s chairs for many years, and there’s a trust level—even though I’m calling something, my technical director is in my head, lingering on shots he needs to linger on but also knowing the rhythm of the show I’m putting out. They don’t look at the keys.”

That kind of experience, Huttie continued, is increasingly in demand on shows at every scale.

“There is a growing trend where you place yourself further downmarket—not in finished features or functions, but as a smaller piece of that Grass Valley hardware,” he added. “We just delivered 48x24 in a K-Frame XP and won awards at IBC and NAB. We saw that a lot of folks want the power of a production switcher, but they wanted to reduce headcount…going for that single seat.”

Increasingly, software-defined implementations more easily fulfill the demand for a wider range of options, as Huttie explained by reference to Grass Valley’s cloud-integrated Event Producer X with its Maverik X switcher.

“I think a better place for that single seat isn’t really for sports but events, news, corporate,” Huttie said. “Event Producer X couples things together and makes it less burdensome on body count, though we’re not advocating that you reduce your body count.”

A Connected World
Software definition has implications that reach further than feature set or scalability, according to Deon LeCointe, director of networked solutions at Sony.

“Everything we build now has to have some connectivity involved,” he said. “They have to be not only hardware for on-prem, they have to be software for cloud, SDI and IP.”

Even the comparatively recent move toward IP, though, faces unexpected pressures. “The prevailing logic is that if you’re building a new facility, or renovating, you have to take a hard look at implementing IP,” LeCointe said. “Three years ago, I would have said that the question still comes to mind.”

That idea, though, might no longer quite be universal. “When the pandemic happened, REMI became required for day-to-day operations, and it accelerated the conversation around IP tech moving toward cloud tech,” LeCointe said. “People were saying, ‘Can we skip IP and go to the cloud?’”

The answer, he said, was often no, not least because of the media industry’s uneasy relationship with metered-data exit fees. “Cost was a pretty big roadblock,” he said. “Then, the challenge of not having all your live production elements in the cloud—replay, graphics switcher elements, video shading—that just hadn’t gotten there yet.”

Given the interaction of so many complex technological considerations, LeCointe emphasized, Sony has kept things flexible.

“We opt for more of a customer choice philosophy,” he said. “M2L-X is our software-based switching platform, which can be deployed on the public cloud or on a COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] server. We’re not trying to delve into the minefield about where customers want to deploy.”

Back to Prem
A combined interest in quick, flexible scalability and cloud as a choice rather than a requirement, then, seems like the mood of the moment, according to Satoshi Kanemura, president and chief operating officer of For-A America.

“Everyone likes a 100-input big switcher, and that’s driven mostly by the technical director’s opinion,” Kanemura said. “Nowadays, what they’ve found is that sort of big event is once or twice in a year, but most operations need 20 to 30 inputs with 2 ME.”

Doing that the old way takes effort, Kanemura said. “When they increase or reduce the system, adding hardware, rewiring, recabling…they have to manage such a change,” he said. “So, software-defined is becoming a very big buzzword. One or two years ago, many people jumped into the cloud: ‘Cloud’s going to solve everything, it’s easy to increase or decrease the operation.’ What they found was that…even if they shrink the application, still using the cloud, that charge is coming every month.

“Now they’re coming back to the on-premise solutions,” Kanemura continued. “People who can’t afford a big switcher with 100 inputs can go toward software-defined. For-A Impulse can do anything a customer wants—switcher, multiview, frame sync or you can put only multiview into the server and that can be shared into the three rooms. Then, the next day, you can change it to all HDR-SDR conversion parts.”

For-A’s market position in Japan has granted it a unique position with regard to AI and the vexed issue of training data. “Now [that] cable revenue is down, most broadcasters are looking for new revenue from streaming,” Kanemura said. “They do the production in a 16:9 format, then want to trim down to 9:16 for cellphones. You can crop using AI to track the main player into the center of that 9:16…it’s that kind of AI engine.”

Making that happen has allowed For-A to leverage its relationship with NTV. “Their engineers and For-A’s got together to collaborate to build the AI,” Kanemura said. “To make a good AI, you have to give more and more data, but most AI in the market is not specified to the broadcast market; it’s more generic data they put in. [But] NTV has 70 years of archives—that AI knows how to cut, zoom, and understands the sort of scene. It’s a more broadcast-friendly AI engine.”

‘Keys to the Kingdom’
With or without AI, running a switcher on a workstation or server raises issues around the sort of real-time responsiveness that users expect. Les O’Reilly, director, switcher product management at Ross Video, described how the company has accommodated that change within an existing product line.

“The Carbonite family has shipped over 12,000 switchers,” O’Reilly said. “Carbonite as an operator user base was massive… and Carbonite Code launched at NAB 2024. It’s a Carbonite switcher, but instead of on an FPGA [field-programmable gate array], it’s running it on a GPU [graphics processing unit], a software-based switcher that can do some things that are different, but it still operates like a Carbonite.”

The bounds of the underlying hardware are necessarily imposed in a rather different way than the input and bus counts of a conventional switcher—though Ross’s experience in graphics has influence here.

“You have processing headroom you will run into in a software switcher,” O’Reilly explained. “In our XPression world, we have a software 3D renderer, all done in the GPU, which has a load meter. It’s showing you that you’re still rendering faster than your frame rate.”

Implementing that in a switcher running on COTS hardware, O’Reilly continued, gives users an easily-understood performance metric. “If you’re at 90%, you’re rendering 10% faster than real time,” he said. “If I see 103%, 104%, it’s telling me I’m not rendering 60 frames per second any more, I’m rendering 57. We give them the keys to the kingdom, let them build their shows and figure out what they can and cannot do.”

O’Reilly’s approach to AI’s role in the future of production switchers is pragmatic.

“I want our industry to introduce practical uses, otherwise the joke is that when a company does its keynote, the Discord group takes a drink every time they mention AI,” O’Reilly joked.

Ross’s approach leans toward making the switcher a directable part of the show itself. “We have a speech analysis tool that allows you to direct your show while talking,” O’Reilly said. “We had it on the floor—you could come up and direct it—ready one, take one, put one on the left split, two on the right—and since then we’ve refined and applied that to other products.”

Despite all this advancement, O’Reilly cautioned, the exigencies of live television have maintained the demand for traditional hardware. However, making changes acceptable to highly experienced users is, as always, a consideration.

“FPGAs keep getting bigger, badder and faster,” he said. “We’re constantly adding features and functionality, and we have to get the operator and the user to come along on the journey. So, yes, we absolutely can’t stay locked in the past, but we have to bridge to the future.”

WASHINGTON—When I started Broadcast Management Group, our goal was simple: to make high-end broadcast production accessible anywhere, without compromise. Over the past few years, that vision has evolved into something much bigger: a fully connected, cloud-enabled production ecosystem that supports everything from major network shows to global corporate communications. At the heart of it all is Grass Valley’s AMPP ecosystem, which powers every aspect of our operation.

Our new network operations center, aka the “BMG Cloud Control Center” in Washington, D.C., represents a complete rethinking of how we deliver media services. It’s not just a facility; it’s our private cloud, where all of our production, playout and media asset management (MAM) systems live. Grass Valley’s AMPP and Framelight X are at the core of that infrastructure, providing the flexibility, scalability and reliability that today’s broadcast clients demand.

Unified Operations
Inside the NOC, our Grass Valley K-Frame switchers anchor the control rooms, and every one of our mobile trucks uses Grass Valley LDX cameras for live capture. We’ve also built a centralized video shading room powered by GV Creative Grading, which means our engineers in D.C. can shade cameras anywhere in the country. It’s an incredibly powerful way to unify our operations and deliver consistent quality across every production.

When people talk about cloud production, they often think of lightweight tools or “good enough” solutions. That’s not what we do; we’re handling Tier 1, broadcast-level productions that demand reliability, redundancy and performance. AMPP gives us that—a virtualized platform that combines the horsepower of traditional infrastructure with the agility of the cloud. It’s the operational heartbeat of our entire company.

We run two main business lines: live production and managed broadcast services. On the live side, we package major news, sports and entertainment events for networks nationwide. On the managed services side, we design, build and operate facilities for clients—everything from control rooms and studios to podcast and streaming setups. What ties all of it together is our AMPP-powered private cloud. Whether a client wants a fully local setup, hybrid workflow or completely remote operation, we can spin it up instantly through AMPP.

A great example of this in action is our work with UBS Financial. They were consolidating offices in New York and wanted a new studio and control room, but without the overhead of maintaining all their own backend infrastructure. We rebuilt their systems from the ground up and connected everything directly into our NOC. Their editing workstations, playout channels, and storage all reside in D.C., powered by Grass Valley AMPP and Framelight X. Their editors log in remotely and can cut files in real time, even while shows are on air and more video is being recorded.

That’s a massive leap from where they were, relying on portable drives to store nearly 30 terabytes of content a year. Now, every asset is searchable, secure and immediately accessible, not just in New York but potentially across UBS’s global offices. That’s what the future of live production looks like: Instantaneous, global and flexible.

The Future of Live
We’re applying the same model for VPM, a PBS affiliate in Virginia, by building an entire broadcast facility, all Grass Valley cameras and AMPP Asset management.

Grass Valley has been an exceptional partner in this journey. Their technology gives us the backbone to support enterprise-grade operations while scaling effortlessly for creative demands. Together, we’re proving that cloud production doesn’t mean compromise, it means opportunity. With AMPP and Framelight X, we can deliver broadcast-quality production from anywhere, for anyone, at any scale. And that’s exactly where the future is headed.

More information is available at www.grassvalley.com.

MONTREAL—European cultural broadcaster ARTE has selected Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras and Creative Grading solution as part of its move from SDI/1080i to a native IP-based 1080p production infrastructure with UHD capability.

The project, delivered in collaboration with Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE) as system integrator, modernized two ARTE studios — one dedicated to News and another for general productions. The upgrade at ARTE’s headquarter in Strasbourg, France, delivers a fully native IP environment based on SMPTE ST 2110, ensuring interoperability, scalability, and operational flexibility across ARTE’s production workflows according to the broadcaster.

“Transitioning to IP was a key step in ARTE’s modernization strategy,” said Bruno Viti, Chef de Projet Broadcast at ARTE. “With Grass Valley’s native SMPTE ST 2110 LDX 135 cameras, we achieved outstanding image quality and a true IP implementation that simplified cabling, reduced rack space, and streamlined system integration. This has been a major step forward in both performance and efficiency.”

At the heart of the new workflow is Grass Valley’s LDX Creative Grading solution with the latest CGP 500 grading panel. Together, they provide ARTE’s operators and shaders with intuitive, real-time control over image quality, color balance, and camera matching across the studios.

“Creative Grading has transformed our day-to-day operations,” added Henri Ehrhard, Responsible Production Exploitation et Planification at ARTE. “Operators can now manage multiple cameras, adjust settings, and refine the image directly from the studio floor with immediate visual feedback. The interface is intuitive, the control is precise, and the system fits naturally into our production workflow.”

BCE, acting as system integrator, guided ARTE through the technical and operational transition to IP, ensuring smooth deployment, network integration, and end-to-end performance optimization.

“Our collaboration with ARTE and Grass Valley combined deep engineering expertise with a shared vision for IP-based production,” said Stéphane Gerard, Engineering & Integration Director at BCE. “Together, we’ve delivered a system that’s both technologically advanced and operationally efficient, setting a new benchmark for IP-based live production in France.”

With nine LDX 135 cameras installed across ARTE’s News and general production studios, the broadcaster now benefits from improved operational efficiency, seamless IP integration, and enhanced creative flexibility, enabling consistent, high-quality visual storytelling across all productions, according to Grass Valley.

MONTREAL—New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV), one of India’s leading news and digital journalism companies, has selected Grass Valley to modernize its media asset management systems and to provide technologies that will enhance collaboration across its global teams.

As part of that effort, NDTV implemented Grass Valley’s Framelight X solution, which is powered by Grass Valley’s AMPP OS platform, to consolidate media assets, preserve metadata, and provide a unified, browser-accessible platform for managing and distributing content. Recently implemented, the deployment is designed to streamline workflows and improve operational efficiency.

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in New Delhi, NDTV is a pioneer in Indian news and digital journalism. Operating under AMG Media Networks Ltd, it reaches audiences across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius and SAARC countries.

Grass Valley reported that the migration project involves transferring high-resolution media from NDTV’s existing GV Stratus system to the Framelight X storage pool, with Stratus Rules managing the migration process. Associated metadata is safely transferred alongside the content to ensure immediate accessibility in Framelight X, while automated workflows generate new proxy files, simplifying access and enabling faster collaboration. By consolidating assets into a single intuitive platform, NDTV gains a more efficient and flexible system that empowers teams to collaborate seamlessly across multiple regions.

“Our priority was to modernize our content management system while ensuring that none of our existing assets or metadata were lost in the process,” explained Dinesh Singh, chief technology officer at NDTV. “Framelight X has given us exactly what we needed: a seamless migration path, powerful asset management, and the confidence that our teams can collaborate more efficiently across platforms. This has been a 100% successful deployment.”

Evan Boyd, senior vice president for APAC at Grass Valley, added that “NDTV has been a trusted partner for many years, and we are proud to continue supporting their transformation journey. With Framelight X, NDTV is not only modernizing its content workflows but also future-proofing its operations to scale with evolving digital demands. This project demonstrates the strength of Grass Valley’s AMPP in delivering efficient, flexible, and collaborative solutions for media organizations worldwide.”

Grass Valley will be exhibiting at Broadcast India in Mumbai between Oct. 14-16 on stand D04.

TVU Networks has launched TVU MediaMesh, designed for cloud-based live production.

Traditional live production, whether on-site or remote, has long been constrained by fixed infrastructure, dedicated equipment, and rigid routing, limiting both scale and flexibility. Currently only about 1% of live productions have fully migrated to the cloud due to the complexities of connecting sources, routing signals and integrating multiple applications.

TVU MediaMesh addresses these challenges by introducing global shared memory for live video, simplifying connectivity and drastically reducing configuration time, according to the company.

“MediaMesh removes the biggest obstacle to cloud adoption by making live signals instantly accessible anywhere, as easily as opening a shared file, said Mike Cronk, VP of Strategy at TVU Networks. “It gives teams the freedom to produce from anywhere, using the tools they want without worrying about the back end.”

As the foundation that powers TVU’s SaaS applications for the world’s largest live events, from routing and AI indexing to production and playout, MediaMesh now opens its APIs, enabling customers and partners to build, innovate, and shape the future of live production.

TVU will demo MediaMesh at Stand 7.B55 at the 2025 IBC Show, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam.

The platform’s collaborative approach has already drawn industry support.

Adam Marshall, CPO at Grass Valley, said: “By integrating Grass Valley AMPP with TVU MediaMesh, we’re giving our customers the seamless workflows they’ve been asking for across our best-of-breed solutions. AMPP users can now connect to sources from multiple vendors, including TVU’s cellular backpacks, without the usual integration complexity. This deepens the collaboration our customers have been calling for.”

Additionally, Telos Alliance and Jünger Audio have agreed to integrate Telos Alliance’s portfolio of cloud‑enabled audio solutions directly into TVU Networks’ MediaMesh platform, delivering next‑generation audio capabilities for broadcasters and content creators worldwide.

Integrating Telos Alliance’s and Jünger Audio’s audio-handling tools with MediaMesh will give TVU Network clients the direct ability to automate complex audio workflows, ensure consistent, high‑quality audio and leverage AI to ease manual workloads, the companies said.

TVU MediaMesh already connects and manages production resources via a resilient, cloud‑native network. With Telos Alliance technology embedded in the platform, users will be able to access capabilities including Jünger Audio flexAI for multichannel processing and Automix, Minnetonka AudioTools Server for post‑production automation, and Linear Acoustic upmix, downmix, and loudness tools, all of which are optimized for distributed, collaborative workflows.

TVU MediaMesh is available today, including on the AWS Marketplace, enabling customers to deploy instantly.

To guide the platform’s evolution, TVU has formed a MediaMesh Advisory Board (MAB), bringing together leaders from seven major media companies and five partner organizations including Chyron, EVS, Grass Valley, Solid State Logic and Vizrt. TVU will showcase integrations from select MAB members, as well as Mediatest, Eluvio, Pixelstorm and MXL interoperability demos with Grass Valley, Riedel, Matrox and AWS.

MONTREAL—NEP Middle East & Asia, a division of NEP Group, has selected Grass Valley as a core technology partner for a major expansion of its IP-based outside broadcast capabilities across the Middle East.

The agreement includes deploying LDX 150 premium live cameras, Kayenne XP switchers, Creative Grading panels, CCS-One centralized control systems, and SuperXpander large lens adaptors. Designed from the ground up around native-IP workflows, the OB units will enhance NEP’s ability to deliver high-end live productions across major events in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the broader region.

“This investment reflects NEP’s ongoing commitment to setting the benchmark in broadcast technology and services,” said Jean Claude Rahme, chief technology officer for NEP Middle East & Asia. “Grass Valley provides reliability, innovation, great partnership and compatibility in our TFC broadcast orchestration platform — all of which offer our clients unparalleled quality and flexibility in live production.”

The two identical IP OB facilities will support broadcasters, rightsholders, and content producers of high-profile sports, entertainment and cultural events. The scale of the deployment—and its alignment with IP-first, software-defined production models—positions NEP as a reference point for broadcasters and production companies throughout the region, Grass Valley said.

“NEP is raising the bar for what’s possible in live production, and we’re proud to help power that vision,” said Hany Bartella, vice president of sales, Middle East and Africa, at Grass Valley. “This partnership goes beyond technology—it’s about leading the media revolution in one of the world’s most dynamic markets.”

This landmark deployment is expected to accelerate broader adoption of IP production models across the Middle East. As NEP brings its IP fleet of Total Facility Control (TFC)-powered facilities and full range of media services into key markets, it continues to grow its ability to offer clients more flexible, efficient and future-ready live production solutions, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MONTREAL—Brazilian broadcaster Globo announced today that it is deploying Grass Valley’s AMPP as the backbone of its future production operations.

The announcement marks an expansion GV has with Latin American’s largest broadcaster and is part of a major initiative to modernize and future-proof its live production capabilities. The agreement marks a new phase in Globo’s long-term technology transformation program, centered on the deployment of Grass Valley AMPP (Agile Media Processing Platform).

Since 2022, Globo and Grass Valley have worked closely to deploy AMPP across Tier 3 content production environments, embracing a flexible, software-defined architecture. The success of this initiative laid the groundwork for this next chapter: a multiphase migration of Globo’s primary production control rooms, including those used for marquee Prime-Time events, to a platform powered by the AMPP ecosystem, Grass Valley said.

A clear example of this technology in action was seen during the 2024 and 2025 seasons of Big Brother Brasil, one of Globo’s largest and most complex live productions. The project combined a full 2110 IP infrastructure with AMPP’s on-premises microservices architecture, showcasing how native-IP workflows and software-defined control can co-exist in high-pressure environments.

In this deployment, AMPP was used as a 24/7 time-shifted playout system for 100 consecutive days, all within a highly integrated IP-based setup. This strategic partnership has been formally sealed through the signing of a multi-year Enterprise Agreement, ensuring the joint evolution of the AMPP ecosystem in close collaboration with Globo’s technical and operational teams.

At the same time, Globo is expanding its 2110 IP-based infrastructure through a major new project signed alongside the Enterprise Agreement, a critical step in preparing for Brazil’s next-generation digital broadcast standard, DTV+ (TV 3.0). As part of this evolution, the new AMPP-based control infrastructure will also support 4K workflows, meeting key DTV+ requirements and reinforcing Globo’s commitment to scalable, future-ready production.

“With this shift to a software-defined platform, we are enabling agility and scalability in our production supply chain in order to respond quickly to the demands of a constantly evolving market”, said Mauricio Felix, Technology Executive at Globo.

“We are honored to strengthen our partnership with Globo in this strategic transformation,” said Tim Banks, CRO at Grass Valley. “AMPP offers a powerful, agile, and efficient hybrid-cloud platform that will support Globo’s most demanding live production workflows now and in the years to come.”

MONTREAL—Grass Valley will bring its Grass Valley Media Universe (GVMU) to IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center, with major new innovations that cover every stage of the media production workflow.

Alongside its GV Alliance partners, the company will demonstrate end-to-end solutions used by media organizations worldwide.

The company will showcase core products such as the newly updated Karerra and K-Frame VXP production switchers and the refreshed LDX-100 series camera range, including the new LDX 180 Super 35 system camera, as part of the broader GVMU ecosystem.

Fresh from its launch at NAB Show in April, the LDX 180 camera will make its European debut in Amsterdam. Leveraging an in-house-developed 10K Super 35 Xenios imager, the new camera combines true cinematic depth of field with the speed and precision required for live production, giving media companies the ability to redefine storytelling with native UHD output. Grass Valley will also preview a new addition to the LDX portfolio exclusively at IBC2025, Grass Valley said.

Grass Valley will also show the K-Frame VXP production switcher and Karerra V2 control panels, which debuted at IBC2024 and are now available. The virtualized systems are designed for production teams working in space- and budget-conscious environments, it said.

Debuting at IBC2025 is a new networking portfolio that seamlessly connects traditional SDI and IP workflows whether used as a high-density gateway or as a bridge to the AMPP GRID fabric. It delivers scalability, density and efficiency for virtualized workflows.

GVMU’s ability to orchestrate the entire production chain—from first cue to final cue—will be demonstrated by major new developments in integrated replay and end-to-end production automation.

Alongside upgrades to the LiveTouch X replay system and the Framelight X ingest and content management platform, Grass Valley will showcase how the core capabilities of AMPP OS are providing tightly integrated workflows that reduce effort, increase flexibility and deliver measurable efficiency, the company said.

The company will also showcase its instantly deployable playout and FAST offerings that provide media organizations with the tools to launch, adapt and scale. These solutions were developed in close collaboration with key GV Alliance partners, it said.

See Grass Valley at IBC2025 Stand 9.A01.

More information is available on the company’s website.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—At Texas A&M, we’ve always looked for ways to improve how we cover our athletic events. Between our in-house team at 12th Man Productions and the work we do with ESPN and the SEC Network, we’re producing more live events than ever—and the demands keep growing. So last year, when we decided to upgrade our camera systems, we knew it had to be a leap forward and not just a small step. That’s what led us to Grass Valley’s LDX 100 series.

We ended up going with 10 LDX 135s and four LDX 150s. These cameras are doing a lot of heavy lifting for us across multiple venues on campus. What really sold us was the fact that they’re native IP (2110), which let us rethink how we manage camera signals. The ability to run these cameras without needing a camera control unit (CCU) allowed us to connect them to our 2110 network leaf switches at each venue rather than running direct fiber all the way back to our central control room. That freed up a ton of fiber and gave us way more flexibility in how we route and manage signals.

New Workflows
The move to 1080p was long overdue and this upgrade was the last step in that process. Now, we’re setting our sights on what’s next. The image quality we have seen on these cameras has us seriously exploring 1080p HDR workflows. While we’re not there yet, it’s a direction we’re actively evaluating, and early internal tests have shown a lot of promise.

Adding the four LDX 150s to our camera complement has been a massive boost to high-frame-rate looks at all of our sports. Moving from two to four high-speed, six-phase cameras has given us the flexibility to no longer have to decide which sport or event will get the high-frame-rate cameras. Now we can spread them out to give us the incredible high-speed look the LDX150s offer at all of our biggest events, especially when we have multiple events going on at the same time.

What’s also been huge—especially for our students who are learning the craft—is the Creative Grading tool. The cameras give them a lot of latitude to adjust looks based on the sport or lighting and the tool gives them a really good understanding of color grading and how it all works. It’s made our content feel more polished and intentional.

Remote Camera Control
From an engineering perspective, I also appreciate how easy it is to monitor everything remotely. With venues spread across campus, being able to check in on a camera or tweak a setting from my desk—or even off-site—has saved me a lot of time and, honestly, a lot of stress.

We’ve been working with Grass Valley for a while now, and that history gave us a lot of confidence going into this. Their gear has always been reliable and this latest rollout has only reinforced that. Working with Diversified on the integration side made a huge difference, too. They know us, they know Grass Valley and they understood what we were trying to build. It wasn’t just about new cameras—it was about designing a system that could scale as our needs evolve.

Right now, we’re producing more high-quality content than ever, with more flexibility and fewer limitations. We’ve created a smarter, more-efficient workflow that’s not only better for our crew and students but also sets us up for whatever comes next—whether that’s HDR, UHD or whatever else the industry throws our way.

And we’re just getting started.

For more information, visit www.grassvalley.com.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has announced that TV Skyline GmbH, one of Europe’s top mobile production providers, has expanded its camera inventory with the acquisition of 30 LDX 135 UHD/HDR camera systems and 2 LDX C135 compact models.

The new systems will be deployed across TV Skyline’s fleet of OB trucks and flight packs to support a wide range of high-end live productions, from sports and concerts to major entertainment events, TV Skyline reported.

This latest investment reflects TV Skyline’s ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality UHD/HDR workflows and staying ahead of the curve in live production, the mobile production provider said. The addition of 32 new LDX 135 camera systems expands the company’s production capabilities, delivering an advanced imaging platform with greater flexibility, improved efficiency, and native UHD support.

“Our clients expect the highest standards in both image quality and operational reliability,” said Wolfgang Reeh, CEO of TV Skyline GmbH. “The LDX 135 delivers exactly that. It’s a forward-looking and robust solution that fits perfectly into our production environment and helps us meet growing demand for UHD and HDR content.”

Laurent Schiltz, CTO of TV Skyline GmbH, added that “from an engineering perspective, the LDX 135 cameras stand out for their efficient signal processing architecture, fast setup capabilities, and native UHD support. They integrate seamlessly into our current infrastructure and are perfectly suited to support a future transition to IP-based workflows, giving us the flexibility to scale across different production scenarios, whether in our OB trucks or modular flypacks.”

Grass Valley’s LDX 135 camera platform is designed for flexible, high-performance live production with support for UHD, HDR and a wide range of workflow requirements. The cameras will be used across TV Skyline’s global production portfolio.

“TV Skyline is known across the industry for their technical excellence and production expertise,” said Mark Gardner, senior vice president of sales for EMEA at Grass Valley. “We’re proud to continue supporting their work with camera solutions that deliver the performance and quality their clients expect.”

TV Skyline owns a range of Grass Valley camera models, including the LDX 98, LDX 150, and compact variants, and is also exploring adoption of the new LDX 180 Super 35mm model to support evolving creative needs.

TV Skyline has been delivering premium live content for over three decades and is recognized for its high production standards, technical innovation, and strong client partnerships. The company also offers high-end streaming services for platforms such as YouTube Live and Vimeo Live, and has extensive expertise in designing and deploying specialty camera and production technologies, it said.

More information is available here.

MONTREAL—The Los Angeles Clippers have tapped Grass Valley and integration partner BeckTV to provide fully native 2110 IP 4K switcher solutions for Intuit Dome, the new home of the NBA franchise.

Located in Inglewood, California, Intuit Dome opened for the 2024-25 season as a premier destination for basketball and live entertainment. Designed to be the most technologically advanced arena in the United States, the venue required a no-compromise, state-of-the-art IP production infrastructure to support Clippers basketball, concerts, and other live events, GV said.

To meet these demands, Grass Valley supplied three fully native 2110 IP switcher systems, all paired with top-of-the-line Kayenne control panels. These systems will serve as the heart of production across three different control rooms, ensuring seamless operations for dozens of operators working on a variety of high-profile events.

“We needed a solution that could deliver uncompromised IP 2110 switching across all of Intuit Dome’s productions, and Grass Valley provided exactly that,” said Brock Raum, senior engineer at BeckTV. “The ease of use of the Kayenne panels ensures that operators can move between control rooms seamlessly, which is essential for a venue of this scale.”

Integration partner Beck TV recommended Grass Valley’s solutions as the only true native 2110 IP 4K full raster switchers on the market, with the ability to provide the required flexibility, reliability, and scalability of the facility’s production operations.

Additionally, the collaboration with BeckTV, a top-tier partner of Grass Valley, ensured a seamless integration process, GV said.

“This deployment, in collaboration with our trusted partners BeckTV, further solidifies Grass Valley’s leadership in large venue builds and elite sports productions,” said Alex Keighley, senior vice president of sales for North America at Grass Valley. “As more venues transition to fully IP-based workflows, Grass Valley continues to set the standard for innovation and performance in live event production.”

The subtle art of aiming cameras at live events is perhaps the part of film and television practice which has been most resistant to new technologies. While sheer specifications have skyrocketed, outside broadcast camerawork is marked by nothing more than a determination to maintain a consistent operator experience.

Recently, though, the drive for sheer gloss—driven, perhaps, by the ascendancy of single-camera drama from OTT distributors—has imposed change on this most change-resistant of fields.

Adapting to Live
Guilhem Krier, based in France, is Panasonic Connect’s Head of New Business & Market Development, and traces the origins of the trend to “concerts, mostly, where you want to have a very nice cinematic feel for the singer, and the background is blurry so the person is detached. I think it was 10 years ago.”

Larger-sensored options, Krier recalls, already existed, “but they were mostly designed for production work, with a full camera crew. There was a clear request for this kind of picture, but there was no product really designed in this way—a real studio camera, a broadcast camera with a cinematographic look to it. This is where the idea of products like the PLV100 came from.”

The AK-PLV100GSJ is Panasonic’s answer to the problem, a system camera with Super 35mm sensor announced in October 2022. Big chips, though, were already popular in adjacent fields, according to Krier.

“It’s not only broadcast sports,” Krier says, “but also integration. Corporate things, meeting rooms, theatres where we’re selling tons of PTZ cameras. The tendency is to go for bigger and bigger sensors, to get more sensitivity and also to get this kind of picture with a short depth of field.”

While the technological direction was straightforward, Krier describes the early big-chip broadcast experience, which often repurposed cinema cameras, as “an absolute nightmare in terms of blurry pictures and [poor] workflows.

“At the time I was mostly focused on the French market but we had big organizations like [industrial training organization] INA, and they had started tons of training and courses on how to manage focus not only with HD but with 4k and large sensors,” he said.

Time has allowed technique to mostly catch up with technology, Krier added.

“Today we don’t really have people coming up saying it’s too difficult to keep the pictures sharp, but for a long time it was a big topic, especially for people switching to full frame. Super 35 is a bit in the middle, but still you have super sharp sensors with 20, 30, 40 million pixels. It’s still a challenge.”

Super Sensor at the Super Bowl
Masakazu Murata is Senior General Manager, Head of Media Solutions Business Unit at Sony, and relates a somewhat comparable trajectory. “Particularly in sports broadcasting, where there’s a growing demand for cinematic visual expression, we're seeing cinema cameras like the Venice 2 being used more frequently. At this year's Super Bowl in February, in addition to a lot of Sony system cameras, Venice 2 and FX series cameras were also used.”

Perhaps mindful of the ergonomic concerns associated with repurposing cinema cameras for live work, Sony announced its own Super 35mm system camera, the HDC-F5500V, at NAB this year. The new design, Murata confirms, “features a Super 35mm CMOS image sensor delivering impressive bokeh effects while maintaining system camera operability.

“There’s talkback and remote control, and a variable ND filter,” he added. “We've received very positive feedback from broadcasting professionals who appreciate the expanded range of visual expression options. They can mix traditional system cameras, with deep depth of field, and cinema cameras, with shallow depth of field, and select the appropriate visual style for each scene.”

Grass Valley’s Klaus Weber recognizes that mix-and-match option as key. Responsible for product management of camera solutions and technology, Weber reinforcinges the need for proper workflow integration of large-sensor cameras. “Yes, you can adapt UCPs to a camera and yes, you can add a tally light and yes, you can attach an intercom solution. But then it’s building a camera with external blocks to act like a live camera.”

Even then, Weber goes on, many cinema cameras remain compromised. “The time between light hitting the imager and the image being ready for distribution is one frame, perhaps,” Weber said. “It needs to be instant. And the camera does not have multiple live outputs—in live you need a UHD HDR signal but [also] a 1080p feed for shading or iso feeds. You need cameras with a global shutter because… high end sport productions often need to shoot LED walls with a virtual ad replacement system. Sometimes you can set it up so it works, but in a live environment, where you have to react to situations it simply doesn’t work.”

Grass Valley’s response is the LDX 180, launched at this year’s NAB. Weber describes the camera as expanding on a much-loved existing product.

“It’s taking one of our LDX 100 camera bodies and replacing the three-chip block with a newly-developed Super 35 optical block,” Weber said. “Since both imagers are developed with the same technology, the same development team even, they provide the same characteristics, global shutter and dynamic range. Because the imager is more than six times larger, we have more than six times more pixels which gives you a heavily oversampled image.”

Not For Everyone
Even so, Krier suggests that even the smoothest pictures are unlikely to persuade the industry to universal adoption (and the industry seems to concur).

“A big soccer match for the Champions League in Europe is typically 20, 30 cameras; the soccer field is more than a hundred meters long, so a camera high up, shooting down to a player on the ground, has a distance of at least 100 meters to the subject,” Krier said. “You need a focal length of 400-500mm and your depth of field is already close to zero.”

Crucially, the practical performance envelope of larger-sensor cameras is increasingly constrained by optics more than electronics. Joshua Stoner is Senior Technical Specialist at Canon, with responsibility for lenses, and describes the convergence of cinema and broadcast simply. “As the two industries have been on a collision course, they’ve had some crossover,” Stoner said. “Some of our cinema lenses and cameras have been getting broadcast-style operability, the ability to use a third-party control panel to shade our cameras.”

As regards broadcast-specific lens designs, though, Stoner is clear that Canon has no intention of following in the footsteps of Fujifilm and its upscale 25-1000mm PL-mount box zoom.

“I don’t think the market is enough to support the R&D,” Stoner said. “We looked into it when Fujifilm released theirs and went a different way—the cine-servo line of lenses. We have also started releasing the USM Z line, which are RF mount and have external zoom and focus controls. There’s an add-on module that gives you handheld zoom. It has a 20-pin connector, and with a Y-connector you can put on rear controls.”

This sort of hybrid lens technology, with the option to involve electronics in what was once an almost purely opto-mechanical device, seems like the most promising avenue for fundamental advancement in what can be done. “It’s a more video-focused lens,” Stoner says, “but it’s still an RF-mount photo lens, and it has that performance benefit [of a short flange focus distance]. It’s our advancement into that lower cost video kind of lens that people are screaming for.”

Stoner reports one other popular option among people looking for a broadcast operating experience, albeit one which may not extract the best performance from camera or lens: “to put a B4 lens on a cinema camera. That’s popping up more and more. Not very much in live, but a team might have a features group that shoots interviews or team footage and they’re trying to leverage the new cameras.”

Box-lens enthusiasts seem more likely to be entranced by an upgrade option for Canon’s Digisuper 122 and 111 lenses which occupies a previously-disused aperture on the extender.

“You can install this new optical block into the Digisuper 122 and 111 which helps mimic the shallow depth of field look—but you get the broadcast operability,” Stoner says. “And you’re not giving up a camera position. It’s not a true shallow depth of field, [but] the operators are operating the lens like they normally would, they’re not chasing focus and it gives the director the hero shot they want.”

That hybrid try for a best-of-both-worlds solution was announced at NAB 2025 and, Stoner says, was well-received. “The demand for it in the U.S. has been through the roof,” he said. “We’re ready to deploy this this summer in time for the NFL season.” Overall, it seems plausible that the desire for a large-sensor look might well take a third route of this kind, ideally skirting the practicality shortfalls of Super 35mm sensors.

Either way, Stoner concludes by echoing what seems to be the prevailing view. “I don’t see Super 35 overtaking ⅔-inch any time soon. I see it as an add-on inside the industry.”

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Texas A&M University here has selected Grass Valley’s IP-enabled live production solutions to upgrade its athletics coverage workflows.

Texas A&M, a member of the Southeastern Conference, has deployed two Grass Valley K-Frame X switchers with extra control panels, 10 LDX 135 cameras and four LDX 150 cameras to enhance its production capabilities. The deployment is one of the first in the SEC in which an institution has adopted Grass Valley’s end-to-end IP production tools.

The new system allows the university’s internal production team to deliver 1080p productions today and offers a seamless upgrade path to UHD as future needs evolve.

“Grass Valley’s equipment gave us the flexibility we needed to upgrade our workflows and move confidently into IP,” Jonathan Kerr, chief broadcast engineer at Texas A&M, said. “We’ve relied on their systems for years, and the reliability, performance and support made this an easy choice.”

Grass Valley’s industry reputation and service record, combined with the capabilities of the K-Frame X switchers and LDX series cameras, were key factors in Texas A&M’s decision.

“12th Man Productions first invested in Grass Valley camera technology in 2014 when we upgraded our facility to support the videoboard shows and ESPN/SEC Network live event programming for Texas A&M Athletics,” Texas A&M Associate Athletic Director Andy Richardson said.

“In 2024, as we turned a new page in technology upgrading our live camera systems to support IP 2110 infrastructure and transitioning to HD 1080p, we saw Grass Valley as the ideal partner to elevate our productions,” Richardson added. “And we couldn’t be happier with the results.”

Central to the deployment was systems designer and integrator Diversified, which has a longstanding relationship with Grass Valley and Texas A&M. From initial design through on-site commissioning, Diversified’s team, led by Senior Account Executive for Sports & Live Events Tony Gaston, crafted a turnkey solution that not only met the university’s immediate 1080p requirements but also laid the groundwork for future UHD expansion, Grass Valley said.

“Partnering with Texas A&M and Grass Valley on this innovative project underscores our dedication to advancing collegiate sports production,” Gaston said. “This deployment not only meets the university’s current needs but also sets the stage for future technological growth.”

With this deployment, Texas A&M becomes one of the first SEC institutions to adopt Grass Valley’s end-to-end IP production tools, reinforcing its position as a leader in technology-driven athletics coverage.

More information is available on the company’s website.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia & MONTREAL—Arabsat, a global satellite operator and the primary provider of satellite services across the Arab world, has announced that it is working with Grass Valley to launch a new suite of cloud-based broadcast services.

The new Playout X offering uses Grass Valley AMPP OS (Agile Media Processing Platform) to provide a scalable, cloud-native media platform for the evolving needs of broadcasters across the Middle East, Africa, and beyond.

This collaboration, formalized at CABSAT 2024, marks a significant milestone in Arabsat’s digital transformation journey. It will allow Arabsat to offer clients a state-of-the-art cloud-based architecture that features more flexibility, faster deployment, and enhanced operational efficiency, it said.

“At Arabsat, we are committed to staying ahead of industry demands and delivering cutting-edge media services to our customers,” said Eng. Alhamedi Alanezi, CEO and president of Arabsat. “By leveraging Grass Valley AMPP, we’re enabling a new generation of agile, multitenant, cloud-based services that support our video customers’ growth and innovation across the region.”

The Playout X suite features three tailored service tiers:

• TV Pinnacle Package – A premium playout option with multiple live sources with switching capabilities, advanced graphics and subtitling, Dolby support, and full operator assistance.
• Advanced Package – A balanced solution with essential live capabilities, native graphics, and operator support.
• TV Starter Package – A streamlined entry-level tier focused on core broadcast needs.

AMPP, Grass Valley’s cloud-native platform, was selected for its scalability, secure multitenancy features, and seamless integration into Arabsat’s private cloud. Together, the two companies have completed extensive technical evaluation, customizing AMPP to meet Arabsat’s operational standards and security requirements while ensuring high-quality broadcast delivery, they reported.

“This collaboration with Arabsat is a major step forward for Grass Valley in the MENA region,” said Jon Wilson, CEO at Grass Valley. “Arabsat’s vision aligns perfectly with AMPP’s strengths – offering broadcasters the flexibility, performance, and reliability needed to succeed in today’s fast-evolving media landscape.”

As Arabsat begins commercial rollout following CABSAT 2025, broadcasters across the region will benefit from faster service launches, lower hardware infrastructure dependency, and seamless access to next-generation broadcast capabilities—all from a trusted regional provider, the two companies explained.

Grass Valley and Arabsat will be jointly showcasing their partnership at CABSAT 2025 at Arabsat Booth S2-D10 in Hall 2 and at Grass Valley at Booth S1-H10.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia—Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA) has selected Grass Valley to provide a major technology upgrade of its broadcast facility here.

Delivered in partnership with First Gulf Co. (FGC), the new installation marks a significant advancement in SBA’s live production capabilities, particularly in supporting around-the-clock online broadcasts from Al-Masjid Al-Haram, the Grand Mosque of Mecca, the company said.

SBA, the nation’s state broadcasting body, provides news, cultural and entertainment programming to domestic and international audiences. Its facility in Mecca is a primary hub for live religious event coverage. The latest deployment is part of a long-term SBA project to upgrade its broadcasting capabilities with more robust, scalable, state-of-the-art systems to deliver world-class media content across radio, television and digital platforms, it said.

Grass Valley systems and equipment were chosen for the project following extensive planning and coordination and were delivered last December. Installation is ongoing by integration partner FGC.

“SBA chose Grass Valley for its proven broadcast technology, reliability and seamless integration,” FGC Executive Vice President Joe Chbat said. “The solution ensures high-quality video switching, scalable infrastructure and efficient signal processing, which are critical for SBA’s current and future broadcasting needs. Grass Valley’s strong track record in the region, alongside its renowned long-term support and competitive pricing, made it the ideal technical partner for a project of such importance.”

The new system is based on 12G technology and offers higher capacity and improved performance. It also futureproofs SBA to meet its growing need for high-quality, high-definition production.

The installation includes: the Kayenne K-Frame XP standard 3ME system with K-Frame XP ELITE Performance Suite software and 12G license as the main switcher; a Kayenne K-Frame XP Compact as a secondary switcher; a Sirius 850 Dual Frame (2x 34 rack unit) router; several Densité-configured Kaleido modular frames; Densité glue systems, including audio and audio processing in 12G; the XIP 3911 agile SDI/IP processing platform; and a Masterpiece 12G-SDI master control switcher, Grass Valley said.

Grass Valley executives will demonstrate many of the products that are part of this landmark deployment at CABSAT, May 13-15, in booth S1-H10 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Grass Valley Executive Chairman Louis Hernandez Jr. announced the appointment of new CEO Jon Wilson at the company’s Grass Valley Forum event, held during NAB Show.

Wilson has been with Grass Valley since 2023, serving as president and chief operating officer. As Wilson received the key to the Grass Valley Media Universe from Hernandez, he shared his vision for its future: focusing on the customer experience and creating solutions that span the entirety of the company, from AMPP to hardware.

Ian Fletcher, chief technology officer, and Adam Marshall, chief product officer, announced the launch of several products to help Wilson achieve his goal of increasing the company’s connective ecosystem of hardware, software and cloud technology.

Grass Valley’s new LDX 180 camera has a 10K imager, offering a cinematic lens with very little noise. In combination with the wireless LDX 110 RF and the roaming freedom of the LDX 135/150 5G, the 100 camera series seamlessly blends together innovative transmission capabilities through the base station to drive down installation efforts and infrastructure costs.

“With the introduction of the 180 … you have the creative freedom with our 100 Series product form to pick and choose the right camera for any shot, any emotion, across the entire portfolio with the same speed and ease,” Marshall said.

Live production was again emphasized with the smallest production switcher available, the new K-Frame VXP, a 5-rack-unit switcher that includes a 48 x 24 native UHD, IP and SDI I/O in a single form factor.

In line with Grass Valley’s goal of connectivity, the VXP uses the same I/O as the rest of the range of switchers, so users can scale up or down based on production needs.

© NAB

Anyone familiar with the history of Grass Valley over the past decade or so knows about the challenges the company has faced, particularly when it came to ownership. After changing hands from Francisco Partners in 2010 to Belden in 2014 and then to Dragon Capital in 2020, the company went through several CEOs before Louis Hernandez, Jr., president of Dragon, took the helm in 2021. Throughout that time, the company's owners continued to make acquisitions; its most significant, the acquisition of Miranda in 2012 and SAM (formerly Snell & Wilcox) in 2018. Both companies were merged into Grass Valley.

Those acquisitions have made Grass Valley a powerhouse presence in the live TV production market and as the company has transitioned over the past few years to new leadership, it’s also taken stock of its product portfolio and honed its approach to address a rapidly growing and changing marketplace, fueled by advances in IP and cloud.

Hernandez always indicated that his leadership at Grass would serve as a transition to new leadership and in late 2023, Jon Wilson, former president and COO of Telestream was appointed to lead the company as its new President and Chief Operating Officer, and today was announced as the company’s new CEO.

Wilson is leading a team that includes CTO Ian Fletcher, CRO Tim Banks, CFO Michael Prinn and CPO Adam Marshall, as well as several new members, including Claudio Szabas, as Executive Vice President, Customer Success, Chris Partington, Product Director, Content & Editing and Vincent Eade Regional Sales Director for Northern Europe.

'A lot of difficult decisions needed to be made'
In a recent interview with TV Tech, Wilson talked about the company’s work to tie its hardware-based solutions, like its traditional switcher, routing and processing and camera technology, with more of a cloud-based IP approach, with an emphasis on live production.

“We're in an incredibly strong position now,” Wilson said, referring to the company’s tech portfolio and financial status. "When I joined the business, it was coming out of a major transformation."

“When Louis bought the business in 2020, the business hadn't been fully integrated across many of the acquisitions and it needed new ownership horizons,” he added. “A lot of difficult decisions needed to be made in terms of rationalizing the portfolio, rationalizing the footprint and getting to a place where we had a business that was financially viable.”

It’s important to note that the transformation occurred during a pandemic, which added a whole new layer of complexity.

“The pandemic exacerbated the challenge that Grass Valley needed to get through and overcome to get to the other side of that transformation,” Wilson said. “Covid really made it even more difficult, and most notably, all the supply chain challenges, right? Our team dealt with millions of dollars that needed to be paid to secure those final components, to get a finished product shipped out to a customer. I've never seen that in my career and I hope we never have to experience that again.”

Despite these challenges, Grass Valley’s financial health improved significantly in 2024, with a 25% increase in bookings and a 70% rise in camera sales. The company says it has stabilized its supply chain, reducing delayed shipments and improving lead times to 2-4 weeks.

“Nearly every product across our portfolio is at normal lead times, two to four weeks across nearly all of our portfolio,” Wilson said. “And in some cases, it's a competitive advantage for us now because of the financial health of the business, we're actually able to anticipate customer demand, build inventory in advance if and as we need to.”

In early 2024, the company closed a $220 million financing deal with Morgan Stanley, a key step in stabilizing the company’s balance sheet.

“It's allowed us to invest not just in our inventory, but also in our service and support stock, and get our SLAs also back up to what our customers expect and what we've committed to them as well,” Wilson said. “So it's just been a fundamental transformation of the business, really, over the last 12 to 18 months.”

Powering Up with AMPP
When it comes to transforming the company’s tech portfolio, perhaps no other technology over the past five years has had more impact than AMPP (Agile Media Processing Platform), Grass Valley’s software platform designed to facilitate flexible and efficient media production workflows.

“AMPP has been central to our growth. It's core and we see it as central to the future of Grass Valley,” Wilson said.

Comparing it to an operating system for media, Wilson adds that “it's about the entire ecosystem of products that we've built at Grass Valley.”

“AAMP is core to certain applications like play-out, asset management and our frame-like product, where we've taken traditional Grass Valley technology and stood that up in AAMP as standalone applications,” Wilson said adding that “Grass Valley is still going to lead the industry in camera technology, switcher technology and in infrastructure products, and we've been reinvesting across the entire portfolio.

“But what's driving a lot of the growth is customers see the broader strategy of what we've built in the Grass Valley Media Universe and having an on ramp, whether they're ready to go to a cloud native architecture today, which could be, by the way, on prem,” Wilson said.

NAB Show Plans
For the 2025 NAB Show, April 6-9 in Las Vegas, the company will be located in the North Hall, booth N506 of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and will offer a refreshing new look and layout to fully demonstrate the integrated GVMU ecosystem that covers every stage of the production workflow, from image capture to delivery, the company said.

Making its debut at NAB Show is the new LDX 180 camera which features the new Super35 Xenios imager that delivers stunning cinematic depth-of-field, with enhanced definition and vibrancy.

Featuring all of the hallmarks of the LDX Series, including Creative Grading, ensuring artistic control across the lineup, the LDX 180 blends cinematic depth with the speed and precision of live production to redefine how stories are told. The full LDX Series will be on display, including the new LDX 110 with RF for wireless production, and the new LDX 135 with 5G, offering direct AMPP contribution without ingest conversion.

The new Grass Valley booth will also offer a showcase of the full GVMU, with products and solutions covering cameras and live production; networking and processing; news and media workflows; content management and editing; linear and event-based playout; and more. The booth will also host members of the expanding GV Alliance, which brings together companies from across the media and entertainment industries in an open digital community with the shared goal of simplifying production workflows.

What About AI?
With artificial intelligence on the minds of many NAB Show visitors, Wilson says the company is getting feedback from its customers and will only adopt AI when appropriate.

"I'm not ready to say AI is going to be central to our strategy going forward, but it will be a core part of our strategy, because increasingly it's top of mind for our customers and accelerating in the discussions that we're having with them," Wilson said.

"There's a number of different applications and we can go a lot of different directions but we need to be intelligent about how we leverage and deploy AI for our customers,” he added. “And as we think about where they can benefit most, we know we can't do everything. So I don't have a specific answer today, other than it's going to be core to the strategy but needs to have practical applications for our customers."

Tariff Impacts
With its manufacturing base in Canada just outside of Montreal, Wilson is well aware of the impact of tariffs. Although President Trump has threatened Canada with tariffs primarily on automobiles, Canada and Mexico were exempt from tariffs announced on April 2, largely due to the existing trade agreement between the countries (CUSMA).

Nevertheless, tariffs have been a frequent topic of conversation with customers in recent months, Wilson said. (Note: this interview was done prior to Trump’s announcement).

“If tariffs do come into effect, we will be impacted, and that will require us to have to raise prices on selected products,” he said. “I've already been having those conversations with customers proactively. It's just unfortunate, and I think what's most unfortunate—and I think you hear this across the board—ultimately, it's just going to get pushed down to our customers in the end.”

Furthermore, the company won’t make any quick moves based on the tariffs from President Trump, who claims that they will result in a “Golden Age” of manufacturing for the U.S. One such decision would be to move their manufacturing to the states.

“That's not a viable option for Grass Valley,” Wilson said. “And why do I say that? Number one, we're committed to delivering the highest quality products in the industry, and I'm not going to make a snap decision to try to assemble our products, or move our manufacturing to the U.S. for that short term.”

Wilson notes that Grass Valley, of course, is not alone in this situation.

“We told our customers we're not implementing our normal annual price increases, but we will, as tariffs do come into effect, have to increase prices to some extent, to mitigate the impact of the tariffs,” he said. “And I wish we were in a position to not have to pass that on, but I would expect across the industry—that we're all going to have to pass the impact of this on.”

Over the past year, as Wilson has transitioned to leading the company full-time, he also notes that Louis Hernandez Jr. is not stepping back completely.

“This transition is the result of Louis having a tremendous amount of confidence in not just myself, but the leadership team that he's put in place over the last couple years—that we've got the right team in place to take Grass Valley forward through the next phase,” Wilson said.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley and F&F Productions have announced that a suite of Grass Valley solutions are being deployed on F&F’s latest 2110 IP 4K remote production truck, the GTX-21.

The new GTX-21 (A, B and C Units) follows on from the GTX-20 as F&F’s second 2110 IP truck and will feature cutting-edge Grass Valley technology including a Kayenne Switcher, GV Orbit orchestration platform, GV Routing, and KIP-X240 Multiviewers. Grass Valley is also supplying a large Cisco IP Spine and Leaf Core as part of the build.

F&F Productions is a leading provider of high definition and 4K remote production facilities for premier sporting and entertainment events across North America. Its signature GTX series fleet has delivered live network coverage for major events such as the Super Bowl, U.S. Open Tennis, the World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, NCAA Men’s Final Four, The Masters, The Kentucky Derby, and NASCAR.

The two companies have a long-standing relationship with Grass Valley solutions forming a core part of F&F’s existing mobile units.

That relationship was expanded for the build of the GTX-20, F&F’s first 2110 IP truck, laying the ground for the current collaboration taking place on the GTX-21, which will be the most advanced 2110 IP production vehicle on the market, the companies reported.

“Grass Valley has been an integral partner in helping us build our next-generation mobile units,” says Marc Orgera, President of F&F Productions. “To realize our ambition in building the most advanced, state-of-the-art vehicle possible, we required a total 2110 IP solution using the most advanced technology, something that we know and trust that Grass Valley will always deliver. Their comprehensive suite of IP solutions, combined with their deep industry knowledge, support, and our existing work together made them the ideal choice to power the GTX-21.”

In particular, Orgera believes the advancements in Grass Valley’s IP router technology will have significant benefits for F&F’s operations as it grows. “The IP router technology is really advanced and can comfortably accommodate the increased bandwidth and engineering needs of our growing infrastructure,” he said. “We have a great relationship with Grass Valley, and our continued partnership will be very important as we collaborate on ways to make the router more user-friendly and efficient.”

The two companies said that the GTX-21 is being designed to produce the largest sports and entertainment shows across North America. The deal was finalized in December 2024 with the GTX-21 A, B, and C Units now in the build phase. Grass Valley’s engineers are working together with F&F’s team on delivering the new truck, with expected completion later this year.

“Designing and building world class OB vans is uniquely challenging as they are rolling production facilities, but the GTX-21 brings the added complexity of being fully 2110 IP enabled,” explains Alex Keighley, Grass Valley’s senior vice president of sales for North America. Grass Valley has also worked with Cisco on supplying the large Cisco IP Spine and Leaf Core.

“Our team of engineers have a great relationship with F&F’s director of engineering Don Adydan and his team, and we are working closely together on the GV product design and build of materials to meet all F&F’s requirements, including the large Cisco IP Spine and Leaf Core. We’re looking forward to delivering what will be the most advanced remote production vehicle in the North American market,” Keighley noted.

The deal is further evidence of Grass Valley’s market leadership as a specialist partner in live production innovation, and strengthens its position both in the North American market and as a leader in the delivery of fully integrated, scalable, and future-proof 2110 IP solutions.

Grass Valley is demonstrating the GV Media Universe at NAB Show 2025, April 6-9, in a new location in the North Hall, Booth N506

MONTREAL—Grass Valley, a provider of end-to-end live entertainment and media technology, has strengthened its North American sports and live production expertise with the addition of three industry veterans: Greg Doggett as VP, sports sales, North America; Jeremy Morell as director, pre-sales, Americas; and Ben Dolinky as senior solutions architect.

“Grass Valley is at the forefront of live production innovation during a period of unprecedented change,” Alex Keighley, Grass Valley’s senior vice president sales, Americas, said. “Greg, Jeremy and Ben will help our customers navigate these challenges by making the right decisions to deliver the best possible content to their audiences. Their deep industry knowledge and proven track records in live production and sports broadcasting will strengthen our leadership position in the market.”

Doggett returns to Grass Valley after years of building deep relationships with teams, venues, systems integrators and design consultants, the company said. He has held senior roles at such companies as Rhode & Schwarz, TVU Networks and Telestream.

“I am thrilled to return to Grass Valley and lead North American Sports at such an exciting time for the industry,” he said. “I’m eager to build on Grass Valley’s legacy of delivering cutting-edge solutions that empower our customers and partners to create exceptional content.”

Morell, also a Grass Valley alumnus, will lead the pre-sales engineering team. He is a broadcast and media technology expert who played a key role in designing Disney’s ABC Galaxy project, Grass Valley said.

“It’s great to be part of a team that’s all about being flexible, innovative, and focused on what our customers really need in this constantly changing industry,” Morell said.

Dolinki comes from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and MLS team Atlanta United FC, where he was chief engineer, after stints with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and MLB’s San Francisco Giants. He will focus on designing sports and live production solutions across North America, Grass Valley said.

“The opportunity to work alongside industry leaders, drive cutting-edge solutions, and contribute to world-class broadcast experiences is incredibly exciting,” he said.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley will demonstrate how the GV Media Universe and AMPP platform are being used in live-event and sports production, house of worship, corporate and education applications at ISE 2025, to be held Feb. 4-7 in Barcelona.

AMPP is Grass Valley’s microservices-based media production platform enabling efficient and flexible production workflows for live content creation, management, and distribution.

“AMPP has become a cornerstone for live production on a global scale—from local sporting events to major international programming for Tier 1 media brands—enabling customers to reduce operational costs, gain flexibility, and drive new revenue streams,” Grass Valley President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Wilson said.

Grass Valley’s strategic partnerships with key players such as Diversified, ES Broadcast and Arabsat further underline the company’s commitment to enhancing product innovation for the broadest possible mix of customers, it said.

“Broadcast-grade production technology is no longer the preserve of traditional broadcasters and TV networks,” Grass Valley executive chairman and CEO Louis Hernandez Jr. said. “Access to cutting-edge media production solutions is now within reach for a broader pool of organizations, a transformation that technology providers such as Grass Valley have been instrumental in enabling.”

Hernandez will explore these themes during his keynote session at ISE 2025’s AV Broadcast Summit on Feb. 5. He will demonstrate how technology solutions from Grass Valley enable a new roster of media publishers to deliver high-quality productions.

“The ongoing democratization of media solutions will see accelerating deployments of technology in non-traditional broadcast environments such as corporate, education, and houses of worship, as well as providing areas like sports, live events and esports with new production and streaming capabilities,” he said.

See Grass Valley at ISE 2025, booth 4P660.

More information is available on the company’s website.

SYDNEY—Corrivium is a live over-the-top streaming services provider focused on delivering high-quality virtual and hybrid events across various industries. We specialize in crafting engaging and interactive experiences for audiences worldwide, combining technical expertise and a deep understanding of digital media with a focus on live OTT and streaming services and high-quality, low-latency broadcasts.

Our clients rely on us for seamless, engaging virtual experiences, and we continuously refine our workflows to meet the rapidly evolving demands of digital media. To meet those demands, Grass Valley’s AMPP emerged as the ideal solution to expand and optimize our capabilities.

We chose AMPP because of its flexibility and the fact that it supports complex live OTT broadcasts without compromising on speed or quality. The platform’s cloud-based infrastructure allows us to scale resources dynamically, which is crucial for projects with fluctuating demands. Previously, managing multiple live broadcasts globally, all with varying, unique requirements, was a challenge. With AMPP, we now handle these demands seamlessly within a unified platform.

High-Stakes Setup
Setup was straightforward and AMPP integrated smoothly with our existing workflows. Its cloud-native nature enables our team to access it from anywhere, which is essential for real-time collaboration during high-stakes events.

In terms of implementing and customizing workflows for our clients with AMPP, we have found that it has enabled innovative new workflows. During a recent virtual conference featuring 16 concurrent live rooms, we leveraged AMPP to design tailored workflows for each room. Additionally, we built a customizable master multiview to seamlessly monitor all ingests in real time. This streamlined approach not only minimized our onsite footprint, but also ensured high-quality adaptive bit rate streams, delivering an exceptional viewing experience for every audience member.

Another standout example is our collaboration with Racing and Wagering Western Australia (RWWA). They needed to produce multiple versions of their live racing content for various distribution partners while minimizing latency. After proving that AMPP could meet their requirements during trials, RWWA faced the challenge of deploying a production-ready system within two weeks.

Leveraging our extensive experience with AMPP, we successfully deployed a fully operational system ahead of schedule. Beyond the initial scope, the implementation allowed us to help RWWA optimize workflows. The resulting cost savings far exceeded their initial expectations, showcasing the long-term value AMPP offers.

Tailored Solutions
In terms of driving excellence, efficiency and client satisfaction, adopting AMPP has helped us significantly improve efficiency and allowed us to expand our ability to meet diverse client requests. AMPP empowers us to tackle ambitious ideas with tailored solutions, no matter the challenge. Its flexible encoding capabilities allow us to ingest and output virtually any video format, ensuring consistently high-quality content. By streamlining our workflows, AMPP lets us focus on delivering successful events—ultimately achieving 100% client satisfaction.

AMPP has also revolutionized our internal workflows, minimizing manual tasks and enabling our team to prioritize creativity. Its intuitive automation tools simplify managing complex transitions and graphics integrations, saving time and reducing errors. The result is a consistently polished product that not only meets but exceeds client expectations.

As live streaming continues to grow, we’re eager to explore AMPP’s advanced features, including Sport Producer X, opening new possibilities for accessible, real-time storytelling. These advanced production tools have the potential to further enhance our offerings and expand our business into new areas.

More information is available at www.grassvalley.com.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks, a global provider of cloud and IP-based live video solutions, has appointed Mike Cronk as vice president of strategy.

Cronk has more than two decades of experience in media tech, most recently as head of product for live media services at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Prior to that, he was with Grass Valley for much of the past 25 years, most recently as vice president of core technologies. He is also founding chair of the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS).

In his new role, Cronk will focus on scaling TVU’s award-winning software-as-a-service (SaaS) product line, expanding its adoption among media organizations worldwide and enhancing the company’s offerings for customers, partners and the broader media community, T said.

“Mike Cronk joins TVU at a time of unparalleled innovation and momentum for our company,” TVU CEO Paul Shen said. “His deep expertise in cloud transformation, media workflows, and product strategy will enable us to continue redefining how broadcasters engage their audiences. With Mike’s leadership, we will further strengthen our position as the trusted partner for media supply chain transformation worldwide, turning our customers’ most ambitious projects into reality.”

Reflecting on his new role, Cronk highlighted TVU’s commitment to innovation: “TVU has been at the forefront of live video production for nearly two decades, forging strong partnerships with media organizations worldwide. This year alone, TVU has enabled groundbreaking cloud-based workflows, from leveraging AI-assisted production during major sports events to powering fully cloud-based workflows for this year’s biggest elections. The opportunity to contribute to such a visionary company at this pivotal moment is truly exciting. Together with our customers, we have the potential to achieve even greater milestones and transform the industry further.”

“Mike’s vision and expertise align perfectly with TVU Networks’ mission to transform the broadcast industry,” Shen said. “His addition to our leadership team marks an exciting chapter for TVU as we continue to innovate and collaborate with our clients to redefine what’s possible in live media production.”

For more information about TVU Networks, visit tvunetworks.com.

AMSTERDAM—Grass Valley has launched the ACE-3901 Next Generation 12G Modular Agile Computing Engine and the XIP-3911-GRID firmware for the XIP Modular Processing Platform at IBC 2024.

The launches mark a significant evolution in Grass Valley’s Densité Modular Platform, offering a higher level of processing power and density for media companies navigating the migration from SDI to IP workflows, it said.

The ACE-3901 is the company’s pinnacle of modular processing. It is designed to meet the growing demand for high-density IP gateway solutions. It delivers the highest IP input/output density in the market, offering up to 400Gb IP bandwidth per module and up to 256 12G-SDI or 384 3G-SDI gateways within a single 4RU Densité frame, the company said.

It provides up to a tenfold increase in density and a fivefold reduction in cost per channel, maximizing media company’s existing SDI infrastructure while embracing the flexibility and scalability of IP technology, it said.

The ACE (Agile Computing Engine) platform is centered on the GV Media Universe, offering a seamless integration of modular devices as distributed edge processing units within a larger system. This setup allows for a hybrid approach, combining modular hardware, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computing and software to create a highly flexible and agile solution tailored to a media company’s needs, it said. 

With the ability to control and configure the system from anywhere, ACE enables versatile design and management of dense media processing It can also operate as a standalone gateway and processing device offering comprehensive APIs and third-party control options for easy integration with existing systems, Grass Valley said.

The new XIP-3911-GRID firmware addresses a critical pain point in SaaS applications running on COTS servers. Grass Valley’s innovations with AMPP Grid in the last year have allowed users to go beyond processing capabilities of a single COTS server appliance, the company said.

Traditional COTS servers continue to be limited by their PCI expansion slots, often restricting SDI inputs/outputs to 12 or fewer signals. The XIP-3911-GRID solves this by providing an SDI gateway interface directly to AMPP GRID leveraging FPGA modular hardware, enabling a single 1RU server to handle up to 128 AMPP GRID signals, it said.

This innovation increases the I/O density of on-premises edge compute workflows with minimal footprint, it said.

“With the ACE-3901 and XIP-3911-GRID, we’re delivering solutions that not only address current challenges but also future-proof our customers’ investments,” said Lee Buchanan, vice president of networking at Grass Valley.

“As the market continues its transition from SDI to IP, there remains a significant volume of SDI equipment in use that cannot be immediately replaced. The ACE-3901 offers a cost-effective solution for integrating existing infrastructure with IP technology, while the XIP-3911-GRID enhances the flexibility and scalability of edge compute workflows in hybrid environments.”

See Grass Valley at IBC 2024 Stand 9.A01.

More information is available on the company’s website.

AMSTERDAM—Grass Valley has introduced its new LDX 110 and LDX C110 entry level cameras at IBC 2024.

Building on the success of the LDX 90 series, the LDX 110 and compact LDX C110 version are native UHD cameras boasting cutting-edge features at entry level budgets. The cameras are suitable for a wide range of applications, including sports, studio and entertainment productions, the company said.

The LDX 110 series cameras offer a native UHD 2/3-inch CMOS-Imager equipped with Global Shutter technology to ensure flawless image capture in every operational mode. Both models support native HDR and WCG (Wide Color Gamut) operation (PQ, HLG, S-Log3), with onboard custom LUT processing within the camera head for precise HDR-to-SDR conversion, it said.

The LDX C110 comes with XCU connectivity, a feature only previously found on higher-end models. The LDX 110 series also includes NFC licensing functionality and the Grass Valley Scanner App, providing enhanced options management and diagnostics even while the camera is not powered, it said.

“The LDX 110 and C110 deliver an unparalleled blend of quality, reliability and cost-efficiency, allowing productions to achieve stunning HD/SDR results now, with a seamless upgrade path to native UHD/HDR when the time comes,” said Paul de Bresser, Grass Valley cameras product manager. “These cameras truly offer the best price-performance value on the market, and we’re looking forward to showcasing them for the first time at IBC 2024.”

The versatile LDX 110 series supports video formats from 1080i and 1080p up to native UHD. Both models are compatible with the current XCU UXF camera base stations and all C2IP-based camera control solutions, including Creative Grading and Creative Grading X. The LDX 110 is also compatible with the camera viewfinders and other accessories from the LDX 100 series, ensuring flawless integration with existing workflows, it said.

See Grass Valley at IBC 2024 Stand 9.A01.

More information is available on the company’s website.

MONTREAL—Grass Valley and broadcast equipment supply and service company ES Broadcast have inked a strategic partnership agreement that continues and expands a decade-plus relationship to position the companies for further growth and success.

“Our partnership with Grass Valley is built on trust, innovation, and a shared vision for the future of Media Production and Entertainment This agreement reinforces our commitment to delivering the highest quality products and services to our customers around the world, and we're excited about the opportunities it will bring as we continue to expand our business," said ES Broadcast owner and CEO Ed Saunders.

The agreement entails a multi-million-dollar annual spend by ES Broadcast across Grass Valley's product portfolio, including live production infrastructure, cameras and switchers. ES Broadcast, recognized as the first AMPP-certified partner globally, will also emphasize the expansion of the AMPP platform as a key component of its strategic focus, Grass Valley said.

"This partnership is not just about maintaining our relationship with Grass Valley; it's about expanding it. We're growing our geographical reach and deepening our strategic interactions to unlock new opportunities,” said Greg de Bressac, managing director at ES Broadcast.  “Grass Valley products continue to be a crucial part of our inventory, especially with the adoption of the LDX100 series, which we believe will play a significant role in our future. We're also committed to driving the adoption of AMPP-based products, which we see as vital to the future of our industry."

With a presence in the U.K., Europe and the United States, ES Broadcast is known for its sales and systems integration as well as its expansive hire business. The company rents Grass Valley camera systems to major sporting, news, and entertainment events across the globe, Grass Valley said.

ES Broadcast is an Authorized Service Provider (ASP) for Grass Valley in the U.K., Ireland, Spain and via its Crosspoint Spain division. This ensures its customers receive certified, knowledgeable and experienced support services.

“We are thrilled to enter this next chapter with ES Broadcast. Their commitment to Grass Valley products and their expertise in the media and entertainment industry – across a range of hardware- and software-based applications – make them an ideal partner to drive our joint vision of growth and innovation,” said Tim Banks, Grass Valley chief revenue officer.

More information is available on the Grass Valley  and ES Broadcast websites. 

BOSTON and MONTREAL—Grass Valey will offer Wasabi Technologies’ cloud storage within its AMPP media production platform and will show it within its AMPP ecosystem at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

GV AMPP delivers agile, software-defined workflows to enable media users to choose best-of-breed solutions on a single common platform. Pairing AMPP with Wasabi’s cloud storage, which does not charge for egress, enables AMPP users to move assets freely in and out of Wasabi storage without incurring unpredictable costs, Wasabi said.

Integration of Wasabi storage now supports AMPP applications for active archiving, live playout and editing workflows, it said. 

“AMPP has revolutionized the broadcast industry by delivering the most flexible, scalable, and efficient platform for media production and distribution,” said Whit Jackson, vice president of media and entertainment at Wasabi. “The addition of Wasabi hot cloud storage to the AMPP platform further delivers on the goals of driving down operational costs, enabling AMPP users to easily scale storage up and down as needed, and allowing media companies to deliver more content to more channels.” 

See Grass Valley at IBC Stand 9.A01.

More information is available on the Wasabi Technologies and Grass Valley websites.  

MONTREAL—In the run-up to IBC 2024, Grass Valley has announced that it continues to strengthen its position in the market with record-breaking growth and strategic partnership that are solidifying its position as a leading provider of technology solutions for media production. 

“Grass Valley’s recent achievements showcase how our cutting-edge solutions are empowering the future of media production through a hybrid ecosystem of software and hardware,” says Louis Hernandez, executive chairman and CEO, Grass Valley. “AMPP has become a cornerstone for major global events, including Tier 1 deployments at NVP Italy, the Global Leadership Summit, and the G20 Summit in India. These high-profile projects illustrate how the GV Media Universe enables customers to reduce operational costs while increasing revenue through innovative media production approaches.”  

Grass Valley also highlighted how strategic partnerships with key players such as Diversified, ES Broadcast, and Arabsat have helped fuel its growth. These enterprise agreements have expanded service offerings, delivering superior value to both partners and end customers. Notable projects, including collaborations with DMC, Eurosport, France TV, NVP, RTVE, NBC Sports and Warner Bros Discovery for the "Summer of Sports", demonstrate Grass Valley's global impact and its ability to support high-profile, complex media productions.

The company also reported that since 2021, Grass Valley’s AMPP has revolutionized media production by delivering agile, software-defined workflows for OB vans, cloud, and on-premises environments, offering customers ultimate control and flexibility. Grass Valley's robust financial performance reflects its commitment to innovation and adaptability in the evolving media landscape. The company's latest advancements in cameras, switchers, network infrastructure, and across AMPP, have driven substantial growth across its Live Production solutions portfolio. This success is fueled by market-leading product innovation along with new revenue models that resonate with Grass Valley also reported that AMPP continues to demonstrate impressive growth, with usage now exceeding 6 million hours per month; doubling since IBC 2023. This rapid adoption underscores the industry's shift towards flexible, scalable, and efficient software-defined workflows. Framelight X and Playout X – deployed during the G20 Summit and DMC Rally X projects – have been primary drivers of this momentum, creating significant cost efficiencies for our customers. 

Grass Valley is also leading the way in sustainable media production. The DMC Rally X and ATP projects showcase the company's dedication to minimizing resource usage and reducing travel and shipping through innovative edge compute models. These initiatives not only lower environmental impact but also optimize bandwidth usage for all video, audio, and control signals required for production. 

“Grass Valley's record-breaking growth and strategic advancements are a testament to our unwavering commitment to innovation, sustainability, and customer empowerment,” says Jon Wilson, president and COO, Grass Valley. “As we continue to lead the media technology industry, our hybrid solutions are shaping the future of media production, providing our customers with the agility and tools they need to thrive in an ever-evolving landscape. We look forward to sharing our success story with our partners and the industry on our stand at IBC 2024.” 

Grass Valley is showcasing its market-leading solutions at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16 at the Amsterdam RAI exhibition and conference center. Visit stand 9.A01 to meet with the team and discover how Grass Valley is shaping the future of media production.   

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has announced the appointment of Alex Keighley as the new senior vice president of sales for North America. In this role, Alex will play a key part in driving growth and strengthening relationships with customers across the region, the company said. 

Keighley has held leadership roles at Avid and Telestream, most recently serving as chief revenue officer of Backlight. He also led Grass Valley’s U.S. West Sales team for five years prior to these roles, and now returns to lead the North America team as the industry enters another phase of unprecedented change.

“We’re thrilled to have Alex back at Grass Valley,” said Tim Banks, chief revenue officer at Grass Valley, who welcomed Alex’s return. “His deep understanding of both our industry and our customers, coupled with his proven leadership, makes him the perfect fit to lead our North American sales efforts. We’re confident that under his guidance, we’ll continue to strengthen our position as the go-to partner for media organizations across the region.” 

With a wealth of experience spanning both the media and technology sectors, Keighley brings a unique blend of industry knowledge and sales leadership to Grass Valley, the company reported. 

"While media companies are navigating a challenging period with rapidly evolving technology and business models, it's also a time of tremendous opportunity,” Keighley said. “They need trusted partners who can guide them through these transitions while ensuring they continue to deliver outstanding content. My mission is clear: to demonstrate that Grass Valley offers world-class technology, is the #1 trusted advisor for our customers, and that we are the technical and business partner they can rely on.”

A key focus in the new role, will be on building a market-leading organization. “One of the most important responsibilities of a sales leader—or any leader—is to enable their team and everyone around them to deliver their best results,” he said. “My priority will be to ensure we have the best people in the right roles, equipped with the tools and resources they need to deliver for our customers and achieve the company’s goals.” 

Earlier in his career, he also led sales teams for major media organizations, including Reuters during the dot-com era and the Associated Press' EMEA commercial organization during the initial wave of multimedia transformation. This experience deepened his interest in the technology behind news gathering, leading him to join Bitcentral, where he supported numerous local station groups in the U.S.

Missed any of our recent product news? Here is TV Tech's weekly wrap-up of new products, services and deployments we published in our newsletter between July 29 to August 2. The stories are listed from the newest on Friday August 2, day by day back to our stories from Monday July 29

JVC Begins Shipping New KM-IP12S8 Series vMix 4K Video Switchers

The latest JVC Solutions are designed for multi-camera productions of live sports and events.

Vivo Taps Harmonic to Power Caliente TV Sports Channel

Harmonic's VOS360 Media SaaS-based Solution is being used to simplify media processing, playout and primary distribution for a new sports channel in Mexico.

EVS Acquires MOG Technologies

The deal will expand its market reach and further support the extension of EVS’ MediaCeption workflows.

Ateliere Launches Its New `Connect AI’ Offering

At IBC 2024 Atelier will be showing what it is billing as the industry’s first end-to-end GenAI media supply chain solution.

VITAC To Demo Latest AI Captioning, Translation Advancements at IBC 2024

The company’s AI-powered Captivate captioning solution lowers the cost of captioning.

Sony Ships M2L-X Live Production Switcher

The switcher leverages hybrid procession and operations for on-premises and cloud production.

Comcast, Comscore Expand Cross-Platform Measurement Efforts

Enhanced partnership will allow Comscore clients to tap into Comcast Advertising’s Signal Authentication solution to increase fidelity of measurement and attribution.

Rohde & Schwarz To Showcase Latest Updates To Gallium, StreamMaster, PRISMON At IBC Show

Its Gallium and StreamMaster playout environment now runs on the latest Windows and Linus releases.

Dolby Acquires THEO Technologies

The deal will help Dolby expand its solutions for live sports and entertainment that enable viewers to interact with content while watching on different screens.

Atomos Unveils Shinobi II HDR Monitor

The new high-brightness HDR monitor is designed for vloggers, creatives and photographers.

iSpot Launches Cross-Platform Measurement Offering for TikTok

The solution enables brands to verify the audience overlap and incremental reach TikTok delivers against linear TV.

CommScope Launches STARLINE ESD 1.8 GHz Amplifiers

The ESD amplifiers offer substantial upgrades for DOCSIS 3.1 networks and an incremental path to DOCSIS 4.0.

Bahrain TV Launches Middle East’s First IP Playout System

State broadcaster tapped Grass Valley for the upgrade.

Critical Connection: Automotive ATSC 3.0

Experts discuss ATSC 3.0's role in automotive connectivity.

Comscore Introduces Comprehensive Cross-Platform YouTube Audience Measurement

Comscore measurement and video insights are now available for YouTube traffic on desktop, mobile and CTV.

Wohler Announces 3G-SDI To 12G-SDI Upgrade Path

The new module, OPT-RMOC-12G, makes it possible to migrate a 3G-SDI capable monitor to a 12G-SDI (4K) capable monitor.

Wooden Camera Introduces Accessory System for Canon EOS C400

The system integrates with a wide range of Wooden Camera, Canon and third-party accessories.

Avid Unveils Latest Version Of Media Composer

The release adds a new transcript tool, deeper Pro Tools compatibility and enhanced collaboration.

Vegas Creative Software Launches Vegas Pro 22

Improvements to the video engine enable new AI-assisted features, text-based editing and enhanced audio tools.

Dot Group Showcases AI-Driven Solutions for M&E at IBC 2024

Dot will sponsor the AI Tech Zone networking area, highlighting innovative data management solutions.

PMVG Launches NextGen TV Station in Cookeville, Tenn.

The Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), a business development consortium of 32 public stations, has launched NextGen broadcasting service on W35DZ-D, its low-power station in Cookeville, Tennessee.

ADMC Riyadh Deploys Ikegami HDK-99 HDR Camera Systems

Each system comprises an HDK-99 camera head, FA-97A fiber interface, BSX-100H base station, VFL-P700A viewfinder and OCP-300 operation control unit.

Leader Electronics of Europe to Feature New ZEN-W Series Advanced Analyzers at IBC Show

Test and measurement specialist Leader Electronics of Europe will make the European debut of its ZEN-W Series of advanced analyzers at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

V-Nova, Amlogic to Support MPEG-5 LCEVC on Amlogic SoCs

V-Nova and Amlogic have announced a partnership to support MPEG-5 LCEVC on Amlogic SoCs.

Pliant to Showcase New Compact Crewcom Radio Pack at IBC2024

Professional intercoms provider Pliant Technologies will highlight its new CRP-C12 Compact Radio Pack at IBC2024, Sept. 13-17 at the RAI Amsterdam.

Disney, NBC and NFL Among IBC2024 Innovation Awards Finalists

IBC has announced the finalists for this year’s IBC Innovation Awards, taking place on Sunday, Sept. 15 during IBC2024 in the RAI Amsterdam.

MONTREAL—Bahrain TV, the state broadcaster for the Kingdom of Bahrain, has launched the Middle East’s first broadcast IP playout system, enabled by Grass Valley, the company announced today.

Grass Valley worked closely with its Diamond Partner in the region, systems integration leader First Gulf Company (FGC), to redesign Bahrain TV’s new highly complex live IP video production environment. As part of the modernization project, Grass Valley and FGC converted Bahrain TV’s master control suite, making it the first broadcast facility in the region to implement an IP playout system.

A prime source for news and information across Bahrain, Bahrain TV also upgraded its main live news studio with best-in-class IP-capable Grass Valley systems. The UHD news studio now features the latest Kayenne K-Frame switcher, EDIUS X Pro nonlinear editing solution and Sirius 840 576x576 router with integrated mutliviewer capability.

“Grass Valley demonstrated an unwavering commitment to delivering a cutting-edge IP broadcast infrastructure tailored to our evolving needs. In particular, we expect that our modular, scalable Grass Valley IP-based playout system will yield measurable benefits in the years to come,” said Eng. Abdullah Albalooshi, Undersecretary of Technical Affairs at Bahrain TV. “We anticipate significant cost savings by reducing hardware costs associated with traditional broadcast setups. And with our newly streamlined workflow processes and operational efficiencies, we also expect productivity gains by minimizing manual interventions and enabling faster content delivery.”

The IP playout solution features Grass Valley’s IP-capable Masterpiece IP UHD master control system, UCP 3901 video gateways, and a 2 rack-unit MV-821 IP standalone multiviewer, setup for four outputs. The suite also incorporates GV Orbit, configured for the dynamic orchestration of Bahrain TV’s IP broadcast environment.

Other tangible benefits Bahrain TV expects to accrue include the ability to scale easily without the need to make high or large capital investments, Grass said. They also anticipate advertising revenue growth resulting from an improved viewer experience and greater audience engagement.

“We’re very pleased to have actively contributed to this ground-breaking achievement by implementing and commissioning the first IP-based playout system in the region,” says Hany Bartella, Reginal Sales Director at Grass Valley. “The adoption of IP-based live broadcasting by Bahrain TV represents a leap forward in efficiency, scalability and flexibility, while positioning the network as a technological leader in the region.”

DMC Productions has deployed a remote production workflow that processes all signals on site as opposed to transporting them for off-site processing based on Grass Valley AMPP for the 2024 Nordea Open tennis tournament, July 8-21, the company said today.

Using six Grass Valley LDX 98 cameras, LiveTouch X replay systems, Audiomix X audio mixer and Maverik X production switcher running on the AMPP platform, DMC Productions simplified operation. 

“Last year, we carried all the signals from the venue to Oslo for processing, which required significant bandwidth and logistical effort," said Johan Hedblom, managing director of DMC Sweden. "This year, by processing everything on-site using AMPP, we only need to carry a single world feed signal out from the venue. This not only reduces bandwidth requirements but also simplifies the overall setup."

The new workflow has reduced the need for on-site personnel and equipment. Only six crew members, including four camera operators, an assistant engineer and a broadcast coordinator were required at the venue, Grass Valley said.

Camera control and shading were managed remotely from Norway, while the director, sound engineer and replay operator worked from DMC's facilities in Stockholm. For the world feed, ATP-Media added international commentary and graphics via London, it said.

By reducing the number of personnel on site and minimizing the transportation of equipment, DMC significantly cut down on travel and accommodation expenses. The approach also reduced the environmental footprint of the production, aligning with broader industry goals for sustainability, the company said.

The implementation of the AMPP-based remote workflow was so successful that plans are in place for repeats at upcoming events, it said.

DMC Productions will use the method for CEV Eurobeach Volley in the Netherlands Aug. 13-18, where the AMPP solution will produce one court, the Swedish Championship in Padel, Oct. 5-13, and the PBA Bowling Tournament in Sweden, Sept.1.

"The difference this year is remarkable," said Hedblom. "The reduced need for high-bandwidth connectivity and the simplified logistics have not only made the production process much smoother, but also more cost-effective. This new approach is enabling DMC to have a new revenue stream by undertaking events like the Padel and the Bowling for the first time. We are eager to apply these learnings to other events and continue improving our workflows."

More information is available on the company’s website. 

MONTREAL—Grass Valley has signed a new, multimillion-dollar strategic partnership agreement with Diversified, a global technology solutions provider.

Grass Valley says it “will leverage Diversified's extensive integration and services expertise to enhance its offerings and deliver comprehensive solutions to broadcasters, content creators and media organizations.”

The partnership will enhance the integration of Grass Valley’s media technology to be seamlessly integrated with Diversified solutions and services, expanding both company’s global reach, foster joint innovation, and enhance customer support for both company’s customers. The two companies also said they plan to develop comprehensive training programs.

"This agreement with Diversified illustrates Grass Valley’s commitment to support client needs via our trusted integration and reseller partners, said Tim Banks, Chief Revenue Officer at Grass Valley. “By combining our industry-leading solutions with Diversified's integration expertise, we are poised to deliver unparalleled value and innovation to our clients."

Steve Stubelt, senior vice president of sales, media and entertainment at Diversified, added, "We are excited to partner with Grass Valley, a leader in live solutions technology. Together, we will broaden our reach and enhance our ability to deliver cutting-edge, integrated solutions that meet the complex needs of our clients in the media and entertainment industry."

The two companies have posted a video with more details:

Scandinavian remote video production company DMC Production leveraged Grass Valley’s AMPP for live coverage of the 2024 RallyX to live stream the motorsports races and championship via YouTube.

AMPP provided DMC with comprehensive, integrated and scalable live video production and processing services. The production company reimagined its live remote broadcast workflow for RallyX based on AMPP’s capabilities, the company said.

Considering the cost-efficiency, quality and sustainability demonstrated by AMPP for RallyX, DMC plans to use AMPP for various other remote high-profile sports and entertainment productions in the future, it said.

In previous years, DMC deployed two large Outside Broadcast (OB) mobile trucks to each site, equipped with utility, mobile control rooms and operators. In contrast, the compact AMPP live production server setup required only two small vans per site. This reduced the need for large OB vans, lowered operating costs, such as fuel and travel, reduced crew sizes, and decreased the carbon footprint, helping DMC and RallyX meet their environmental sustainability goals, it said.

AMPP also solved connectivity challenges. If DMC had simply sent a dozen cameras signals from the remote site for switching back at a DMC remote production hub, the company would have needed ample high-speed connectivity to backhaul the camera signals. That level of bandwidth cannot be guaranteed at RallyX racing venues. It was therefore advantageous that AMPP enabled a fully remote workflow controlled over 100 Mb/s public internet connection from the racetrack to DMC’s remote production center.

“AMPP is a game-changer that is dramatically transforming our live remote video production of RallyX and ultimately other media and entertainment events globally,” said Jens Envall, chief technology officer at DMC Production Sweden. 

“AMPP’s scalability and agility is remarkable. We can easily scale up the number of cameras, add production sites and stream program outputs to any of our remote production centers if needed. AMPP is saving us valuable time, reducing travel time and costs, and allowing us to use our resources, skilled operators and talent how and where it benefits us most.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

MT. OLIVE, N.J.—Vislink Technologies, Inc. has announced the release of its INCAM-GV RF and 5G wireless transmitters designed exclusively for Grass Valley's new LDX 135 RF and LDX 150 RF cameras. 

The INCAM-GV is a fully integrated HEVC 4K UHD, HDR-ready wireless system tailored to enhance the Grass Valley LDX 100 Series live production cameras. This latest wireless transmitter available in RF and 5G versions delivers full broadcast quality encoding at 4K UHD, 1080p, 1080i, and 720p, complete with camera control. The integration ensures the total flexibility that comes from wireless transmission and the delivery of high-quality, immersive viewing experiences to audiences, making it an essential tool for modern broadcasting, the companies reported. 

"The INCAM-GV represents a significant leap forward in our partnership with Grass Valley,” explained Michel Bais, chief product officer of Vislink. “This transmitter not only meets but exceeds the demands of modern live production, offering unprecedented wireless transmission robustness and image quality. Our goal is to empower broadcasters to deliver content in ways that were previously unimaginable."

Unveiled at NAB 2024, the Grass Valley LDX 135 RF and LDX 150 RF cameras provide the same cutting-edge camera technology as their non-RF counterparts, now with the added benefit of integrated wireless transmission capabilities. The INCAM-GV leverages this by utilizing HEVC video coding technology, allowing broadcast organizations to deliver high-quality images over less RF bandwidth or over longer ranges than was previously possible.

Klaus Weber, Director of Product Marketing at Grass Valley, added that the “incorporation of Vislink's INCAM-GV 5G and RF wireless transmitters for our LDX 135 RF and LDX 150 RF cameras offers our customers a seamless, cable-free experience without compromising on the exceptional picture quality Grass Valley is known for. This integration is a testament to our dedication to innovation in the media and entertainment industry."

Key features of the INCAM-GV include:

• Full Compatibility: Designed to fit perfectly with the mechanical and operational profile of the LDX 135 RF and LDX 150 RF.
• Licensable Frequency Bands: Provides flexibility for rapid, in-field changes to transmission settings.
• High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC): Ensures superior image quality with reduced bandwidth usage.

For more information, visit www.vislink.com. 

MONTREAL—Grass Valley is reporting that French National Public TV Broadcaster France Télévisions, rebranded as france tv, has selected its next-generation Kaleido KIP-X240 IP Multiviewer as part of an enterprise wide transition from SDI to SMPTE-2110 (ST-2110).  

The france tv group, which includes five national, 24 regional channels and 9 overseas channels, has taken immediate delivery of 12 KIP-X240’s as part of a three-year contract Grass Valley won in response to an RFP. 

With two of its channels—France 2 and France 3—already broadcasting in UHD, france tv anticipates acquiring more units over the course of the contract to eventually replace their SDI-based Grass Valley Kaleido-X and Kaleido-MX multiviewers in use company-wide. The new KIP-X240 IP Multiviewers will be configured with Mellanox 2110 cards that enable ST-2110 UHD and HD/3G video monitoring.  

“We are thrilled to support France Télévisions as they continue to enhance their broadcast capabilities, using the latest high-quality products and services from Grass Valley enabling them to deliver efficient productions that will benefit their media production workflows,” said Mark Gardner, vice president of sales for EMEA at Grass Valley. “The integration of our KIP-X240 multiviewers into their SMPTE-2110 workflow is pivotal for dynamic, real-time video monitoring and we are proud to be part of this visionary project.” 

“The French broadcast TV market is moving rapidly to ST-2110 for its exceptional quality and operational efficiency,” said Yannick Olivier, solution architect 2110 for france tv. “Our ST-2110 transition is intended to lay the groundwork for higher quality live UHD-HDR and 3GHD production, particularly for premiere sporting events, such as the major international competitions this summer. We know that the KIP-X240s will integrate seamlessly within our control rooms, while preserving the X-Edit functionality we’ve come to rely on with our SDI-based Kaleidos.” 

X-Edit enables operators to design the layout and configuration of multiple live video images on a single large display. As an open standards-based platform that is also NMOS-compliant, the KIP-X240 leads the industry in offering the highest number of simultaneous video and audio signals monitoring in a 1-RU frame. Its support for a wide range of I/O formats includes up to four simultaneous IP streaming outputs in a mix of compressed and uncompressed signals. The KIP-X240 also supports a wide range of video codecs and transport streams. 

“In making our choice, we factored in our trust in Grass Valley and the Kaleido reputation. We also appreciate the KIP-X240’s ease of integration and configuration within our existing workflow,” Olivier added. “We are delighted to work with Grass Valley on this project and to continue deploying the new generation of the Kaleido family.”