Odetics' AIRO Re-Surfaces

Former engineers with Odetics have bought the intellectual property of Odetics' AIRO broadcast automation system and will develop and continue to support the platform.

The company, Digital Transaction Group, includes the engineering team that developed AIRO. Odetics discontinued its broadcast business earlier this year. Specific terms of the sale were not disclosed.

J. Merritt Belisle, head of the The Black Creek Group in Austin and new CEO for DTG, led the effort to purchase AIRO. "We are going to make sure AIRO customers have the best team of people to back up their critical on-air automation system," Belisle said.

The new company has taken over the Austin, Texas facility, including offices, a software development lab and AIRO customer service and support.

Now in version 9 AIRO's software runs on Windows 2000 and supports integration to traffic, scheduling or program management systems for easy importing, appending or merging or schedules for playlist creation. AIRO tracks material whether on videotape, video server, or data tape archive.