MPEG-4 makers marry
MONTREAL: H.264 encoding specialist HaiVision Systems and Video Furnace, a maker of IPTV delivery technology, have become one. The companies first engaged in a joint venture last September, sharing technical development and marketing, and integrating systems. Video Furnace, a privately held company in Lake Forest, Ill., established in 2002, claims around 3 million users of its enterprise IP video systems. Customers include several colleges, financial institutions, government entities and others such as ESPN, BP, Hearst and the National Hockey League.
HaiVision is also privately held. Established in 2002, it’s led by Miroslav Wicha, previously of Discreet Logic, Autodesk, HP, Silicon Graphics and others. Joseph Gaucher, now chief technologist for HaiVision, is founder of Video Furnace and formerly the vice president of technology for Viacom’s new media department. HaiVision makes a network video recorder that takes up to 10 simultaneous streams of HD content. The Share-HD device can record in HD, SD or computer video streams
Vitec consolidates microwave businesses
LONDON: The Vitec Group is combining its various microwave service providers under the RF Extreme brand. Those companies—Nucomm of Hackettstown, N.J.; RF Central of Carlisle, Pa.; and Microwave Service Co. of Haverhill, Mass.; are now RF Extreme LLC.
Vitec, based in London suburb, owns a slew of broadcast industry brands, including Anton/Bauer, Autoscript, Clear-Com, Litepanels, OConnor, Pegrol Bags, Sachtler, Vinten and more. The company reported revenues of $314 million for the first six months of 2008, up 26 percent from the same period the year before. The broadcast division benefited from the Olympics, posting revenues of $162 million and an operating profit of $16.5 million.
Swe-Dish launches mobile satellite terminal
STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s satellite communications facilitator, Swe-Dish, has a new mobile platform, the Satcom on-the-move terminal, ready for delivery. The platform combines Swe-Dish terminal technology and navigation from Saab. It’s suitable for land and sea access to “almost any commercial Ku-band satellite,” the company said, for data rates up to 10 Mbps. It’s been in development since 2006.
Grass Serves Fox Facility
NEVADA CITY,CALIF.: Fox has placed a multi-million dollar contract with Grass Valley for an HD K2 Media Server installation as part of an ongoing upgrade to its file-based network distribution infrastructure. This installation is the latest among several that Fox has based on Grass Valley, the vendor said.
Grass pointed out that CBS started using the K2s last September on several of its entertainment news programs. There, the K2s are used with hybrid Editware Fastracks and Avid editing, storage and workflow systems.
Avid rolls out news workflow system
TEWKSBURY,MASS.: Avid is taking a fresh approach to XDCAM and HD workflows with a new end-to-end system. The HD News system combines the AirSpeed Multi Stream production server, v. 7.5 of NewsCutter software, the Avid Interplay production asset management system and the Avid Unity shared storage system.
