Guillaume Lefevre, MD of GV France, ME and Eurasia clarifies queries related to Thomson and Grass Valley. What does the Thomson Grass Valley split entail? Who has what now? As part of the process of the Grass Valley divestiture, Technicolor separated its transmission and headend product lines from the broadcast and professional studio […]
Guillaume Lefevre, MD of GV France, ME and Eurasia clarifies queries related to Thomson and Grass Valley.
What does the Thomson Grass Valley split entail? Who has what now?
As part of the process of the Grass Valley divestiture, Technicolor separated its transmission and headend product lines from the broadcast and professional studio products.
Grass Valley now comprises the broadcast and professional business, which will operate as Grass Valley going forward. This includes camera, content repurposing, editing, master control, modular, news production, production automation, routing, servers, storage, and switching product lines including their entire product portfolios, the R&D centres and factories around the world, the sales and systems activities and customer support organisation worldwide, as well as the management and administrative support functions dedicated to the business.
The Thomson piece is now broken into two business units that are now operating as stand-alone entities under the names Thomson Broadcast and Thomson Video Networks.
Thomson Broadcast is the former transmitter business. It provides advanced services, technologies, and product families for terrestrial television and radio transmission and scientific applications, including a comprehensive range of antennas, transmitters, and Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) radio systems. Thomson Broadcast offers a range of digital solid-state and tube-based transmitters for DTV, and mobile TV transmission.
Thomson Video Networks offers a portfolio of video compression and content processing solutions for the digital headend, in addition to professional services for network operators and broadcasters. Thomson Video Networks develops hybrid and multi-format compression systems for DTH, terrestrial and mobile TV, IPTV, as well as Web TV networksall based around the ViBE product family of encoders, decoders, and multiplexers. The company also provides solutions for the migration to IP-based video transport, breakthrough video server technologies, and redundancy and monitoring systems.
Has there been any restructuring within the company as a result?
In early 2010, we strengthened our product line management and reorganised the senior management team to a flatter organisation that has provided better visibility to issues in the field. Those changes have streamlined implementation of the many activities now underway as we separate our organisation from Technicolor.
Where does Technicolor fit within the grand scheme of things?
Before the sale, Technicolor was the parent company of Grass Valley. Now operating separately from Grass Valley, Technicolor will continue to offer its full range of production, postproduction, and distribution services to content creators, network service providers and broadcasters. Technicolor remains the worlds largest film processor; the largest independent manufacturer and distributor of DVDs (including Blu-ray Disc); and, a global supplier of set-top boxes and gateways. It also provides high-end VFX, animation, and post production services.
What are some of the challenges you see moving forward?
Grass Valley has to remain competitive and focus on solutions customers want to use. Customers are increasingly moving to file-based workflowswe did that first in playout, then in newsand now you see this reflected in our live production solutions. Were also focused on delivering products at wider range of price points to allow our customers to have a Grass Valley experience for a very modest investmentin some cases, breaking down traditional price barriers. This is especially true of the K2 Dyno Replay Controller and K2 Solo Media Server.
Has Grass Valley already bagged some projects in this region?
There have been several new orders in the Middle East. The Hejen Racing project, the largest and most popular camel-racing complex in Qatar, has upgraded its digital production control room with a full complement of video server technology from Grass Valley. The order includes a high-definition Grass Valley K2 Dyno Replay System, a K2 Summit MPEG-2 Field Upgrade Kit and a K2 AppCenterPro server control software application.
New Grass Valley equipment was installed last summer by Salam Media Cast in Doha to support an in-house digital signage system and other video displays. The main broadcast facilities of the Al Majd Satellite Channel in Dubai City, and Qatar Radio and Television in Doha, continue to upgrade their Grass Valley systems on an ongoing basis.
I hear you will be exhibiting at CABSAT independently this year? Can you outline your plans?
The Middle East is a key priority for Grass Valley. This will translate into increased activity in boosting awareness of our technology and a renewed focus on customer satisfaction. In this market, being considered by our customers as a long term, reliable partner is as important as making sure our solutions address todayand tomorrows business needs. As we enter the market as different companies, we see CABSAT as the ideal venue to showcase our latest solutions in the field of broadcast production as well as delivering a clear message to the marketplace: Grass Valley is in the Middle East to stay and we mean business!
Who is the internal point of contact moving forward?
As we moved from an integrated entity into three separate companies, we took particular care in implementing a plan to ensure a smooth transition. In case a customer has any doubt, the historical account manager, regardless of which company theyve joined, will always direct you to the relevant person to make sure your interests are taken care of. Otherwise, customers can contact me directly through BroadcastPro ME.
