Grass Valley: We’re In It For The Long Haul

Grass Valley announced new deals at its NAB pre-show conference, but just as much, it seems the company wanted to announce that it was here to stay.

New President-CEO Alain Andreoli, on the job for just three months, said new owner Francisco Partners, an equity firm that acquired Grass Valley last year, is there to grow it, not decimate it. As if to prove it, the company is bringing lots of new product to market and it’s made several executive changes.

Jeff Rosica, EVP and chief sales and marketing officer, said: “There was a lot of uncertainty about our business.” But he said Grass Valley’s various lines retained a good reputation.

Martin Fry explained improvements to the TrinixNXT router, introduced in 2001 but improved so adroitly that users can plug in upgrades. Ditto with Grass Valley’s Concerto line. “Customers told us they needed the improvements to protect their initial investment,” Fry said.

Its major push, however, is with its new Stratus media flow application suite, which helps users deal with the hassles of multiplatform content delivery as broadcasters need to come to grips with the format differences between various delivery platforms. Stratus allows program producers at any level in the production chain to streamline workflows and make specific tasks easy to perform by any member of a company’s staff. Clients can alter their Stratus platform and add functionality without the need for expensive hardware boxes or expensive system upgrades.

Rosica said after the presentation that Grass Valley has become especially mindful of the need to make products that can be easily tweaked by customers as technology changed. “Our people call it their ‘four shoes’ approach. Instead of just being concerned about the next shoe to drop, we worry about the next one and the next one and the next one.”