As David Ross , CEO of Ross Video , recently noted on LinkedIn , many of the major broadcast equipment manufacturers have experienced a change of CEO over the past 12 months , and that kind of upheaval inevitably changes the complexion of the industry .

Content creators and broadcasters understandably want some degree of consistency as they seek to invest in new products and platforms for the medium-term future , and it is hard not to feel some sympathy for these customers , as their choices are made harder and more complex as a result of industry consolidation .

In stark contrast to the companies experiencing flat or even negative growth in the marketplace , Ross has continued to buck trends by posting another record set of results — the company ’ s 26th consecutive year of growth .

The past 18 months have also seen Ross open new offices in Singa pore , Sydney ( Australia ), Reading ( the UK ) and global headcount has now overtaken 700 . This is obviously a very satisfying situation and is very much thanks to the efforts of the network of Ross partners around the world , and the confidence of customers who continue to invest in the Ross ecosystem of solutions .

Ross is one of the few private and family-owned companies left in the broadcast industry . That increasingly rare status does offer some clear advantages to customers insofar as Ross can commit to security of supply and security of product development and roadmaps in a way that may be harder for other companies .

Private ownership also allows Ross to place customer satisfaction at the heart of the business . To quote Andrew Tan , Ross ’ director of sales for APAC , a focus on customer service is incredibly important

to the Ross team . “ Some people might see it as old-fashioned , but we believe in creating the best quality products , working with the best channel partners and looking after customers the best we can . If we do these things well , success should naturally follow .

“ We are still a private company and that allows us to have more control over our own destiny . We can actively choose to be less profitable for a few months if we want to invest money elsewhere , provided that is going to be in our customers ’ best interests .

“ These are conscious decisions we can make without having to worry about external shareholders or stock market sentiment . I think customers appreciate that ethos and are showing a preference for suppliers that have a passion for the industry and the technology , rather than a myopic focus on the balance sheet ”.

The NAB Show is obviously an important highlight of the annual industry calendar and the show normally features a host of new product releases and announcements . Compared to previous years , 2018 NAB Show was perhaps a little light on new product news , with the largest vendors preferring to recommit themselves to IP and the accompanying standards .

From a Ross perspective , 2018 NAB Show was one of the busiest shows in the company ’ s history , with 10 new products or significant upgrades announced in the week leading up to the event .

In addition , David Ross took to the stage in front of 900 customers , partners and journalists at the annual NAB Show keynote and reception ( held on the Sunday evening before the show began ) and announced five new products for the event .

Perhaps , even more important than the number of new products

announced was the breadth of new offerings , with Ross debuting brand-new products across each of the major solutions areas , in both the SDI and IP domains .

This was a very deliberate strategy , according to Stuart Russell , Ross Video ’ s communications manager . “ Ross is committed to supporting customers who want to migrate to entirely IP-based workflows , and it is important that we have credible solutions for those customers who feel ready to take that step . That said , we understand that a great many content creators are not quite at that stage , but are still looking for cost-effective ways to improve efficiency , simplify operations and save both time and money .

“ Many of the products launched by Ross at the NAB Show were designed with those specific customers in mind , to give them ‘ stepping stone ’ upgrades that help address the creative , technical and business challenges they face , without requiring a wholesale change of production infrastructure .”

Tan picks up on this point , saying : “ Ross believes that hybrid production models — a mixture of IP and SDI — will remain a feature of this industry in APAC and elsewhere for some considerable time to come . One of the reasons why we have championed the concept of software-defined production is because we feel customers should be free to use the transport format that ’ s most appropriate for their project .

“ We don ’ t like the idea of prescriptively forcing customers down a specific technology alley if it ’ s not appropriate for them — it ’ s contrary to our values as a company .”

Ross unveiled key products

Ross announced several key products at 2018 NAB Show . They included :

Having posted a 26th consecutive year of growth , the past 18 months have seen Ross Video opening new offices in Singapore , Sydney ( Australia ), Reading ( UK ). The company is a firm believer that its customers should not be forced down a specific technology alley if it is not appropriate for them , and is demonstrating this ethos through products such as the Furio robotic system , the Ultrix routing platform , as well as the Carbonite and Acuity production switchers .

n Ultrix IP — a new version of the latest Ultrix-FR5 routing / AV processing platform that adds IP I / O to the already impressive feature set of this disruptive , ‘ Swiss Army knife ’ infrastructure solution . n Furio S2 — a more costeffective two-stage robotics lift for smaller studios or growing productions . n Overdrive + Graphite — a product bundle that sees the world ’ s most popular production automation solution married with Graphite , Ross ’ integrated , all-inone production vehicle . n Acuity V8 and Carbonite V13 — updated versions of the flagship and hugely popular midsized production switcher models n OGX — a brand-new openGear frame designed to meet the needs of 4K / Ultra HD ( UHD ) and IP with 30 % more chassis power and better cooling , as well as the innovative new user-programmable frame glow feature . n Carbonite Mosaic Multi- Screen Image Processor — an innovative compositing tool built on the Carbonite Black Plus engine that can output a canvas size of over 20 million pixels . Carbonite Mosaic provides the high resolution and layering capability needed to create epic large-screen imagery in

any entertainment or sports venue . n Tria News — a new fourchannel newsroom playout server that supports software-based codec playback with no transcode required for the most commonly used news codecs . n Streamline . cloud — the first MOS-enabled , cloud-based media asset management ( MAM ) system . With all the capabilities of Streamline Enterprise , Streamline . cloud lets users index and catalogue vast collections of graphics , video and other assets in the cloud .

With the NAB Show complete for another year , the focus at Ross now turns to BroadcastAsia2018 . “ We ’ re looking forward to bringing some of the new products from NAB to Singapore for Broadcast- Asia ”, notes Tan . “ We have grown our business and also our team in APAC over the past year ; that ’ s been very pleasing and underlines our commitment to the APAC region . We ’ re now the dominant provider of certain solutions in the region , robotics most notably , and want to use the forthcoming show in Singapore to highlight the performance power of the Ross ecosystem ”.

This article is presented by Ross Video .