Grass Valley Completes Three-Year Business Transformation Plan

CIO Review

In tandem with its expansion initiatives, Grass Valley has appointed three key executives to its leadership team, closing the final phase of its three-year transformation plan.

Grass Valley, a provider of live production solutions, together with the growth-focused private equity firm Black Dragon Capital, owners of Grass Valley, has completed a successful three-year business transformation and has transitioned to growth mode.

This transformation journey has witnessed the streamlining of Grass Valley’s organisational structure, emphasising enhanced client service and continued investments in integrated hardware solutions. Significant investments have also been channelled into the cloud-native AMPP ecosystem and connected GV Alliance solutions, consolidating the Grass Valley Media Universe (GVMU) suite’s reputation as the industry’s most open and integrated ecosystem.

Commenting on the development, Louis Hernandez Jr, Chairman and CEO of Grass Valley, said: “I’m very proud of the incredible transformation that the Grass Valley family has navigated. We set out a bold ambition to reimagine the future workflow for media and to accomplish this we’d have to work closely with our clients, who themselves are transforming to win in the next phase. We’ve simplified our organisational structure, with leadership changes and key new hires, optimised our global facilities, and focused our product portfolio to align with the changing media landscape. With the supply chain issues subsiding, we are seeing a considerable reduction in our backlog. I’m excited for our team and our industry that we are in a position to surge when our clients need us most.”

Since the launch of AMPP, Grass Valley has further refined its hardware portfolio, with upcoming innovations closely linked to the AMPP ecosystem. The company has developed nearly 100 native applications and certified approximately 80 Alliance partners within AMPP’s open and integrated ecosystem. This platform offers clients an open multi-vendor platform for live production and playout workflows as cloud-native solutions. Grass Valley has also expanded the AMPP deployment models to encompass on-premises, cloud-hosted, or hybrid configurations, all while retaining the advantages of a cloud-native architecture. These developments have led to the issuance of eight significant patents in the first half of 2023 alone.

Throughout 2023, major Grass Valley customers have benefited from the cost-efficiency of hybrid (ground/cloud) architectures offered by AMPP. Notable clients include CBS Sports Golazo Network, Sky, Telstra Broadcast Services, and Canal+.

Grass Valley’s performance over the past year, driven by the culmination of the business transformation and the rapid market growth of AMPP, has resulted in a significant increase in earnings. The company has more than doubled its earnings in the last year, allowing for accelerated investments across the portfolio. AMPP itself has experienced over 200% year-over-year growth since 2020, surpassing 100% of its 2022 targets. The average application usage in AMPP now exceeds 3m hours per month globally.

Adam Marshall, CPO, Grass Valley, added: “With AMPP, we’ve ushered in a new era of cloud-native, open, and integrated solutions for media production, giving our clients the freedom to craft their workflows as they envision, whether it’s on-premises, in the cloud, or a seamless blend of both. Combine this with Grass Valley’s industry-leading innovations in cameras, routing, processing, and switchers, it underscores our steadfast commitment to propelling advancements in media technology.”

In tandem with expansion initiatives, Grass Valley has appointed three key executives to its leadership team, marking the final phase of its three-year transformation plan. Jon Wilson will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) on October 1, 2023. Ian Fletcher has been appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) immediately, and Adam Marshall is now the Chief Product Officer (CPO).

Wilson former President and COO at Telestream previously served as CFO for just under three years. Wilson brings leadership skills and a proven track record of driving strategy and results, team development and continuous improvement throughout organisations. He is recognised for his ability to quickly comprehend and position new business models.

With immediate effect, Fletcher has been appointed CTO following his tenure as Senior Vice President VP of Enterprise Product Strategy. Prior to this, he held the position of Chief Application Designer within the Advanced Technology Group, playing a pivotal role in the inception and continuous enhancement and development of AMPP.

Marshall has been appointed as CPO, following his previous role as VP of Marketing for Grass Valley. Marshall has quickly risen through the ranks of Grass Valley, previously holding the position of Pre-Sales Director and prior to that, Senior Global Pre-Sales Manager for AMPP & Playout. In his new role, Marshall will continue to have overall marketing responsibility for Grass Valley.

Grass Valley is on track to meet its goal of hiring more than 400 new employees by the end of 2023, with positions distributed across key global centres of excellence in Krakow, Poland; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Montreal, Canada.

As part of its customer-centric initiatives, Grass Valley has launched an industry leadership council named GV, comprising more than 35 influential leaders in the media technology industry, providing insights into industry issues, market trends, and technology needs.

Grass Valley will showcase its solutions at IBC 2023, Amsterdam, from September 15-18, 2023, demonstrating the advantages of the GV Media Universe in decentralising operations to align with project requirements, eliminating the traditional choice between on-premises and cloud solutions.

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