Valentin: Sports driving HD, mobile apps

Helping sports content providers produce and distribute content to multiple distribution streams is front and center in Grass Valley’s 2006 plans.

We had HD gear in more than 10 production units and more than 100 Grass Valley cameras at the Olympics, says Marc Valentin, president of Grass Valley. In addition, the local telephone operator used our technology to bring images to mobile phones. So we were there at both ends of the spectrum.
Jean-Michel Lagarde, CEO of Thales Broadcast & Multimedia, says that Thales will be at the center of the mobile TV explosion in the U.S., working with both Qualcomm s MediaFLO and Modeo systems and helping them each roll out their services.
The Thales integration into Grass Valley is just one of the reasons Valentin says the company is marching towards the number one slot in the market.

These moves are helping content creators deploy multi-format, multi-distribution business models, he says. Mobile video is one of the most exciting expansion demands, and if you look at the competitive landscape Grass Valley has a very wide offer from creation to distribution, he says.