Cobalt Digital Turns 25! April 20, 2022
Manufacturer celebrates one-quarter century serving Broadcast and Pro AV industries
Champaign, IL - April 20, 2022 - Cobalt Digital is turning 25! The designer and manufacturer of award-winning edge and processing devices for live video production and master control, and a founding partner in the openGear initiative, has been serving a broad section of industries, ranging from Pro AV applications to Broadcast networks since being established in 1997 by founder Gene Zimmerman.
Explained Zimmerman, In 1997, George Hoover of NEP asked if I could design and fabricate a modest number of SDI to analog converter boxes. I gladly complied and developed what would become our first product, the 4010 (named for a tractor that I drove in my youth on my family's farm). The modest quantity manufactured for that model grew into requests for thousands of units and led to an extended range of conversion products. And Cobalt Digital was born. I even took home a Pick Hit award from NAB 1998 for that original model, followed by many other awards over the past 25 years.
Originally housed in a small facility in Urbana, Illinois, the Company soon outgrew its location and in 2001 the engineering department relocated to First Street in Champaign, close to University of Illinois - an excellent source for recruiting engineering talent.
The next milestone in Cobalt history came in 2006, when Cobalt Digital, along with Ward-Beck and Ross Video founded openGear , a breakthrough development that allowed processing cards from various manufacturers to be housed in one common frame. What began as a ten-card chassis quickly grew to a twenty-card frame with numerous other manufacturers joining the openGear partnership. Today the openGear initiative is well known throughout the industry as an open architecture, modular frame system and is embraced throughout the world. As openGear gained in popularity, Cobalt's success grew by the year and by 2012 the Company's moved into a larger facility on Galen Drive in Champaign, IL.
Further fueling Cobalt's growth was the 2016 acquisition of ImmediaTV, a successful designer and manufacturer of high-performance MPEG-4 AVC video compression, digital video transport, and digital video processing equipment with a balanced blend of broadcast and internet features. In 2021 Cobalt grew again with the acquisition of Ward-Beck's line of openGear analog DAs, converters and associated IP.
Cobalt Digital has been the recipient of over 35 awards and accolades for engineering innovation over the years including an EMMY in 2019 for pioneering a reliable transmission method for live contribution and distribution TV links.
Today the company that began with one request and one product manufactures terminal equipment and systems with a platform that includes close to 100 openGear cards and numerous other products. Cobalt's products feature 24/7 service and support, most come with a five-year warranty, and are all manufactured in the USA. Cobalt gear can be found worldwide in production trucks, terrestrial and satellite facilities, broadcast and cable networks - including sports broadcasters, government agencies as well as houses of worship and corporate settings.
Cobalt is an active participant in many industry forums and associations, and supports the development of open standards and industry specifications by sponsoring employee participation in these activities. Cobalt is a founding member of the RIST Forum which is currently led by Suzana Brady, Cobalt's SVP of Sales and Marketing as chairman, and Dr. Ciro Noronha, Cobalt's EVP of Engineering as the Forum's President. RIST promotes the adoption of open protocols for Internet contribution. Cobalt engineers have made significant industry contributions in areas related to Internet streaming, uncompressed video over IP, and HDR.
Zimmerman attributes Cobalt's long-term success to always listening to the needs of its customers, asking questions and ensuring its products keep its customers competitive in a rapidly evolving technology-rich landscape. The vast majority of our solutions are initially developed in response to a specific need, said Zimmerman, but invariably grow into product families as new formats emerge and with them, changes in consumer consumption. Our brilliant engineers are all dedicated to keeping our customers ahead of the curve, our sales force ensures our customers are matched with the most appropriate solutions, the quality and efficiency of our support staff is matchless, and I'm proud of every member of our management team - a group of professional individuals that ensure the Company is well-represented and headed in the right direction.
Still headquartered in Champaign, IL, Cobalt now has a channel network spanning the globe with offices and representatives throughout the Americas, in the UK, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. The company now comprises a management team of industry veterans including Chris Shaw, Cobalt's COO, who noted, We'll have a full staff at NAB 2022 in Booth N3713, including Suzana Brady, SVP worldwide sales and marketing; Dr. Ciro Noronha, EVP of engineering; Ryan Wallenberg, VP engineering; and Monte Variakojis, VP of software. Please stop by and say hello so we can share our success with the friends, colleagues and customers that made it all possible.
Journalists: Please click to visit Cobalt at NAB.
About Cobalt Digital
Cobalt Digital Inc. designs and manufactures award-winning IP and 12G/6G/3G/HD/SD conversion, throwdown, and multiviewer technology for the production and broadcast television environment. As a founding member in the openGear initiative, Cobalt offers a full range of openGear compliant solutions as well as video and audio processing products for closed caption co
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
29/04/2024
(L-R) Mark Gatiss and Polly Walker on set
Monday 29 April 2024 Further casting is now confirmed for Bookish (6x70), a brand-new drama created by Emmy Award-wi...
29/04/2024
A groundbreaking initiative offering training and mentoring to 30 women journali...
29/04/2024
Even though we've been doing this for over 40 years, a spark of excitement r...
29/04/2024
L3Harris is delivering manpack radios to U.S. Army CH-47 Chinooks as part of the Air-to-Ground Networking Radio program, providing seamless, resilient communica...
29/04/2024
He writes in Defense One: Despite the near-universal acknowledgement throughout the U.S. government and defense industrial base of the criticality of resilient ...
29/04/2024
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/04/2024
Codemill aims to revolutionize media workflow efficiency at this years NAB Show by introducing Just-In-Time (JIT) playback technology in Accurate.Video Validate...
29/04/2024
April 29, 2024
-- TF1 Chooses Broadpeak to Power Targeted Advertising for New...
29/04/2024
LOS ANGELES Allen Media Group (AMG) has partnered with LG Electronics to bring 223 Local Now FAST channels to LG's free streaming service, LG Channels, avai...
29/04/2024
OTTAWA Ross Video has announced the introduction of Raiden, a data-driven weather graphics software that combines data gathering, processing, and visualization ...
29/04/2024
Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision's end-to-end service offerings for...
29/04/2024
Cobalt Iron Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced that it has received a patent on its technology for dynamic autho...
29/04/2024
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that Rally Access Workstation, a fully managed solution for editing in...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, a premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality remote commenta...
29/04/2024
Glookast has chosen Jigsaw24 Media as the only UK channel partner to represent their portfolio of ingest and workflow optimisation products. The agreement, sign...
29/04/2024
Clear-Com played a pivotal role in the seamless coverage of the recent solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Leveraging its cutting-edge Eclipse HX Digital Matrix i...
29/04/2024
PlayBox Neo will promote its complete range of television channel management, graphic branding and playout solutions to EMEA region media content owners and bro...
29/04/2024
Lingo, RuPaul's word-twisting game show, returns for season two on CBS Friday, May 24. Two episodes air that night, and stream on Paramount Plus, too....
29/04/2024
ESPN and Amazon Prime Video are reportedly close to scoring television rights to the National Basketball Association, according to published reports....
29/04/2024
Judge Judy and Hot Bench, CBS Media Ventures' genre-leading court shows, have been renewed through the 2025-26 TV season in more than 95% of the country, Gr...
29/04/2024
Premier Sports, an Irish-based premium sports broadcaster, has selected QuickLink's Remote Commentary solution for introducing professional, high-quality re...
29/04/2024
The awards celebrate the craft of behind-the-scenes TV talent and the best programmes of 2023
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 29, 2024
The awards cel...
29/04/2024
The team at Milk had to create and deliver the VFX and environment work for the royal residences featured in the drama from scratch
By Jenny Priestley
Publis...
29/04/2024
CEO Bob Bakish is expected to leave the company as early as today, with a new leadership committee likely to run the company on an interim basis
By Jenny Pries...
29/04/2024
Albena Ivanova, director, media and entertainment and strategic products at CHAOS talks to TVBEurope about her route into the industry
By TVBEurope Staff
Pub...
29/04/2024
The acquisition gives Grand Technix the opportunity to expand its footprint in the audio visual and broadcast technology sectors
By Jenny Priestley
Published...
29/04/2024
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
First Light
Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
29/04/2024
Capitol Broadcasting recently became the inaugural company honored with inductio...
29/04/2024
April 29th, 2024 UNINTERRUPTED AND TRIBECA ENTERPRISES PARTNER FOR SECOND-ANNUA...
29/04/2024
Rebrand and refresh: SailGP talks bringing its graphics operations inhouse for a...
29/04/2024
Reflecting on a Storied Career: Sean McManus Looks Back While Keeping an Eye on ...
29/04/2024
Drones Take Flight Inside MSG: How Sky Candy Studios is Upping the Excitement fo...
29/04/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Announces a Diverse Lineup of Polish Titles to Debut i...
29/04/2024
Tonight on Smoke and Mirrors: Fanyana feels embarrassed about his sexual mishapDon't miss Monday, 29 April's riveting episode of South African soapie Sm...
29/04/2024
Talk about commitment. When startup SEA.AI, an NVIDIA Metropolis partner, set out to create a system that would use AI to scan the seas to enhance maritime safe...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
27/04/2024
On April 26, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik joined CNBC's Mor...
27/04/2024
PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...
27/04/2024
TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...
27/04/2024
An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...
27/04/2024
GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....
27/04/2024
Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....
27/04/2024
ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....
27/04/2024
Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this surve...
27/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
27/04/2024
Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....
Cobalt Digital Turns 25! April 20, 2022
