SVG Sit-Down: GV President Tim Shoulders Says the Move to the Cloud Will Transform Creativity A physical move consolidates the company's manufacturing ops in Montreal By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, February 26, 2021 - 1:23 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Grass Valley President Tim Shoulders stepped into his new role in 2018, and, in the three years since, the company has undergone a tremendous transformation. Last July, it made the transition from public company to a private company after Black Dragon Capital acquired it from Belden. At just about the same time, the company made a move to cloud-first production tools via GV AMPP.
And now it is taking another transformative step: selling its original Grass Valley, CA, facility and moving the team there into leased office space.
All those moves are designed to help the company better serve customers, drive efficiencies, and chart a course for the future. Shoulders discussed those issues and more with SVG Co-Executive Director Ken Kerschbaumer.
Grass Valley's Tim Shoulders: We have had to make some bold changes to adapt to selling more virtualized solutions and accessing the power of elastic compute with cloud platforms.
This week, you announced a $5 million deal with Gravity Media. Can you give a little more context to that deal and what it means?
Sure. We have been evolving in a lot of different ways, but one of those ways is our commercial approach. We have a broad portfolio of products, and we can leverage that in a lot of ways to put together good commercial models for customers that help them get more technology with less investment.
And also, we're now privately held and less focused on the current quarter vs. the long-term transformation of the business. We have been working with customers to develop what we call enterprise agreements or long-term technology partnerships that give us some confidence in the volumes we're going to sell into those customers. And it gives the customer access to our technology, economic benefits, of course, and certainly service and support benefits.
[The deal with Gravity Media] is the first agreement we've announced. But there are certainly more to come.
In the past year, more and more productions have moved toward virtualized systems, and that means it is less about selling gear and calling back after it is amortized. Will that change the nature of your relationships with customers?
Yes, and it's the technologies that are the enabler, and the pressure is economics. Pre-COVID, the live-sports space has been one of the least impacted by economic pressures as the rights fees are high and the revenue is high. So the technology spend in that area has been one of the least scrutinized compared to, say, our customers that participate in news and entertainment.
One of the things I wanted to discuss was the decision to put the Grass Valley facility in Grass Valley on the market. Can you explain that?
We have had to make some bold changes as a company to be able to adapt to selling more virtualized solutions and, in particular, accessing the power of elastic compute with cloud platforms. Our business operational model needs to shift, and one [approach] was to consolidate manufacturing into our Montreal facility.
The trend for hardware products has been on the decline while the trend for software projects has been on the increase for the last few years. We reached an inflection point between those two and are consolidating our production in our state-of-the-art Montreal manufacturing facility.
That was one of the elements. The other element was just a rationalization of real estate around the world. Over time, we have combined several different independent companies, and we've collected our share of lease agreements and real estate.
Grass Valley's production switcher R&D and support will remain in Grass Valley, CA, but will move to leased space.
If you were designing Grass Valley from the bottom up, you wouldn't design it with the same real estate footprint that we have today. Our ethos is to keep employees that need to be in front of the customer as close to the customer as possible, and that includes not just commercial employees but also service and support employees that need to be at the customer to do integration or otherwise service an account.
We are making an effort to consolidate all the other functions into fewer facilities, so part of that rationalization of real estate is our Grass Valley, CA, facility, where we have had about 80 people the last several years. The major changes in that location have occurred in the past, but we've announced we're going to shrink our workforce in Grass Valley substantially and move out of the building we're in. What will be left in Grass Valley is basically research and development and support for the switchers line, so we will put the building on the market and then lease a small space for the switcher personnel to work.
Are people relocating to Montreal?
We will have jobs relocate, and we're putting hardware jobs into Montreal so that they can be closer to where the hardware is manufactured. The synergy of having those folks in the manufacturing facilities is pretty powerful.
We're consolidating our workforce into centers of excellence. We've got a location in each region, and we're going to be focusing our efforts around expanding those locations. Montreal is one of them for North America. In Europe, we're going to build out a new location in Poland, and we're expanding our facility in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
We will also use this opportunity to hire folks who are able to fit into our cloud ambitions in these new locations and capitalize on the growth we've seen in our cloud platform.
Our objective is to have the same number
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...
01/07/2026
DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...
01/07/2026
Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...
01/07/2026
Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...
01/07/2026
Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...
01/07/2026
ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...
01/07/2026
Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...
01/07/2026
The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...
01/07/2026
The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...
01/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition
Brie Clayton July 1, 2026
0 Comments
Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...
01/07/2026
LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...
01/07/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...
01/07/2026
Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Expe...
01/07/2026
Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersiv...
01/07/2026
Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinit...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
SVG Sit-Down: GV President Tim Shoulders Says the Move to the Cloud Will Transform Creativity A physical move consolidates the company's manufacturing ops in Montreal By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
