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Now Grass Valley’s in the news
Saw this report tonight: “Switcher Assembly Will Be Outsourced to Another U.S. Company”
https://www.studiodaily.com/2012/07/grass-valley-to-transition-pro-switcher-facility/
As one who has worked in broadcast television for over 20 years, I’m not shocked, but I am saddened.
Hey, does anyone remember the switcher line that Pinnacle/Avid brought to market? That didn’t last long.
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10 Replies
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I spend many years on GVG 300 and 200 switchers (although there was CDL and Abekas in there as well).
GVG has been on the slide for some time but they manage to hang on. I wonder what other US Company will do the manufacturing in a way that saves them money. I’d guess the assembly contract is less than dealing with their own labor and plant costs. It might mean they’re selling off some real estate (their own assembly) to raise capital. I’d love to see the full backstory about this decision. Obvious though is that they’re working out a way to survive in the switcher business by cutting costs.
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Oh stop your whining.
GVG switchers will still be great. But the manufacturing is being OUTSOURCED – meaning that China (cheap labor) will put them together. This is typical of countless products that you see on Creative Cow. This does not mean that GVG will still not be wonderful switchers.With that said, there are countless great switchers today from Ross, Sony, Broadcast Pix, Panasonic – and YES – the company that punishes all the other companies – BLACKMAGIC DESIGN – who took a teriffic US made switcher (EchoLab) and makes the same damn thing in Singapore for a fraction of the price. And GVG wants to get in on that action – how do you do that – CHEAP manufacturing labor.
GVG has all the great companies, including AJA, Ensemble Design, Sierra (now owned by the Israeli Kramer Electronics), HEDCO (gone), Graham Patten (gone), Adrienne Electronics, and so many others. The only thing to suffer is the American laborers that put these products together. GVG is still GVG – but they can’t afford to have the labor to produce these switchers, and be competitive with the Blackmagic’s of the world.
If you look at 100% of the drive manufacturers (JMR might be the exception) – all of them – everyone you see advertise here on Creative Cow – from G-Tech, Active Storage, Cal Digit, Sonnet, Dulce, Maxx Digital, Small – Tree, etc, etc. ALL get their drive boxes from “outsourced” companies. Does this affect what WE do for a living – NO. So will this affect GVG’s customers – NO. Will this affect the American economy – of course. But you do know, that it’s all over for the grandchildren of everyone reading this thread right now. I will be dead, so who cares.
GVG is still a great company, and will STILL make great switchers, so who cares.
Bob Zelin
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https://www.behringer.com/EN/Our-Story/BEHRINGER-City.aspx
here is a wonderful article, about how world renound Klark Tecnik and Midas (audio consoles) has moved manufacturing to Behringer City in China. Still world class audio gear, but now made by cheap slave labor.
GVG will still be a world class product.
Bob Zelin
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The article mentions nothing about *where* the products will be manufactured, but it does say, “Final Assembly and Testing Will Be Outsourced to Another U.S. Company”.
Talking about past brands; how about Vital, ISI-Intergroup, American Data, Central Dynamics, Beaveronics, Sarkes Tarzian or Crosspoint-Latch? Pretty much the only company from that era still around is GVG.
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And what about AMPEX?
I still have an Ampex Century 230 sitting in one of my back racks.
This was an amazing switcher that interfaced directly with their own digital effects units (ADO).Do you think ‘outsourcing’ would have saved them?
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(slaps forehead)
How could I forget Ampex? The station I’m at in Fort Myers, FL had a 3 M/E AVC Century from the early 1990’s until 2007, when we replaced it with a Snell Kahuna.Ampex entered the switcher market when they bought Duca-Richardson in Colorado. The old ABC affiliate in this market had a Ampex 4100.
The “soap bubble” demo was a fun one to show off on the AVC. What an innovation to allow the modulators to control things other than just a pattern edge. It also had a great chromakeyer that rivalled a Ultimatte, called the SpectraKey.
In its later years, our Ampex AVC was dying a slow death. Some parts of the board just didn’t work any more. To its credit, it never kept a newscast from going on the air.
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[Craig Seeman] “although there was CDL and Abekas in there as well”
The Abekas A-83 connected to a Axial 2020 with an A-57, was the BOMB!
don walker
texarkana, texasJohn 3:16
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[Don Walker] “The Abekas A-83 connected to a Axial 2020 with an A-57, was the BOMB!”
I think I was using it with a Sony 5000 series with an A-84 with the A-57. The 84 had a bunch of bugs in it which Abekas promised to fix by burning replacement chips . . . which I don’t think ever happened.
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I had a small room with a GVG K-Scope, GVG 1000, GVG VPE-251, Leitch Still Store, Quanta Delta 1. All of this was interconnected 601, built in 1994 in a small market station. The original plan was for three DigiBetas, but we instead got three used BVW-75 decks. Thankfully they were connected via component.
Still was able to make great pictures, just didn’t have pre-read.
Miss the K-Scope to this day.
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