By Timothy Shoulders II, CEO & President at Grass Valley

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I’ve written before about our intentions to lead the industry into the next evolution of media technology. Over recent months, in many ways, that future has become more certain.

Will we move media technology workflows into the cloud? Undoubtedly, yes.

Will we leverage the enormous speed, efficiency and exponential growth in storage and processing power of technology used in the world of IT? Absolutely. In fact, we’ve been doing it in so many ways for several years now.

Will Grass Valley have to change how we operate in significant ways in order to fulfill this promise of innovation and leadership? Again, yes.

Last month, we issued a press release that announced our intention to move ahead with a bold plan to reduce our global real estate footprint, to consolidate our manufacturing operations for better efficiency and to develop regional Centers of Excellence to take advantage of centralized talent pools and the economies they offer. My team and I believe strongly that these changes give us the best chance of success in taking our customers where they need to go – helping them improve their efficiency, flexibility and speed.

This plan is not without risk, but in our current media tech environment standing still is a greater threat. Great progress can only be made rapidly by taking on some risk. Growth and prosperity is the reward for embracing technological change.

“Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.”
- Ray Bradbury

This week, we’ll officially list our facility on Crown Point Drive in Grass Valley, California, for sale. During the 1990s and 2000s, our facilities in Grass Valley and nearby Nevada City housed hundreds of people working on a campus with enormous manufacturing facilities. In more recent years, as our headquarters moved to Montreal and it made sense to consolidate manufacturing there, the remaining facility in Grass Valley has housed fewer than 80 people in a single office building.

For many, this is a moment in the history of our company filled with sadness. For more than 60 years, this small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas has been home to many of our company’s great technologists and the birthplace of many innovations. It has spawned more than a handful of other successful contributors to the growth of our great industry – companies like Telestream, AJA, Ensemble Designs, NVision. And, of course, it is the namesake for our powerful and beloved brand. Our intention is to maintain an R&D center in the Grass Valley area, as we have some extraordinary talent working on our production switcher products that have been born and raised here. The legacy built in these hills will not soon be forgotten.

We are thankful for the foundation created for our company by industry pioneers in Grass Valley, California and the global footprint they have helped us build. Progress, though, is created by those who are bold enough to make the hard decisions – the right decisions at the right times. For our customers who count on us, day after day, to innovate and help them navigate an evolving technology landscape, I believe this is the right time.

Thank you, Grass Valley, California, for decades of thrilling achievement. We’ll continue shining a bright light on your name as we lead the industry into a cloud-centric future. Here’s to the next 60 years!