Harris Broadcast Splits Into Two New Companies

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HARRIS BROADCAST has split itself in two under new owner THE GORES GROUP, becoming two separate companies, DALLAS-based software and networking firm IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS and broadcast equipment operation GATESAIR, based in CINCINNATI with its manufacturing plant in QUINCY, IL.

CEO CHARLIE VOGT said, “With vibrant new identities and focus, IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS and GATESAIR are well-positioned to serve our industry and customers.  Our vision, product direction and strategy further align IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS and GATESAIR with today’s transformational trends, the networks of the future and our customers and partners. We have created two laser-focused companies that are innovating across different ends of the technology spectrum.IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS will lead the media and entertainment markets to a future defined by IP, software, the cloud, and TV Everywhere, with an architecture vision for delivering and monetizing multiscreen content. Likewise, GATESAIR will continue to lead the next-generation TV and Radio over-the-air market, with a focus on providing wireless innovations that reduce power consumption and carbon footprint, while leveraging the growth in digital radio and TV transmission across the globe.”

“Our industry is moving rapidly to a place where media companies no longer want to deploy and manage proprietary technology,” added VOGT, “They have been burdened over the years by costly, legacy infrastructure that limits their expansion options and flexibility to transition to new models. Our customers, channels and business partners around the world are enthusiastically embracing our new paradigm of service-oriented, software-based architectures that utilize commercial off-the-shelf technology and the virtualization of network functions.”

IMAGINE CTO STEVE REYNOLDS unveiled his new company's new software platform, MediaCentral, and new video management service Software Defined Workflows, saying, “IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS MediaCentral is the industry’s first integrated, end-to-end ad sales, traffic, scheduling, automation and playout platform that virtualizes key capabilities in the cloud, which were previously provided only in distinct, separate, and often premises-based platforms.  A reflection of our company’s unique ability to combine the best capabilities of our end-to-end portfolio, it creates an underlying architecture of modular, IP-based services that can fully support the integration of media and playout functions, such as live log integration, simplifying operations and providing advanced service velocity for operators.”

“The central theme behind our technology vision unveiled today is to enable our customers to begin migrating towards software defined, IP-based, virtualized networks for both intraplant and interplant, without having to forklift their current networks and make significant new investments,” added REYNOLDS. “IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS is uniquely positioned to deliver this transformation because of the breadth of our technology, solutions and intellectual property.”

GATESAIR Chief Product Officer RICH REDMOND said, “We are thrilled to bring back the positive market heritage associated with the name GATES.  “We gain the best of both worlds by empowering our expert teams, technology and customer base, while also gaining exclusive focus and entrepreneurial autonomy to best serve the over-the-air radio and TV market. Today, we are better positioned than ever in our history to build best-of-breed, over-the-air solutions that take advantage of the latest breakthroughs and changes that will occur over the next decade in content delivery and distribution across the globe. With spectrum reallocation on the horizon in the US and similar dynamic changes around the world, our customers are highly focused on staying ahead of the technology curve, and we are ideally suited to support their new requirements and cutting-edge deployments.”

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