Harris Broadcast will now be Imagine Communications and GatesAir

Harris Broadcast reorganizes its structure becoming two new companies focused on IP technologies, software-defined networking, cloud services and multi-display.

Harris Broadcast, a holding company of The Gores Group, presented this Monday at Madison Square Garden in New York what will now be its new corporate identity under the Imagine Communications and GatesAir brands. This change comes after Harris' purchase of Imagine was completed in mid-January.

Imagine Communications will be headquartered in Dallas, with development centers in Denver, Toronto, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Beijing.

The company, with five decades dedicated to media software and network innovation, has a base of 3,000 customers spanning 185 countries, with more than 3 million products deployed supporting more than half of the world's video channels, along with an extensive patent portfolio.

For its part, GatesAir will be based in Cincinnati (Ohio) and will focus on the manufacturing of transmission systems, an area in which Harris has almost half a century of experience until now.

Charlie Vogt, CEO of Imagine Communications and GatesAir, highlighted that "with vibrant new identities and focus, Imagine Communications and GatesAir are well positioned to serve our industry and customers. Our vision, direction and product strategy align across both brands with today's transformation trends, the networks of the future and our customers and partners. We have created two companies that are already innovating in different areas of the technology spectrum. Imagine Communications will bring the media and entertainment markets a future defined by the IP, software, the cloud, and television everywhere, with an architectural vision for the delivery and monetization of multi-screen content. Likewise, GatesAir will continue to lead the next generation of over-the-air systems for radio and television, with a focus on providing wireless innovations that reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint.

Regarding the future focus of both companies, Vogt has assured that "many average companies have been burdened in recent years with expensive legacy infrastructures that limit their options for expansion and flexibility to transition to new models. Our customers, channels and business partners around the world are enthusiastically adopting our new paradigm of service-oriented software-based architectures that use off-the-shelf technology and virtualization of network functions."

In line with this vision, new solutions will appear such as MediaCentral, an integrated, end-to-end platform capable of managing advertising sales, traffic, scheduling, automation and broadcasting that virtualizes key capabilities in the cloud, which until now were only accessible on separate platforms. Steve Reynolds, chief technology officer at Imagine Communications, said: “A reflection of our company's unique ability to combine the best capabilities of our end-to-end portfolio is to offer an underlying architecture of modular IP-based services that will fully support the integration of media and playout functions, simplifying operations and providing the speed of advanced services for operators.”

Imagine Communications is also introducing Software Defined Workflows (SDW), a capability enabled by the company's MultiService SDN architecture. Media companies currently operate in a hybrid environment over baseband and IP. SDW dramatically improves the way video is managed across broadcast facilities by allowing the workflow to be software-defined, offering all media on an IP layer and separation of media components from control.

Additionally, Imagine will continue to develop TV Everywhere offerings by leveraging the power of MediaCentral and Multiservice SDN, further reducing the infrastructure needed to enable the multiple formats of the evolving multi-screen world from the largest ultra-high definition screens to small smartphones and wearable devices.

Reynolds defends that its technology will allow "our clients to begin the migration towards defined software, IP environments, virtual networks, both intraplant and interplant, without the need to increase their current networks and make significant new investments. Imagine Communications starts from a unique position to offer this transformation due to the breadth of our technology, solutions and intellectual property."

GatesAir

Building on the benefits of digital modulation technology, GatesAir will offer cost-effective, low-power solutions, focusing for the first time on re-architecting networks for the future.

Rich Redmond, chief product officer at GatesAir, said: "We gain the best of both worlds by leveraging our expert teams, technology and customer base, while focusing on business autonomy to better serve the radio and television broadcast market. Today, we are better positioned than ever to offer the best over-the-air solutions by taking advantage of the latest advances and changes that will occur over the next decade in content delivery and distribution. With the reallocating radio spectrum around the world, our customers are very focused on staying at the forefront of technology, GatesAir is now there to help them in their mission.”

GatesAir will also release additional details on its portfolio and roadmap in the coming weeks. To see GatesAir's suite of solutions first-hand, visit GatesAir booth N609.