To address this, root6 restructured early in the year bringing increased technical expertise and workflow design capabilities to complement front-line sales. “Customers don’t necessarily say they need product X or Y; they often come with operational objectives which we need to address before defining the most appropriate solution.” said Harris. This pro-active approach, assisted by the Systems Integration and Technical Support teams (the company employs twice as many support engineers as sales personnel) resulted in a number of significant sales to both new and existing customers in 2011.

Fifty Apple FC systems will go to the BBC for Salford Quays. A virtual studio was installed at The Emirates stadium together with a new editing SAN for Arsenal Broadband. Avid-based Cut+Run became the first UK commercials house to upgrade to HD at a stroke, and the Avid video production facilities at Save The Children were also substantially enhanced. Manchester-based Sumners were one of a number of post houses that expanded networking capabilities with Avid ISIS. DVS, a leading manufacturer of high performance hardware and software for broadcast, film and post enjoyed a particularly successful year, with installations including Deluxe, and the University of Salford. A DVS SAN and SpycerBoxwere used for the on-set editing of Martin Scorsese’s 3D film ‘Hugo’.

ContentAgent, the file-based management and transcoding tool from the company’s product development arm, ROOT6 Technology saw new software iterations introduced in 2011. The product is now fully integrated with a number of leading third party applications. At Zodiak Rights in London the system is used to automate the QC process with Tektronix Cerify and for automated DVD publishing using Rimageduplication. ContentAgent has also enjoyed success overseas with its adoption as the transcoding platform of choice for DreamWorks in Los Angeles.

The programme of seminars, workshops and trainingcontinued apace with one of the highlights being a demonstration of real-time 3D correction using DVS’ STAN software – a solution of much interest to broadcasters in view of the upcoming Olympic Games.

‘Platform1’, a two day event held post-NAB to introduce new and emerging technologies was a sell-out with ‘File-Based Workflow’ proving a popular and relevant theme. Attendees found the Q&A sessions with manufacturers especially useful.

Early in 2011, root6 introduced this very blog, essentially a mechanism for information and opinion sharing. The blog now accounts for 30% of website traffic. “Technical expertise and in-depth product knowledge has been the cornerstone on which we have grown the business,” concludes Harris. “We look forward to the coming year with optimism and to partnering with customers, incorporating the leading technologies best suited to their commercial objectives.”

We actively welcome comments and if there any any questions you’d like us to answer or topics you’d like use to cover please do let us know.

Mark
mark@root6.com