Magic Media Company Goes Fully HD with Grass Valley

The HD studio at MMC’s Cologne headquarters will be based around a Grass Valley Kayenne™ XL production switcher (the second Kayenne XL which is already installed). Three new Grass Valley LDK 8000 Elite HD cameras with Canon lenses are being supplied for the studio, which can be supplemented from the existing pool of Grass Valley HD cameras which MMC already maintains.

A studio HD upgrade project in 2010 included an eight channel Grass Valley K2 Summit SAN to eliminate VTRs from the production process. Shortly thereafter, MMC added ChannelFlex™ to one of the two original K2 Summit SAN clients to increase its channel count. To support the new studio, the SAN is now being extended with an additional K2 Summit client with ChannelFlex to allow the K2 SAN to serve both studios with 18 available channels. A new Grass Valley 256x256 Trinix™ router now complements the 256x256 Trinix installed in 2010 and completes the new order.

“We have looked on Grass Valley as a key partner for many years now,” said Martin Späth, Head of Services & Development at MMC. “We have a huge installed base of cameras, switchers, and routers. They continue to deliver the quality and performance our customers demand, so we continue to turn to Grass Valley for state of the art technology.”

“It is great to see long-term relationships continue, like the one we have with MMC,” said Jeff Rosica, Executive Vice President of Grass Valley. “We are acutely aware, though, that we have to win every single order on merit, so we listen to our customers, and continue to make significant investments in product development to ensure that we have the right products when they need them.”

As well as the Grass Valley equipment, the order also includes on-site commissioning of the extension to the K2 media server. On air date for the current studio HD upgrade is in the second quarter of 2011.

About Grass Valley

With a rich history serving the broadcast and professional video industries, the Grass Valley name is synonymous with innovation, leadership, and performance. With a full range of products and services supporting many of the world's most high-profile television events, Grass Valley offers the most comprehensive portfolio of flexible and cost-effective digital technologies and systems available. Customers deploying Grass Valley solutions include most of the world's leading broadcast and teleproduction facilities, independent video professionals, as well as emerging content creators and distributors providing broadband, telecommunications, and transmission services. When you’re watching news, sports, or entertainment programming, whether on a TV, the Web, or a mobile phone, you’re watching Grass Valley at work.