LAS VEGAS – Building on its 2012 acquisition of robotic camera company FX-Motion, Iroquois, Ont.’s Ross Video today announced the acquisition of Cambotics, a robotic camera systems company based in Escondido, California.
Founded in 2005, Cambotics makes studio camera automation technology, designing and manufacturing automated heads and pedestals. The Cambotics products will become the CamBot Series within Ross Robotics, which was just established this year, and already offers the Furio Robo and Furio RC systems.
The CamBot Series are robust, durable and precise studio workhorses, distinguished by their ability to accept industry leading payloads, up to 200 pounds on the 700 Series pedestals.
Plus, the whole robotics division adds to Ross Video’s go-to cachet as the place for broadcasters to automate their systems and studios (both CTV and Global use Ross extensively). The Robotics family already works with the company’s existing products, including its OverDrive Automated Production Control System, Vision Production Switchers and XPression Graphics. “Having a full array of production offerings uniquely positions Ross to provide customers a more complete solution and the opportunity to advance the state of the art in live production technology,” reads its press release.
“We are excited to welcome Cambotics founders Bob Scotto and Miles Spellman to Ross Video. These gentlemen are true pioneers in studio camera robotics and their current products represent decades of industry knowledge,” said David Ross, CEO Ross Video, in the press release. “This acquisition, coupled with the acquisition of FX-Motion earlier this year, now establishes Ross as a world leader in studio camera robotics systems.”
What wasn’t in that release was how much Ross Video, which has become quite the do-everything company for broadcasters, has been growing of late. Despite a lousy economy, CEO Ross said during the company’s press conference this morning at NAB that sales grew 47% in 2011 and are now tracking at a 59% growth rate in 2012.
Ross outlined its new MC1 master control and BlackStorm solid state drive among other things, but perhaps the neatest addition to its lineup is automated social media management tool, Inception
The CEO noted that most broadcasters entrust the IT guy or a PR person to update broadcaster Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, which can be a nightmare to properly manage and control. Inception provides a professional suite of options to create, schedule and manage media content in newsrooms and promotions departments by publishing social media and video content on-demand, when scheduled or driven by live broadcasts, allowing organizations to much better connect with their audience.
Inception builds on live or newsroom rundowns to create and publish content to popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook, YouTube and Brightcove. The system’s plug-in architecture allows users to select when and where stories are published online.
Noting that one client he dealt with had one of its employees pre-write tweets on upcoming new stories and wait with his finger on a mouse to send it off a minute before it aired, Ross added: "Inception ends the wild west of social media management that exists today.”
– Greg O’Brien
