Earlier this month, Vizrt announced the end of its NewTek brand, as it brings both its broadcast and Pro AV businesses under one name.
The new entity sees the two unified as they look to grow their research and development, product and customer service teams.
Vizrt acquired NewTek in 2019, initially bringing the engineering teams together, but keeping the brands separate. The reason for that, Vizrt CEO Michael Hallén tells TVBEurope, was because both had a loyal customer base.
“We also wanted to build up a really robust joint customer success organisation and that takes a bit of time,” he adds. “Today we have a global 24/7 customer success organisation. We have invested heavily in training, certification and all those kinds of things, and now we feel that we are ready to open up one single point of contact for everybody, regardless of what part of the portfolio they are in.”
Hallén cites the on-going convergence of broadcast and Pro AV workflows as another reason for bringing both business units under one brand.
“If you look at the market today, the really large media houses are looking at pop-up productions, and they want a combination of technology like TriCaster and other types of graphics. And vice versa, Pro AV has become much more interested in video production and they want some of the Vizrt portfolio. So it doesn’t make sense to run them as separate brands any longer.
“The capability of traditional Pro AV products is amazing today,” he continues, “They are able to give a broadcast-grade experience. On the flip side, if you look at the really big broadcasters, if they’re doing tier two, tier three productions, they don’t want to invest the time and money to do a full broadcast-grade Rolls Royce installation, they want a quick pop up.”
Hallén states that Vizrt wants to make its portfolio a “one-stop-shop” that can cater to both its more advanced Pro AV clients, such as universities or a corporation, as well as big broadcasters.
“It’s all about video,” he adds. “It’s about communicating through video and catering to the needs of creators of video. It doesn’t matter if they are at the high end or low end, they are all asking for the same thing; good workflows, and super-efficient production with fewer resources.”
To help meet that demand, Vizrt is launching a new entry-level TriCaster at IBC. Hallén says the company listened to the market, which told it there was a demand for such a product.
“Last year we acquired Flowics which does HTML5 graphics,” he adds. “So you get an interesting combination here because you can do an entry-level TriCaster with HTMLl5 graphics. If customers want to expand all the way up to what the BBC and CNN are running they can. The point is we can cater to the small content producer and up. That is the rationale behind the one brand.”
