Thomson Grass Valley has announced a raft of new products and improvements in existing lines ahead of April's NAB event in Las Vegas, writes Sam Espensen.

Thomson Grass Valley has announced a raft of new products and improvements in existing lines ahead of April's NAB event in Las Vegas, writes Sam Espensen.

Speaking to Broadcastin New York last week, company president Marc Valentine felt that since the merger of the two companies last year, key commitments to customers are "not missing a beat on cost implications, while providing new revenue".

He said that stringent budgets in the TV industry mean that products must be more affordable and stressed that the focus was definitely on HD for the future because "worldwide events mean that HD is becoming the most acceptable format".

For the film imaging and post-production sectors, senior product marketing manager Steve Russell stated that a constant drive by content creators to reduce production costs, coupled with a demand for higher quality programming, meant that facilities have to improve workflow.

He added that the biggest challenge facing facilities is the need to evolve towards digital production while coping with the proliferation of TV standards, resolutions and formats. The introduction of the Specter FS virtual datacine and the 4K version of GVG's Spirit scanner are two of the products available.

Also shipping are new routers and switchers, as well as improvements in servers, storage and digital news production.