‘Engineering first’ is practically a mantra in Grass Valley, CA. The area has been a hotbed of technology innovation for the broadcast media production industry since the 1950s. It’s where US Robotics invented the first 28K and 56K modems, and where a company called Cyan built some of the earliest video games for Atari. It’s home to many of the leading companies that power the broadcast, live event and AV media industry.
Embedded in that legacy is AJA Video Systems, which has been consistently ‘building ahead’ -- developing powerful, engineering-driven products to bridge connectivity, protocols and technologies while delivering the highest quality video and audio in any production environment, for three decades. As it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, AJA is still dedicated to those same guiding principles, and continues to build on the legacy of engineering prowess home-grown in Grass Valley.
Downtown Grass Valley
Early days
Company founder John Abt started AJA with his wife Darlene in 1993 to develop simple, digital parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel converters. An engineer by trade, Abt did all of the mechanical and electrical design of those first two products, and in the earliest days, also built them himself.
Prior to founding AJA, Abt worked at Grass Valley Group (GVG) just as the digital revolution in broadcast was taking off. He grew up in Grass Valley and holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from California State University Sacramento. His early career was spent working for the Sacramento CBS affiliate, KXTV, for eight years in master control, where he met his wife Darlene, also a broadcast engineer at KXTV. When AJA was founded, their son and company namesake, Abe J. Abt, was in grade school. Today he is on the company’s product sales team.
Consistent innovation
Although founded in 1993, the National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) in 1994 marked the official public launch of AJA as a company, and the launch of its first two products, which generated a lot of excitement. The company’s first rack frame cards came out in 1997, and its first PCI card in 1998. At NAB 2002, the company introduced the first card in its KONA product line, PCI cards for HD and SD real time video, which were the first I/O cards to natively support Apple’s OS X.
The next turning point for AJA came in 2003 when a collaboration with Apple led to the debut of the Io; the first device to support uncompressed video I/O over FireWire. Several successful collaborations with Apple followed including the Io HD, the first product to natively support ProRes in hardware, offering desktop power in a mobile video I/O device. The company continues to deliver pathways for video professionals blazing new workflow trails, from HDR to color capabilities, to IP and live streaming. AJA has always cemented its role in driving video technology evolution by collaborating closely with engineering-driven partners forging new paths.
In an effort to help creative teams optimize color accuracy and depth, AJA plays a key role in the move from SDR to HDR and has engaged with BBC around HLG, and collaborated closely with ColorFront, NBCU and Orion-Convert with products for color management. As the industry started to rally around IP workflows, thanks to stronger density routing and more cost effective implementations, the company dove head first into streaming, OTT and video-over-IP with AIMS-backed SMPTE ST 2110 standards and then NDI and Dante AV, leading to engagements with partners such as Comprimato for encoding, transcoding and decoding to deliver lower cost hardware solutions.
Frame Syncs and Mini-Converters continue to be a core part of AJA’s business with best of breed point to point and single focused offerings. As customers demanded more options and flexibility AJA moved to openGear solutions for rack mounted requirements. And most recently—to help studios and end users keep track of, manage costs, and deliver data reports to stakeholders, AJA took an equity stake in data analytics software developer Diskover Data, and simultaneously launched the AJA Diskover Media Edition — new software that enables easy search and analysis of media assets originating from on-premises, remote and cloud storage, tailored to the needs of the media and entertainment industry.
Aerial view of AJA
Engineering the company for whatever comes next
Along with the rest of the world, AJA had to adjust its business in response to the global pandemic, creatively managing supply chain challenges that plagued the industry as a whole, while supporting customers who had to transition to remote-first setups exceedingly quickly, and facilitating virtual production workflows. Founder John Abt continues to be actively involved as company Chairman, with day-to-day leadership in the hands of CEO Dave Sampson and President Nick Rashby.
Over the past several years, AJA has focused heavily on expanding its product management team to address evolving customer needs and emerging technology. The company has put in place a group with deep expertise in digital recording technology, playout servers, color grading, cloud-based workflows, IP video, and the pro AV sector who are wholly focused on designing and building next-generation products. Leveraging AJA’s experienced engineering group, development teams work together under the guidance of this crew of experts to dream up and build the next generation of high-value, cutting-edge, problem-solving products.
As AJA’s customers continue to evolve, the company looks ahead to products that will solve tomorrow’s workflow challenges while integrating with existing infrastructure. The intersection of cloud production, IP video, color accuracy, remote and virtual workflows, and data management present many new complexities to untangle. That’s right where AJA feels at home.
Comments
There are no comments on this blog post.