Ross Video Ltd is a privately held Canadian company that designs and manufactures equipment for live video production. The major products of the company are video production switchers or vision mixer

Vision mixer

A vision mixer is a device used to select between several different video sources and in some cases Compositing video sources together to create special effects...

s, which were the basis for the founding of the company. The company’s products are used daily in over 100 countries by broadcast television networks, cable TV networks, sports stadiums, live production companies, government agencie and houses of worship. Ross Video headquarters and manufacturing operations are located in Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and research and development are carried out in Ross’ Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario, Canada R&D labs.

History

Ross Video was founded in 1974 by John Ross who provided the initial seed money by selling his refurbished World War II trainer aircraft. From the basement of his house he developed the 10-4 analogue switcher which would be a commercial success for the company as well as a groundbreaking technolgy for that time. John Ross, the time that fit 1 MLE (multi-level effects) switcher into a 2 RU chassis. John Ross, a pioneer in Canadian broadcast technology development then developed he next series of switchers, launched in 1978, introduced the now industry standard "Next Transition Operation" concepts including the first patent for "Transition Preview" now used by almost all higher end switchers made in the industry. Ross Video continued to grow from the success of various switchers that include the RVS-210A, which sold for 25 years and the CDK-104,which became a fixture in most telecine

Telecine

Telecine is transferring motion picture film into video and is performed in a color suite. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the post-production process....

 suites around the world.

In 1998 Ross Video made the change from composite analog switchers to component digital switchers. Their first digital switcher called Synergy sold over 3000 units by being smaller than traditional switchers, doubling the available inputs and increasing the amount of effects operators could add to their programs. Ross Video entered the HD market in 2004 as well as introduced OverDrive, a product designed to automate live video production environments. Ross Video is the creator of the openGear terminal equipment standard, a standard terminal equipment platform for broadcast and production distribution and conversion equipment.

In 2010, Ross Video completed its acquisition of Norpak

Norpak

Norpak Corporation was a company headquartered in Kanata, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of systems for television-based data transmission...

Corporation. and in September of the same year acquired Codan Broadcast, leading to the company broadening its influence in the Asia-Pacific region with the establishment of Ross Video Australia.

Production Switchers

• Vision
  • Versatile and powerful production switcher
• Carbonite
  • Mid-sized production switcher
• CrossOver
  • Low-budget professional-grade switcher

CG and Graphics Systems

• XPression
  • 3D character generator and broadcast production graphics

Terminal Equipment

• openGear
  • Open architecture platform designed to provide flexibility from a variety of manufacturers
• 7000/8000 Series
  • Analog/digial, audio/video distribution, converters, encoders, decoders, synchronization and keyers
• GearLite
  • Ross GearLite products are small portable modulus designed to adapt a piece of equipment to source or accept a signal of a different format,
• TES Series
  • TES Series in a platform for encoding, inserting, receiving, bridging and multiplexing digital data in [VBI] and [VANC] Television signal
• Nielsen Encoders
  • The Nielson product tracks the television and media-viewing habits of of homes across the United States