Davis to head merged On-Air Systems

On-Air Systems Ltd and their parent company, Connexion Broadcast, are to merge into a single entity offering broadcast systems software, product integration, programme production and transmission services.
The merged company, On-Air Systems Ltd, will be chaired by Peter Davies – who joins after a long and successful career with Avid.
Connexion Broadcast was founded in 1988 by Matt Vidmar and became an active supplier of Panasonic, Matrox and other equipment to broadcasters in Britain and eastern Europe.
In 1996, Connexion began cooperating with a group of software designers at Croatian National Television who were developing a PC-based virtual television studio based on principles successfully applied in radio broadcasting.
The result of this joint effort was the On-Air Studio software package that became the foundation for early versions of a product suite called On-Air VANity. Under their new name, On-Air CENTRAL, there are 14 fully interactive modules that make up this popular, flagship software solution. On-Air CENTRAL is currently distributed in over 40 countries.
In 1999, Connexion demonstrated its confidence in the suite of software modules, now named On-Air CENTRAL, by specifying it as the base for a transmission play-out service business based in London. A programme origination service was added early this year to demonstrate and implement the newly introduced On-Air Robotics camera control system.
Peter Davies said: "On-Air Systems has proved itself to be one of the broadcast industry's greatest innovators. The system description alone is enough to convince most broadcasters that On-Air CENTRAL is the way ahead for television channel play-out. The fact that it evolved from a national broadcaster proves that even the largest broadcast networks can benefit from using virtual control systems running on reliable, affordable and easy-to-use standard computer platforms."
On-Air Systems will develop and produces end-to-end PC-compatible networked desktop television broadcasting software enabling studio programme origination, multi-channel capture, browse editing and programme scheduling, automated single and multi-channel play-out with graphics, and web-streaming.
Applications are IP controlled, fully automated, open, scalable and compatible with most popular broadcast industry file formats.
On-Air Systems, www.on-air-systems.com
(GMcG)