Telestream, a provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, has acquired UK-based Quality Control (QC) technology specialist, Vidcheck. Established in 2009, Vidcheck is recognized as a leading developer in automated QC solutions within file-based production workflows. Its system solutions are used by broadcasters, facilities and content owners worldwide, such as ITV, BBC and CBS. The privately funded acquisition is complete and the new combined company will take its bow at IBC (stand 7.B26).
In recent years, Vidcheck QC technology has enjoyed significant commercial success, especially in European markets. Vidchecker, the company’s flagship product, is the gold-standard for file-based automated QC with correction, and sales have shown strong and sustainable growth for a number of years. Similarly, Telestream’s Vantage media processing platform has maintained rapid worldwide sales growth for the last six years. Telestream will build on Vidcheck’s success, providing greater reach around the globe and strong sales and market presence offering its customers even more effective and efficient solutions.
“Vidcheck’s team and product portfolio line up very well with our area of expertise,” said Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream LLC. Castles continued, “It is not just some great technology and products that we are acquiring but also a gifted, talented and passionate team that will reinforce our resources here at Telestream. We look forward to leveraging our combined know-how to offer our worldwide customer base an even more complete and exciting product portfolio.”
“Telestream is a great home for Vidcheck, technically, commercially and culturally,” commented Thomas Dove, CEO of Vidcheck Ltd. “The companies have complementary technologies which will feed into both product ranges, the most obvious being the perfect fit of Vidchecker auto QC with Vantage. With Telestream’s sales and support reach, Vidchecker will naturally be available to a much wider set of customers, particularly in North America. Being part of Telestream provides a great launch pad for the next phase of growth for Vidcheck.”
Vidchecker is the file-based QC solution of choice at many major broadcasters worldwide. Feedback to news of the acquisition from this audience has been strongly positive. One example of this is UK-based commercial broadcaster, ITV. “Vidchecker is a trusted tool that we at ITV use to ensure that the content we create, and receive is of the highest image quality and meets all the required format specifications for our online platform partners and linear broadcast. With the ever increasing number of formats and standards, we look forward to seeing continued improvements now that Vidcheck has been acquired by Telestream, whose Vantage platform is at the heart of ITV’s Content Delivery Platform,” said David Hornsby head of content technology at ITV.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More