Client:  Zoom Communications
Project: Purchase of HD centric broadcasting equipment
Vendor: Thomson Grass Valley

The HD Centric purchase agreement encompassing cameras, production switchers, routers and signal conversion gear, represents the largest equipment purchase contract in India and eventually Asia, once the company completes the purchase of the 150 cameras and the numerous other products. As part of this far-reaching deal, significant deliveries have already taken place of the LDK 8000 Elite camera system, LDK 8300 Super Slo-mo camera, numerous Kayak 3.5 M/E production switcher, large Concerto series HD routers and GeckoFlex signal conversion gear. This makes Zoom the only company in South Asia to offer such advanced and diverse HD equipment, thus enabling it to maintain its position as the pre-eminent OB and broadcasting services company in the region.

The multi-format Grass Valley HD equipment is being used to provide Zoom's OB clients and broadcasters with the facilities necessary to produce the most prestigious broadcasting events in the region. This includes the prestigious India Premier League Cricket.

"This agreement is extremely important for Grass Valley, particularly because Zoom embarked on a rigorous evaluation of all HD equipment available in the industry for over one year and eventually chose Grass Valley", said Jeff Rossica, senior vice president of Grass Valley. "For more than a decade and a half Zoom has been introducing the latest broadcasting technologies to users in the region and has always made its decisions based on long term considerations. Grass Valley has consistently been a part of Zoom's growth plans and we are extremely pleased once again to be a part of what we perceive to be a trend setting development."

"We have relied on Grass Valley technologies for almost a decade and a half," said Vaseem Ahmed Dehlvi, Co-Founder and Director, of Zoom Communications, Ltd. "There were several reasons why we ultimately zeroed in on Grass Valley for our major foray into high- definition, one is its ability to handle different SD and HD formats which enable us to use the same equipment for different projects. The multi-format LDK 8000 cameras capable of acquiring images in 720p, 1080i and 1080P formats provide great value for our clients across the world, including production companies, broadcasters and studios that all have different HD needs."

"The excellent after sales support and service that Grass Valley provides due to their deep understanding of the criticalities of live productions, instead of merely being box sellers, makes Grass Valley the ideal choice for companies like ours" said Sanjiv Sachdev, president of Zoom.

"It is true that our competitive acquisition cost is the only way we can make the transition from SD to HD seamlessly in a region as price sensitive as ours," said Gulshan Jhurani, director of Zoom. "We see a very significant transition in production standards from SD to HD in the various broadcasting genres across South Asia in the next 12–24 months; in fact we hope to finalize another project by the end of 2009."