100 Days In: Building Forward at Grass Valley

This July marks 100 days since I officially stepped into the role of CEO at Grass Valley, a milestone not of abrupt change, but of confident continuity.

Unlike many CEO transitions, this one was planned from a position of strength. Louis and the board approved the transition back in August 2024, allowing us to thoughtfully step into the handover over an eight-month period. That planning enabled a seamless shift for our organization, our teams, and most importantly, our customers.

There's been no dramatic shift in direction, our strategy remains clear and aligned with where the market is going. What's changed is our focus: we're now pushing forward on execution, deepening our customer engagement, and delivering on the next phase of our strategy.

And for me, there's no better way to make an impact than being in the field, spending time with our customers, engaging with our teams, and visiting GV offices around the world. That's how we drive the organization forward, by staying close to those we serve and those who make it happen.

Whether in Doha, Rio, London, Montreal, or the many other places I've visited, I've seen firsthand how our technology is enabling customers to produce and deliver content in new, more dynamic ways. Just as importantly, I've learned directly from our teams and customers what's working, where we must go further, and how we amplify our impact moving forward.

A Clear Focus

When I accepted this role at NAB in April, I outlined four core areas of focus for Grass Valley:

• Customer Success: Everything starts here. Our success only comes when our customers win, and we must be relentless in making that happen.
• Operational Excellence: We're driving sharper execution across every area of our business-faster, more responsive, and more accountable.
• Innovation Leadership: As the industry evolves, we must be at the forefront, delivering technology that defines the next era of media.
• Culture: The foundation of it all. We're cultivating a high-performance culture grounded in humility, hunger, and pride in our legacy and future.

In each of these areas, I see clear signs of progress. But let's be clear, we have more to do. We're rebuilding GV back to the industry leader we've been for over 65 years. That work starts with culture. It's not a slogan, it's how we show up, how we collaborate, how we lead. Every single day.

A Responsibility We Don't Take Lightly

At Grass Valley, we've always understood the responsibility that comes with leadership. Ever since Dr. Donald Hare founded the company in 1958, we've played a central role in shaping the broadcast and media technology industry. That sense of responsibility-of leading with purpose and integrity-runs deep in our DNA.

And today, that responsibility is more important than ever. Our industry needs leadership, practical, collaborative, and forward-thinking. We don't just accept that responsibility; we embrace it.

We've made tremendous progress as a business. We've emerged from our own transformation phase, and we're now operating with clarity, focus, and momentum. Grass Valley is back on firm financial footing. We're back to growth. And we continue to invest significantly across our portfolio, from our industry-leading hardware to the latest advancements in software and virtualization.

But we know that no one company can move the industry forward alone. That's why we continue to champion openness and collaboration, something that's been a hallmark of our approach for decades. Today, we're proud to be playing a leading role in the EBU's MXL initiative, which provides open-source frame cache technology to enable better interoperability between vendors. We're still in the early innings of this important effort, but it reflects our belief that when vendors come together, the entire industry moves faster.

Trust and the Bridge Between Today and Tomorrow

If there's one truth that holds across all the conversations I've had this year, it's this: trust is everything. But trust isn't built in a single meeting or by simply having a great product roadmap. It's built over years of showing up, especially when things don't go to plan.

What we do in the media industry is incredibly complex. There will be curveballs. What matters most is how we respond in those moments, how we help our customers navigate, adapt, and keep moving forward.

As I reflect on Grass Valley's journey over the past few years, I firmly believe our strategy was aligned with where the market needed to go. But in our drive to lead, we may have leaned too heavily into the strategy at times-without always grounding it in the realities our customers face day to day. The gap between long-term vision and near-term execution isn't always easy to close, and we didn't always make that bridge clear enough.

That push and pull between today's pressures and tomorrow's possibilities will always exist. But now, I believe we're better positioned than ever to deliver solutions that meet today's needs-while giving customers the confidence and capability to bridge toward their long-term visions. And we'll do it by continuing to earn their trust, step by step, day by day.

A great example of that is AMPP OS. While it has the capability to be a comprehensive platform for customers to embrace at scale, many customers have chosen to start with targeted applications-whether that's live production tools, asset management, or playout. This modular approach allows them to solve immediate challenges today, build internal confidence, and then expand naturally-on a common platform architecture that simplifies their operations over time. That's what trust enables: the ability to grow together, with a partner who supports both your current needs and future ambitions.

Helping Customers Lead Through Disruption

It's also clearer than ever that our industry continues to navigate a period of tremendous transition. Some might view this as a challenge, I see it as our greatest opportunity.

Media companies today face growing disruption. The landscape is shifting rapidly, business models are evolving, and the pressure to do more with less-without sacrificing content quality-is real. That's why more and more customers are looking to transform their technology stacks. This isn't just about "moving to the cloud"-it's about virtualizing as much as possible to drive flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiency.

We're seeing a fundamental shift from bespoke, hardware-based broadcast infrastructure toward virtualized solutions that bring the power of enterprise IT into the media world. This evolution is enabling operational models that are far more adaptable, allowing teams to scale up or down based on production needs, leverage shared resources across geographies, and ultimately focus more on creating content than managing infrastructure.

But transformation doesn't happen overnight. It's a journey-and one we are deeply committed to supporting. A great example is the work we're doing with several leading media companies as they deploy modern control rooms designed to support productions of all sizes. Today, small to mid-sized control rooms are especially well-suited for virtualization. At the highest end of production, FPGA-based processing still offers unmatched performance for high-end video workflows where COTS-based compute hasn't quite caught up-yet.

And that's precisely why we continue to invest heavily across both lanes: in FPGA and in COTS. This dual commitment ensures we're meeting the real-world demands of today, while actively creating a bridge to the future-one that gives our customers the flexibility and confidence to evolve at their own pace.

The stakes are high. Success means being able to adapt quickly, compete effectively, and deliver the premium content audiences expect. To do that, our customers need more than just products. They need solutions from a trusted partner who can help them architect a future-ready stack and navigate the change with confidence. They need vendors who invest in future-proof solutions-not short-term workarounds.

That's where Grass Valley comes in. We bring not only the technology, but the experience and perspective to help our customers lead through disruption.

Powered by the 5 Cs

As I've shared with our internal team, our momentum is being driven by what I call the 5 Cs-the essential qualities we bring to everything we do:

• Clarity in where we're going and how we get there
• Commitment to delivering for our customers
• Communication that's honest, open, and purposeful
• Collaboration across all functions, partners, and regions
• Confidence in ourselves, our strategy, and each other

We're putting these principles into practice every day-with our customers, in our product development, and in how we operate as a team.

Looking ahead, I'm more optimistic than ever, not just about GV, but for the media industry as a whole. The opportunity in front of us is massive. The need for leadership has never been greater. And Grass Valley is ready to lead, again!

Onward.
Jon