Cross joined Grass Valley from Vizrt, where he led the development of real-time integrated live production systems.
Grass Valley has appointed Andrew Cross as Chief Executive Officer of the company, effective immediately.
Cross joins Grass Valley from Vizrt Group, where he was President of Global R&D over all product development across all three brands (Vizrt, NewTek, and NDI). Previously, he was CEO of NewTek until it was acquired by Vizrt.
In his new role, Cross will lead the company through what it describes as the next phase to power the digital transformation of its customers and support them as they transition to the future of media and entertainment through IP, software, and cloud-based technologies.
Speaking about the appointment, Louis Hernandez Jr, Executive Chairman of Grass Valley, said: “Andrew is an experienced senior leader with deep industry knowledge and a track record of successfully taking media technology businesses into the new era of software-centric, cloud-based video technology. I’m excited to have Andrew join at this transformative time for the company and industry. I look forward to his direction and leadership of Grass Valley alongside the excellent executive leadership team already in place.”
Cross will lead the Grass Valley team as it realises its GV Media Universe (GVMU) vision. The GVMU is a digitally connected community that enables media companies to combine on-premise, hybrid and public cloud technologies to build live production environments while adapting to future demands.
By making GVMU open to others, the goal is to help accelerate the next major industry transition for all vendors. Cross brings a wealth of real-life experience to the task. While at NewTek, he led the company to pioneer the use of software-based video technologies to build the first real-time integrated live production systems. Cross went on to drive the creation of NDI which has become the largest IP video standard for live video production, in use by thousands of companies and hundreds of millions of users, the company stated.
Andrew Cross added: “I am honoured to be joining Grass Valley at such an exciting time. Our mission is to be the leader in the transition towards software-based technologies – both on-prem and as media companies move into the cloud. My personal drive has always been to use technology to innovate within the video industry, allowing more people to produce more video; there is no better time for me than this next step to join the most influential and respected company in the industry.”
