Company

About Us

Everything You Need to Connect With Your Audience

Every day, Ross powers live productions for billions of viewers. With the industry’s widest range of high-impact, high-efficiency solutions and services, Ross helps all manner of organizations create and share compelling content, from leading broadcasters to houses of worship, stadiums, corporations and governments. With approximately 1300 team members around the world and manufacturing facilities in Ontario and Austria and the most reliable service in the industry, we are here to turn your ideas, plans and strategies into reality.

Ross solutions have impressed the audiences and marketing partners of Eurosport, BBC World, SKY, Yahoo! Finance, and the international esports powerhouse ESL.

Ross provides an unrivalled range of products and services that includes cameras, real-time motion graphics, production switchers, robotic camera systems, augmented reality/virtual studios, video servers, infrastructure and routers, social media management, newsroom systems and live event production services.

As a privately held and self-funded company, Ross Video has a long and stable history and has enjoyed 33 consecutive years of growth. As well as being free from the influence of external financiers, Ross Video controls its own destiny by owning its own manufacturing facilities, doing all primary research and development in-house, and marketing its products internationally through a global sales force and network of business partners.

Chances Are, You’ve Already Seen Ross in Action

Ross is the number one supplier of live production solutions to sports stadiums, working with 58% of NFL venues in the US, and 45% of combined US venues for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL and MLS.

The Ross graphics platform is used to produce some of the world’s leading broadcast shows,
sporting events and awards ceremonies, including the Academy Awards , Grammy Awards, Tony Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards, among others.

Code of Ethics

The Ross Code of Ethics is a key component of our success. All of our employees learn this code, and it forms the basis of how we conduct ourselves with our customers and partners. You should expect us to act consistently with the following when you engage with Ross:

  1. We will always act in our customer’s best interest.
  2. We will do our best to understand our customer’s requirements.
  3. We will not ship crap.
  4. We will be great to work with.
  5. We will do something extra for our customers, as an apology, when something big goes wrong and it’s our fault.
  6. We will keep our promises.
  7. We will treat the competition with respect.
  8. We will cooperate with and help other friendly companies.
  9. We will go above and beyond in times of crisis. If there’s no one to authorize the required action in times of company or customer crisis – do what you know in your heart is right. (You may rent helicopters if necessary.)

History

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A Brief History of our Switchers

The first switcher, the 16-4, was entirely designed and built in the basement of John Ross’ house. From those very humble beginnings, Ross Video has grown to become an international business with offices around the world.

It all started with an airplane…

John Ross founded Ross Video in 1974 in his basement in Montreal, Canada. John sold the World War II trainer airplane he had painstakingly rebuilt over a two-year period for $3,500 and used the money as seed capital to start the company.

To this day, this is the only investment that has been made in Ross Video, which has been self-funded since then, growing organically through reinvestment of profits from operations. Acquisitions have also been funded without external venture capital. David Ross, John’s son and Ross Video’s Chief Executive Officer, now owns over 80 percent of Ross Video. Company employees own the remaining 20 percent.

Global Reach

Ross Video has corporate offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and supporting sales and service operations strategically located around the world. The company’s manufacturing operations and its headquarters for administration and finance, are located in Iroquois, Canada. Canada’s “Silicon Valley” in Ottawa, Canada, is home to the company’s marketing, research and development, as well as its North American customer experience and demonstration center.

24/7/365 technical support and immediate access to spares is crucial when deploying mission-critical technology. Ross Video offers lifetime technical support by telephone, email and MS-Teams. Spares are stored at strategically located logistics hubs around the world to ensure prompt delivery when required. This quick-ship service is available to all customers who buy Ross Video products and not just those on extended warranty programs.

 

Ross Video’s state-of-the-art factory in Iroquois is run by experts in high-tech manufacturing, quality and efficiency. The company’s engineers use the most advanced high-precision components and techniques, with processes and technologies optimized to suit the needs of the high-mix, low-volume broadcast industry. This enables the company to be highly vertically-integrated, ensuring that quality, delivery times and cost all remain completely under its control — something that isn’t possible with an outsourced model. In fact, Ross Video’s lead times, customer service and quality are among the best in the industry.

Three high-speed pick-and-place surface mount lines run 16 hours a day. Increased automation and efficiency have doubled peak capacity in the pEverything Ross Video manufactures is made to international environmental standards, including the European RoHS directives.
In-house research and development enable Ross Video to create breakthrough products, but also commit to the long-term evolution and support of all the company’s products and technologies. Ross Video’s engineers develop deep industry knowledge through front-line exposure to customer requirements and development-level support is used to solve customer problems whenever necessary.
Ross Video’s highly knowledgeable global sales force enjoy an average of one full month of product training a year and have a unique “karate belt” style training program on products and their customer applications. The company’s goal is to provide added value with every interaction and deliver a superior customer experience every time.

Working Well With Others

Ross Video has a long history of collaborating with other industry companies. At Ross, it is understood that products do not exist in isolation and must work as part of a wider solution if they’re to deliver a successful end result for customers. The OverDrive production automation solution, for example, integrates with products from more than 50 different manufacturers. Additionally, the Ross Audio Protocol or “RAP,” created through experience with OverDrive, fills a vacuum in the industry for a standard, easy-to-use protocol for audio mixers. RAP, established and maintained by Ross, has now been adopted by many of the major audio console manufactures and is also used by competitors.

Committed to R&D

With its comprehensive portfolio that includes both base band video and IT file-based solutions, Ross Video is well positioned to help customers meet the creative, business and technical challenges they face every day. Ross also offers a mix of hardware and software-centric solutions. Ross understands that the mix and convergence of these technologies is central to meeting the needs of the industry as well as growing the company. The main development lab in Ottawa is home to more than 100 highly skilled engineers who are working on the next generation of Ross Video solutions, systems, and technologies.

Involvement

Charitable Involvement

Ross Video is proud to be a supporter of a wide variety of charitable initiatives with a local, regional and international scope.

 

Ross, in the end, is a family and employee owned company. We’re about people.

Locally

Ross regularly contributes to youth sports teams, charity events and also events designed to promote technology to young people. As a leading technology and manufacturing company, Ross believes in the importance of creating a healthy, engaging and technologically interesting community for future generations. As a nod to our family-owned origins in small-town Ontario, we also have a special emphasis on supporting appropriate causes in the town of Iroquois and the surrounding area.

Regionally

Ross employees proudly raise substantial donations through a wide range of fund-raising efforts. These donations are matched by Ross Video.

Globally

Ross has selectively donated to many international humanitarian crises and causes and will continue to do so. We recognize that we’re all in this together and believe we are obliged to help those in need rather than simply choosing to do so; it’s a fundamental part of being human.

Industry Involvement

Ross Video is a proud sponsor and member of a number of organizations within our industry, both locally and around the world. Ross is a company dedicated to innovation, so we understand the importance of working together and we strongly value the partnerships and cooperation that we’re able to achieve by working with these organizations. As an industry leader, these sponsorships and memberships allow us to reach others in our community, build strong relationships, and stay connected.

Green Practices

Green Practices at Ross

Our Environmental Commitment

At Ross Video we try to be good corporate citizens in a number of ways starting with the way we treat our customers, business partners and employees. Occasionally, we are asked about what we are doing as a company to minimize the impact of our business on the environment. Over the past number of years, we have consistently improved in this respect. Following are some of the things that our team here at Ross has done to reduce the impact of our business on the environment.

Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)

Ross Products are now manufactured in compliance with RoHS directive 2002/95/EC. This directive was adopted by the European Union in 2003 and bans 6 substances from the manufacture of electronic goods including: Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd), Hexavalent chromium (Cr6+), Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE). Meeting this legislation within the required timeframes required a significant effort and expense to source and document compliant parts, revamp manufacturing processes (most notably moving to lead free soldering processes) as well as big investments to update and retool manufacturing equipment. In addition to this, many products had to be redesigned to eliminate non-conforming components

China RoHS Hazardous Substances

Ross Video Limited has reviewed all components and processes for compliance to, “Management Methods for the Restriction of the Use of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Products”, also known as China RoHS.

Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE)

Ross is compliant with European Union WEEE directive 2002/96/EC and register annually with countries in the European Community. Our products are clearly labeled to indicate that they should be recycled and not sent to a landfill. Ross electronic equipment sales in Europe are reported every year and Ross pays in advance fees that will cover the cost of recycling the product when it reaches the end of its useful life. We also supply dismantling instructions for WEEE that indicate the material content of the component parts so that recyclers can efficiently do their work. Ross continues to monitor the new legislation as it comes into law in all of the countries we serve. We look forward to providing recycling options for our end of life products wherever we do business.

Manufacturing Processes and Environment

Ross strives continually to be a “Best-in-Class” manufacturer. From product design to shipping, we keep our environmental impact in mind. Where possible we source heavy and/or bulky materials (i.e. metal, packaging, circuit boards) used in manufacturing with local, fully qualified suppliers, thereby reducing transit waste. We’ve also engaged our larger suppliers in our consigned inventory program, meaning they stock parts on our premises allowing consolidation of shipments and deliveries. Forecast and Purchase Order management is largely paperless, and we continue to improve our processes which will reduce our paper consumption further. We’ve reduced our manufacturing facility waste to less than 40% of prior levels over a three year period. All soldering is lead-free and uses the finest no-clean solder paste and fluxes, meaning we do not use more caustic fluxes that require a water wash. This means that there is no waste water created by any Ross Video manufacturing process, and we do not outsource any of our solder work. From completely lead-free soldering, to low-energy fluorescent lighting, to painting our facility with zero VOC paints, to planning facility expansions to minimize our carbon footprint, we are continually on the lookout for ways to help the cause.

Recycling at Ross

We strive to reduce, reuse and recycle. Company recycling programs in both Iroquois and Ottawa cover commonly recycled materials such as paper, corrugated cardboard, metal cans and plastics. In addition, we recycle all electrical and electronic waste, including batteries, CRT screens, cell phones and industrial electronics, and offer these options to employees for home electronic waste.

Employee Commitment

Ross provide hooks or shelves on the walls of our lunchrooms for employees’ coffee mugs and tea cups. We encourage the use of real dishes to eliminate disposable items in the landfill.

Ross has showers available at both our Ottawa, R&D center and Iroquois factory, for those that bike, jog, or walk to work. Many of our employees live close to the facility, and carpool or use the transit system.

Carpooling is encouraged between Iroquois and Ottawa locations for those that have to periodically attend face to face meetings. This extends to members of our Senior Management Team who carpool between locations on a regular basis.

Office Practices

We use refillable toner cartridges in printer, fax and photocopy machines. We print hard copies only when absolutely necessary and recycle all of our waste paper. Our purchasing department is on the lookout to purchase products made of recycled material whenever possible.

Product Demos, Training and Commissioning, and other Business Travel

While we still travel to perform onsite product demonstrations and training for customers, we are now doing more and more remote demos via web conference. The use of this technology provides our clients with a high quality demonstration experience without the high cost and environmental impact of travel.

Brochures

Product brochures are printed at much lower volumes than in the past. Product brochures and ordering guides are always available electronically in .PDF format and our focus has shifted to Internet and where necessary, memory stick delivery of our product documentation.

Product Design

We design with the environment in mind – from design goals of reducing the number of power supplies in the unit, to not choosing parts with harmful elements in them. New products are recyclable, have long product life cycles, and have upgrade paths rather than forcing customers to completely replace a product when technology changes. Ross consistently offers a much longer support window on products we manufacture, allowing customers to keep them in service for a greater length of time. Our products are packaged with the environment in mind, using completely recyclable (and recycled) materials wherever possible. We use on-line design reviews to reduce the use of paper and print as little as possible. We ensure that equipment in labs are turned off when not in use, and on high demand electricity days we reduce the number of lights in the facility.

In many Ross products, product manuals are produced in .PDF format and shipped on CDs along with the product. This eliminates the use of a tremendous amount of paper as well as reducing product shipping weight. Customers are free to copy or print the .PDF files as required.

Continuous Improvement

We apply our Ross Video Continuous Improvement Philosophy to every aspect of our business including minimizing our impact on the environment. Our WOMBAT – Well Oiled Machine, Better All the Time – Continuous Improvement Processes are part of the fabric of Ross Video. This system invites input from any of our employees, customers or suppliers, that see opportunities for us to get better as an organization to improve our products and services as well as the way in which we utilize environmental resources.

Our Team

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Join Team Ross

Our creative and production experts are the best in the industry, and their hard work and dedication allow us to do what we do.