Harris Broadcast Re-Brands As Two New Entities

March 17, 2014 by Dave Haynes

Harris Broadcast has re-branded itself with a pair of new handles – Imagine Communications and GatesAir – and laid out its future path which, not surprisingly, makes no mention of continuing to play in the overcrowded digital signage sandbox.

The companies had a MediaDay at Madison Square Garden in New York today to outline its marketplace directions:

Imagine Communications will be headquartered in Dallas, with Centers of Excellence in Denver, Toronto, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Beijing. The company’s five decades of media software and networking innovation has secured more than 3,000 customers spanning 185 countries, with more than 3 million products deployed that support over half of the world’s video channels, along with a rich portfolio of patents.

GatesAir will be headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, with its state-of-art manufacturing, supply chain and fulfillment center in Quincy, Illinois. GatesAir has been pioneering over-the-air TV and radio transmission innovation for nearly 100 years.

“With vibrant new identities and focus, Imagine Communications and GatesAir are well-positioned to serve our industry and customers,” said Charlie Vogt, CEO of Imagine Communications and GatesAir. “Our vision, product direction and strategy further align Imagine Communications and GatesAir with today’s transformational trends, the networks of the future and our customers and partners. We have created two laser-focused companies that are innovating across different ends of the technology spectrum. Imagine Communications will lead the media and entertainment markets to a future defined by IP, software, the cloud, and TV Everywhere, with an architecture vision for delivering and monetizing multiscreen content. Likewise, GatesAir will continue to lead the next-generation TV and Radio over-the-air market, with a focus on providing wireless innovations that reduce power consumption and carbon footprint, while leveraging the growth in digital radio and TV transmission across the globe.”

You can read the rest of the press release here.

Harris, you may recall was a pretty big player and spender in the digital signage space, but it laid a pretty big bet on the 7-Eleven c-store digital out of home network and that one did not exactly shoot out the sales lights in its first 12-18 months operating. In May 2012, Harris Communications announced it was divesting itself of Harris Broadcast,which included the digital signage business unit.