We speak with the company executive to learn more about the strategy behind his new appointment and to gain insight into his key market perspectives

*This content is included in the October issue of TM BROADCAST. You can access the full magazine here.

AJA has recently changed its business model in Europe. After operating in the region for the past 15 years through Phosphor as its management company, the firm is now running its operations directly as AJA. This shift has had a direct impact on Andy Bellamy, who now serves as Technical Director at AJA. We invite him to our Industry Voices section to share the strategy behind this transition and his perspective on key market trends.

One of the main trends Andy Bellamy highlights as having a strong impact on the company is the convergence between the broadcast and ProAV worlds. “A good example is the corporate and education sectors,” he explains. “Those industries increasingly want to do what broadcasters are doing — they want the same kind of quality content. They want to centralize training and then distribute it widely, not just within their own country but sometimes globally.”

“That’s where our BRIDGE streaming IP video products have been very popular,” adds AJA’s Technical Director. “They allow you to connect the traditional baseband SDI video world with the IP side of things. So, for example, you can take an SDI-based studio that’s producing content for education or corporate training and then disseminate that content globally using BRIDGE. That use case has been right at the top of the list in terms of demand.”

His main takeaways from IBC, as well as his view on the current global context of uncertainty, are among the other topics we discussed in this interview.

You’ve recently been appointed as Technical Director at AJA, after Phosphor – which was the company’s partner for the EMEA region – was integrated into the main company. First, I’d like to understand the reasons behind this move.

Yes, so a bit of background there. Phosphor was the European management company for AJA for about 15 years, quite a long time. I originally started out working with Phosphor, then went to the United States and worked directly at AJA for a while, before coming back to Europe.

The change happened because AJA was ready to take on staff directly in Europe. They had the right procedures in place to do that. It made things much simpler. Instead of having to explain that we worked for a management company that looked after AJA, now it’s direct. I can just say, “I’m Andy, I work for AJA,” and it makes everything much easier. A simple change, really, but one that’s made a big difference in terms of being seen as part of the AJA family.

“More sports organizations want to share their content more widely, while maintaining high quality. That’s been another big growth area for us”

Has your day-to-day work and your responsibilities changed significantly with this shift?

A little bit, yes. In terms of internal reporting, I now report to a VP of Sales, John Miller, who is fantastic. For me, it means being one step closer to AJA and more connected from a management perspective. I have weekly meetings with John, and he gives me guidance on what I should be focusing on day-to-day, which has been great.

He’s been in the industry for a long time and is well known. He joined AJA about a year and a half ago and kept a close eye on what was happening in Europe before any big changes were made. Working with him has been excellent, and I’m really enjoying the role.

I get to travel widely throughout the EMEA region. I work with the distribution channel, the dealer network, and spend time with end users, which is often the hardest thing to achieve as a manufacturer. At the shows we’re doing right now, I get to meet many end users, which has been fantastic.

My working life has definitely been enriched by all this travel. For example, I was in Hamburg at the end of last week, and I’ll be in Bologna at the end of this week. I’m more or less traveling somewhere new every week. These industry events have proven to be very valuable for us, and it’s been really enjoyable to get out there and see everyone.

On the global trade context

“Tariffs, of course, came up a lot. We’re a U.S.-based company with a global footprint, and it’s difficult, but we try to be as agile as we can”

“From a manufacturing standpoint, we’ve also had to be very strategic. Every product is built from a bill of materials, so we’ve had to be smart about sourcing components”

Looking ahead, what are your strategic goals in your area of responsibility for the coming years?

From my standpoint, one of the main goals is to better understand what everybody needs – from end users to resellers, and the distribution channel – and to be their go-to technical contact. So, if they have questions, they can come to me in real time and get answers straight away.

Strategically, gathering insights from end users – what they’re using, how they’re using it – is really useful for us. Being able to take that information back to AJA’s product management team and show them how the channel is working, what projects are underway, and what is on the horizon is very valuable. It directly impacts our internal product cycle.

As you know, things take time to develop; they don’t happen overnight. So, the earlier I can relay that information to product management, the better. That was a key part of IBC last month in Amsterdam – asking the right questions to our partners, our channel, and end users to understand what’s coming next. That’s a big part of my responsibility.

The other part is staying up to date with technical developments worldwide. Knowing what’s coming, being involved in SMPTE 2110, and understanding the shift towards IP is really important for us too. So, my role is really about straddling those two worlds.

 You’ve mentioned the end users. So, what type of clients are currently driving the highest demand for your company—broadcast, or beyond broadcast?

We’re seeing a lot of convergence. The worlds of broadcast and AV are coming together. A good example is the corporate and education sectors. Those industries increasingly want to do what broadcasters are doing—they want the same kind of quality content. They want to centralize training and then distribute it widely, not just within their own country but sometimes globally.

That’s where our BRIDGE streaming IP video products have been very popular. They allow you to connect the traditional baseband SDI video world with the IP side of things. So, for example, you can take an SDI-based studio that’s producing content for education or corporate training and then disseminate that content globally using BRIDGE. That use case has been right at the top of the list in terms of demand.

We’re also seeing this trend in sports. More sports organizations want to share their content more widely, while maintaining high quality. That’s been another big growth area for us. Overall, we’re working with customers who have big ideas—organizations that want to put in infrastructure to share centralized training and news throughout their education or corporate networks. A good example would be large insurance companies. They’re essentially running centralized training hubs using our hardware, distributing content as if they’re running their own small TV station.

“While the world likely won’t move to full virtualization overnight, we know there are customers interested in it, so we’ve been developing Virtual KONA over the past year”

Partnerships are central to AJA’s business — what strategy do you pursue, and what types of alliances are you forming?

Partnerships are certainly a huge part of our business. AJA has always worked with third-party technology providers who develop tools that complement our technology, in addition to having an OEM side (Original Equipment Manufacturer) of the business, which a significant portion of our revenue comes from. We literally have hundreds of OEM partners—companies that build their software around our hardware.

In the color space we work with Pomfort, known for their LiveGrade application. We make sure AJA hardware integrates seamlessly with their software. Then there are other partners we collaborate with more directly across both hardware and software, such as Comprimato and Colorfront.

Colorfront, for instance, has been a long-term partner. They’re widely regarded as leaders in color science, and we’ve been producing HDR-compliant technology with them for around 10 years.

One of the latest results of that partnership is our ColorBox device for inline color transformations, which runs Colorfront software under the hood inside our hardware. That combination has been very powerful.

Comprimato, meanwhile, are leaders in the streaming software world. Our partnership with them to co-develop our BRIDGE products really is a perfect fit: we have the hardware that customers want, and their software enables high-quality streaming. Collaborating with them has been fantastic, and the joint solutions have been very well received.

From my position inside AJA, I have direct access to both Colorfront and Comprimato through our product management team. When customers bring me requests, I can feed those straight back to the partners, and we can begin developing what’s needed. That’s really exciting—it feels like we’re all working together.

Those relationships have only grown stronger. AJA is very much about relationships, whether it’s supporting customers years after a sale or ensuring our partners receive the same level of support. Of course, it’s not always easy—it can be technically challenging—but working with competent and patient partners is incredibly rewarding, and we’re very fortunate in that respect.

“Large insurance companies are essentially running centralized training hubs using our hardware, distributing content as if they’re running their own small TV station”

I imagine you recently attended the IBC Show. What were your key takeaways? I think we’ve already touched on some of them, but what ideas did you bring back from the exhibition?

It was interesting. For me, this year felt different—the conversations I had were more concrete. People were actually taking steps forward with technologies like SMPTE 2110.

In the past, there was interest, some experimentation, but this time it felt real. The discussions were about actual infrastructure changes: “Okay, we’re going 2110 in this new facility. We want to work with you. How can we do that? How does this fit with what we already have?” That was very interesting, because it wasn’t just testing anymore. It was, “We’re actually doing this now.”

Overall, it was a quieter IBC in terms of big messaging. It felt more grassroots, more about people being ready to take that step. Yes, attendance numbers were a bit lower, but the flip side was that the conversations we did have were valuable and serious.

The people who came were there for a reason—they needed information, they’d been tasked with finding it. For me, it felt like we were having genuine, meaningful conversations about what’s next. And 2110 definitely feels like it’s happening now.

Takeaways on IBC

“For me, this year felt different—the conversations I had were more concrete. People were actually taking steps forward with technologies like SMPTE 2110”

“The people who came were there for a reason—they needed information, they’d been tasked with finding it. For me, it felt like we were having genuine, meaningful conversations about what’s next”

 I’d also like to focus on the current global context — instability and more restrictive trade policies. How is AJA addressing these challenges, and what is your strategy as a company?

Tariffs, of course, came up a lot. We’re a U.S.-based company with a global footprint, and it’s difficult, but we try to be as agile as we can. We plan as far ahead as possible to give customers the opportunity to buy what they need without being penalized later. If a customer has a large project and we can ship ahead of a tariff change, we try to do that. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s just impossible—being a U.S. company, we have to comply with U.S. rules and regulations.

We also try to add value in other ways—through service, support, and partnerships. We’re incredibly grateful to our channel, who have been patient and proactive. Globally, they’ve made smart decisions that helped them get ahead of some of the challenges Tariffs present. Wherever we can, we’ve tried to be agile and guide customers through the minefield.

From a manufacturing standpoint, we’ve also had to be very strategic. Every product is built from a bill of materials, so we’ve had to be smart about sourcing components. If we can make the right decisions on parts, we can control costs better and pass those savings along.

Looking ahead, are you planning to launch any new solutions or technological innovations that you can share with me?

Virtualization is a hot topic and one we’re exploring. We actually previewed Virtual KONA at IBC last year, and it’s something we’re still working toward bringing to market.

While the world likely won’t move to full virtualization overnight, we know there are customers interested in it, so we’ve been developing Virtual KONA over the past year, and that work continues. We’re collaborating with Amazon Web Services on that.

I think it’s exciting for us to say: “We know you want to move into the virtual world, and as you do, we want to give you the same experience you get with our hardware.” For us, the key is reaching those customers. Many of them are still figuring out what a virtualized workflow looks like, but we want to be there with a KONA product that provides the same stability and support. If they move away from traditional hardware, they should have the same experience they know today with KONA—just in a virtual environment.

That’s ongoing. And, of course, development around SMPTE 2110 continues as well. At IBC, we introduced a new product, the IP25R, which was very well received. It’s a Mini-Converter, and it’s exactly what people are looking for—again, connecting the baseband video world with the IP world.

I think you’ll see more from us in that space. I can’t share specifics yet, but it’s definitely an exciting area for us right now.

“We literally have hundreds of OEM partners—companies that build their software around our hardware”

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Overall, things are going very well for us. We’ve released six products —three at NAB and three at IBC—so we’ve introduced an incredibly strong product lineup this year. These solutions address challenges that professionals are experiencing in the field and have all been very well received.

It feels like we’re enjoying our moment. This has been a strong year for us, even amidst the challenging times we discussed earlier. Having such a strong offering, great support from the channel, and excellent feedback from customers, have been very encouraging.

For us, the goal is to keep innovating, keep bringing products to market that people really want, and continue having these important conversations with the channel, the dealers, and the end users. That’s what drives us forward.

“From my standpoint, one of the main goals is to better understamd what everybody needs – from end users to resellers, and the distribution channel – and to be their go-to technical contact”