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Rycote acquired by The Vitec Group.


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Here’s a press release:

 

Quote

Vitec Group, has acquired Rycote Microphone Holdings for up to £8.5m in cash, it announced on Tuesday.

 

[…]

 

Vitec said Rycote would become part of its creative solutions division, led by Nicol Verheem.

 

Simon Davies, Rycote's current managing director, would remain with the company post-acquisition.

 

The acquisition was in line with Vitec's strategy to enter adjacent markets, the board explained.

 

Vitec owns Manfrotto, Sachtler, Teradek, Anton/Bauer, Litepanels, SmallHD, and many other brands.

 

Via cereallytho on reddit.

Edited by Daniel Ignacio
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Contributing to the local economy

In December 2017, Production Solutions was honoured to receive an Award from the Costa Rican Chamber of Exporters (“CADECXO”) which recognised our outstanding contribution to export efforts in industrial manufacturing in the country. The Award was presented to Julio Lizano, Vice President Global Operations, Vitec Production Solutions Division, by the President of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís.

A significant player in terms of export volumes in the country and an employer of nearly 200 local jobs, Vitec was also recognised for its strong contribution in the local supply chain: 50% of its components used in manufacturing come from local suppliers, thereby creating a further 300 jobs with more than 30 Costa Rican suppliers.

 

 

 

VITEC GROUP

Vitec is a leading global provider of premium branded products and solutions to the fast moving and growing “image capture and content creation” market.

Customers include broadcasters, independent content creators, photographers and enterprises.

We design, manufacture and distribute high performance products and solutions including camera supports, camera mounted electronic accessories, roboticcamera systems, prompters, LED lights, mobile power, monitors and bags.

We employ around 1,700 people across the world in 11 different countries and are organised in three Divisions: Imaging Solutions, Production Solutions and Creative Solutions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm not sure it's a bad thing, apart from the risk of someone buying Vitec (like Samsung has acquired Harman because of who knows) and destroying part of it.

 

Curiously they own three different tripod manufacturers (Manfrotto, Sachtler, Gitzo and the more modest Joby) and as far as I know they have respected their quite different product lines. You wouldn't guess they belong to the same conglomerate.

 

As for Rycote compared to Petrol, Rycote is 100% audio, nothing else. Why would they purchase it? Basicly the high end of that audio market is shared by Cinela and Rycote, right? At the same time there are lots of links between Rode and Rycote with Rode addressing the low end. 

 

I could imagine a popular name like Manfrotto relseasing low end versions of Rycote products for podcasters, youtubers, etc, but the Rycote name is so valuable. 

 

 

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Some camera people elsewhere on the web think Vitec has resulted in crappier tripods from Sachtler, and not just the low-end Ace line. Also, there's talk about LitePanels LEDs getting less reliable (but earlier LitePanel lights weren't super reliable. Luckily, I guess, my Astras are doing OK though they don't see daily use).

 

So who the heck knows what will happen. My Rycote kit is still working fine. I have other things to worry about for now. 🙂

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Hmm, Rycote was a small company (much like Cinela) who grew from innovation, quality and (IMO excellent) customer service. There were some bad words spoken when they bought Lightwave but I think it was a more than decently intentioned buyout - if anything, as an owner of some Lightwave camera windshields, I'm sorry that Rycote didn't make (to me obvious) improvements to them. Apart from that, being 'first there', constantly listening and improving, and really very friendly and helpful I think actually set the standard that anyone else had to address. And probably did anyway through good nature, but quality against quality is always the best battle.

 

I'm still quite surprised that nobody has properly developed a true (ie bigger) windshield for stereo, LCR, quad ... beyond fixed angles (ie ORTF) - I'm happy to help with my own ideas if any of the major players wanted to go down this route.

 

Jez Adamson

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On 10/11/2018 at 1:02 AM, The Immoral Mr Teas said:

Hmm, Rycote was a small company (much like Cinela) who grew from innovation, quality and (IMO excellent) customer service. There were some bad words spoken when they bought Lightwave but I think it was a more than decently intentioned buyout - if anything, as an owner of some Lightwave camera windshields, I'm sorry that Rycote didn't make (to me obvious) improvements to them. Apart from that, being 'first there', constantly listening and improving, and really very friendly and helpful I think actually set the standard that anyone else had to address. And probably did anyway through good nature, but quality against quality is always the best battle.

 

I'm still quite surprised that nobody has properly developed a true (ie bigger) windshield for stereo, LCR, quad ... beyond fixed angles (ie ORTF) - I'm happy to help with my own ideas if any of the major players wanted to go down this route.

 

Jez Adamson

cinela albert and some specially made thing for a schoeps array?

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Damn - lost my post and it DIDN'T reappear! So in short:

 

thanks Dan, Albert new to me, knew Schoeps (quad ORTF, MSM etc) but they used stereo rycote (AE,AF) bodies, as I have with same rycotes with K&M bars fitted.

 

all use existing (or 'too small') shields and have v expensive mic shortening solutions inside (DIY = cheaper mic shortening solutions, like dodgy XLRs)

 

was thinking to go bigger windshield for more air. Maybe in two semicircle halves which could be joined into a circle or backed by a plate then have relevant windjammer options. Main thing, (like the Albert) have variable bar system within to not be constrained on recording choices.

 

but - maybe too niche? As I said, I have plenty of ideas based on my DIY crap.

 

...hope this posts... j

Since that posted ok I'll mention my own rigs include a 2x AF for quad eg IRT and a 2x AF + smaller Rycote(s) for 5.0/5.1 (C/sub)

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On 10/10/2018 at 4:59 PM, Jim Feeley said:

Some camera people elsewhere on the web think Vitec has resulted in crappier tripods from Sachtler, and not just the low-end Ace line.

 

 

Speaking of what, I've been shopping for an audio bag lately and I got the Sachtler SN607. The puzzling thing about the Sachtler website is, the audio bags are not visible. If you go to the "Bags" section you will see the usual camera bags, but no audio. You must do a search (searching for a particular model like SN607 or "audio bag") to find them.

 

The Spanish dealer had it in stock but I am wondering wether they are planning to discontinue them...

 

 

Edited by borjam
typo
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On 10/15/2018 at 8:03 PM, borjam said:

Speaking of what, I've been shopping for an audio bag lately and I got the Sachtler SN607. The puzzling thing about the Sachtler website is, the audio bags are not visible. If you go to the "Bags" section you will see the usual camera bags, but no audio. You must do a search (searching for a particular model like SN607 or "audio bag") to find them.

 


Amusingly they have a fluid head listed under "sound bags":

https://www.sachtler.com/products/bags/audio-equipment/sound-bags/

 

image.png

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