ROUND TABLE Covid-19 49
Ross Video Stuart Russell, senior communications manager
Ross was relatively quick off the mark in terms of implementing a ‘work from home’ policy. We also implemented social distancing (a term I dislike – it should be ‘physical distancing,’ because we need to be more social now than ever, albeit virtually rather than in person!) at our different manufacturing plants and increased the frequency and rigour of cleaning regimes there, too. We made the decision to voluntarily close our main factory in Canada for two weeks prior to Easter (despite being classified by the Canadian government as an ‘essential business’ and therefore authorised to stay open), because the public health situation was very fluid and one million people were returning to Ontario (our home province) following spring break. We felt that the risk of staying open at that time was too great. We have subsequently reopened the factory, albeit with many constraints: we’ve implemented new shift patterns to better support social distancing and we’ve also changed our handling practices around received materials and goods-in-process to minimise the possibility of infection. In addition, we are monitoring our employees’ health every shift. It’s tough, because we have a very dedicated and motivated workforce. We know there is still some way to go until this situation is behind us, so we need to balance everyone’s desire to get back to work with their safety and wellbeing. In the short-term future, we’re seeing a large increase in public appetite for news, and I think the value and importance of local and regional programming is become extremely apparent. That’s a positive – we often take regional news for granted and it feels like the ‘unloved cousin’ sometimes, so I hope broadcasters look again at how they fund regional output in the months to come. There’s a viewing boom going on right now generally. People working from home are consuming content like never before. You only have to look at the number of Disney+ subscriptions sold since launch to see that the streaming services are going to benefit from this situation. It’s easy to be cynical about that, perhaps, but I have a young family and have spent many lovely evenings watching content with my daughters, so there are positives. Look at Joe Wicks and his workout classes on YouTube – both my kids do them and it’s great to see people stepping up and giving something back. The downside for
WE’RE SEEING A LARGE INCREASE IN PUBLIC APPETITE FOR NEWS commercial broadcasters is that advertising airtime is now less valuable, because consumers can’t go out and buy anything! Our business is obviously going to feel some pain for the rest of this year. Our customers still have projects, but a great many are understandably being put on hold until the situation improves. Ross does a lot of work in sports and live entertainment. There’s obviously nothing happening in these spheres now, although building new stadiums and venues seems to be carrying on, so we’re keeping busy! Esports is also a big market for Ross, and the audiences on streaming platforms like Twitch have noticeably increased, which is helpful for us. Longer term, we’re going to see remote production become much more popular, along with cloud-based solutions. The broadcast market has been moving in this direction anyway, and I think this crisis will be a catalyst that will accelerate the pace of change. Physical limitations on movement are forcing us to find new ways of working and so I don’t see why the norm post-virus will be the same as it was before. Ross Video is in a fortunate position in that we are still a privately owned business, and we’ve doubled our business in Europe over the last three years, so we came into this crisis in good shape. We’ll come out of it a little bruised, but no worse. In terms of our team, I always knew that I worked with a fun and sociable group of people, and this experience of being at home has only reinforced that. One of our team members left the company recently and we had a virtual leaving drinks party for him. I left after a couple of hours – I had to make dinner for the kids – but the pictures suggest it went on for quite some time and a great deal of fancy dress was involved! It’s great how everyone at Ross has been regularly checking in on colleagues, especially those who are living on their own. There has been tremendous solidarity and comradeship, and that’s great to see.
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