Zodiac Systems – a video software specialist that got its start making games before helping select cable operators, including Charter Communications, link their legacy platforms and new IP-powered systems – is preparing to scale up and take its act to the global stage.
Adding the necessary engineering and business resources to take on the growing number of “video transformation” projects cropping up around the world – particularly in regions such as Europe and Latin America – was a key driver of Zodiac’s recent merger with Orion Innovation. Orion is a large company with more than 4,000 employees that specializes in digital transformation projects, according to Derek Harrar, a former Comcast video and entertainment exec who took the helm of Zodiac in late 2018.
“With the quantity of opportunities we’re seeing associated with what are video transformation projects or IP transformation projects, the overlap and the recognition that we need to have much more scale inside of Zodiac to accommodate some of these big projects represent a good alignment between Orion and Zodiac,” said Harrar, who remains CEO of Zodiac while also leading Orion’s media division. “Video was a complementary vertical addition to Orion. We realized to get to the next level, we were going to require a much larger engineering resource pool, hence the fit on both sides … We’re winning projects with really long sales cycles.”
