OTTAWA — No Canadian team made the finals of the Stanley Cup or the NBA playoffs this spring. But spectators in the arenas during either series owe some of their in-game experience to a company from the country’s capital. 

Ottawa-headquartered Ross Video is tipping off a $236-million, five-year project to take its live-event production technology to the cloud, with $49 million in financing from the federal Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF).

Former CBC engineer John Ross founded his namesake firm in early 1974. Its product line has since grown from a single video production switcher to a stack of hardware, software and services used by news channels to outfit their control rooms, legislatures to broadcast their sittings and sports stadiums to fill the Jumbotron and control the special effects. 

“We’re in the business of keeping our famous customers famous through video experiences,” said CEO David Ross, who took over the firm in 2006. The company is targeting over $400 million in revenue in the current fiscal year and, eventually, an initial public offering. 

Ross Video is now looking to develop versions of its technology that clients can access via the cloud, and new accompanying equipment. Ottawa’s partially-repayable contribution from its flagship SIF is to help pay the R&D costs. “There is no doubt that the cloud is going to be financially important in the future,” said Ross. “What that date is, is a big question mark for our industry.” 

On-premises equipment, programs and other offerings account for the bulk of the firm’s current sales. Its challenge is preparing for a cloud-compatible future while maintaining the company’s existing business. “The government support allows us to fight two wars at once,” Ross said, investing simultaneously in the firm’s current technology and online equivalents. The company’s R&D team already accounts for about a third of its workforce of just over 1,500. That will grow to 1,900 overall as part of the SIF-backed project, according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

Treasury Board President Mona Fortier will announce the federal award in Ottawa on Friday morning. In a statement, she said the funding will help Ross Video establish itself as “a major global tech firm.”

Ross said his family firm is already a significant player in its space. Take sports alone: the Stanley Cup-winning Vegas Golden Knights and NBA-champion Denver Nuggets both use the company’s tech at their arenas. So do the teams they vanquished in their respective finals, the Florida Panthers and the Miami Heat. Ross Video’s production trucks are routinely parked not only outside professional games of football, basketball and hockey, but also lacrosse and pickleball. 

“There’s no company in the world that does so many things for live video broadcasts and shows,” Ross said. But the capabilities the firm has planned for its new cloud platform will create more opportunities for growth. “We are literally pushing [Amazon Web Services] to the limit, and then some, with some of the things we want to be able to do,” he said. “It is hi-fi tech.”

The company has taken no venture capital to date, paying for R&D and acquisitions via its own revenues. But Ross Video has benefited from federal programs like scientific research and experimental development tax incentives, National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada funding for student placements. 

Those supports have helped the firm hire, increase exports and compete against global players like Panasonic and Sony, Ross said. The company has more than 1,000 employees in Canada, many in and around the national capital. Last week, it opened an expanded hardware factory in Iroquois, Ont., a $15-million addition that added 55,000 square feet.

“Virtually everything we make is made here in Canada,” Ross said. “That is a great IP story for the country.” The company has made 19 acquisitions in the last 15 years; in almost every case, it’s transferred the intangible assets, R&D and manufacturing of the bought-out firms back here, he said. Ross Video has 26 active patent families, and another three pending applications, according to PitchBook data. 

The federal funding will come from a $250-million SIF stream established in late 2020 to back “innovative, intellectual property-rich firms.” The program has also awarded $15.9 million to Quebec City-headquartered EXFO to develop 5G technology as well as $30 million to Vancouver-based Sanctuary Cognitive Systems to build humanoid robots.