Videoworks Spa has celebrated its 25th anniversary in Ancona. There were over one hundred people present, from Italy and from the operating units in France, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United States.
The company was officially born in 1998, but the story of Videoworks actually begins much earlier, in 1974, when, as a division of the Pellegrini Group, it created its first audio/video system for Moneikos, the 40-meter yacht of CRN, followed by the development of onboard systems for the F100 yacht designed by Gerhard Gingergast for Gianni Agnelli. In the 1980s, while the company’s commitment to the yachting sector continued to grow, Videoworks began to expand its business by designing and manufacturing innovative systems for meeting rooms and auditoriums, until Videoworks Spa was founded in 1998.
Riva 50M Race
Business transformation rapidly changed with the establishment of an independent company: the operational office was opened in Viareggio in 2005 and, three years later, another office was opened in Milan. The beginning of international expansion dates back to 2016, with the establishment of Videoworks Europe BV, formerly in Aalsmeer and currently in Schiphol-Rijk, in the Netherlands. 2019 was the year the Fort Lauderdale office opened in Florida (United States); the Cagnes-sur-Mer branch, on the Côte d'Azur in France, started its activity in 2020, whereas Videoworks Electronik Tic in Istanbul, Turkey, was founded in 2022.
New technological solutions are being concomitantly developed and are not limited to audio/video systems, but extend to the fields of home automation, lighting technology, but above all on-board connectivity. Owners want to have an Internet connection, at all latitudes, similar to what they enjoy on the mainland; the availability and stability of the yacht's Internet connection becomes essential for the use of multimedia contents, but also for being able to manage web meetings while on board as in the office. Videoworks has provided reliable solutions to all these needs; a good example is the recent SD-WAN technology (acronym for Software-Defined Wide Area Network). The new challenge is now the implementation of artificial intelligence to make life on board even more comfortable.
M/Y Panam
Some of the most significant installations in the nautical field include the recent M/Y SP110 Almax for Sanlorenzo, in which all Videoworks skills are concentrated, with its cutting-edge communication, entertainment and home automation systems: “Key-Core Solution” is a single, centralized, 30-unit rack for AV and IT systems, while “MyInfo 3.0” can be used to control the entire yacht from an iPad, smartphone or TV remote control; 5G internet connectivity is guaranteed and connection to the LEO satellite system is possible; there are also “Pop-Up Speakers”. But this is only one example. Recent solutions include the ones installed in the M/Y Rio for CRN this year, and the M/Y Panam (Baglietto) and M/Y Resilience (ISA Yachts) last year, plus M/Y EIV for Rossinavi and Columbus Yachts M/Y K2 in 2021, and also the 50m M/Y Riva Race, M/Y Cecilia for Wider, M/Y Spectre for Benetti, the M/Y Pershing 8X. Videoworks was involved in the construction of over 850 motor yachts.
K2
In 2022, Videoworks became a partner in the Miracle-MOHMI project, an I-Labs platform that provides research and development activities for the creation of innovative home automation solutions, aimed at making living environments comfortable and sustainable.
As part of the interventions on the “mainland”, it is probably enough to say that Videoworks was selected among the companies that contributed to the construction of the new PWC tower of “PricewaterhouseCooper”, which stands in the technological and innovative City Life area in Milan.
BV office
These abilities are also confirmed by the installations curated in the Rectorate of the University of Milan. They include the Council Room and the Representation Room with multimedia workstations for conferences and a common control room for the live management of medium-high complexity events, all based on a very low latency audio-video over IP distribution system which gives maximum scalability and flexibility to the system. Videoworks also dealt with setting up other meeting rooms and updating the multimedia systems in over 80 classrooms located in the Città Studi area, in the Central Area and in the Medicine, Nursing and Language Mediation Hubs. In addition to the classrooms, the intervention envisaged the creation of numerous self-recording studios within the university libraries.
Miracle-MOHMI project
"The future goal of Videoworks, while remaining a leader in the yachting business, is to consolidate itself in the B2B sector of universities and public bodies, promoting itself as a partner for the creation of systems in increasingly interactive environments for meeting rooms, public and private museum spaces and school and company classrooms,” says the CEO Maurizio Minossi.
Credits: Videoworks