360 Systems

Official website; https://360systems.com
Based in Westlake Village, California.

360 Systems was founded in 1972 by Robert Easton, a U.S.C. cinema department graduate working in the Hollywood film industry. The firm’s original business plan focused on applying new semiconductor technology to products for the music and recording industries. Many of these “firsts” from the 1970s have since become industry standards. Starting in the 1970s, new semiconductor and software developments enabled a wealth of creative tools for these markets.

During the 1980’s, 360 Systems introduced its Permanent Playback™ digital audio message players, which became a standard in theme parks around the world. Permanent Playback replaces recording tape by storing high quality audio on EPROM memory chips. The revolutionary design removes all moving parts and delivers a virtually maintenance free system. Twenty five years later, original units are still in service.

360 Systems then entered the broadcast equipment business with the introduction of the DigiCart® recorder in 1990, providing the first real alternative to analog cart machines.
As the advantages of digital audio became clear, 360 Systems began designing products that emphasized reliability and ease-of-use with the Instant Replay®. The Short/cut™ Editor was then designed for fast, on-air editing of audio source materials. Short/cut provides a completely self-contained portable solution to waveform editing. It has found service in radio and television production, remote broadcast trucks, and voice-over facilities.  

n 2003, first shown at the April NAB Convention, the Image Server family of video servers set new standards for features and performance. Over 3,000 units are in service around the world. 360 Systems’ MAXX™ High Definition servers include large multi-channel models with high storage capacity, and affordable three-channel servers for mid-markets and Pro AV. 360 Systems introduced audio networking for television broadcast with the Ethernet Audio™ network, which provides shared-access to centrally stored audio files.

The early 2010’s saw the need for video servers with high channel counts in increasingly smaller form factors. This started first in 360 Systems MAXX server line with the introduction of the MAXX-2420, 4 channel server in a 2U form factor. The thought process was developed further in subsequent years with the introduction of the TSS and VTH multi channel servers in a 1U chassis.

By 2015 the next iteration of video servers from 360 Systems had been released. Performance enhancements including HD / SD in the same server along with up/down/cross conversions of multiple file formats on-the-fly were included as part of the standard features. The inclusion of H.264 and MPEG-2 support allowed for more flexible file support especially when dealing with moving content from NLE’s and other external sources. Several additional variations of these servers were released in subsequent years.

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