Videndum plc is a manufacturer of hardware and software for the film industry founded in 1910 and based in

Richmond, London Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Commiss ...

. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septemb ...

History

The business was established by William Vinten when he started manufacturing

Kinemacolor Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson and, more directly, Ed ...

projectors for

Charles Urban Charles Urban (April 15, 1867 – August 29, 1942) was an Anglo-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the documentary, educational, propag ...

in 1909. The company, trading as 'W. Vinten

Cinematograph Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the Cin ...

Engineers', was formed in 1910 and was originally based at 89-91

Wardour Street Wardour Street () is a street in Soho, City of Westminster, London. It is a one-way street that runs north from Leicester Square, through Chinatown, London, Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Throughout the 20th century the ...

, London. In 1914, the company workshops were taken over by the government and William Vinten was invited by Sopwith at

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

to work alongside them in their aeroplane factory. This led in 1915 to an invitation by the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

for William Vinten to design and build the Model B, a special cine-camera for use in aircraft. In 1928 the company expanded and moved to

Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: Barnet to the east, Brent to the west and Camden to the south-east. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north- ...

, North London, mainly supplying the film industry by creating specialised equipment for companies such as

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

. The Second World War created an increased requirement for

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

cameras and the company secured military contracts which gave it world market presence for reconnaissance work. In the late 1940s, the

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

market began to flourish and the company developed the first telerecording camera. As a result the

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

became increasingly involved with Vinten. The BBC became the world benchmark for whom Vinten adapted many of their original film camera supports creating equipment more suitable for television cameras. In 1964 Vinten moved to

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. In 1972, the company was floated on the

. In the early 1980s, the company worked in partnership with the BBC to develop pedestals, tripods and other equipment for use in their news studios. In 1988 Vinten split into two separate entities, W Vinten Ltd (which became

Thales Optronics Thales Optronics is a optronics manufacturer and a division of the French defence corporation Thales Group. It is headquartered in Paris. The company has three main subsidiaries: Thales Optronique SA in France, Thales Optronics Limited in the Unit ...

), focused solely on reconnaissance equipment, and Vinten Broadcast, focussed on broadcast mounting equipment. From 1989 the company began a series of acquisitions:

Manfrotto Manfrotto is an Italian brand of camera and lighting supports, including tripods, monopods, and other accessories, that is manufactured by Lino Manfrotto + Co. Spa, a company headquartered in Cassola, Italy. The brand is wholly-owned by Videndum p ...

(1989), Bexel (1991),

Gitzo Gitzo S.A. is a manufacturer of photographic accessories, including bags, but specialising in tripods and supports. History Gitzo was founded in France by Arsène Gitzhoven in 1917, initially producing wooden and metal cassette filmbacks, and late ...

(1992), Bogen Imaging (1993), TSM Inc nown for its AutoCam product range(1993),

Sachtler Sachtler is a manufacturer of film and video camera support products and reporter lighting equipment. The company was founded in 1958 and was bought by the United Kingdom's Vitec Group (now Videndum) in 1995. History Wendelin Sachtler was a cine ...

(1995), OConnor (2003). Vinten Group plc changed its name to Vitec Group plc in 1995. Following the acquisition of Radamec in 2003 a new brand Vinten Radamec was created to take over the manufacture of robotic camera support products. In April 2021, Vitec acquired Quasar Science, a linear LED tube manufacturer. In May 2022, the company changed its name to Videndum plc. Vinten continues to exist as one of the group's brands.

Operations

The company's main brands include: *Anton/Bauer *

*Litepanels *

*Quasar Science *

*SmallHD *Teradek *

Vinten Vinten is a brand of lightweight manual and robotic camera supports such as tripods, pedestals, pan and tilt heads, robotic heads, and robotic tracks, many of which are aimed at the television studio and outside broadcast markets. The brand was es ...

History

Operations

References

Further reading