Ensemble Video continues growing

SYRACUSE — Revenue at Syracuse–based Ensemble Video has doubled since 2011 and the company has been growing its workforce to keep pace.

Ensemble Video provides an online video platform aimed at the corporate and education markets. The firm added five people in the past year and now employs eight.

The company expects more growth this year with three more new hires likely, says Scott Nadzan, director of sales and marketing.

School districts, colleges, and enterprise customers use Ensemble Video’s platform to stream content over a variety of networks and devices, including computers, iPhones, iPads, and Androids, the company says. Its system integrates with a range of video and web technologies and allows institutions to secure video content and share internally or publish to any Web page.

Growing comfort with online learning and video content is helping to drive the growth at Ensemble, Nadzan says.

“Video allows them to communicate with an audience 24/7,” he says. “It allows them to engage with their audience.”

Although YouTube dominates the online video world, the service isn’t really made for use by large organizations, according to Ensemble. Nadzan says his company tailors its product specifically for schools and businesses.

Upgrading the system is a constant priority and another reason for the firm’s growth, he adds.

“We’re building a better car that more people are able to buy and want to buy,” he says. “Our software has gotten better.”

Online learning allows schools to add classes without adding buildings, he notes.

And online video is ideal for businesses looking to share training companywide. Business and education users both post video of routine meetings for later use, Nadzan says.

Ensemble deployed its software with close to 100 new organizations in 2012.

The firm has close to 200 customers total and nearly all are in education, Nadzan says. The firm is aiming to dominate the market for online video in both K-12 schools and higher education.

Nadzan says most of the growth in recent years has come on the education side of the business and he expects continued strength there in the future.

So far, the company has largely bootstrapped its growth, although firm leaders have talked occasionally with outside investors, Nadzan says.

“Our main goal is to try and do this organically,” he says.

Ensemble Video is based on work the company’s founder and CEO, Andy Covell, did while he was executive director of information technology at Syracuse University’s (SU) Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Covell spent 27 years at SU and one of his major tasks was wiring the Whitman School’s new building, which opened in 2005. During that project, Covell confronted a host of different, disparate technologies and methods for collecting and sharing video across departments.

Covell, with the help of some members of SU’s School of Information Studies, eventually began working on what would become Ensemble Video as a result of facing that challenge.

Education customers for the company include Rice University, Temple University, Dartmouth College, Rochester Institute of Technology, nine State University of New York campuses, Baldwinsville Central Schools, Fayetteville-Manlius Schools, Cortland City School District, Westhill Central Schools, and Ithaca City School District. On the business side, customers include the New York State Association of Realtors, Inc., Squire Sanders Law Firm, and Syntax Communications.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com