Company history . . .      I started ZEN in the 1980s whilst working for ITV at Granada’s Manchester studios. My first computer was a built from a 6502-based Ohio Scientific kit, bought in the USA in 1979 whilst working as a Sound Recordist on a film shoot for ITV’s World In Action current affairs series.

With the advent of the Amiga in the mid-1980s, which could be gen-locked to a video source, I started writing a variety of video-related software using C. This included subtitling & tele-prompting, ident clocks, scoring software for sports & gameshows, and specialist software to mimic other computer displays for use in TV film dramas like Cracker, Prime Suspect and A Touch of Frost.

In 1993 I left Granada TV to concentrate on computer-video activities with ZEN, following a natural path into building non-linear editing systems, for many years the main business activity. In the last 10 years the product emphasis has changed from post-production to live production/streaming, with Magewell and vMix the main product lines. Although my income has mainly come from sales of these products, I still maintain an active interest in video production and maintain some “hands-on” experience whenever an opportunity presents itself.

As of the end of 2021, I’ve been winding down the sales side of ZEN and heading into retirement. Whether that results in me spending more time writing software, I really don’t know – only time will tell. There are so many things that I could be doing!

Martin Kay
ZEN Computer Services
www.zenvideo.co.uk