20 Years of Quicklink: The Journey

In early 2003, Richard Rees (4BN) and Richard Bolton (Co-owner of 4BN) met with Ken Herron (CEO of TVZ) and Pete Henderson (CEO of Indigo). An idea was born to build an encoder for the BBC and ABC to cover the Iraq war — which led to the birth of Quicklink on 23rd May 2003.

The idea of building an encoder was made reality. This specific encoder provided the world’s first transmission, and part of this original encoder is still on display in the main foyer of Quicklink’s UK-based headquarters.

To meet demand, Quicklink began working, shipping, and testing software from the very first Quicklink office, aptly nicknamed “The Green Room” by BBC. It may have been small, but we all had to start somewhere!

Quicklink quickly outgrew the “Green Room” and moved into a small, shared office with hardware manufacturer, Nickel Electro, in Weston-super-Mare, England. From Nickel Electro, Quicklink occupied a modest space where all operations and manufacturing took place.

In late 2009, Ken Herron and Richard Bolton resigned from their positions. IEC Telecom, an international satellite service operator headquartered in Paris, become a strategic investor in Quicklink.

In Spring 2010, a huge step was taken for Quicklink as the first dedicated Quicklink office was opened. This office, also in Weston-super-Mare, England, provided a much larger dedicated space for Quicklink to operate.

In 2013, Quicklink opened a second office in Swansea, Wales. Initially occupying a single office on the second floor of Technium 2, Swansea. During a period of accelerated growth, Quicklink required additional space, leading to moving to two offices on the ground floor.

Quicklink partners with Microsoft to launch the Quicklink TX (Skype TX) enabling the integration of high-quality Skype callers into broadcast workflows. The Quicklink TX was first debuted at IBC 2014 in Amsterdam, and started shipping shortly after.

“Through Quicklink TX, broadcasters will be able to deliver a new generation of unmissable media moments”. – Richard Rees, Quicklink CEO.

In early 2017, Quicklink proudly launched Quicklink Studio (prev. Quicklink Communicator) — a professional solution for introducing high-quality remote guests into productions from any desktop or mobile device, with no applications or logins required. Quicklink Studio has been become a staple in Quicklink’s solutions offering.

In 2017, Skype TX, the technology behind Quicklink TX, was honoured with an Emmy® Award for Technology & Engineering. At the time, Skype TX had been adopted by over 1,200 broadcasters internationally and delivered over 20 million minutes of high-quality Skype calls.

Quicklink announces the launch of the Quicklink Studio-in-a-box at IBC 2017 in Amsterdam — a company and portable unit with inbuilt camera, lighting and monitor for gathering professionally managed remote contributions. Since it’s launch, the Studio-in-a-box has gone through a number of different revisions. In this time, the Quicklink Studio-in-a-box has been used to introduce experts, celebrities, politicians, world leaders and royalty into global broadcast events.

Quicklink had outgrown the office space at Technium 2, and required a larger workspace to accommodate the continuous growth. In March 2018, Quicklink opened a larger office at Bay Studios, Swansea — a film and TV production complex. This is Quicklink’s current headquarters.

On 21st April 2018, Quicklink were delighted to receive a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation, the most prestigious award for UK businesses and the highest accolade for business success. The awards are only given for the highest levels of excellence demonstrated in each category.

Following immense growth for the company in the United States, Quicklink opened their first US office in Hackensack, New Jersey. This new office allowed Quicklink to strengthen sales, services, and support operations in North America and provide local support to customers with repair and service facilities with inventory available for immediate access in the United States.

May 2023, marks 20 years in business for Quicklink. In this time, Quicklink has become an industry leader in providing professional, best-in-class remote production (REMI) hardware, software, and cloud solutions to over 800 valued clients worldwide.