GRASS VALLEY, Calif., June 27, 2026 – What do the Grammys, Fox Sports’ special “Field of Dreams” broadcast, virtual K-pop phenomenon PLAVE, the International Space Station and YubaNet have in common? They all use AJA Video Systems gear, designed and manufactured right here in Grass Valley.
The company, founded in 1993 by engineer John Abt, continues to grow and deliver cutting-edge technology for the professional video market.
YubaNet spoke with President Nick Rashby following AJA’s April acquisition of Compromato, a Czech software company and longtime partner, to discuss the company’s growth and plans for the future. “Compromato is a small 15-person company in the Czech Republic and they’ve been our partner for about three to five years and we co-developed some products together; it just was a natural progression to bring them in house so they could bring their software talent to AJA and AJA could bring our scale and global reach to them. It’s very much a great cultural fit, technological fit. It’s just been great so far,” he said.
AJA is expanding even as other storied video tech companies in the area have folded or been absorbed. “We hired tons of great people because of that, but just for the community it’s definitely a bummer,” he said. “We are continuing to grow and these acquisitions are part of that. We’re looking at other companies to potentially acquire as well.”
International expansion has been a constant for AJA: “I started in 2003 and we had already established some international relationships at that point, but that was definitely a focus of ours to continue to expand our channel, our customer base, our partnerships around the world. It’s been very successful for us. We’re still growing in Asia. We have a sales and marketing team there and the same in Europe. Both of those regions are still growing and expanding. So lots of opportunity left for us to continue to leverage that even after 33 years,” Rashby said.
Expansion hasn’t altered the company’s Grass Valley footprint. “We have about 180 people in Grass Valley in two buildings up by Briar Patch. One is our R&D building and the other one is where the rest of the company functions are based,” Rashby said. All manufacturing also takes place on the Grass Valley campus.
Rashby pointed to the vision of founder and chairman John Abt and his family, saying, “Those Abts just don’t believe in short term, you know. They’re always willing to invest in the company and it’s just such a great place to work. We’re not laying people off to save a few bucks here and there. We’re just not built that way.”
AJA, already one of the largest employers in Nevada County, is still in hiring mode. “We’re very much looking for more engineers and other functions,” Rashby said. A full list of open positions is available on AJA’s website.
On AJA’s future, Rashby kept it simple: “Just continue to listen to our customers and build stuff that we hope they want to buy. Acquisitions will be part of that to bring in technologies and capabilities that will help us create those things.”