Artel Video Systems, a leading global provider of broadcast-quality media transport solutions, announced today that it is now an employee owned company through the creation of the Artel Video Systems Corporation Employee Ownership Trust. The trust was created as an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in accordance with the rules and guidelines of the US Government Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Over the last 40 years, ESOPs have been an effective tool used by large and mid-sized, public as well as private companies to generate employee loyalty and dedication to fulfilling their organization’s charter. Currently, there are over 9,000 active ESOPs in the US.  All of Artel’s outstanding shares have been transferred to the Trust establishing Artel as a 100 percent employee owned company. “Since I became president of Artel, it has been clear that Artel’s strength is its unique combination of talented, experienced, and dedicated employees.  Also, it is well documented that broad based employee ownership enhances a company’s financial performance while dramatically improving all of their customer satisfaction metrics.” says Richard Dellacanonica, president and CEO.  “Delivering the world’s most reliable, simple to install and support media transport equipment has been our charter for more than 30 years and we have been successful at it because of our employees. Through this employee ownership program, we are further enhancing the culture of customer focused solutions, coupled with a dedication to service and quality that have been the hallmarks of Artel for decades.  We also expect this to drive more active participation in all aspects of the business creating a true win-win in business, with both the employees and our customers reaping the benefits from the employee ownership of Artel.” 

About Artel Video Systems (www.artel.com) Artel Video Systems is a leading global provider of broadcast-quality media transport solutions for IP, direct fiber, and managed optical networks. A pioneer in the industry, Artel developed the first commercially available video-over-fiber video transport platform. In recent years Artel has provided solutions based on DigiLink media platform providing the most reliable and easiest to configure and support solutions. With thousands of deployments DigiLink is relied upon everyday by the world’s largest broadcasters, telecommunication companies, and CATV operators for mission critical video and data feeds to support the world’s most watched sports, news, and entertainment events.