Polar Graphics Background

Polar Graphics has been importing and distributing products for the film, TV and Multimedia industries for over 10 years - however, its history goes far beyond that. Many of you may recall Polar Video. You may even remember the notorious Polar/VME IBC parties at the Subterfuge club and Pink Coconut in Brighton. Well, Peter Rowsell, who is the MD and founding member of Polar Graphics, was a partner in Polar Video and largely responsible for those manic evenings.

Peter started his career at Eclair Debrie and Rank Film Equipment selling lighting, film cameras and then later moving into the fledgling video industry. Peter built upon his experiences in the film markets to establish a European network of resellers for Convergence Corp, who manufactured the first linear joystick operated editor in the world. Subsequently, he joined forces with Fred Smith to form Polar Video and established a worldwide distribution network for their products.

Peter started Polar Graphics in 1994 and his decades of experience in sales, marketing and manufacturing has led to a successful distribution company with strong relationships with both manufacturers and dealers alike. Starting with Ultimatte products and then taking on BorisFX and Digieffects it was obvious that the market was moving heavily into non-linear Digital production. This generated the need for Polar to spread its wings and hence the introduction of Digital Voodoo/Bluefish444 and Medea products. Most recently, the introduction of Huge/Ciprico and G-Tech products have complemented the line-up.

This move into the realms of computer technology generated the need for technical leadership and the recruitment of PolarÍs Technical Director, Garry Davis, in 2000 fulfilled this need. GarryÍs degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering coupled with the wide range of engineering training he received at EMI stood him in good stead when he designed one of the first Digital Disc recorders for Digital Graffiti. Subsequent to this, his time spent as a design consultant working on mobile computers and mobile phones put Garry in the perfect position to take over the technical side for Polar.

Polar's main aim is to have an exclusive range of non-competitive products and to distribute those products through their UK and European dealer network. It is Polar's policy that all products are sold through their dealers - this gives dealers the confidence that they can work with Polar, knowing that we will not try to take customers from them. At the same time, we have always been happy to talk to end-users direct, providing the highest calibre technical service to our dealers and their customers.