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[Monday at NAB]
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Vitec Group Grows With New RF Systems Unit
New Products Available For Microwave Communications Market
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by Claudia Kienzle,
~ April 14, 2008
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TV TECHNOLOGY
With its acquisition of RF Central, Nucomm and Microwave Services Corp. (MSC) in 2007, the Vitec Group formed the new RF systems business unit within its broadcast systems division. All three companies serve the microwave communications market, with RF Central and Nucomm offering microwave transmission gear, including digital wireless systems, and MSC providing microwave radio rental, sales, and service.
Vitec Group benefited from the acquisition of these companies by broadening its already-varied portfolio of broadcast products and services to include complementary microwave RF transmission technologies for relaying HD and SD camera signals wirelessly.
UNDER THE UMBRELLA
“The trend in live news, sports, and events production is to move away from cables running between the cameras and mobile video units,” said Joop Janssen, chief executive officer for the Vitec Group broadcast systems division. “Today, camera operators prefer to use wireless RF transmitters on their HD and SD cameras to send their signals over the air back to corresponding receivers on trucks and at other locations.”
The new RF Systems business unit complements all of the other products organized under the broadcast systems division umbrella, most of which revolve around the video camera and acquisition technology. These include Anton Bauer batteries; Autoscript teleprompters; Clear-Com intercoms; OConnor fluid heads; Petrol cameras bags and accessories; Sachtler fluid heads and tripods; Vinten tripods, pedestals and fluid heads; and Vinten Radamec robotic control panels and pedestals.
RF Central, Nucomm, and MSC in turn benefit from Vitec Group’s strong reputation and strength in the professional broadcast community, as well as from the marketing efforts of its sister companies.
“The primary impetus behind merging these three companies under Vitec was that they were all actively providing equipment, services, and support to broadcasters in the midst of the BAS [broadcast auxiliary spectrum] transition,” Janssen said. “The three companies complement and support each other’s marketing and customer service efforts while benefiting from economies of scale. They also share information about their insights about the marketplace, which results in more effective research and development of new products that better serve the broadcast community.”
To comply with new regulations in the 2 GHz (BAS) spectrum, broadcasters need to replace all of their analog 2 GHz microwave equipment with digital equipment. Also, many are taking the opportunity to upgrade their new digital gear to HD or HD-ready capabilities.
“But the indirect customer is Sprint Nextel, the new licensee in the 2 GHz space, which agreed to pay for all of the broadcaster’s transitional equipment costs,” said Janssen. “Once part of Vitec, these RF systems companies were now backed by a prominent parent company and marketing themselves more effectively, rather than tackling challenges as three separate, smaller companies.”
In its 2007 annual performance report, Vitec Group reported that the broadcast systems division saw a revenue increase of 29 percent — from £100.5 million ($199 million) in 2006 to £129.8 million pounds ($257.1 million) in 2007. Included in those annual performance figures, the RF Systems business unit realized sales revenues and operating profits of £23.5 million ($46.5 million) and £3.3 million ($6.5 million) respectively.
OLYMPIC SYNERGY
An example of the synergy between Vitec member companies will be seen at the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. Vitec plans to send a delegation of 15 technicians to provide on-site technical and customer support to all of its broadcast customers covering the games. According to Janssen, rental company Bexel, in Burbank, Calif., will ship five 40-foot containers filled with $20 million worth of broadcast equipment for use by Bexel’s customers. Also, 18 of the outside broadcast vans at the Olympics will be carrying equipment from Clear-Com, Vinten and Sachtler.
“Chinese broadcast network CCTV has purchased several million dollars worth of equipment, including a full range of Clear-Com equipment,” said Janssen. “This includes digital intercoms, IFBs, and VoICE 2.0 IP-based matrix switchers.” The deal also includes HD digital RF microwave equipment from Nucomm that will be used on a helicopter providing live aerial shots of the opening and closing ceremonies and runners carrying the torch.
FROM ENGLAND TO VEGAS
At the NAB Show, Vitec’s RF Systems business unit will show many products, including RF Central’s RFX-CMT-II COFDM camera-mounted transmitters, RFX-PHT-II portable high-power transmitters and RFX-RMR-II COFDM rackmount receivers. These product lines were used by KRNV-TV4, in Reno, Nev., to produce live HDTV coverage of Nevada’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration. Also, the RFX-CMT-II HD upgradeable camera mount transmitter was used by ABC 27 WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, Pa., to produce live coverage around the immense, crowded showroom floor of the 2008 Pennsylvania Auto & Boat Show.
RF Central’s RFX-RMR-X6 six-way diversity receivers, RFX-CMT-II camera-mount transmitters, RFX-PHT portable high-power transmitters, and RFX-PDT portable digital transmitters were used by IMG Media, a sports and media production company, to produce a live telecast of the 2007 ING New York City Marathon, following 35,000 runners competing across the five boroughs of New York City.
And Nucomm is showing its newly developed 7 Series HD and HD-ready ENG product line, and promoting that its entire ENG/OB product line is now capable of HD operation using built-in encoding/decoding technology. In addition, the company has production prototypes of its 7 Series technology specifically tailored for the worldwide (non-U.S.) marketplace.
Two other big customers mentioned by Janssen are News Corp., which ordered a large number of Vinten Radamec Fusion camera robotic systems, and QVC, which bought several Vinten Radamec Fusion systems.
“Production automation is a very big trend in this industry,” said Janssen. “We have a very big market share of products for wireless, automated, or streamlined production. Also, we invest a higher than average percentage of our profits back into research and development of new products, many of which have won prestigious technology awards.”
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