[Satellite News 01-06-08] TeamCast, a broadcast networks infrastructure solutions provider, is confident it will see strong market demand for its hybrid solutions encompassing terrestrial and satellite and is aggressively seeking global growth opportunities despite the economic recession, Serge Mal, the company’s executive vice president and general manager told Satellite News.
    TeamCast is offering hybrid satellite and terrestrial network solutions with the ability to synchronize between satellite and terrestrial processes in single frequency mode — a feature that, according to Mal, will benefit broadcasters. “For DVB-SH [digital video broadcasting-satellite services to handhelds], as an example, you need to synchronize the signal and associated frequency from the satellite hub up to the digital terrestrial transmitter,” he said. “It means that you need to understand some mechanisms of the satellite operation. The satellite could have some oscillations, which will generate delta time and delta frequencies to be compensated in order to keep a synchronized signal before terrestrial broadcasting. In general, the terrestrial transmitter suppliers do not have this double knowledge of satellite and terrestrial.”
    Mal discussed how his small business could execute growth strategies in a difficult financial environment by following a carefully managed technology roadmap.

Mal: I would say the Americas are the most interesting for us. The Middle East also appears interesting. Regarding fixed TV, China and Russia are two markets that are of interest to us. We also think a lot of countries in Latin America will also have to select their digital path in the near future. But in terms of mobile TV, the main opportunity for us is in China, where we are working with a local partner, Digital Horizon. China is in commercial deployment, which is not the case in other countries.

Mal: Our technology roadmap does not involve a change in our philosophy. We will deliver additional standards regarding digital TV as well as fixed TV and mobile TV. We will reinforce our product portfolio regarding the Chinese Digital Terrestrial Standard (DTMB) and Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting for Terrestrial, CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting), Flo V2 and ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee)-M/H for mobile TV. We will deliver to China for their standards for mobile TV and intend to deliver solutions for DVB-SH in the United States. Today, we are providing digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) solutions for terrestrial TV, but we intend to deliver the DVB-T2 application in the next 12 months. The new DVB-T will cover 30 percent more in terms of coverage and 30 additional percent in terms of bandwidth. The United Kingdom will be the first country to broadcast applications in DVB-T2 and we have an agreement with the BBC to be able to do that.

Mal: We are well positioned to survive the global recession. There are still opportunities for us. You have crises in the world, which means people are watching TV. It means that transmission applications will stay in the market. We don’t see a recession with these types of applications. In addition, due to the fact that governments are looking for cash and money, they could decide to sell frequencies in advance to have the money. The analog switchover could be accelerated. People will have to move from analog to digital quicker. There are interesting opportunities for us to move forward.

Mal: Our company is quite solid. We could still attract investment. Our situation in terms of cash is not so bad. We do not need additional capital to move forward if we are thinking of organic growth. If we need to look at other growth opportunities, such as expanding our parameters, we could finance part of this growth, but we might need extra funding. The decision to do that has not yet been made. We do not need that for the time being. Due to the fact that we do not need money, the financial community is ready to give us loans in order to move forward.

Mal: We would have to manage our cash carefully. Our priorities are cash management. In terms of the market, I would say we have to acquire market shares. We will go into the new standards and provide all of the solutions in terms of technology, and in parallel we will acquire market share. We have signed agreements in Japan and Australia, so our geographical reach is expanding. We will speed our research and development as well as our entrance into our geographical markets.