Last year the former Drake Automation Limited (DAL) decided to move into operations, offering fully managed solutions with its own staff on site. It set up a unit called Digital Automation for the purpose. The company, now merged with Columbine JDS, is now set to take this to the next stage, according to Columbine JDS-DAL Automation Group chief executive Barry Goldsmith.

An early customer for the new service was Sweden’s Viasat, a latecomer to digital. Goldsmith now sees offering a fully managed solution as a winning strategy for the future. He envisages economics-conscious broadcasters in particular increasingly focusing on the business of getting and managing content and rights, managing commercials and advertising spots, and collecting revenue, leaving engineering to outside parties. “The question is where do you put your expertise,” said Goldsmith. “The engineering operation is just an enabler. . .People are spending more time looking at content and less time looking at engineering.”

From winning the contract in July last year, DAL put together a solution in four months. Viasat currently runs six channels to Scandinavia but plans to increase this to ten soon. “Viasat will become a model of how it’s done,” he said.

DAL, which was started in 1995, and which this year expects revenues of $50-55 million, last year was acquired by Columbine JDS of Denver. Goldsmith sees the merger as a good fit. “CJDS is associated with business systems, traffic and the management of traffic,” he said. We have now got the business systems and the operational management systems in one company.”

Goldsmith believes that the marriage with CJDS will take DAL “closer to the set top box”.

“This is a significant move we are making,” he said. “It is increasing the operational side of the business and extending Internet services.” He said that the company is now planning to become involved in a number of other joint ventures focusing on “Internet and operational activity”.

Goldsmith identifies the management of interactive advertising spots and local advertising opt-outs as one of the key challenges that lie ahead. “Managing commercials is what is going to be important in the future,” he said. “You can start to direct advertising. We are starting to put the pieces in place for and interactive advertising and spot management.”

Goldsmith believes there is a difference in philosophy between the US and Europe. He believes that in the US the TV is seen as the “point of contact” whereas in Europe there is a perception that services will be run over a number of different distribution systems.

Satellite broadcasters such as Viasat, @Entertainment (now owned by UPC) and BSkyB, along with terrestrial commercial broadcasters such as UK ITV companies, remain at the core of the company’s customer base. @Entertainment, for whose facility in Maidstone DAL was responsible, was a key early customer. “They wanted to get the most cost-effective approach,” said Goldsmith.

DAL did not initially focus on cable operators, whose demands at the time required less sophisticated solutions. “We did not target cable companies when we started,” he said. “Their spend on implementing systems was not high.”

DAL now counts as one of its key customers pan-European cable operator UPC, though here the focus is once again on a satellite platform — in this case, UPC’s planned EuroHITS service, set to launch in the second quarter. The centre is still in its build phase.

“EuroHITS has the capacity to grow quickly and easily,” said Goldsmith. The service involves broadcasts in three languages. At the moment it is scheduled to run between six and ten channels, but the playout centre currently has the capacity to run between 16-20. Unlike in the case of Viasat, CJDS-DAL is not providing a fully managed service for UPC. The company is managing its own production and post-production equipment.