face to face richard scott
Neil Nixon speaks to Richard Scott - vice
president, Europe, the Middle East and Africa
operations for Harris Broadcast Communications.
Face to Face
1080p (3 Gb/s) will grow significantly in
2009.
Our NEXIO AMP advanced media
platform has enjoyed a surge of
business in 2008, and we expect this to
continue in 2009 as customers look for
more competitive HD video server
technology.
As customers continue to recognise
How has your region - Europe, the Are any specific geographical areas
the very real benefits of integrated
Middle East and Africa - performed within your region being targeted for
systems across complex file-based
during 2008 and what are your significant development during the year
workflows, we anticipate our software
predictions for the year ahead? ahead?
business to do well as a result of the
We’ve been very pleased with our We have recently opened new Harris
strong interoperability across our
performance in the region this year. offices in Dubai and Munich, which is a
portfolio, which combines digital asset
Even though this has been a transition tangible demonstration of Harris’
management (Invenio), automation (D-
year for many aspects of Harris commitment to developing our local
Series DSX or ADC-1000) and scheduling
Broadcast’s internal structure and and regional presence in the Europe,
and air-time sales systems (Broadcast
processes, the business has continued to
Above: Richard
Scott, vice
Middle East and African (EMEA) regions.
Master, Landmark & Vision). We deliver
grow in virtually every category. In president, Europe, These offices provide a base for our
and implement these solutions in
some areas, we have grown
the Middle East and
Africa operations for
Middle Eastern and Nordic & Central
cooperation with local and international
significantly faster than the market. This
Harris Broadcast
Europe business operations respectively,
systems integrators or Harris channel
is partly due to a strengthening of our
Communications.
with locally based employees able to
partners, and these partnerships will
product portfolio, which has allowed provide service support, pre-sales and,
contribute to the growth of our software
Harris to take market share from of course, sales capability. These two
business.
competitors, and partly due to an areas are showing the strongest growth
Finally, transmission is a key focus
acceleration of our business activities in in the EMEA region, and this will
area for Harris in 2009. The market
some emerging countries. continue as a trend in 2009.
opportunity for us in this region is huge,
As we begin 2009, there is clearly a
with the digital transition only freshly
significant nervousness in the market Which areas of Harris Broadcast’s
underway toward digital TV, radio and
with regard to the availability of credit extensive product and technology
mobile. The new Harris Maxiva range -
and the downturn of advertising spend portfolio will return the greatest growth
which provides today’s multimedia
for our customers. This, in turn, is in 2009?
leading to increased scrutiny for all
Going forward
broadcaster with one transmitter
We are expecting all of our hardware
platform capable of multiple modulation
capital spending. We are seeing some in 2009, Harris and software product categories to grow
schemes - allows us to be well
projects delayed and some
will build
in 2009, but four areas are likely to
positioned to enjoy significant growth in
downgraded; however, the actual short-
upon its
perform particularly well: signal
this area over the next couple of years.
term impact on our customers’ spending
has varied across the region, with some
commitment
processing, video servers, software, and
countries continuing with strong results.
to ‘green’
transmission. How significant will the expanding IPTV
Harris is a market leader in terms of and Internet TV markets be to Harris in
The diversity of the Harris product endeavours infrastructure products such as 2009?
range across our hardware and software
on all levels
processing, conversion and routing.
IPTV and Internet TV are seen by our
platforms enables us to be resilient
of the
Having made significant additions to our
customers as being two emerging
during market fluctuations. We look
forward to coming out of the current
organisation
portfolio over the past year - including
platforms for distribution of their existing
downturn ahead of our competitors -
by expanding
our expanded multiviewer offer
content. With the exception of YouTube-
following the acquisition of Zandar
especially those that don’t enjoy the
its
style markets where user-generated
Technologies in late 2007 and the
content drives very different dynamics,
same level of geographic and sustainability introduction of our new 3 Gb/s-ready
the IPTV platform in particular offers
technological diversity.
programmes.
X85 all-in-one converter/synchroniser -
opportunities for Harris in terms of
I prefer not to speculate on when the our product range is broad enough and
contribution and distribution
downturn is going to end, although our advanced enough to meet all of our
technologies.
view internally is that we are not customers’ current and future
Although the discussion of IPTV often
expecting a recovery until after the infrastructure requirements. And we
focuses solely on the final distribution of
summer of 2009 at the earliest. feel confident that investments in HD
content to the consumer, it is important
16 l ibe l January/February 2009 l www.ibeweb.com
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