July 2014
www.tvbeurope.com
It is estimated that the annual turnover of the combined operation will be more than $55 million
Raoul Cospen, Dalet’s director of marketing
AmberFin have been working together for years before the acquisition, and we have similar ideas about stable APIs and good design. From our customers’ perspective, our already seamless integrations should be even more seamless in the future.”
Watch this space
With the acquisition now a given — and the two operations merged — what can we expect to see in the way of new products or services over the next six to 12 months?
Devlin says that both Dalet and AmberFin will be making new product announcements in the run-up to IBC. “You will see some exciting developments around our image processing and partners, as well as further developments in the scalable farm technology that we have already deployed around the world.” Cospen adds, “Plus, we are creating a new division that focuses on off-the-shelf products that will be distributed through channels. To hear more, you’ll have to wait until IBC!”
specialities over the years. We can see a great chance to use that talent and experience in a bigger range of products, solutions and services that will really excite customers.”
Merging: a good idea? Some of the recent merger activity has been driven by venture capital backers seeking greater effi ciency in a company’s core operations and to reduce cost wherever this is possible. And that’s a perfectly laudable aim. But as these consolidations seem to be a growing part of the broadcast industry, are they really a good thing?
“It is
all about making
customers’
operations faster and more profi table” Raoul Cospen, Dalet
“My belief is that they can be either good or bad depending on the drivers that led to the acquisition taking place,” maintains Cospen. “Are the motives the investment in the long-term or are the companies driven by more short- term fi nancial considerations? To really understand what is going on — and therefore what are the medium and long-term implications for the company and its ability to support the growth and development of their customers’ operations — you must look at each transaction closely.”
Devlin believes that, in general, consolidations are a good thing. “During these times of very rapid change within the industry, it is diffi cult for any one company to be master of every aspect of the end- to-end value chain and simultaneously innovate in every area. I think, over the next few years, we will see continued acquisitions and mergers as corporations attempt to broaden their technology portfolios to be masters of the new media value chain that is developing.”
Integrating technologies One of the ‘buzz’ words — or perhaps ‘buzz’ phrases — around at the moment is ‘seamless integration’. And according to Cospen, such integration makes good business sense — in fact, it is key. “At Dalet, we have more than 100 existing integrations with traffi c systems, automation systems, NLEs, graphics engines, transcoders and so on. It is important to mention that we will keep all our products open and, where possible, based on open standards. For example, if you want to integrate your Dalet MAM system with another transcoder, we will support it. If you want to integrate your AmberFin transcoder into another MAM, we will support it. We believe in the power of open standards and customer choice.” “But this goes even beyond transcoding. Dalet is committed to FIMS, and to standards in general. Integration is a critical component of our solution.”
Devlin agrees, “‘Seamless Integration’ happens when people think similarly and products mesh easily. Dalet and
Cospen concludes, “You know, combining the best of AmberFin’s media technology and the best of Dalet’s metadata technology is a dream come true.”
www.amberfi
n.com
TVBEurope 37 Feature
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