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TECHNOLOGY
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THE CHANNEL
If a new client comes to you – what
typically happens?
Try to look at key processes that
should be improved across the
business. They often see their
challenge in terms of technology
choice first, although increasingly
they do want to talk about their
users, operators and departments
and the processes developed so far,
so that's bottom and middle.
There is however a crucial top
layer where we recognise that the
business management systems they
use in planning such as
acquisitions, resource management,
traffic or scheduling are actually
running their organisation. A
longer term perspective that looks
top down to mediate business
priorities across the departments,
staff and technology - and work out
where they could make the biggest
gains first whilst showing them
that they can tackle all the other
stuff in the longer term.
We're embarking on one of these
projects every few months now, so
we have built up a lot of experience.
And it is getting easier to show
prospective clients what other
customers have achieved so far.
You are one of the companies that
drives technological change…
There is innovation in the product
and the solution of course, and in
project delivery. We have become a
specialist for content, workflow
management and automation
projects. There are 70 of us here at
Pharos, and that's all we do. We're
also a software integrator which
really helps.
Where we have really innovated
is in long term support. The real
unsung hero is our support team
who keep our customers in action
24/7 – we provide the backend to
keep content moving for more than
300 channels globally now and
more importantly our solutions are
managing millions of assets a year
for our customers. We have
developed a whole new remote
support methodology here, with a
support team of only about 8 -10
people who manage this 24/7.
What are the latest developments?
We recently founded our first
overseas office in Singapore and
now have staff there. Asia and what
is usually known as the Middle
East are very interesting to us right
now. Both regions have complex
content and many regions to
address. One recent large project is
a contract to provide studio control,
media management, workflow and
playout for new Arabic content
creator twofour54 in the Abu Dhabi
Media Zone and its partner venture
in transmission ADTV. And we are
also striking out to North America
– we have opened a new US office
and appointed Glen Sakata as
General Manager - Americas to
help capitalise on strong demand
for Pharos solutions.
What about the competition?
It's a confusing time because things
are moving so fast. Use of the more
conventional broadcast signal path
technology is decelerating rapidly
and the need for file-based workflows
and tapeless systems to work
properly now is very pressing. So
technology providers that really
have learnt what they needed to
know for tapeless and file-based,
the manufacturers that really have
the breadth of experience in
delivering real workflow and
media management projects, real
archive projects, real transmission
projects, and really extending linear
TV into VOD, those are the ones
that are now best placed. It’s our
future strategy to extend linear TV
workflow efficiently into whatever
on-demand becomes. We did this
for Channel 4 with 4OD quite a few
years ago and all of our customers
including Ascent, MTV and Viasat
are adding their own on demand
workflows.
How do you see the broadcast
industry moving?
It's going through a traumatic yet
healthy consolidation right now
which is driving efficiency –
viewers in turn are moving from
push to pull consumption which is
making investment decisions
difficult for our customers. So we
are helping our customers increase
efficiency in their existing linear
TV, get to more countries and a
wider audience, and at the same
time get them ready for on demand
- with the same Pharos solution
and aiming at no staff increases. We
have already taken some big
organisations through some big
changes. Our customer base is
trying to survive, isn't it, so we are
seeking to share what's already
worked for others.
Russell Grute, thank you.
WWW.PHAROS.TV
THE CHANNEL
|
ISSUE 2 2009
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45