Page 23 - The Channel Issue 2 2010

THE CHANNEL | ISSUE 2 2010 | 23

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From where we are located people like GlobeCast andArqiva. Obviously Media Broadcast, Deutsche Telekom are our main competitors just purely by location. In big companies it's sometimes difficult to find the right person to talk to. Here we have just over 30 people – the sales and marketing division is in the UK - and everybody knowswho they should be talking to for certain things.

What are broadcasters demanding from you?

The biggest demand is getting more for less. Technology to a certain extent has enabled that to happen over the years. But of course technology is nowgoing the other way. Customers looking to do HD find that their cost is going up as they require more and more bandwidth. It will get even worse as 3D is becoming more popular. Then of course you have got other technologies like MPEG-4 and DVB-S2. As HD has required more bandwidth these technologies are using techniques to reduce that amount of bandwidth again. It takes time to get this into the market place in any volume. If somebody just invested in a TV channel doing SD - as most of it is at the moment - they are not going to be looking at changing to HD or MPEG-4 any time soon, especially if they have just had a large capital investment to do it the normal way.

How green are you?

Being green is a consideration for

everybody and we do take it seriously. We are as green as we can be, bearing in mind that the teleport was built back in the '80s. As we renew our HPA for the antennas, we go to solid state where possible and make them as environment friendly and economical as possible. If you take a large HPA for a 15 metre antenna where you need maybe 2 or 3 kilowatts of power, you are looking at spending in the region of £200,000 for just one antenna. As they need replacing then obviously you can make that investment. We have massive air conditioning plants here but under normal circumstances they are never running at full blast because it does not get that hot.

There is cable TV, satellite TV, IPTV. How do you see this mix developing?

Every country is different. In England cable has never really taken off, in America most people prefer to have cable TV. And of course there are countries that are not likely to get access to cable TV as the cost of putting it in is prohibitive. Satellite will always have its place, but what dictates what goes where is usually the content that's on offer.

If you look at Sky in the UK the majority of viewers go to Sky for the movies and the sport. If the BBC suddenly had a big pot of money and bought all the sport back again you'll find that people

would stop watching Sky and go to the BBC. Viewers are not very loyal, if the content moves then the viewers go with it. I think IPTV is something that appeals to the younger generation - they are looking to pick up content anywhere and watch it on their phones and PCs. But all sorts of other issues come into it – the rights issues for example, somebody has rights terrestrially in one country and they don't want people watching it for free on IPTV.

What's in the pipeline?

At the moment we are putting a lot of effort into Africa. There is a lot of potential in Africa - new satellites are going up, but demand is so great they are almost sold out before they get into the sky. Until there is plenty of capacity the potential of Africa will never be really fulfilled. Also, large parts of Africa do not have the wealth to afford it anyway. We are currently trying to build a distributor and partner network in various countries in Africa to do a lot of the footwork for us.

What's the top priority for you?

My personal objective is to see the company regarded as a high quality provider. To become people's first choice – so they talk to us before they go to the bigger conglomerates. It's hard work to build a reputation and it is even harder to stay there.

Ken Armstrong, thank you.

If the content moves, then the viewers go with it