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Reliability Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Jul 27 2010

This is part of series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS).

Each year as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global sample of broadcast professionals are asked to rank their opinion of a number of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics. This information is used to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable these vendors to understand their competitive position in the market.

More than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participated in the 2010 BBS, making this the largest ever and most comprehensive study of the broadcast industry. In addition to measuring a variety of broadcast industry trends, more than 100 vendor brands (in 27 separate product categories) were evaluated by respondents.

Recently, posts which rank broadcast technology vendors include:

Today let’s look at how respondents ranked broadcast technology vendors for reliability.

Broadcast technology products are purchased by discerning customers for what are often mission-critical applications. Thus the reliability of products is a paramount concern for buyers of these products.

To measure the rankings of the reliability of vendors, respondents were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Reliability” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market. The top 30 ranked brands for overall opinion are shown below for the global sample of all respondents.

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey.

Reliability – Top 30 Broadcast Technology Brands (Alpha Order)

There are a wide variety of vendors on this list, including large & small companies and those who produce audio and video products.

Number of products per vendor – Single Product Companies Dominate Reliability Rankings

When reviewing these results it’s important to understand how many products are produced by each vendor on this list. This will help us to understand if whether reliability comes from small focused companies, or large multi-product vendors.

The 2010 BBS evaluated 27 separate product categories. As with the previously published top 30 quality rankings, single product companies (those who were covered on only one product category in the 2010 BBS) dominate the rankings for reliability.

A breakdown of how many product categories are produced by each vendor on the top 30 quality list is shown below:

With 21 out of 30 vendors on this list producing a product in only one BBS category (out of 27 measured) it’s clear that focused, specialized companies are regarded as reliability leaders in the eyes of the global broadcast market.

Nevertheless it’s also worth pointing out that large companies can also be considered industry innovators. For example Grass Valley is covered in 10 product categories in the 2010 BBS and Snell is covered in 5 product categories.

Geographic Location

Another factor to consider is the geographic location of each company on the list. By this measure, companies headquartered in EMEA are the clear reliability leaders, while companies based in the Americas and Asia trail the pack.

Keep in mind that when looking at geography, it’s important to remember that many of these firms are truly global, with offices all over the world, regardless of where they are headquartered.

Product Categories

Finally, let’s look at the product categories produced by the vendors who made the top 30 reliability list for the 2010 BBS.

Out of the 27 product categories covered in the 2010 BBS, 20 appear on this list; making reliability more concentrated than other metrics such as quality (which had entrants from 23 product categories).

Audio products lead the list of products produced by the top 30 reliability leaders, with audio consoles and microphones topping the rankings. ENG cameras and studio cameras, along with audio monitors also make a strong showing.

Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that, unless otherwise specified, all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2010 BBS. Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all 2010 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis. If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

This article is based on the findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands. With more than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participating, the 2010 version of the BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

Tags: Adobe, Aja Video, AKG, Apple, Broadcast Audio Consoles, Broadcast Automation, Broadcast ENG Cameras, Broadcast Intercom / Talkback, Broadcast Interfacing, Broadcast Microphones, Broadcast Modular, Broadcast Production Switchers, Broadcast Routing Switchers, Broadcast Signal Processing, Broadcast Speakers, Broadcast Studio Cameras, Broadcast Test & Measurement, Broadcast Transmission Encoders, Broadcast Transmitters, Broadcast Vendor Reliability Rankings, Broadcast Video Editing, Broadcast Video Transport, Calrec Audio, Cisco, Dolby, Electro Voice, Ericsson, Genelec, Grass Valley, Ikegami, JBL, Klein + Hummel, Lawo, Neumann, Panasonic, Reliability, Riedel, Rohde & Schwarz, RTS Intercom Systems, Salzbrenner Stagetec, Sennheiser, Shure, Snell, Solid State Logic, Sony, Studer, Tandberg, Tektronix, Telex, Yamaha
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Devoncroft Digest July 24, 2010 – Earnings Season Begins, More Broadcast M+A (and an IPO), Echolab Rumors

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Devoncroft Digest, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Jul 24 2010

The Devoncroft Digest is a semi-regular amalgamation of news items I’ve seen recently. Here are a few of the things that have caught my eye recently.

Earnings Season Kicks Off for Broadcasters and Broadcast Tech Vendors:

Quarterly earnings are starting to roll in from both broadcasters and broadcast technology vendors. For those who are on an annual fiscal year, it’s a chance to see how the first half of the year went, and to hear management thoughts on the second half of 2010.

Broadcast Technology Vendor Earnings:

Avid reported their numbers for the second quarter. Sales for the quarter were $162.2m, an 8% y/y increase – and the company pointed out that this was the first quarter of y/y growth for both audio and video since 1997. The company’s shares jumped on the news.

While discussing uses of cash on the company’s earnings call, Avid executives talked about the amount of cash used for the Euphonix acquisition. I was not aware of the purchase price for Euphonix, but it turns out that according to an SEC filing, Avid paid 17.6m for Euphonix, including cash of $12.6m and cash of $5m.

For more on Avid’s results, here’s a link to a transcript of Avid’s Q2 earnings call, and an article from Barrons about the results.

Speaking of Avid, Post Magazine’s Jonathan Moser recently published an interesting Q&A with Avid COO Kirk Arnold about present & future status of the company. In my opinion, both Arnold and CEO Gary Greenfield have done a good job recently with this type of interview. One of Avid’s strengths is their user community and the company is clearly working to communicate with their base. Here’s another example.

Barco reported strong results for the company’s Q2 and first half of 2010. In the earnings press release, company President & CEO Eric Van Zele said that Q210 “Must have been our best quarter ever.” Van Zele also said that Barco is “experiencing explosive growth in demand for our digital cinema projectors and are working very hard to deal with the supply chain issues this creates.”

Storage vendor Isilon also reported their Q2 numbers this week, and they were pretty good. The company’s Q2 revenues of $45.1m represented increases of 15% q/q and 56% y/y respectively. The company also had positive net income in the quarter. Shares jumped 18% on the news. With Isilon apparently firing on all cylinders and Omneon now part of Harmonic, the storage space is going to be interesting to watch over the next year or so.

IPTV provider KIT Digital published strong preliminary results for their Q2. In an upbeat press release, the company said that its Q2 revenues of “at least $22.7m” were up by more than 110%. The company also said that its EBITDA for the quarter would be at least $4 Million

Broadcaster and Platform Operator Earnings:

Broadcaster LIN TV reported 2Q revenues of 99.5m, which represents a 21% y/y increase. The company’s earnings release highlighted the fact that digital revenues were up by 44% y/y, and that political revenues more than doubled versus last year. Lin President and CEO Vincent Sadusky said: “Our results demonstrate continued, sustained improvement over 2009. Television advertising has experienced a strong recovery and our digital business, which now constitutes 15% of our total revenues, continues to grow and differentiate us as a local multimedia company.”

According to industry website TVNewswCheck, The McGraw-Hill Companies reported that its Broadcasting Group’s revenue grew by 24% to $25.3 million in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Increases in national, local and political advertising all contributed to the improved performance. The company as a whole reported net income for the second quarter of 2010 increased by 16.4%, or $27.0 million, to $191.1 million. Revenue in the second quarter was up 0.6% to $1.5 billion.

Media General reported that the company’s broadcast revenue rose 13% in the second quarter, driven by increases in automotive and political advertising (publishing revenues fell by 7%). The company’s digital revenues rose by 8% during the quarter. The company issued upbeat guidance for its broadcast properties saying, that “Broadcast revenues in the third quarter are expected to increase more than 20 percent, mostly reflecting significant Political revenues.”

Finally, DVD rental and streaming video provider Netflix reported its Q2 results this week. Although the company’s subscriber, revenue and net income numbers all numbers increased, it was not enough for investors who were looking for higher sales revenues. The stock tanked.

For more on Netflix, check out the take from website VideoNuze, who penned an interesting post called 5 Key Takeaways from Netflix’s Q2 ’10 Results.

Broadcast M&A

Echolab Rumors Continue

Since Echolab was suddenly put into liquidation, there has been great speculation about what would happen to the company’s IPR – particularly the Atem production switcher line up. Well if rumors are to be believed, Blackmagic Designs is set to announce that they have purchased the assets of Echolab. This is information is not confirmed, but I have spoken to several people about it.

As many know, Blackmagic made headlines earlier this year when they purchased color correction specialist Da Vinci. Coincidentally, TVB Europe just published an article about how Blackmagic took Da Vinci’s $200,000+ products into a sub-$1,000 product for the Mac and kept all the functionality. If this rumor is true, it will certainly be interesting to see what Blackmagic has in store for Echolab’s Atem product line. Watch this space.

Vitec Multimedia (not to be confused with the Vitec Group) announced the purchase of the Focus Enhancements’ Systems Group. In the press release announcing the deal, Philippe Wetzel, CEO of VITEC Multimedia said “In combination with our recent acquisition of Optibase, this acquisition furthers our objective to provide a complete line of advanced digital video solutions to our customers around the globe. With innovation at its core, the VITEC R&D division — now with more than 100 esteemed engineers — is uniquely positioned to deliver innovative solutions for a wide range of advanced digital video applications — managing the entire video process from source to display.

Vizrt announced that it has completed the acquisition of Adactus by buying the additional 71% of the company that it did not already own

Other Broadcast Technology Vendor News

Vizrt’s Chief Commercial Officer appears to have left the company. According to a press release from online gaming firm 888, David Zerah has become the managing director of Dragonfish. While at Vizrt Zerah spent seven years as EVP of worldwide sales before becoming CCO. Vizrt has not yet announced a replacement.

3D News

The official IBC blog had an interesting entry on 3DTV the other day, which says that 3D will probably only impact the industry in “small dimensions”.

OTT Video News

As mentioned above, Netflix reported their Q2 revenues.

NewTeeVee Reports that Redbox readying a streaming offering. Streaming media expert Dan Rayburn says Redbox Won’t Challenge Netflix’s Streaming Service, Here’s Why

Digital Cinema

According to the Wall Street Journal, Imax has signed an exclusive 2-year deal with privately held Laser Light Engines. The company says that the resulting laser-power projectors will deliver brighter images for digital cinema, which will be especially beneficial for 3D.

3D News – RealD Goes Public

3D provider RealD went public this week in a $200m IPO, which raised 33% more than expected, a testament to the strong interest in all things 3D. The company’s shares were up 22% on its first day as a public company.

The company’s 100+ page IPO documents are worth reading for an overview of the company’s financials as well as the state of the 3D and Digital Cinema Markets. Files 100+ Page IPO Doc. Worth Reading for Financials and #3D Industry Overview. #3DTV #Broadcast http://bit.ly/bCanRM

Market Research Note of the Week – Quality Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors

This article looks at how a global sample of several thousand broadcast professionals ranked broadcast technology vendors for one of the most important metrics for any technology company: quality.

The broadcast industry prides itself on the fidelity of its sound and images, so the perception of quality is a very important metric for broadcast technology vendors. Many vendors use quality as one of the key components of their market positioning.

To determine the market’s perception of the quality of broadcast technology vendors, respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “quality” on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being best in the market and one being the worst.

As with the top 30 innovation rankings published earlier, this list contains a broad mix of vendors including both audio and video companies. There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company.

To read the full article, including analysis of the findings, click here http://bit.ly/cY2nZO

Tags: 2010 Big Broadcast Survey, 3D, 3DTV, Adactus, Avid, Barco, Blackmagic Design, broadcast industry trends, Da Vinci, Dan Rayburn, David Zerah, Digital Cinema, Dragonfish, Echolab, Eric Van Zele, Eurphnix, Focus Enhancements, Gary Greenfield, Harmonic, Imax, Isilon, Kirk Arnold, Kit Digital, Laser Light Engines, Lin TV, McGraw Hill, Media General, Netflix, Omneon, Optibase, OTT Video, Philippe Wetzel, Post Magazine, Quality Rankings, RealD, RealD IPO, Redbox, TVB Europe, VideoNuze, Vitec Multimedia, Vizrt
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Quality Rankings for Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Jul 08 2010

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS).

Recently, posts which rank broadcast technology vendors include:

In keeping with the theme of top 30 rankings, let’s now turn to one of the most important metrics for any technology company – quality.

In an industry that prides itself on the fidelity of its sound and images, the perception of quality is a very important metric for broadcast technology vendors. Many vendors use quality as one of the key components of their market positioning.

To determine the market’s perception of the quality of broadcast technology vendors, respondents were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Quality” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market. The top 30 ranked brands for overall opinion are shown below for the global sample of all respondents.

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey.

As with the top 30 innovation rankings published earlier, this list contains a broad mix of vendors table including both audio and video and audio companies.

There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company size (something that is not measured in the BBS and won’t be discussed further here). So let’s look a little deeper into these results.

Number of products per vendor – Single Product Companies Dominate Quality Rankings

One obvious question that should be asked when reviewing these results is how many products are produced by each vendor on this list. This will help us to understand if whether quality comes from small focused companies, or large multi-product vendors.

A breakdown of how many product categories are produced by each vendor on the top 30 quality list is shown below:

With 22 out of 30 vendors on this list producing a product in only one BBS category (out of 27 measured) it’s clear that focused, specialized companies are regarded as quality leaders in the eyes of the market.

This finding reinforces a previous post called Purchasing Preferences of Broadcast Technology Buyers – “Best-of-Breed” or “One-Stop-Shop?, which shows that broadcast technology buyers overwhelmingly prefer to evaluate products from individual suppliers and create best-of-breed solutions.

Please keep in mind that this is not an absolute measure of the products produced be each vendor. In total, the 2010 BBS looked at 148 vendors in 27 separate product categories (based on the IABM’s industry model), but even so it did not necessarily cover the entire product range of all vendors.

Geographic Location

Another factor to consider is the geographic location of each company on the list. By this measure, companies headquartered in EMEA are the clear quality leaders, while companies based in the Americas and Asia trail the pack.

In terms of individual countries, the Germany and the USA are tied with 11 companies each on the Top 30 Quality Rankings. Japan, the UK, Finland and Belgium round out the rest of the countries where the quality leaders are headquartered. Keep in mind that when looking at geography, it’s important to remember that many of these firms are truly global, with offices all over the world, regardless of where they are headquartered.

Product Categories

Finally, let’s look at the product categories produced by the vendors who made the top 30 quality list for the 2010 BBS.

Out of the 27 product categories covered in the 2010 BBS, 23 appear on this list; showing that quality is widespread across the broadcast industry.

Audio products lead the list of products produced by the top 30 quality leaders, with microphones, audio consoles and audio monitors topping the rankings.

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis. If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

Tags: 2010 Big Broadcast Survey, 2010 broadcast market research, Adobe, Aja Video, AKG, Apple, Avid, Barco, Beyerdynamic, broadcast industry market research, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Calrec Audio, Cisco, Dolby, Genelec, Grass Valley, Ikegami, JBL, Klein + Hummel, Lawo, Neumann, RED, Riedel, Rohde & Schwarz, Salzbrenner Stagetec, Sennheiser, Shure, Snell, Solid State Logic, Sony, Studer, Tektronix, Telex, Yamaha
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Devoncroft Digest — June 27, 2010

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Devoncroft Digest, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Jun 27 2010

Here’s a recap of some of the items that caught my eye over the past week or so.

Broadcast Technology Vendor News

Another M&A Deal — RGB Buys Ripcode

In a multi-platform, multi-format world, video transcoding is one of the technologies that everyone needs. But transcoding is a tough business with fierce competition, and it’s considered by many to be a commodity product. This makes it tough for pure-play transcoding vendors (which is why most of them will tell you that they focus on workflow optimization). All of the above makes it an interesting market to watch, so I took note when I read that Ripcode has been purchased by RGB networks. I always thought Ripcode was a pretty interesting company. They raised a lot of money for their platform and they had a different approach to others in the market. It will be interesting to see how they perform as part of RGB.

To read more about this, check out Dan Rayburn’a Business of Video Blog, which has complete coverage of the deal here.

Evertz Delivers Good Results for Q4 and Full Year

Evertz Technologies delivered pretty good results for their Q4 and full year, topping the expectations of equity analysts.

Here are some highlights from the company’s earnings press release here.

Revenue for Q4 was C$75.3m, down 3% versus the same period a year ago, but up 14% over the previous quarter.

In terms of geographic split, sales in Q4 from the US and Canada decreased by 28% versus the same period last year, but this was partially offset by a 41% y/y increase in international revenue (which Evertz defines as markets outside of the US and Canada). International revenue rose by 23% versus the previous quarter, while sales in the US and Canada decreased by 28%.

Revenue for the full year was C$286.5, a 9% y/y decline.

Annual revenue from the US and Canada declined 26% versus last year, while international revenue was up by 24% over last year.

The company’s gross margins slipped a bit to 58% (versus 61% last year). On the earnings conference call, the company attributed this to pricing pressures and the cost of international expansion.

Overall, this was a strong performance from Evertz. The company’s international growth is particularly notable.

Wegener Issues Preliminary Results

Wegener, which was delisted from the NASDAQ earlier this year, issued preliminary operating results for the third quarter ended May 28, 2010. Final results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 will be released on July 12, 2010.

According to the company’s press release preliminary operating results for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 were revenues of $2.1 million and a net loss of approximately $(487,000) or $(0.04) per share compared to revenues of $2.9 million and a net loss of $(883,000) or $(0.07) per share for the same period in fiscal 2009.

Company President & CEO Troy Woodbury said that “bookings performance in the third quarter was an improvement over the first and second quarters of fiscal 2010, but there is significant room for improvement.”

French Employees Protest Grass Valley Sale

TVB reports that nearly 200 Grass Valley employees at the company’s facility in Rennes France went on strike to protest the shutdown of production. Grass Valley, which has been for sale for what seems like forever, is one the broadcast industry’s most storied names.

Dolby Opens R&D Center in China

Dolby Labs announced that it’s first “from the ground up” R&D facility outside of the US will be based in China. In the company’s press release, Dolby VP Mahesh Sundaram said “China is strategically important to Dolby. The establishment of Dolby China’s R&E Center is an important milestone as part of our continued commitment to China and innovation.” The facility will focus on sound technology.

Technicolor Opens New Lab in Palo Alto

Meanwhile, French technology provider Technicolor (formerly known as Thomson) has announced that it is planning a new lab in Palto Alto, CA. The company says the new lab will focus on the personalization of digitally delivered content, and enhance the company’s research skills in content discovery. The company also says it chose Palo Alto for its proximity to excellent universities and for the potential for interaction within the Silicon Valley technology ecosystem.

Broadcast Technology Vendor Confidence Beginning to Return

According to an article in TVB Europe, the IABM (the association which represents broadcast and media technology suppliers worldwide) has published the results of a new study about industry confidence. The result — the worst of the recession appears to be over in the broadcast and media technology sector and vendors are feeling increasingly optimistic about the future.

The IABM says that 74% of vendors who participated in their poll are response anticipating better business next year than last, and that 47% of those surveyed are already reporting better order volumes than expected. However the study also found that the industry is facing strong pricing pressure.

Disclosure: Devoncroft and the IABM partner on market intelligence.

Other Items of Interest:

TVB reports that the new PricewaterhouseCoopers 2010-14 Global Entertainment and Media Outlook predicts that advertising revenues remain fragile in nature and spending is unlikely to return to former levels, and that by 2014, the U.S. advertising spend is expected to still be 9 percent below its level in 2007.

NetApp Files 10K with SEC

Following April Announcement, John Malone Formally Steps Down as DirecTV Chairman

According to Dan Rayburn, here’s the “best article by far” about Google TV: “Google TV: everything you ever wanted to know” – Best article by far on the subject by Engadget.

The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp Want to Buy Rest of BSkyB, but that Sky is holding out for more money.

Harmonic was upgraded by Merrill Lynch, who say that the Omneon acquisition could be significantly accretive in 2011

Cablevision bought Bresnan Communications for $1.4Bn

Market Research Note of the Week:

Innovation Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors – The Top 30 Globally

In keeping with the theme of top 30 rankings, let’s now turn to one of the most important metrics for any technology company – innovation.

The product side of the film & broadcast industry is driven by technology and innovation. All vendors strive to create techniques that will make their products stand out from the competition. Thus innovation is a very important component of the brand image and reputation of vendors in this space.

To find out which broadcast technology vendors are considered to be most highly regarded in terms of innovation, more than 4,000 broadcast industry professionals were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Innovation” on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.

There’s a broad mix of vendors included in these ranking, including both audio and video and audio companies. There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company size. So let’s look a little deeper into these results….

To see the full results, included three ranking tables and analysis, please follow this link.

You can find other 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) here:

The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands by Overall Opinion, Ranked, Globally and Regionally

The Top 30 Broadcast Vendor Brands by Net Change in Brand Image.

Tags: 2010 Big Broadcast Survey, Bresnan, broadcast industry market research, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast Innovation, Broadcast M&A, BSkyB, Cablevision, Dan Rayburn, DirecTV, Dolby, Evertz Microsystems, Grass Valley, Harmonic, Harmonic buys Omneon, IABM, NetApp, Omneon, RGB Buys Ripcode, RGB Networks, Ripcode, Technicolor, Thomson, Transcoding, Wegener
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Innovation Rankings for Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Jun 16 2010

This is the third in a series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS).

Recently, I discussed how respondents to the 2010 BBS ranked The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands by Overall Opinion, Ranked, Globally and Regionally, and followed up with a ranking of the Top 30 Broadcast Vendor Brands by Net Change in Brand Image.

In keeping with the theme of top 30 rankings, let’s now turn to one of the most important metrics for any technology company – innovation.

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey.

Innovation — The top 30 broadcast technology brands, listed alphabetically (global sample of all respondents)

There’s a broad mix of vendors included in the above table including both audio and video and audio companies. There are also interesting similarities and differences in terms of the types of products produced, geographic location and company size (something that is not measured in the BBS and won’t be discussed further here).. So let’s look a little deeper into these results.

Number of products per vendor

One obvious question that should be asked when reviewing these results is how many products are produced by each vendor on this list. This will help us to understand if whether innovation comes from small focused companies, or large multi-product vendors.

A breakdown of how many product categories are produced by each vendor on the top 30 innovation list is shown below:

It’s interesting to note that vendors producing just one product account for more than half of the vendors in the top 30 innovation list. This suggests that focused companies who apply their efforts to specialist product areas are often able to generate more innovation in the eyes of the market.

Nevertheless it’s also worth pointing out that large companies can also be considered industry innovators. For example Grass Valley is covered in 10 product categories in the 2010 BBS and Avid is covered in 7 product categories. These are examples of large companies who have managed to remain instill innovation across their product lines.

Geographic Location

Another factor to consider is the geographic location of each company on the list. By this measure, companies headquartered in EMEA just edged out those based in North America on the top 20 innovation list, while companies based in Asia trailed the pack.

This is not surprising since this broadly reflects where the companies on the overall list are based.

In terms of individual countries, the USA leads the way with 10 companies on the list of the 30 top innovators, with Germany close behind with 6 vendors on the list.

When looking at geography, it’s important to remember that many of these firms are truly global, with offices all over the world, regardless of where they are headquartered.

Product Categories

Finally, let’s look at the product categories produced by the vendors who made the top 30 innovation list for the 2010 BBS:

Out of the 27 product categories covered in the 2010 BBS, 23 appear on this list; showing that innovation is widespread across the broadcast industry.

Signal processing, studio cameras and video editing lead the list of products produced by the top 30 innovation leaders.

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis. If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

Tags: Adobe, Aja Video, Apple, Audio Processing and Monitoring, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Broadcast Audio Consoles, Broadcast Automation, Broadcast Graphics & Branding, broadcast industry market research, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast Innovation, Broadcast Playout Servers, Broadcast Studio Cameras, Broadcast Transmission Servers, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Calrec, Cisco, Dolby, ENG Cameras, Ericsson, EVS, Grass Valley, Harmonic, Ikegami, Ingest / transcoding / streaming, Innovation in broadcast technology, Integrated Playout (Channel in a Box), Intercom / Talkback, Lawo, Microphones, Miranda, Monitors (speakers), Multiviewers, Near-line / Off-line and archival storage, Neumann, Orad, Panasonic, Production Servers, Production Switchers, RED, Riedel, Rohde & Schwarz, Ross Video, Routing Switchers, Salzbrenner Stagetec, Sennheiser, Snell, Solid State Logic, Sony, Tandberg, Tandberg / Ericsson, Tektronix, Test & Measurement, Transmission Encoders, Transmitters, Video Editing, Video Interfacing, Video Signal Processing, Video Transport, Vizrt, Yamaha
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The Top 30 Improving Vendor Brands in Broadcast Technology, Ranked Globally and Regionally

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Jun 07 2010

This is the second in a series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS).

Recently, I discussed how respondents to the 2010 BBS ranked The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands by Overall Opinion, Ranked, Globally and Regionally

Appearing in the top 30 of an overall opinion poll is obviously a good place for any vendor to be, but this only scratches the surface of how the market views a brand.

While indicative of the market’s view, these overall opinion rankings are presented as a snapshot in time. They also provide a somewhat one-sided view of how brands are regarded because they take only positive perceptions into account. In order to get a better understanding of how broadcast technology vendor brands are perceived, it is necessary to look at both the positive and negative opinions of brands, and to take into account how these opinions have changed over time.

One way to do this is to ask people who have an opinion of a brand, how their opinion of that brand has changed over time – i.e. has it improved, declined or stayed the same.

When you do this, you can get some interesting results. It turns out that some brands are more polarizing than others, with different respondents having very different opinions. For example, here’s a chart from the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey.

Notice that in the above table, the company that was ranked #1 for “got better” also ranked #1 for got worse.

Given these results, it is perhaps more useful to calculate the Net Change in Overall Opinion for each brand, which is calculated by using the following formula:

GB-GW/# of total respondents = Net Change in Brand Image

In other words, the percentage of respondents who said a brand “got worse” is subtracted from the percentage of respondents who said their opinion of a brand had “got better” (ignoring the “stayed the same” number).

This takes into account both the positive and negative perceptions of brands, along with how these opinions have changed over time. It also presents a more balanced view of which brands are getting better and which are getting worse in the minds of market participants.

Because some brands are polarizing (as seen in the example above), it’s possible that a strong “got better” response might be cancelled out by a strong “got worse” response. As a result some companies who were rated in the top 30 on just the “got better” score were not included in the global or regional top 30 because their high “got worse” score dragged down their overall result. At the same time, a few of the companies with high “got worse” scores still made the top 30 list because these negative scores were cancelled out by even higher “got better” scores.

In order to arrive at the Net Change in Overall Opinion, research participants were asked whether their opinion of various brands had “got better”, “got worse” or “stayed the same” over the past 2-3 years.

The results of this enquiry are shown below in two ways:

An overall industry “league table” that shows the 30 highest ranked vendors for the metric “Net Change of Overall Opinion.” The data in this chart is broken out globally and regionally.

An analysis of the “frequency” of appearance in the “Net Change of Overall Opinion” league table.”

The top 30 ranked brands for Net Change of Overall Opinion are shown below for both the global sample of all respondents as well as for all respondents in each of the geographic regions.

In all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey.

Question: Has your opinion of the following brands improved or declined over the past 2 years in relation to the broadcast technology products / services they provide?

Interestingly, a total of 65 broadcast technology vendor brands are included in this table, demonstrating the strong variation in opinion change based on geographic segmentation of respondents.

In terms of frequency of appearance in this table:

3 brands appear four times, meaning they were ranked in the top 30 globally and in each geographic region. It is possible
10 brands appear three times
26 brands appear two times
26 brands appear once, which demonstrates that some brands are strongest in one geographic area

Analysis of the data shows that are some clear market leaders on a global basis, while others are strong on a regional basis.

A breakdown of how many times each company appears in the ranking shows how many times each brand appears in the chart above.

Brands appearing four times:

Barco, IBM, Ikegami

Brands appearing three times:

Avid, Chyron, For-A, JBL, JVC, Mackie, Motorola, Siemens, Telex, Yamaha

Brands appearing two times:

AKG, Audio-Technica, Axon, Dayang, Dolby, Echolab, Electro Voice, EMC, EVS, Fujitsu, Grass Valley, Harmonic, Harris, Klein + Hummel, Orad, Pesa, Pharos, Quantel, RTS Intercom Systems, SeaChange, Shure, Snell, Solid State Logic, Sundance, Tandberg / Ericsson, Tektronix

Brands appearing once:

Accenture, AMS-Neve, beyerdynamic, Dalet, Evertz, Focal, HP, KRK Systems, Leader Instrument, Marshall Electronics, Miranda, Net Insight, Neumann, Omneon, Omnibus, Pilat, Pixel Power, Quantum, Rohde & Schwarz, Ross Video, S4M, Screen Service, Sintecmedia, Utah Scientific, Vizrt, Wheatstone

Analysis of overall opinion by region:

The table below shows the global and regional performance for each brand in the top 30 ranking of overall opinion.

The frequency chart shows some interesting geographic variation in the data, which is highlighted below.

Only Global

Interestingly a the following 13 appear in the top 30 Net Change in Overall Opinion for the global sample, but not in any of the regions.

Accenture, AMS-Neve, Focal, KRK Systems, Leader, Net Insight, Omnibus, Pilat Media, Pixel Power, Quantum, Sintecmedia Utah Scientific, Wheatstone

There a number of possible explanations for this. For example these companies may have fared well in each of the regions, but not well enough to make the top 30. However when all responses are aggregated, there positive data propels these brands to the top 30 on a global basis. It is also possible that these brands scored well on a regional basis, but that the regional sample was insufficient to be included in the regional rankings.

All regions, but not global

Interestingly, for four brands the converse of the above also occurred – i.e. these brands made the top 30 list for Net Change of Overall Opinion in each of the three regions, but not in the global sample.

Avid, For-A, JBL, Yamaha

Again this is due to a variety of factors including the aggregate strength of certain brands, coupled with sample sizes.

Global + one region

Nine brands managed to achieve a top 30 ranking in the global Net Change in Overall Opinion league table, despite being in the top 30 of only one of the three geographic regions.

Dayang, Echolab, Electrovoice, Fujitsu, JVC, Motorola, Pesa, Quantel, Sundance

Regional Variation

The following brands did not make the top 30 in the global league table of overall opinion, but they did appear in the top 30 overall opinion ranking in one of the geographic regions:

Only EMEA

Beyerdynamic, Dalet, Neumann, S4M,

Only Asia

Evertz, HP, Miranda, Omneon, Rohde & Schwarz, Ross Video, Screen Service

Only Americas

Marshall Eelctronics, Vizrt

Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2010 BBS. Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all 2010 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis. If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

Tags: 2010 Big Broadcast Survey, Accenture, AKG, AMS-Neve, Audio-Technica, Avid, Axon, Barco, Beyerdynamic, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, broadcast vendor rankings, Chyron, Dalet, Dayang, Dolby, Echolab, Electro Voice, EMC, Evertz, EVS, Focal, For-A, Fujitsu, Grass Valley, Harmonic, Harris, HP, IBM, Ikegami, JBL, JVC, Klein + Hummel, KRK Systems, Leader Instrument, Mackie, Marshall Electronics, Miranda, Motorola, Net Insight, Neumann, Omneon, Omnibus, Orad, Pesa, Pharos, Pilat, Pixel Power, Quantel, Quantum, Rohde & Schwarz, Ross Video, RTS Intercom Systems, S4M, Screen Service, SeaChange, Shure, Siemens, Sintecmedia, Snell, Solid State Logic, Sundance, Tandberg / Ericsson, Tektronix, Telex, Utah Scientific, Vizrt, Wheatstone, Yamaha
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Recent Findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Broadcast technology channel strategy, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

May 26 2010

Recent Market Research Findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey

The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands, Ranked by “Overall Opinion,” Globally and Regionally

An overview of how broadcast technology vendor brands were ranked for “overall opinion” in the 2010 BBS. Results are shown globally and regionally

What factors most influence the purchase of broadcast technology products?

Regardless of how broadcast technology products are purchased, what many in the industry want to know is why they are bought, i.e., what is the most important factors that influence the decision to buy one product over another.

When it comes to selling broadcast technology, there are several strategies that vendors have adopted. This includes positioning their offerings as having the best technology, the best feature set, the lowest cost, the best value, the best service, the most recommended, etc. But which factor is the most important to the most buyers?

Purchasing Preferences of Broadcast Technology Buyers – “Best-of-Breed” or “One-Stop-Shop?

How do buyers of broadcast technology products prefer to purchase: using a best-of-breed approach (evaluating products from multiple vendors) or a one-stop shop where one vendor provides a complete solution?

How are broadcast technology products typically purchased — direct from vendors, through an SI or a dealer?

This article examines the way broadcast technology products are purchased, i.e., what purchasing channels are typically used by buyers of broadcast technology products.

NAB 2010: NAB: Stations Focus On Web, Mobile, HDTV (TVNewsCheck Interview)

In this interview conducted by Harry Jessell of TV News Check, Joe Zaller discusses the major trends that are impacting US broadcasters, including the transition to HDTV, multi-platform content delivery and 3D.

What Broadcast Buyers Are Evaluating for Purchase in 2010

This article focuses on the products that are being evaluated for purchase this year by broadcast professionals. We presented technology buyers with a list of relevant product categories, and asked them to indicate which product type they are currently evaluating for purchase.

Where is Money Being Spent in the Broadcast Industry? — A Review of Major Projects Being Planned

In the current environment, everyone in the broadcast business wants to know which parts of the industry are doing well, where money is being spent and what is driving this spending.

Broadcast Industry’s Largest Market Study Reveals Most Important Technology Trends

This article looks at how respondents ranked a variety of technology trends in terms of importance to their business. This article presents the answers to this question in two ways: as a global trends index and by the percentage of respondents who indicated the importance of each trend to their business.

Tags: 2010 Big Broadcast Survey, broadcast industry market research, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, NAB 2010 trends
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The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands, Ranked by “Overall Opinion,” Globally and Regionally

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

May 24 2010

This is the first in a series of posts about the how the brands of broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents to the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey.

Each year as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), I ask respondents to rank broadcast a number of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics. This information is used to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable these vendors to understand their competitive position in the market.

This post looks at how broadcast technology vendors were ranked by respondents in terms of their overall opinion of these vendors. Research participants were asked to rank their “overall opinion” of broadcast technology vendor brands on a scale of 1-10 — with 10 being best in the market, and 1 being worst in the market.

Results are shown in two ways:

An overall industry “league table” that shows the 30 highest ranked vendors for the metric “overall opinion.” The data in this chart is broken out globally and regionally.
An analysis of the “frequency” of appearance in the “overall opinion league table”

The top 30 ranked brands for overall opinion are shown below for both the global sample of all respondents as well as for all respondents in each of the geographic regions.

Please note that in all cases, these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked by respondents to the survey.

Question: Please rank your overall opinion of the following brands on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best in the market and 1 being the worst.

Interestingly, a total of 46 broadcast technology vendor brands are included in this table, which demonstrates that there is strong variation in opinion based on geographic segmentation of respondents.

In terms of frequency of appearance in this table:

17 brands appear four times, meaning they were ranked in the top 30 globally and in each geographic region. It is possible
9 brands appear three times
5 brands appear two times
15 brands appear once, which demonstrates that some brands are strongest in one geographic area

Analysis of the data shows that are some clear market leaders on a global basis, while others are strong on a regional basis.

A breakdown of how many times each company appears in the ranking shows how many times each brand appears in the chart above.

Brands appearing four times:

Adobe, AKG, Apple, beyerdynamic, Cisco, Dolby, Genelec, Grass Valley, Neumann, Panasonic, Rohde & Schwarz, Sennheiser, Shure, Solid State Logic, Sony, Studer, Tektronix

Brands appearing three times:

Aja Video, AMS-Neve, Harris, Lawo, RED, Salzbrenner Stagetec, Snell, Tandberg, Yamaha

Brands appearing two times:

Clear-Com, Electro Voice, Evertz, Ikegami, JBL

Brands appearing once:

Audio-Technica, Avid, Barco, Calrec, EVS, HP, Klein + Hummel, Mackie, Omneon, Prism Media, Quantel, Rhozet, Riedel, RTS Intercom Systems, TVIPS

Analysis of the Frequency for Each Brand in the “Overall Opinion” League Table:

In order to provide a better understanding of which brands were most higly ranked in each geography, the data has been provided in the table below, which shows the global and regional performance for each brand in the top 30 ranking of overall opinion.

The frequency chart shows some interesting geographic variation in the data.

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking globally + one region

Four brands managed to achieve a top 30 ranking in the global overall opinion league table , despite being in the top 30 of only one of the three geographic regions.

Electro Voice (Americas), Evertz (Americas), Ikegami (Americas), JBL (Americas)

The following 15 brands did not make the top 30 in the global league table of overall opinion, but they did appear in the top 30 overall opinion ranking in one of the geographic regions:

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in EMEA

EVS, Klein + Hummel, Prism Media, Rhozet, Riedel, T-VIPS

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in Asia-Pacific

Audio-Technica, Calrec, HP, Omneon, Quantel

Appearing in the top 30 “overall opinion” ranking only in the Americas

Avid, Mackie

Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that all data these charts are presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the BBS. Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all 2010 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.

In order to get full value from this data, it is necessary to evaluate these results on a granular basis. If you would like more information, please contact Devoncroft Partners.

Tags: 2010 Big Broadcast Survey, Adobe, Aja Video, AKG, AMS-Neve, Apple, Audio-Technica, Avid, Barco, Beyerdynamic, broadcast industry market research, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Calrec, Cisco, Clear-Com, Dolby, Electro Voice, Evertz, EVS, Genelec, geographic variations, Grass Valley, Harris, HP, Ikegami, JBL, Klein + Hummel, Lawo, Mackie, Neumann, Omneon, Panasonic, Prism Media, Quantel, RED, Rhozet, Riedel, Rohde & Schwarz, RTS Intercom Systems, Salzbrenner Stagetec, Sennheiser, Shure, Snell, Solid State Logic, Sony, Studer, T-VIPS, Tandberg, Tektronix, Yamaha
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How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for Reliability

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast technology market research, market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Dec 07 2009

This is the fourth in a series of posts that discusses how a global sample of more than 325 systems integrators (SIs) who participated in the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS)* ranked broadcast technology vendors in a variety of measures. For information about how these results were collected, please see the bottom of this post**.

In an era when many broadcasters are shedding technology positions, SIs have become an extremely important part of the technology value chain. Broadcasters now routinely outsource their project work to SIs, who are called in for their expertise and experience. Thus the relationship that vendors have with their SI partners is very important to their business.

Previously I have looked at How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for Great Customer Service; and How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for Innovation; and How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Vendors for Quality. This post looks at how the global sample of systems integrators ranked vendors for reliability.

This is the third time I have written about how broadcast technology vendors have been ranked for reliability. Previous posts include Reliability Rankings for Broadcast Technology Vendors, which looks at how the overall market ranks vendors for reliability, broken down by geography; and How Broadcasters of Different Sizes Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for Reliability.

The chart below shows the responses from more than 325 SIs. It is broken out by geography to show the responses of the global sample of all SIs who participated in the study, as well as the responses of SIs in EMEA and the Americas. Due to a small sample size, SI rankings for Asia-Pacific have not been included as a separate column. For the sake of comparison, I have also included in this chart the rankings of all respondents (regardless for organization type, geography etc), and all broadcasters (regardless of size or geography), in the first and second columns respectively.

Please note that in all cases, these brands are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order of their ranking in the study

Question: How would you rate [Brand X] on the following attribute [Great Customer Service] where 1 = very poor and 10 = best in the market?

As always these findings are extremely interesting. Here are a few quick observations about this table:

* There are 9 vendors on this list (out of 25 studied), the same number as in the innovation rankings. This makes innovation and reliability the least varied and most concentrated of the metrics in this series of posts about perceptions of systems integrators.

* The complete list of vendors in this table (in alphabetical order), and how many times they appear is as follows: Evertz (2), EVS (4), Harris (1), Miranda (1), Omneon (2), Snell & Wilcox (5), Sony (5), Thomson / Grass Valley (3), Utah Scientific (2)

* As always, there are some interesting differences in the rankings of vendors by SIs versus the rankings by other organization types such as broadcasters, and even the overall market.

* Out of the 9 vendors in this table, only Snell & Wilcox and Sony made the top 5 list for reliability in all five categories (the overall market, the global sample of all broadcasters, and the three SI categories).

* EVS appears four times in this table. The company made the top 5 list for reliability for all categories except systems integrators in the Americas.

* Utah Scientific and Omneon each appear twice in this table – in the Global SI and EMEA SI lists. However, neither company is listed in the top 5 reliability for the overall market or the sample of all broadcasters. Interestingly, these results for Utah and Omneon go against the geographic bias exhibited for other metrics. Both Utah and Omneon are based in the Americas, but neither company makes the top 5 reliability list for SIs in the Americas. Instead, both companies are listed in the global SI and EMEA SI categories.

* One company that does make the top 5 reliability list for SIs in the Americas is Thomson / Grass Valley, which also appears in the top 5 reliability list for the overall market and the sample of all broadcasters.

* Other companies that make the top 5 reliability list for SIs in their home territories are EVS and Snell & Wilcox (EMEA) and Miranda and Evertz (Americas).

* Harris appears in the global sample of all respondents, but not in any of the SI samples.

* Appearing two times in this table, Evertz makes the list for the global sample of all broadcasters as well as SIs in the Americas.

* Miranda makes one appearance in this table – in the SI list for the Americas.

* The annual Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) is the largest and most comprehensive studies of broadcast technology vendor brands and industry trends. The BBS provides insight into market trends and the perceptions of leading broadcast industry vendor brands by practitioners across the world. It also delivers vendor brand ranking “league tables” in a variety of product categories; all of which can be segmented by geography and customer type.

** Respondents to the BBS were asked to rank their opinion of twenty-five broadcast technology vendor brands in a variety of categories including awareness; overall opinion; change of opinion; recommendation; and a variety of brand attributes and brand drivers such as innovation, reliability, quality and great customer service. The responses were then aggregated into a series of industry “league tables” that rank each broadcast technology vendor brand against the metrics mentio

Tags: Big Broadcast Survey, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Evertz Microsystems, EVS, Harris Broadcast, Miranda Technologies, Omneon, Reliability, Snell & Wilcox, Sony Broadcast, systems integrators, Thomson / Grass Valley, Utah Scientific
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How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for “Great Customer Service”

Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands, broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast technology market research, market research | Posted by Joe Zaller

Nov 30 2009

This is the third in a series of posts that discusses how a global sample of more than 325 systems integrators (SIs) who participated in the 2009 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS)* ranked broadcast technology vendors in a variety of measures. For information about how these results were collected, please see the bottom of this post**.

Previously I have looked at How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for Innovation; and How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Vendors for Quality. This post looks at how the global sample of systems integrators ranked vendors for “great customer service.”

This is fourth time I have written about how broadcast technology vendors are perceived by the market for their customer service. Previous posts on the subject include A Ranking of Broadcast Technology Vendors for “Great Customer Service”, which breaks out overall rankings by geography; and How broadcasters of different sizes rank technology vendors for great customer service.

I have also touched on how the perception of customer service can be extremely varied in different regions. I highlighted one such case in an article called Brand Schizophrenia? Regional/customer variations in perception of broadcast vendor brands.

Customer service is a very important measure, and in many cases it is one of the key determining factors in purchase decisions. I would imagine that this is particularly true for systems integrators who must work simultaneously with many vendors while striving to complete a project on time and on budget.

Yet from my research I’ve found that the customer service offerings of broadcast technology vendors is also something that is perceived by the market as not being as strong as other metrics such as innovation, reliability and quality.

Indeed as I wrote in a previous post “respondents were harder on this metric [customer service] than any other… it’s worth noting that on an overall basis, respondents to the BBS were much stingier with their “grades” in this category compared to all the others. Many companies received very high scores for metrics like “overall opinion,” “innovation,” “reliability” etc., but no company was ranked “off the charts” in terms of the perception of “great customer service.”

So having said all that, how did systems integrators rank broadcast technology vendors for “great customer service?”

Please note that in all cases, these brands are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order of their ranking in the study

Question: How would you rate [Brand X] on the following attribute [Great Customer Service] where 1 = very poor and 10 = best in the market?

As always these findings are extremely interesting. Here are a few observations about this table:

* There are 11 vendors on this list (out of 25 studied); meaning that great customer service is the most varied and least concentrated of any metric in this series of posts about perceptions of systems integrators.

* This lack of vendor concentration is similar to customer service findings in other categories. For example, the customer service rankings of the overall market and that of broadcasters broken down by size (both mentioned above) both show a similar profile.

* Out of the 11 vendors in this table, no vendor made the top 5 list for great customer service in all categories.

* However, both Omneon and Snell & Wilcox did achieve this in all three systems integrator categories.

* The complete list of vendors in this table (in alphabetical order), and how many times they appear is as follows: Axon (3), Evertz (3), EVS (2), Harris (1), Miranda (1), Omneon (3), Pebble Beach (2), Snell & Wilcox (4), Sony (2), Sundance (1), Thomson / Grass Valley

* As with many other findings, there are interesting regional variations in the way vendors are perceived for great customer service

* 4 out of 5 in the EMEA SI list are European based – Axon, Network, Pebble Beach and Snell & Wilcox

* Likewise, the Americas SI list is dominated by North American players. In the Americas SI list, 4 out of the 5 vendors are based in the region — Evertz, Harris, Miranda and Omneon.

* There are also some interesting differences in the rankings of vendors by SIs versus the rankings by other organization types such as broadcasters, and even the overall market.

* There are two pure-play automation players in the global SI list for great customer service. This is a first for me — no pure-play automation vendors have appeared in any ranking I have published so far (global sample, broadcaster by geography sample and broadcaster by or size sample). So what is it about SIs that result in two of their top five spots for great customer service are pure-play automation vendors?

* EVS, Sony and Thomson / Grass Valley all make the top 5 great customer service list for the global sample of all respondent and the all broadcasters. However, none of these companies makes any of the SI lists.

* Axon appears three times. The company makes the top 5 list for great customer service for all broadcasters, all systems integrators and EMEA systems integrators. Like EVS, Axon is a company that has done very well in the various customer service posts I have written. Although the company is relatively small when compared to some of the others on this list, it is clearly caught the attention of the market by making customer service a priority.

* Like Axon, Evertz also appears on this list three times, but in only one of the SI categories – the Americas. This is consistent with other findings about Evertz in that they seem to do best in the Americas market.

* Another strong regional player is Miranda, who does well with SIs in the company’s home region. The same is true of Harris, which appears once in this chart – in the SI list for the Americas.

* Like Miranda and Harris, Network (now Nevion) appears once in this table – in EMEA SI list only, another example of a local vendor doing well in their home region.

* EVS, which appeared in the top 5 list for great customer service for all geographies in a previous post, appears in the first two columns of this chart (global sample and all broadcasters). However the company is absent from all three systems integrator categories

* Although they did not make the top 5 great customer service list for all respondents or all broadcasters, Omneon appears in all three categories of this list for systems integrators. The only other vendor to appear in the top 5 list for all three categories of systems integrators was Snell & Wilcox.

* Two companies appear in two of the SI categories – Axon and Pebble Beach. Both companies are based in EMEA, and they each appear in the top 5 for all SIs and SIs in EMEA.

As per my previous findings on this subject, the SI rankings for “great customer service” are extremely interesting. There are strong regional variations and both small and large vendors have made the above table in one or more places.

I continue to be convinced that despite the strong showings by some vendors, broadcast technology buyers generally perceive customer service as a weakness in the industry. Therefore, as I said in a previous post, “it’s clear to me that there is a real opportunity for vendors to step up to the plate and differentiate themselves on the basis of great customer service. Whoever does this will be rewarded by their customers with increased loyalty.”

Tags: Axon, Customer Service, Evertz Microsystems, EVS, Harris Broadcast, Miranda Technologies, Network (Nevion), Omneon, Pebble Beach, Snell & Wilcox, Sony Broadcast, Sundance, systems integrators, Thomson / Grass Valley
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Devoncroft

Archive for the ‘Broadcast Vendor Brand Research’ Category

Reliability Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

Reliability – Top 30 Broadcast Technology Brands (Alpha Order)

Devoncroft Digest July 24, 2010 – Earnings Season Begins, More Broadcast M+A (and an IPO), Echolab Rumors

Quality Rankings for Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

Devoncroft Digest — June 27, 2010

Innovation Rankings for Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

The Top 30 Improving Vendor Brands in Broadcast Technology, Ranked Globally and Regionally

Recent Findings from the 2010 Big Broadcast Survey

The Top 30 Broadcast Technology Vendor Brands, Ranked by “Overall Opinion,” Globally and Regionally

How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for Reliability

How Systems Integrators Rank Broadcast Technology Vendors for “Great Customer Service”

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