Posts Tagged ‘Channel in a Box’

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 5 – The 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, market research, technology trends, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Nov 01 2011

This is the eighth in a series of articles about some of the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands.  More than 8,000 people in 100+ countries took part in the 2011 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

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Each year, as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), we ask broadcast professionals worldwide to rank a variety of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics.  We use this information to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable each vendor to understand its position in the market relative to the the industry as a whole as well as their company’s direct competitors.

In previous articles we wrote about the 2011 BBS Overall Brand Opinion League Table, the 2011 BBS Net Change in Overall Opinion League Table, the 2011 BBS Brand Opinion Leaders League Table, and 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table.

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This post follows on from the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table, by focusing on 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, and customers often use technical performance and quality as a part of their procurement strategies.

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 in the study.

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The 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table

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As with previously published rankings, this list contains a broad mix of vendors including large and small firms; single product and multi-product firms; global and regional players; and audio and video technology providers.

In order to better understand what drives the perception of quality in the broadcast technology industry, let’s look deeper at the vendors on this list, beginning with the type of products produced by each vendor.

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Frequency of Product Category – Audio Takes 4 of Top 7 Spots

What about the product categories themselves?  Are some product categories inherently perceived as having higher quality?  If so are these products judged differently than other types of products by customers who are evaluating them for purchase?

As shown in the chart below, there is a very broad range of product categories included in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table – vendors that make products in 23 of the 26 product categories that were covered in the study.

However, when one looks at the frequency of the product categories produced by these vendors, it’s immediately apparent that the top categories are audio products.

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2011 BBS Quality League Table — Frequency of Product Categories:

 

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The top two products categories for quality are both from the audio side of the business – microphones and audio consoles.  In fact, four of the top seven product categories in this ranking are audio related, with only highly complex video products — video editing, camera lenses and ENG cameras — being included in this group.  This is an interesting data point, especially when one considers that out of 26 product categories covered in the 2011 BBS, only five were in the audio space.

The other product categories that appear multiple times are clustered in the live production and studio environments, and include camera lenses, studio cameras, production switchers, production servers, test and measurement and video transport.  Interestingly these products tend to be high ticket items that are produced by the industry’s larger vendors.

Since the industry’s largest vendors tend to operate in the most product categories, let’s evaluate the number of times each vendor appears in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table to see if there is a correlation between size of vendor / product range and the market’s perception of quality.

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2011 BBS Quality League Table — Number of 2011 BBS Product Categories per Brand:

When considering what drives the perception of quality, one question to consider is which type of vendor appears more often in the above ranking – those that are focused on a single type of product, or large multi-product vendors.

While our research does not evaluate each product produced by every vendor, we do put vendors into categories based on their product lines.  This gives a good representation of whether a particular vendor has a narrow or broad product-line-up.

The table below shows the number of 2011 BBS product categories produced by each brand (as defined by the segmentation used in the 2011 BBS).

 

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As shown above, the vast majority of the companies in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table provide products in just one of the product categories we measured as part of the study.

Please note that this is not a measure of company size, but rather a measure of how many product categories each of the above vendors was included in for the 2011 BBS. For example some of the “single product category companies” on the above list — such as Adobe, Dolby and Shure – are quite large.

Yet with 21 out of 30 vendors on this list producing a product in only one 2011 BBS category (out of 26 measured) it appears that that focused, specialized companies are regarded as quality leaders in the eyes of the market.  Nevertheless it’s also worth pointing out that large companies can also be considered industry innovators. For example, in the 2011 BBS study, Avid is covered in seven product categories, Snell is covered in five product categories, Sony is covered in four product categories and EVS appears three times.

To further illustrate this point, the chart below shows the number of 2011 BBS product categories per vendor in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table.

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

A breakdown of how many product categories are produced by each vendor in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table is shown below:

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With more than two-thirds of the vendors in the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Quality League Table producing a product in just one 2011 BBS product category, this table clearly suggests that focused companies who apply their efforts to specialist product areas are often able to generate a higher perception of quality in the eyes of the market.

Of course, companies are listed here based on how many 2011 BBS product categories they produce, which is not an absolute measure of the products produced be each vendor. There are some very large companies on the list above who appear in just one 2011 BBS category. In total, the 2011 BBS looked at 118 vendors in 26 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.

Please keep in mind when reviewing this information that all data in these charts is presented in alphabetical order, not in the order brands were ranked by respondents to the 2011 BBS.  Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all non-vendor participants in the 2011 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.  Finally please note that this study evaluated a total of 118 brands.

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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.

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This article is based on the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands.  With more than 8,000 people in 100+ countries participating, the 2011 BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

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Devoncroft Partners has published a variety of reports from 2011 BBS data.  For more information, please get in touch.

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Related Content:

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 4 – the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 3 – the 2011 BBS Brand Opinion Leaders League Table

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 2 – the 2011 BBS Net Change in Overall Brand Opinion League Table

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 1 – the 2011 BBS Overall Brand Opinion League Table

Where is Money Being Spent in the Broadcast Industry in 2011? The 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index

Tracking Changes in Broadcast Industry Trends — 2011 Versus 2010 Broadcast Industry’s Most Comprehensive Market Study Reveals Top Trends of 2011

More Information About the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey from Devoncroft Partners

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Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 4 – the 2011 BBS Broadcast Technology Vendor Innovation League Table

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Oct 25 2011

This is the seventh in a series of articles about some of the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of broadcast industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of broadcast technology vendor brands.  More than 8,000 people in 100+ countries took part in the 2011 BBS, making it the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

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Each year, as part of the Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), we ask broadcast professionals worldwide to rank a variety of technology vendor brands on a wide range of metrics.  We use this information to create a series of reports, which through benchmarking and industry “league tables” enable each vendors to understand its position in the market relative to their the industry as a whole as well as their direct competitors.

In previous articles we wrote about the 2011 BBS Overall Brand Opinion League Table, the 2011 BBS Net Change in Overall Opinion League Table, and the 2011 BBS Brand Opinion Leaders League Table.

This post looks at 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 spend heavily on research and development in order to create advanced technologies that 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, respondents 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.  The top 30 ranked brands for innovation are shown below for the global sample of all respondents.

Please note that these results are shown in alphabetical order, NOT in the order in which they were ranked in the study. 

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2011 BBS Innovation League Table:

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There are a wide variety of companies on this list, including large and small firms; single product and multi-product firms; global and regional players; and audio and video technology providers.

Let’s look specifically at the how these companies and their products were ranked in the 2011 BBS, beginning with products and technology.

As shown in the chart below, these companies make products in 23 of the 26 product categories that we covered in the 2011 BBS.

The top products for brand leaders are split between audio and video – with microphones, signal processing and video transport each appearing five times.

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2011 BBS Innovation League Table — Frequency of Product Categories:

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The 2011 BBS Innovation League Table is split fairly evenly between audio and video companies.  There’s also a healthy mix of hardware versus software products represented on this list.

Does company size play a role in innovation?  Larger companies offer more products and are consequently used in more places than their smaller counterparts.  But this does not necessarily translate into innovation.

As shown below, innovative products are produced by both small focused companies, as well as by larger multi-product vendors.

Let’s look at the number of product categories that each of these brands produces (as defined by the segmentation used in the 2011 BBS).

The table below shows the number of 2011 BBS product categories produced by each brand.

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2011 BBS Innovation League Table — Number of 2011 BBS Product Categories per Brand:

 

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As shown in the table above, vendors producing products in only one 2011 BBS category 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.

At the same time, larger companies are also represented on this list of the broadcast industry’s top innovators.  For example, Grass Valley is covered in 8 product categories in the 2011 BBS, while both Evertz and Snell are covered in five product categories.  These are examples of larger companies who have managed to instill innovation across their product lines.

Of course, companies are listed here based on how many 2011 BBS product categories they produce, which is not an absolute measure of the products produced be each vendor. There are some very large companies on the list above who appear in just one 2011 BBS category. In total, the 2011 BBS looked at 118 vendors in 26 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.

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 2011 BBS.  Also, the charts in this posting measure the responses of all non-vendor participants in the 2011 BBS respondents, regardless of their company type, company size, geographic location, job title and budget for broadcast technology products.  Finally please note that this study evaluated a total of 118 brands.

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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.

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This article is based on the findings from the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), a global study of industry trends, technology purchasing behavior and the opinion of vendor brands.  With more than 8,000 people in 100+ countries participating, the 2011 BBS is the largest and most comprehensive market study ever done in the broadcast industry.

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Devoncroft Partners has published a variety of reports from 2011 BBS data.  For more information, please get in touch.

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Related Content:

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 3 – the 2011 BBS Brand Opinion Leaders League Table

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 2 – the 2011 BBS Net Change in Overall Brand Opinion League Table

Ranking Broadcast Technology Vendors Part 1 – the 2011 BBS Overall Brand Opinion League Table

Where is Money Being Spent in the Broadcast Industry in 2011? The 2011 BBS Broadcast Industry Global Project Index

Tracking Changes in Broadcast Industry Trends — 2011 Versus 2010

Broadcast Industry’s Most Comprehensive Market Study Reveals Top Trends of 2011

More Information About the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey from Devoncroft Partners

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IBC 2011 Trends: Cloud, Channel-in-a-Box, 3D

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Sep 30 2011

Note: This article was originally published last week by TVNewsCheck

Technology vendors at IBC answered the broadcasters’ call for efficiency in a variety of ways, including “cloud” oriented product offerings, highly integrated IT-based systems for broadcast playout, and the introduction of new versions of existing systems that are smaller and less featured, but more affordable to broadcasters with limited budgets.

Also on display at the annual tech show, which wrapped up a six-day run in Amsterdam last week and drew more than 50,000 professionals, were technologies aimed at making 3D production more affordable and compatible with standard 2D operations.

Many vendors were touting the advantages of deploying some type of cloud-based or service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications such as capturing, producing, processing and distributing video and audio as digital files.

Cloud services are drawing attention because broadcasters are being challenged to support an ever-increasing number of distribution platforms. The breadth and rapidly changing nature of the multi-screen environment makes it difficult for even large broadcasters to deploy the appropriate hardware and software solutions in an affordable and timely manner. Thus, broadcasters are now increasingly willing to contemplate outsourcing some of these functions to cloud-based technologies and services.

Many vendors at IBC demonstrated technologies to address some of the fundamental concerns that broadcasters have about cloud-based architectures, notably content security, access to content, collaboration, bandwidth and workflow continuity.

Avid, Chyron, Grass Valley, Panasonic, Sony, Quantel and Vizrt showed their own methods for deploying “media-friendly” SOAs that provide a common interface and pre-authorized access to a wide variety of production tools from every staff member’s desktop.

In addition, the Advanced Media Workflow Association, the European Broadcasting Union and SMPTE came together to develop a standard for configuring an SOA that would allow each manufacturer’s equipment to talk to each other. The effort stems from the vendors’ realization that — due to R&D cost efficiencies — their next-generation products will be predominantly software based and operate best in this type of networked environment.

SOAs also help broadcasters produce and distribute content much more efficiently and allow staff to collaborate even though they may be in separate locations.

Many of these IT-centric concepts are not new ideas, but are now becoming attractive to the video production and broadcasting communities, looking to do more with the same resources. Industry connectivity to Internet protocol (IP) infrastructures has matured and newer consumer-industry file transfer technologies — like IP, HDMI and Apple/Intel’s Thunderbolt — offer benefits for broadcasters that were not apparent before.

Another significant hub of IT-oriented activity at the IBC was in the area of IT-based playout or, as it is more commonly known, channel in a box. These systems offer the promise of dramatically reducing the cost of broadcast playout by enabling users to migrate to off-the-shelf IT hardware running software that integrates, automates and replaces much of the traditional broadcast master control infrastructure.

Technology in this area had matured significantly over the past 6-12 months, and is now are under serious consideration by a number of large and small broadcasters around the world. Miranda Technologies, which became the de facto leader in this emerging field when it acquired the OmniBus Systems’ iTX platform last year, showed the latest advances in its IT-based playout offerings.

Other notable players in this space include traditional broadcast suppliers such as Snell and Evertz, as well as smaller specialized players like Playbox and VSN. Significantly, other large technology vendors are rumored to be readying competing systems that will be introduced in time for the annual NAB Show in April 2012.

In addition to the increasing drive for increased efficiencies, many IBC attendees were gearing up for the high-profile sporting and political events of 2012. In some cases, that means 3D. While the technology has yet to even be considered by local broadcasters in the U.S., a variety of live sports production companies across Europe are already producing events like soccer and rugby in 3D or are anticipating that they will by the time of the Olympics in London.

The games will be the first in 3D, with many events, including the opening and closing ceremonies, produced in the format. Panasonic will be supplying large quantities of 3D cameras and other gear.

Avatar director and 3D pioneer James Cameron put in appearances at several places at the IBC, promoting his new company, The Cameron/Pace Group, and urging industry professionals to pursue and help develop new tools for producing 2D and 3D content simultaneously.

According to Cameron, it’s the only way to stimulate the market to develop much-need original 3D content, and, in turn, spur 3D TV set sales. Previously, the cost of producing 3D has been prohibitive for everyone but a fortunate few who are being sponsored by TV set manufacturers.

“We’re on a relentless path to grow the 3D business,” said Cameron, at the Grass Valley IBC press conference. “We’ve been in the 3D game for 12 years now. We are so excited about what’s happening right now [with 3D] but it’s a little bit daunting staying ahead of the rapid rate of technology change, so we have to have powerful alliances with people that are major players in broadcast who will be able to fulfill this future and supply the kind of quality 3D that people enjoy.”

At the same press conference, Cameron’s partner (and equally influential 3D pioneer) Vince Pace said, “It’s so critical to the industry that we integrate the solutions and come up with a very clean and determined business plan that makes sense to the industry to increase the amount of 3D productions. So, this business of saying we have fewer cameras or we don’t tell the whole story is going to go away.”

IBC attendance was up slightly this year (4%, according to the IBC, to 50,462), again signaling that broadcasters are spending money — on hardware and T&E. Unlike last year, there were several representatives of all the major U.S. TV networks.

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PlayBox Says Sales Were Up 60 Percent in Q1 2011, Up 250 Percent Since 2008

Broadcast technology vendor financials, Quarterly Results | Posted by Joe Zaller
May 09 2011

Integrated playout (channel-in-a-box) vendor PlayBox said in a press release that the its revenue in the first quarter of 2011 increased 60% versus the same period a year ago, and that it expects a similar level of growth to continue for the remainder of the year.

PlayBox also said that it has been growing at more than thirty percent per year for the past two years, and that its current revenue is 250% higher than in 2008.

Company executives attribute the company’s growth the global move to HDTV broadcasting as well as a large number of channels that are now being delivered over the internet.

PlayBox is privately held and it has not disclosed its revenue, or the base from which its revenue doubled.

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Related Content:

Press Release: 60% Sales Growth at PlayBox Technology

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Evertz Q3 Net Income Doubles as Revenue Rises 26 Percent

Broadcast technology vendor financials, Quarterly Results | Posted by Joe Zaller
Mar 08 2011

Evertz Technologies reported that its revenue for the third quarter ended January 31, 2011, was C$83.2m, an increase of 26% versus the same period a year ago, and an increase of 1% versus the previous quarter.

The results were driven by a strong performance in the US and Canada, where revenue was C$48.5m, an increase of 44% versus the same quarter last year, and an increase of 20% versus the previous quarter.  The US and Canada accounted for 58% of the total revenue in the quarter.

International revenue for the quarter was C$34.7m, an increase of 7% versus the same quarter last year, but down sharply from C$42.8m in the previous quarter.  Company management said that Evertz experienced a “high level of quotation activity” in international markets, but implied that international sales had impacted by the recent unrest in the Middle East.

The company’s top 10 customers accounted for approximately 32% of revenue (C$26.6) during the quarter, with no one customer accounting for more than 9% (C$7.5m).  The company had fifty-seven order of more than C$200,000.

Net income for the quarter was C$23.6m, up 102% versus the same period a year ago, and up 13% versus last quarter.

Gross margins for the quarter were 57.5%, up from the 57% gross margins achieved in the same period a year ago, but down slightly from the previous quarter.  Evertz executive VP Brian Campbell said that although the company’s gross margins were impacted by competitive pricing pressure as well as volume discounts on large orders, they were within the company’s target range of 58%-62%.

Research & development cost for the quarter was C$9.6m, an increase of 21% versus the same period a year ago, and an increase of 17% versus the previous quarter.  On the company’s earnings call with equity analysts, Evertz CFO Anthony Gridley said the increase in R&D was due to recent acquisitions (including the purchase of Pharos) and a general increase in R&D headcount.  Evertz says it intends to continue to increase R&D investment.

SG&A for the quarter was C$10.2m, or was approximately 12% of revenue.

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Year to Date

For the first nine months of the year the company’s sales were C$239.4m, an increase of 13% versus the same period a year ago.  Year-to-date revenue from the US and Canada was C$131.1m, an increase of 11% versus last year, while sales from the international region was C$108.3m, a 17% increase versus last year. Gross margins for the first nine months of the year were 57.8% versus 58.5% last year.  Year-to-date net income was C$65m, up 41% versus the first nine months of fiscal 2010.

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New Server and Integrated Playout Products at NAB

Campbell said that Evertz expects there to be a lot of interest in it new server platform and Overture “channel-in-a-box” product at the NAB show in April.  He also said that visitors to the Evertz NAB booth would see the results of the integration of recently acquired technology from Pharos.

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Related Content:

You can read the full Evertz Q3 FY 2011 earnings release here.

The Evertz Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) filing with Canadian regulators is here (Catchpa code required)

Information on Evertz’s previous quarter results are here.

Information on the acquisition of Pharos by Evertz is here.

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Evertz Reports 13% Increase in Q2 Revenue Driven by Strong International Sales. Announces Purchase of File-based Workflow Specialist.

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Quarterly Results | Posted by Joe Zaller
Dec 07 2010

Evertz Technologies reported that it earned C$20.9m during its second quarter on sales of C$82.3.  Sales were up 13% year over year, and up 12% versus the previous quarter.  According to a Reuters article, analysts were expecting revenue to come in around C$78.6m.

Without disclosing any specific names, Evertz said that its top ten customers accounted for around 35% of sales (C$28.8m) during the quarter, and that no customer accounted for more than 12% of revenue (C$9.9m).

International sales, which increased 42% versus the same period a year ago, were C$42.8m and accounted for 52% of total revenue.  This is the first time that more than 50% of the company’s revenue has come from the international market.  Meanwhile, sales in the US and Canada were down 8% versus the prior year quarter to C$40.4m.  

The company said that its backlog at the end of the November 2010 was more than C$30m, and that the geographic mix of these future sales was similar to its Q2 performance – so it appears that the its strong international performance will continue.

Gross margins were 57.9%, at the lower end of the company’s target range.  On the earnings conference call company management attributed the lower gross margins to product mix and increased pricing pressure, but said that they were not changing their gross margin targets.

For the first six months of the year the company’s sales were C$156.1m, an increase of 8% versus the first half of last year.  International sales were up 22% during the first six months of the year, while sales from the US and Canada were down 3%.  Gross margins for the first half of the year were 58%.

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Acquires file-base specialist

In its earnings press release, the company said that it had “entered into an agreement to purchase the shares of an international technology based company for under $5 million.” 

When asked about this purchase by equity analysts on the conference call, Evertz EVP Brian Campbell did not identify the acquired company by name, but said that it had revenue of around C$9m and provides file-based workflow, automation and content management tools.  Campbell said that these new capabilities would help Evertz accelerate its penetration of file-based markets, specifically those it will soon be addressing with its recently announced media server and channel-in-a-box products.  Campbell told analysts that the company’s media server is a full system, encompassing ingest, playout and enterprise storage; and that the company expects to achieve “significant traction” in the market with this product.

When asked about the possibility of future M&A, Campbell said that because of its size and reach, Evertz is often approached by smaller companies who are looking for a bigger partner.  

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You can read the full Evertz Q2 earnings release here.

Information about the company’s previous quarter results are here.

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Value for Money Rankings of Broadcast Technology Vendors — The Top 30 Globally

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Aug 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.

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Recently, posts which rank broadcast technology vendors include:

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This post looks at how respondents ranked broadcast technology vendors for what is perhaps the most subjective driver we measured in the 2010 BBS — value for money.

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For some respondents value for money might mean low price, for others it might mean superior price/performance, while for others it could mean peace of mind in mission critical environments, regardless of the price.

Whatever the definition of value, the combination of a poor economy over the past few years and customer budget constraints have made many broadcast professionals more value-conscious than ever.  As a result, broadcast technology vendors must respond by continually delivering more value for less money.  This drives innovation in the broadcast supply chain as vendors are forced to compete on multiple levels.

Respondents were asked to rank broadcast technology vendor brands for “Value for Money” 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.

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

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Value for Money – The Top 30 Globally, Alphabetical Order

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There are a wide variety of vendors on this list, including large & small companies and those who produce audio & video products.  In order to better understand what drives the perception of value, we need to look at some of the factors behind these results.  These include the number of products produced by each vendor, the geographic location of the each vendor, and the types of product produced by the top 30 value companies.

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Number of products per vendor

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.  In the previously published top 30 quality rankings, and top 30 reliability rankings, single product companies (those who were covered on only one product category in the 2010 BBS) completely dominated the rankings with about 2/3 of all positions.

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

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Just over half of the vendors in the top 30 value rankings produce a product in only one BBS category (out of 27 measured).  This is slightly less concentrated that other findings, such as reliability where there were 21 single product companies in the top 30.

In the case of value, there is a mix of large and small, and single and multi-product companies.  It’s worth pointing out here that much of this list is made up of the industry’s largest multi-product vendors.  For example Grass Valley (10 categories), Evertz and Miranda (5 categories each), Sony (4 categories), Ross Video (3 categories), Apple, Black Magic Design, Cisco, For-A, Harmonic, Ikegami, Panasonic, and JVC (2 categories each).

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Geographic Location

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

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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.

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Product Categories

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

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Out of the 27 product categories covered in the 2010 BBS, 21 appear on this list. This is on par with other metrics. For comparison, there are 20 product categories in the top 30 reliability rankings and 23 product categories in the top 30 quality rankings.

Signal processing products lead the list of products produced by the top 30 value leaders.  This is a fiercely competitive market that is at the heart of the transition to HDTV operations, and customers look for both value and quality.  Cameras and audio consoles were close behind, while microphones, production switchers, routing switchers and video transport also made a strong showing.

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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.

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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.

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What Broadcast Buyers Are Evaluating for Purchase in 2010

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Apr 08 2010

This is the third in a series of articles about 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.

NAB 2010 is less than a week away, and as the industry prepares to gather in Las Vegas for its biggest event of the year, the question on the minds of many is what technologies are in demand by customers around the world.

In previous posts I have discussed the most important technology trends in the broadcast industry and examined where money is being spent in the broadcast industry in terms of major projects planned for the year.

These industry trends and major projects drive technology purchasing in the broadcast industry, and that’s the focus of this article — the products that are being evaluated for purchase this year by broadcast professionals.

As part of our 2010 global market study we wanted to help our readers understand what broadcast professionals around the world are shopping for this year.  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. 

The results, which are shown in the table below, demonstrate a broad range of industry demand.

 What broadcast technology products / services are you currently evaluating for purchase? 

These responses show that production technology such as editing, ENG cameras, along with test & measurement and key audio products will be in demand around the world as broadcast professionals upgrade their facilities to HDTV operations, which was ranked #1 in terms of planned projects for the year (link to article).

The transition to file-based / tapeless workflows will be facilitated by purchases of production servers along with transcoding products, which facilitate multi-format interoperability in the file-based domain.

The new studios, OB vans and channels that are being planned will drive evaluation of a wide variety of equipment including multiviewers, servers, signal processing, routing switchers and storage.

A significant number of respondents indicated that they are currently evaluating products that increase operational efficiency and streamline working practices.  These include library / storage management, automation and workflow / asset management.

Video transport and transmission gear should also see strong demand as customers around the world seek to use improve compression efficiency, connect operations by IP links, and increase the number of channels delivered to consumers.

Keep in mind when reading this information that this table presents the responses of all global participants in the 2010 BBS, regardless of organization type, size or location; and shows the number of respondents that are evaluating products without regard to size of project or value of purchase.  Granular analysis of these results, including breakdown of data by geographic region, customer type and customer size, is available as part of the full 2010 BBS Global Market Report from Devoncroft Partners.

Published by Devoncroft Partners, the annual Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) is the largest and most comprehensive studies of broadcast industry trends and technology vendor brands.  The BBS provides insight into market trends, technology budgets, plant, equipment upgrade plans, and the perceptions of leading broadcast industry vendor brands by a wide variety of broadcast professionals 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.  More than 5,600 people in 120+ countries participated in the 2010 BBS project. Information about the 2010 BBS can be found at www.devoncroft.com

 

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