Posts Tagged ‘Miranda’

Miranda Responds to Activist Shareholders

Broadcast technology vendor financials | Posted by Joe Zaller
Dec 23 2011

Last week, two major shareholders of Miranda Technologies –JEC Capital Partners and JMB Capital Partners – requisitioned a meeting of the shareholders of Miranda to replace four of the existing directors of Miranda with four new independent directors.

Miranda has now publicly responded, saying that because several major shareholders have independently communicated to the company their opposition to the requisition for a meeting of shareholders to remove four of the seven current directors of the Company and to elect four new directors nominated by JEC and JMB.

Therefore the Board and management of Miranda believe that there are already sufficient shareholders that are opposed to the requisition, holding a sufficient number of shares of the Company, to cause the JEC/JMB proposal to fail.

The text of the press release follows:

“On December 1, 2011, JEC informed us that it owned approximately 7.0% of Miranda’s shares, demanded four seats on our Board and threatened to requisition a meeting if we declined,” said Brian Edwards, Chairman of the Board of Miranda. “As a matter of good governance, Miranda’s Board promptly undertook a clear and transparent process to consider the demand. Following the execution of a confidentiality agreement, JEC received extensive information with respect to the Company’s ongoing initiatives. The Board explored a number of options with JEC to enable them to voice their views on an ongoing basis and to contribute constructively to the enhancement of the value of Miranda’s franchise. Despite our responsiveness, transparency and open dialogue, JEC rejected our proposals and has opted to submit a formal requisition seeking to take control of the Company through the appointment of a majority of the Board. This is highly opportunistic and not something that is in the best interest of Miranda and its shareholders.

“Miranda has undertaken several proactive measures during the past 18-24 months, the benefits of which have had a tangible impact on its profitability and competitive positioning. The Company is well positioned financially, operationally and competitively to continue to drive profitable growth. Over the past year, and following the recent announcement of Miranda’s strong Q3’11 financial results, the Company’s share price has appreciated by more than 80% to $9.38 at the close of trading on Wednesday, December 21, 2011, from $5.16 on December 21, 2010. Over the same period, Miranda materially outperformed both the S&P/TSX Composite Index and the S&P/TSX Information Technology Index, which declined by 12.1% and 54.4%, respectively. For the nine-month period ended September 30, 2011, Miranda’s revenue increased 33% to $131.8 million compared to the corresponding period in 2010, while EBITDA increased 94% to $28.6 million, representing a margin of 21.7%.

Mr. Edwards noted that “our Board comprises independent and highly experienced directors, and the composition of the Board is reviewed on an ongoing basis. The Board and management remain confident that the implementation of the Company’s strategic plan and initiatives to enhance value will continue to enhance value for all of its shareholders. We must continue to focus our efforts on these important objectives.

 

Related Content:

Miranda Press Release: Miranda Responds to Requisition of Special Meeting

Activist Shareholders Seek To Replace Four Board Seats at Miranda Technologies

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Activist Shareholders Seek To Replace Four Board Seats at Miranda Technologies

Broadcast technology vendor financials | Posted by Joe Zaller
Dec 15 2011

Two major shareholders of broadcast infrastructure and playout technology provider Miranda Technologies have requisitioned a meeting of the shareholders of Miranda to replace four of the existing directors of Miranda with four new independent directors .

The request was made by JEC Capital Partners (JEC) and JMB Capital Partners, who own a 7.1% and 3.1% stake in Miranda respectively.

The request was made public through a press release issued by JEC which says:

“Miranda’s current Board of Directors has been unchanged since 2006 and the independent directors own virtually no shares in the Company (less than 0.3%). From December 31, 2005 through December 12, 2011, Miranda’s market capitalization has decreased from $325M to $188M, over 42%. The current Board has approved two major acquisitions that were dilutive to shareholder value. During the past 12 months, JEC Capital has made numerous attempts to engage the current Board in constructive dialogue regarding strategic actions to maximize shareholder value, without success. While no single director is solely responsible for the loss in shareholder value, the Board as a whole should bear responsibility for the inability to effectively advance the interests of shareholders.

“JEC Capital continues to be encouraged by the financial and operational performance of Miranda and we are fully supportive of the Company’s management. Miranda’s directors should have the best interests of all of Miranda’s shareholders as their first priority and aggressively explore all value-creation opportunities, including a strategic review of Miranda’s assets to determine the fair market value of the company.”

Miranda responded with its own press release that says it is reviewing this requisition and will make further announcements regarding its response in due course.

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Related Content:

JEC Press Release: Requisition for Meeting of Shareholders of Miranda Technologies Inc.

Miranda Press Release: Miranda Acknowledges Requisition of Special Meeting

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Thoughts on the Grass Valley – PubliTronic Deal, Including Press Conference Slides

broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor M&A | Posted by Joe Zaller
Oct 13 2011

Yesterday, Grass Valley announced that it has acquired Dutch Channel-in-a-Box (CiaB) vendor PubliTronic via an online press conference.  This in an interesting move for a number of reasons, and Grass Valley did a good job of explaining its rationalize for the transaction.

During the presentation Grass Valley showed a slide deck that outlined its reasons for buying PubliTronic, provided an overview of the CiaB market opportunity and laid out its strategic objectives for this space.

Grass Valley says the broadcast market is changing more rapidly than ever, and that it is working to position itself as the “trusted transformation expert,” which can provide the appropriate mix of hardware, software and services to broadcast customers facing unprecedented change.

Grass Valley says it wants to become “the premier video technology solutions company.” This plan includes software, services, differentiated products, moving “down market” where opportunities are greater, and moving into emerging markets where there is higher growth.

The company sees integrated playout as a prime example of a fast growing, but currently underserved market. During the press conference GV said that the CiaB space is one of the fastest growing areas of the broadcast market, and that the acquisition of PubliTronic will help it go after this space, while better serving the needs of its customers.

It will be interesting to see how Grass Valley executes on this deal and deploys the PubliTronic products (now rebranded as Grass Valley K2 Edge).

There’s no doubt that Grass Valley is one of the premier brands in the broadcast industry, but many of their products such as switchers, servers and routers are hardware based and used in live production and studio applications.

Conversely, the CiaB market is all about software, and some traditionally hardware-focused companies have had a difficult time making the transition to a more software-centric approach. Of course Grass Valley’s video servers are widely deployed in the playout space, and the company undoubtedly has extensive technical expertise in this area, so maybe the transition will be smooth.

While the purchase of a 32-person playout software company is not a “bet the company” move for Grass Valley, it’s still critically important for the company to get this acquisition right.  New CEO Alain Andreoli, made it clear at IBC that he (and new GV owner Francisco Partners) sees software and services as core to the company’s future success.  The PubliTronic deal is a significant step in this direction.

There’s no doubt that the PubliTronic product offering is very capable.  However, Grass Valley is far from alone in going after the CiaB market.  Miranda, Snell, Evertz, Playbox and VSN are all vying for leadership in this space, and there are rumors that both Harris and Harmonic (Omneon) will be throwing their respective hats into this ring before NAB 2012. Expect to be hearing a lot about integrated playout / CiaB over the next six months.

At the end of the press conference Grass Valley CEO Alain Andreoli said that this deal shows that Franscisco Partners is committed to building a new Grass Valley and that it’s putting its money where its mouth is in order to do so.  It’s going to be very interesting to watch
how this shakes out over the next year or two.

The slides from the Grass Valley – PubliTronic announcement press conference (or at least most of them) are shown below.  They are worth reading as they do a good job of explaining the market dynamics, Grass Valley’s strategy, and the PubliTronic product offering.

 

 

 

 


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Related Content:

More Broadcast Vendor M&A: Grass Valley Buys PubliTronic, Enters Integrated Playout / Channel-in-a-Box Market

Press Release: Grass Valley Extends Leadership in IT-based Playout Solutions with Acquisition of Integrated Playout Solutions Provider PubliTronic

Press Release: Grass Valley Announces New K2 Edge Automated, Multichannel, Integrated Playout Solution

Announcement Coming From Grass Valley

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

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More Broadcast Vendor M&A: Grass Valley Buys PubliTronic, Enters Integrated Playout / Channel-in-a-Box Market

broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology channel strategy, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor M&A | Posted by Joe Zaller
Oct 12 2011

Grass Valley announced today that it has purchased PubliTronic, a Netherlands-based broadcast technology supplier.  Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

PubliTronic provides integrated playout or channel-in-box (CiaB) solutions for broadcast playout applications.  According to Grass Valley executives, CiaB solutions have been deployed by approximately 5% of the market today and represent “one of the fastest growing segments in broadcasting, [and is] expected to increase significantly over the next three years.”

PubliTronic’s CiaB product provides an integrated playout package featuring a video server, media management, automation, broadcast graphics and other master control functionality.  PubliTronic’s products will be incorporated into the Grass Valley product line-up and will be re-branded as the Grass Valley K2 Edge.

The acquisition of the PubliTronic product line complements the existing Grass Valley server product business and puts Grass Valley into the automated playout business, which is shaping up to be one of the next battlegrounds in the broadcast technology business.  It was certainly one of the most important trends at the recent IBC 2011 trade show.

With the purchase of PubliTronic, Grass Valley joins the growing list of broadcast vendors who are making major bets in this area.  In addition to Miranda, Evertz, Snell, Grass Valley, PlayBox and VSN; who are now all vying for leadership in this segment, I’ve heard rumors that other firms including both Harris and Harmonic (Omneon) could launch CiaB products by NAB 2012, making this both a hot topic and a very crowded space.

With most CiaB systems providing similar functionality, it will be important for Grass Valley to differentiate itself from its competition.  In a statement, the company sought to do this, saying: “What this acquisition brings to customers is much more than a simple “channel-in-a-box” solution. Our next-generation K2 Edge™ server is a sophisticated and very powerful multichannel, integrated, automated playout system that delivers benefits to our customers from day one.”

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Related Content:

Press Release: Grass Valley Extends Leadership in IT-based Playout Solutions with Acquisition of Integrated Playout Solutions Provider PubliTronic

Press Release: Grass Valley Announces New K2 Edge Automated, Multichannel, Integrated Playout Solution

Announcement Coming From Grass Valley

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

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

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, market research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Aug 04 2011

This is the fifth 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.

 

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 a previous article we wrote about the 2011 BBS Overall Brand Opinion League Table, which shows how our global sample of broadcast professionals ranked 118 broadcast vendor brands in terms of their overall opinion of these vendors.

While it’s great for a vendor to be named to the top 30 for overall opinion, these rankings may be seen as somewhat one-sided because they rely primarily on the positive opinions of respondents. 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.

To achieve this, we first determine whether a respondent has an opinion of a brand, and then ask them how their opinion of that brand has changed over time – i.e. has it improved, declined or stayed the same.

When compared to the previously published ranking of overall opinions of brands, this methodology provides a more comprehensive picture of how a brand is perceived because it shows both the positive and negative opinions of each brand.

Sometimes these results highlight some interesting perceptions about brands.  Take for example the chart below, which is from our 2009 study.

 

 

 

In this case the brand that was top for “got better” was also top for “got worse.”

Given these results, it is perhaps more useful to find 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 ut 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.

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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 study.

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2011 BBS Net Chage in Overall Opinion League Table:

 

A total of 51 broadcast technology vendor brands are included in this table, illustrating the geographic variation of opinion.

In terms of frequency of appearance in this table:

 

  • 13 brands appear four times, meaning they were ranked in the top 30 globally and in each geographic region

 

  • 10 brands appear three times

 

  • 9 brands appear two times

 

  • 19 brands appear one time 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.

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Brands appearing four times in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • Adobe, Aja Video, Apple, Blackmagic Design, Canon, Cisco, Genelec, Omneon, Panasonic, Riedel, Sennheiser, Sony, Tektronix

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Brands appearing three times in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • Ateme,  Evertz, EVS, Harmonic, Net Insight, Rhozet, Rohde & Schwarz, Ross Video, Shure, Vizrt

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Brands appearing two times in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • AKG, Digital Rapids, Dolby, Ensemble,  Front Porch Digital, Lawo, Telestream, TVIPS, Wohler

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Brands appearing once in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table: 

  • AmberFin, Audio-Technica ,Avid, Fujinon, Grass Valley, Harris, Inlet Technologies, Linear, Linear Acoustic, Miranda, MSA Focus,
    Nevion, Playbox, PubliTronic, Schoeps, Screen Service, Solid State Logic, Telecast, Yamaha

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Frequency Analysis of the Brands in the in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table:  

In order to provide a better understanding of which brands were most highly 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.

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Frequency Analysis of Brands in the 2011 BBS Net Change of Overall Opinion League Table

 

 

This frequency analysis chart shows that there are some interesting geographic variations in the data. Here’s a closer look at how brands appeared by geography:

 

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

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

  • Digital Rapids, Ensemble, EVS, Front Porch Digital, Lawo, Net Insight, Telestream, T-VIPS

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

The following 18 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:

  • AmberFin, Audio-Technica, Avid, Fujinon, Grass Valley, Inlet Technologies, Linear, Linear Acoustic, Miranda, MSA Focus, Nevion, Playbox, PubliTronic, Schoeps, Screen Service, Solid State Logic, Telecast, Yamaha

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

  • AmberFin, Fujinon, Inlet Technologies, Linear Acoustic, Nevion, PubliTronic, Screen Service

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

  • Avid, Grass Valey, Harris, Miranda, MSA Focus, Playbox, Schoeps, Yamaha

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

  • Audio-Technica, Linear, Solid State Logic, Telecast, Wohler

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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.

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.

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 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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The 2011 Big Broadcast Survey – Now Available

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology channel strategy, broadcast technology market research, Broadcast Vendor Brand Research, Top Broadcast Vendor Brands | Posted by Joe Zaller
Mar 10 2011

After many months of work, I am pleased to announce that the 2011 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS) has been completed, and that reports from the study will be published soon.

If you’re not familiar with the BBS, it’s an annual demand-side study of the global broadcast industry. BBS reports help readers improve their strategic decision making, customer engagement, marketing strategy, product planning, and sales execution.

More than 8,000 broadcast professionals in 100+ countries participated in the 2011 BBS, making it by far the largest and most comprehensive market study of the broadcast industry.

Three types of reports are available:

  • The BBS Global Market Report is the broadcast industry’s first global demand-based study of the purchasing habits of technology buyers.  This report examines industry trends, major projects being planned, products being evaluated for purchase, current and future plant infrastructure and operational structure, broadcast technology budgets, and HD upgrade plans for a wide variety of products.

 

  • BBS Global Brand Reports are available for more than 100 broadcast technology vendors.  These reports provide deep insight into how each company is perceived by the market, along with comprehensive benchmarking of broadcast technology vendors on a wide variety of metrics, through a series of league table rankings

 

  • Twenty-six separate 2011 BBS Product Reports provide detailed vendor brand ranking for individual product categories. These reports enable users to benchmark their brand directly against specific competitors through a detailed understanding of the opinions of technology buyers who purchase, specify or use each product type.  

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If you would like information about these reports and how they can help your business, please get in touch.

In addition to these paid-for reports, we will also be publishing highlights from the study on the Devoncroft website.  These articles will be posted on a semi-regular basis, so please check back often.   

You’ll also be seeing information from the 2011 BBS in a wide variety of other industry websites and trade magazines.

The tables below show the product categories and broadcast technology vendor brands covered in the 2011 BBS.

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 Product Categories Covered in the 2011 BBS:

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Broadcast Technology Brands Covered in the 2011 BBS:

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Miranda Reports Record Q4 and Full Year 2010 Results, Forecasts Continued Growth

broadcast industry trends, Broadcast technology vendor financials, Broadcast Vendor M&A, Quarterly Results | Posted by Joe Zaller
Feb 24 2011

Miranda Technologies said today it achieved record revenue for the fourth quarter and full year 2010, driven by a strong international sales performance, and helped by the contribution from recently acquired automated playout provider OmniBus Systems.

Revenue for the fourth quarter was a record C$44.9, up 26% versus the same period a year ago, and up 19% versus the previous quarter. OmniBus, which was acquired in September of 2010, contributed C$6m during the quarter.   Excluding OmniBus, Q4 revenue grew 9% versus the same period a year ago.

Q4 net income was C$3.8m, up 82% from Q4 2009 but down 42% from the previous quarter when the company was helped by a C$1.3m reduction in income taxes as well as a one-time tax credit of C$2.4m.  OmniBus recorded a net loss of $0.2m during the quarter. Excluding OmniBus, Q4 net income was up 92%.

Gross margins for the quarter were 60%, up seven percentage points versus the same quarter a year ago, and exceeding the high-end of the guidance the company issue during a recent investor presentation. The company attributed its strong margin performance to improved pricing, product and customer mix, including the sale of higher margin solutions associated with OmniBus, along with operational efficiencies.  Miranda says it expects gross margins to continue to be at the high-end of its targeted range of 55% – 59%.

EBITDA was C$8.1m for the quarter, up 57% over Q4 2009. EBITDA as a percentage of sales was 18%, up three percent versus the same period a year ago.

Q4 Revenues increased in all geographies versus the previous year, with Canada, the United States and Other Countries, growing 596%, 24% and 14%, respectively. Canada, the United States and Other Countries generated 7%, 38% and 55% of quarterly sales respectively.

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For the full year 2010, the company posted net income of C$12.2m (up 122% versus FY 2009), on record revenue of C$143.7m (up 9% versus FY 2009), with OmniBus contributing C$7.9m since it was acquired.

Excluding OmniBus, 2010 was C$135.7m, up 3% over 2009, while net income was up 122%.

On a geographic basis, full year 2010 sales from the international region increased 15% over 2009 to C$78.3m, while sales to the United States were down 3%, coming in at C$55.5m.

On the company’s conference call with equity analysts, Miranda president and CEO Strath Goodship said that the broadcast market improved during 2010 and that the company was able to capitalize on this.  He said that US broadcast market is experiencing steady recovery and that Q4 2010 was “reasonably good” in the US, but not back to 2008 levels.  However, he said that emerging markets had returned to 2008 levels, and that he expects 2011 to be a “pretty good” year.

Goodship mentioned several key product areas as revenue drivers, including the launch of the Nvision hybrid router, which has said was a big success in the market.  He also reported that infrastructure sales continued to be strong as customers worldwide continue to upgrade to HDTV operations.

Not surprisingly, Goodship spent time during the call discussing the acquisition of OmniBus, stating that the purchase of the automated playout provider was one of the company’s “most pivotal moves to date” and that it has increased Miranda’s addressable market by 40%.  Goodship says that the OmniBus integration program is progressing rapidly.  Subsequently company CFO Mario Settino said that the company has not yet fully realized the synergies of the mergers but that plans are in place to do this later in the year.

When asked by an analyst about growth at OmniBus, Goodship said that while the unit’s overall revenue growth was relatively flat, the iTX product line had experienced “dramatic growth.” 

Commenting on the potential for continued revenue growth at Miranda, Goodship said that the company believes it can continue to grow faster than the market.

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You can read the full Miranda Q4 and FY 2010 press release here.

Information on Miranda’s previous quarter performance is here.

A recent press release about Miranda’s progress with the OmniBus integration is here.

Miranda buys OmniBus story is here.

Miranda’s Most Recent Investor Presentation is here.

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Brief Impressions of IBC 2010

broadcast industry technology trends, broadcast industry trends, broadcast technology market research | Posted by Joe Zaller
Sep 22 2010

Last week I attended the 2010 IBC show in Amsterdam.  The product introductions and events at the show have been well covered elsewhere, so this is just a short note on my impressions of the show.

After spending the better part of a week in Amsterdam, and having 40-50 meetings with vendors, bankers, broadcasters and others, I came away from the show with three general impressions – the market is improving, there is more realism about 3D, and the drive toward file-based operations continues. 

It’s also worth noting that I think that these trends will probably act as a catalyst for further market consolidation as vendors seek to position themselves for the post-recession world.

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Improving Market Conditions

In terms of market improvement, many people I spoke with said that buyers were coming back and that once-delayed projects are now table. Many vendors reported that their sales and profitability have increased markedly versus a year ago.  Interestingly, there do seem to be geographic and technological differences in the market recovery.  For example, many people reported that activity in Asia, northern Europe and the middle east was strong; while southern Europe and parts of north America were still sluggish for some.  Also some types of products seem to have recovered more strongly – automation being a good case-in-point.

To get a better handle on the industry’s current status, I attended a very interesting “state of the industry” session hosted by the IABM (the international organization that represents technology suppliers), which was held on the opening day of IBC.  During the session, IABM director general Peter White presented the results of a recent survey of broadcast buyers and suppliers.  This was followed by a panel discussion that included representatives from Sony, Harris, Axon and Softel, with industry veteran Adrian Scott leading the session.

According to White, about 60% of broadcast technology suppliers are now making a profit – up considerably from last year – with European companies performing better in terms of profit performance. 

White also reported that confidence has returned to buyers, with more than half of those surveyed feeling “very or quite optimistic” about the future; and 39% reporting that they feel that the recession is over or that they are coming out of it.

However, White also indicated that things will be different for vendors in a post-recession world.  According to the IABM’s study, broadcast technology buyers are changing the way they purchase, and are also expecting more from vendors in terms of value, interoperability, support etc.

My understanding is that the IABM will be making their findings available in the near future, although I am not sure what for this will take.  It’s good information that everyone should read.

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More Realism About 3D

While 3D was a major theme of the IBC show, my feeling was that, in contrast to the CES and NAB shows earlier in the year, the hype about 3D seems to have dissipated as vendors have become more realistic about 3D’s ability to drive revenue and profitability growth.

In multiple press conferences and vendor meetings, the 3D hype was much toned down.  For example, at the Grass Valley press conference SVP Jeff Rosica referred to 3D as a niche market.  At the Harris press event, Broadcast Communications president Harris Morris referred to 3D projects as experiments.

I am on the record as a 3D skeptic, at least as far as the short term potential for broadcasters, so I was not surprised to hear this type of comments.  I should also point out that these comments are consistent with our market research findings about the most important trends in the broadcast industry, where 3D placed far down on the list versus the transition to HDTV, the move to file-based workflows and multi-platform content delivery. 

There is of course a small part of the market where 3D is and will continue to be a major growth driver.  However, it looks like the bulk of the market is now taking a more realistic approach and focusing on what customers really need.

For more on this subject, have a look at Mike Grotticelli’s article in Broadcast Engineering called 3-D Technology Finds Few Enthusiasts at IBC2010.

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IT and File-Based Technologies

It may seem obvious that IT and file-based technologies are continuing to make inroads into the broadcast market, but at IBC I was struck by the accelerating pace of change in this area.

Vendors, both large and small continue to innovate in this area in an effort to help broadcasters streamline their operations and do more with less.

The shift to IT technology is having an interesting impact on the industry, in the form of product development, M&A and outside investment.

On the product development front, some vendors have jumped into the file-based world with full force – e.g. Evertz who launched a full blown playout server and storage solution at IBC.

Others have sought to accelerate their move into the IT world through acquisition – e.g. Miranda’s purchase of OmniBus, which gives the traditional hardware supplier a highly developed IT-based playout and automation solution.  Another recent industry M&A deal between Telestream and Anystream helped Telestream consolidate its position in the encoding / transcoding / streaming space.  I would not be surprised to see more M&A in this area as traditional vendors seek to beef up their file-based expertise.

The move to IT has also helped bring new money into the industry.  For example two transcoding vendors, Elemental Technologies  and AmberFin both recently announced that they have closed funding rounds, which will help them expand their presence in the broadcast marketplace.

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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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