SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE: Ian Dormer reports from IBC in Amsterdam: Recently appointed Harris Broadcast CEO Charlie Vogt outlined the company’s leadership, vision and roadmap during an IBC news conference held on Thursday 12 September at the Amsterdam RAI.
Only 65 days into his new position as CEO, Vogt announced that Harris is consolidating its 15+ research and development centres into five ‘centres of excellence’, enabling more scale for R&D in fewer locations to create a better product for the customer.
Vogt is a hands-on guy and has arranged 82 one-on-one customer meetings during the course of the IBC exhibition and conference.
He announced that Harris is moving to a new product architecture. “Fundamentally there are two technology pillars being mapped, those of Content Management and Network Infrastructure.’
Content Management encapsulates two core product families, the first being Media with products such as ad sales and scheduling, traffic and billing software, and digital signage. The second is Playout, covering automation, digital asset management, video servers, master control and integrated playout systems.
Network Infrastructure also has two core product families; Networking – with routers, multiviewers, signal processing, compression and transport systems in the fold, while transmission incorporates the traditional transmission business of television and radio transmitter platforms.
Vogt acknowledged that emerging markets are an important part of the company’s business and that Africa is a strong leader in the market place. South Africa’s pay-TV broadcaster SuperSport was in fact the first company in the world to purchase and install the award-winning Platinum IP3 Router and has just ordered a second one.
“Harris Broadcast is positioned better than ever to innovate, and we look forward to sharing our vision, direction and technology roadmap with customers, partners, media and analysts at IBC2013,’ said Vogt. “As a newly minted independent company, we are moving swiftly to leverage the benefits of our global scale and advanced, patented technology in meeting the needs of customers and an industry in transition. BC2013 represents an ideal venue to communicate our vision for the company and industry while collaborating closely with the world’s leading providers of content.’
