Ikusi News October 2011

TELEVISION MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2011 Nº 16

“The market here requires more value added solutions”” Interview with Chin Kwee Koh, Asia & Pacific Ikusi Director

Discover our new products in http://www.youtube.com/IkusiTV

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Interview with Michael Lim, Antechnic Director

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Ikusi... I have a question

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A LanTV project for a 550 bed new hospital

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When you want to receive TV channels and you only have data networks

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Interview with Chin Kwee Koh, Asia & Pacific Ikusi Director

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Interview with Pedro Santofimia, Ikusi International Regional Director

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LTE, a new opportunity for the sector

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Ikusi, reference headend provider for cable networks

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Ikusi has a long and reputable experience as headend provider and now wants to be also in the cable networks. The goal is to position as an expert in digital signal processing and therefore now offers to the cable market its headends ClassA and CODEX. Without any doubt, ClassA headends are a reference for Ikusi. Equipments of unquestionable quality and multiple features that can be highly effective in the cable networks. The

ClassA is a full range headend station modules for terrestrial, satellite, cable and base band signal processing.

On the other hand, Ikusi offers CODEX to the cable market. A tremendously efficient headend in cost, in occupied space and the spectrum use. Of course, it is designed around a high-speed IP bus, allowing you to process hundreds of channels from different sources very flexibly.

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In search of energy Efficiency in power supplies ONE HOME, first Ikusi domestic programmable amplifier

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Interview with Michael Lim, Antechnic Director What did encourage you to start making business with Ikusi, a business group with such a distant geographical origin?

Streamers and other services associated with IPTV solution. This project will be completed in early 2012.

We had come across Ikusi product about two decades ago. However, during that period, it was not a commonly used brand for MATV system in Singapore.

Which Ikusi solutions have a better acceptance in the market of the area?

In 2005, we had a project that required Fiber Optics (F.O) MATV equipment. By coincidence, we met Mr. Gari Esnal Bastarrica, Regional Director and Mr. Koh Chin Kwee, Sales Manager of Ikusi at the CommunicAsia Exhibition in Singapore.

At the same time, we were also looking for a MATV product to distribute. After this meeting, we have continued to use Ikusi product for all our projects from private to government residential/ commercial buildings. Importantly, the continuous support and mutual understanding do play an important role for both parties to form a good synergy to build a long term partnership.

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I must say, it is the single brand that provides the full solution from coaxial to IP. Importantly, the continuous effort to improve the services and products and yet provide a competitive price.

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problem solved This does not depend on the MTI, it depends on the card supplied by the operator and on the CAM we are using. We can use a CAM which allows us to open various services simultaneously but the limitation will lie in the rights held by the actual card, and therefore, the number of channels that we can decrypt interview with...to a great extent on simultaneously depends the operator.

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Do ONE have some kind of block to prevent manipulations in the programming?

A LanTV project for a 550 bed new hospital Ikusi... I have a question

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) is the newest general and acute care public hospital with 550-bed in Singapore, problem solved located in the north of Singapore build in 2010. The hospital belongs to an integrated healthcare hub that offers both outpatient treatment services and day surgery for selected specialties. The LanTV project got started back in 2007 before Ikusi had the com-

new developments in Ikusi

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Over the years, we have penetrated to the government residential projects to use Ikusi product. The big break came with the IPTV system at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) which was completed in 2010. This is the first Government Hospital that adopts IPTV system for about 300 IP STB. This is a good reference site for us to showcase the IPTV solution that has benefited both parties. As such, with the assistance of our business partners, we have secured another private Hospital - Parkway Novena which will deploy about 350 IP STB including HD/SD

the many other features that IPTV system can provide over the common F.O backbone that shares amongst other services.

How do you think will develop the relationship between Antechnic and Ikusi in the future?

In today environment, owners/clients are more demanding and expect more from the vendors.

We need to build a mutual understanding to fight and secure future projects together at a very competitive price. End of the day, it must be a win-win situation for both parties.

plete solutions to offer and when the hospital building was still on the drawing paper. At that time, many meetings were held together with Antechnic and project consultants for laying out the specification for public project tender process. Antechnic was also providing a full IP based public addressing system to the hospital.

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Is there any way of measuring or watching whetherfuture I am having problems with Echoes in my installation?

Ikusi...

I have a question Ikusi presence

The mid/high range of our DSA fieldstrength meters has an option which allows us to measure the Echoes in real time. With this option we can make the appropriate changes to our installation and obtain the did you know that...? results about the Echoes on the meter.

During these years of relationship, what kind of added value has Ikusi bring to Antechnic?

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Yes, we can assign a four-figure PIN to prevent any manipulation of the programming. new developments in Ikusi Go to Settings-Advanced-Block, enter the PIN of your choice and select ON, when the equipment goes into standby it will be automatically blocked.

In the near future, what kind of equipment and services do you think are going to be demanded by the Singapore market and your customers, in particular?

With more Hospitals/Hotels/Institutions in the pipeline, we will foresee more building owners adopting IPTV solution. The main advantage is the clarity of the picture quality, control/ command of the numbers of TV programs and

How many services can I decrypt with a MTI-900?

Why can’t my meter read the MER/BER of modules with COFDM output?

Some field-strength our clients meters speak have pre-set parameters of COFDM signals to be measured, for a guard interval of 1/4 and a Code Rate of 2/3. When the signal’s parameters do not match these, certain meters are not able to read the MER/BER. All you need to do is to configure the meter to autodetect these parameters or update the meter with the latest firmware version, and our meter will be able to read these parameters correctly.

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When you want to receive TV channels and you only have data networks did you know that...?

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our clients speak

We often find buildings in which the only exnewisdevelopments in Ikusi This is the isting network the data network. case of universities, newspaper and television offices, museums, corporate offices, town halls or police stations, for example.

Sometimes the need to save on infrastructure, or the impossibility of installing more networks or even the lack of planning for fufuture ture services, means that more often than not there is only one DATA cable network for the interconnection of data equipment.

Aitor Egaña, Technical Customer Support Ikusi

Ikusi solutions

However, these are environments in which nowadays a multichannel TV service is redid you know that...?

quired. What to do in this case? Ikusi’s range of streamers resolves this situation of a changing environment, which is becoming increasingly more common. Via streamers, the TV signal is captured from DTT, satellite or an independent video source and channels are sent over IP via the existing data network .

Using IGMP protocol (multicast) means the Ikusi presence bandwidth used in the network, is as small as possible, thus avoiding saturations or delays in traditional data access. This means that TV can coexist on the same network with internet access services, email, FTP or even CCTV. If the solution to be installed is very complex due to the number of channels, the LANTV server will help us to manage and configurate all the elements in an easy and secure way.

our clients speak

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Interview with Chin Kwee Koh, Asia & Pacific Ikusi Director

Interview with Pedro Santofimia, Ikusi International Regional Director

As Chin Kwee Koh confirms in this interview, Singapore market is usually view as the test bed for a lot of development due to the ease of implementation and acceptance of technology change. futureThat’s the reason why many tech companies chose Singapore for market testing before moving on to the rest of the regional markets. Therefore, we are talking about a market that sets the standard references on how the market can evolve. We have talked with our agent in the area, Koh Chin Kwee, to know which are Ikusi’s customer needs and you know what candid Ikusi offer that...? them.

Now that the crisis has taken hold of the western world we are all looking towards foreign markets. However, Ikusi made a commitment to international development years ago… Pedro Santofimia analyzed in this interview Ikusi prosfuture pects in the Southeast Asian market, a strategic area for the Company.

new developments in Ikusi

new developments in Ikusi

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Internationalization can be tackled from different perspectives. What strategy is Ikusi following? did you know that...?

Indeed, considering the situation in European markets, manufacturers can only look abroad to search for new opportunities. Although this is nothing new for Ikusi, as we have being doing this for over 20 years, with a presence in such far off markets as the one we are discussing here. speak Even so,our forclients a few months now, at Ikusi we find ourselves in a reflexive Internationalization process, which helps us to improve our presence wherever we are, and establishes where we should go, according to previously established parameters.

Singapore’s economy is growing with GDP increases close to 15% in 2010. Is the television market also experiencing the boom times? our clients speak GDP growth has nothing to do with the television market here as every household already has cable infrastructure and land limitation limits the amount of construction development which drives the demand like in Europe or Middle East. The market here requires more value added solutions.

In that strategy, what role does Singapore play, in particular, and Southeast Asia, in general?

As Singapore sits in the crossroad between East and West, technological implementation is more profound and rapid. This can be seen in the high number growth of electronic gadget sales and usage of smart phone in Singapore. The viewing habits of TV broadcast have already migrated to multi screen format as compared to the traditional TV box.

The television market here is not just about the television itself but is measured in terms of screens per user as the digital media transform program contents to television, web, mobile phone and SMARTV. In short, the total market value is small as compare to rest of the areas but in terms of per square meter, it is the highest amount in the world. The only limitation in growth is how fast one can keep up with competitors and changing requirement.

What are the peculiarities of the Singapore market?

Singapore market is usually view as the test bed for a lot of development due to the ease of implementation and acceptance of technology change. Many tech companies would choose Singapore for market testing before moving on to the rest of the regional markets.

Many governments in the region are also following lesson gain from the digital media transformation that happens here more than 8 years ago.

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For us, it is a strategic market, due to its potential and diversity. It helps us to continue manufacturing the usual products and at the same time its forces us to be in the technological gap, due to the high demands for product requirements in countries like Singapore. This is very important and useful for us, as we can transfer that knowledge to other markets.

What are the most demanded solutions and equipments in the region?

As most competitors have the same offering, the only differentiation is in IPTV solution implementation which our traditional competitors have no reference site yet in the region. Having implemented IPTV solution both in Singapore and Indonesia, it is highly in demand from our customers but face fierce competition from many IPTV solutions from around the world.

What differential value does Ikusi offer to the customers in this region?

Customer service is top priority and having mutual trust in both ways allows both businesses to benefits from each other strength and growth. As compared to that of supplier

and customer relationship, it is more of a mutual business arrangement between Ikusi and customers. Both are dependent on each other for business.

In this market, just having a good product is not enough. You also have to offer a good service. How do you manage to offer that good service to customers who are thousands of kilometres away?

How do you think is going to evolve over the coming years the television market in the area? And what kind of challenges does the company face?

That is one of the most important points. If we look at the distance that separates these countries without our head office and the time difference, we can get an idea of the difficultly entailed in being able to establish a good level of service and communication with our customers.

As mention before, Singapore is seen as the market technologic test bed ground for the region and the evolution or changes to the market is already here and is happing right now.

In addition to the sales role, I am also doing a development role to keep up with competition.

This can be seen as a front battle to keep Ikusi inline with the constant changing market demands and staying ahead of the competitors.

In this sense, at Ikusi we work on a continual basis; optimising agreements with logistics companies, improving the planning processes and attending telephones lines in difficult timeslots.

But nothing that good teamwork cannot solve.

We also have staff located in Singapore, who help us on a daily basis to better understand the markets and make us improve our customer service.

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“This market requires us to be in the technological gap for the demand of the product needs in countries like Singapore” How do you think the area’s market will evolve in the coming years?

As it is a very diverse market, we believe that various situations will arise, depending on the current country.

But along general lines, we can say that we will be ready for the upcoming digital switchovers and we will follow the gap in improving and completing our solution over IP, for those installations that require it.

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LTE (Long Term Evolution), a new opportunity for the sector

In search of energy efficiency in power supplies

The first LTE has not yet materialised and projects for a second dividend are already reaching us from the European Union. Last April, the European Parliament approved in commission,our and subsequently ratified in pleclients speak nary session, a plan to bring forward to 2013 the execution of the first dividend, at the same time as it launched a project to assign 700 MHz band internet services in what constitutes a second digital dividend, which should culminate in 2015. The objective is none other than to assign higher spectrum to internet mobile services, in view of the strong increase in demand, and to guarantee high speeds for these services. It is calculated that the demand for this type of services will increase 40-fold in the coming years.

In recent years, we have become familiarised with terms like “energy efficiency”, “green”, etc. Greater ecological awareness among society and the conviction of the authorities to legislate reference installation in this direction mean that, in the short term, we will cease to see elements that have accompanied us for over a century. Perhaps the Ikusi... I have a question most obvious example is that of incandescent light bulbs, but there are other elements that are silently disappearing. This is the case of lineal power supplies which, like the light bulbs, have been with us for over a century but, despite the time passed, their main weak points (size, weight and low efsolved ficiency) problem have remained with us until now.

our clients speak

did you know that...?

The switchover from analogue to digital television highlighted the need to use a more efficient form of radio-electric spectrum. A first digital dividend was designed which affected frequencies from 790 to 862 MHz, frequencies which would change from offering TV channels to offering telecommunications services.

Logically, the decision has been received with open arms by telecommunications operators and promoted by different governments, which have recognised the possibility of a new source of income in reassigning free frequencies with the digital switchover. Installers have also recognised an interesting business opportunity which has been brought about by the necessary updating of the headends.

Traditional broadcasting continues to be the most efficient and cheapest method and it will be with us for some time to come and has many new developments to contribute. This includes the incorporation of Ultra High Definition or three dimensions. A world of sensations which aims to lead the spectator to become totally immersed in the television experience, but which will also require more spectrum space than at present.

Without a doubt, we are witnessing a changing scene which involves a new challenge. However, as we know from experience in the Spanish market, all changes have a fair degree of opportunity and it seems clear on this occasion that these transformations will also have the capacity to generate new forms of business for the sector.

We all have the notion that switched-mode power supplies are smaller and more efficient.

But then why do linear ones still exist? Basically because of their low manufacturing cost.

Historically, below 5W a switched-mode power interview with... supply could not compete cost-wise with a linear one, which is why these power supplies have had their place in the market.

Marco Domínguez, Multimedia New Business Development Director

“We are witnessing a changing scene which involves a new challenge. However, as we know from experience in the Spanish market, all changes have a fair degree of opportunity and it seems clear on this occasion that these transformations will also have the capacity to generate new forms of business for the sector”

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“The only product on the market that comes in a standard box of 100 x 100 mm” Ikusi solutions

The European EuP (Energy Using Products) Directive aims to ensure the efficiency of most energy-consuming products sold in the European Union within established time-frames. Not all products are the same, nor do they have the same impact on global energy consumption, which is why certain priority categories have been set which include refrigerators, boilers, computers, lighting, etc.

How does the EuP Directive affect the typical range of equipment used in a TV distribution network? The truth is it cannot be globally included under any of the priority categories. Nevertheless, Ikusi firmly shares the spirit of the Directive and has decided to anticipate future events

by undertaking a transition of our equipment to more efficient technologies. A good example of this vocation is the APB124, the first power supply on the market for mast-head preamplifiers with switched-mode power supply, which is 30% more efficient and weighs and occupies half as much as the classic linear power supplies. Its small size means it can be installed in standard 10x10cm boxes. A team with which Ikusi realises it commitment to tackle energy efficiency in its new designs, in its awareness that it is a requirement with a clear future and is on the same level as other classic parameters such as features or quality.

Luciano Lavado, R&D Technician at Ikusi

new developments in Ikusi

ONE HOME, first Ikusi domestic programmable amplifier future

One home is distinguished by its flexibility and because it has 10 clusters of channels.

Single-family housing market has become a major concern recent did you in know that...?years. Their needs in terms of television reception are different. Ikusi wants to meet those needs and working on different teams created specifically for singlefamily homes. This is the case of the One Home amplifier, a new member of the One family, the first amplification with self-installing filters on clients the marketourand thatspeak is completed with One Sat and One 118 versions.

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installation function allows the configuration of the input filters in an optimal way, in fact, simply pressing a button. Despite its small size, is one of the more flexible amplifiers in the market, compared with five clusters that offer the rest of the headends, One Home has 10 clusters of channels, as well as the bigger headends. An important feature that should be added that in addition to equalizing, amplifies the output signal. One Home amplifier will be available in the market in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Like the rest of the range, the main characteristic of the One Home amplifier is that the self-

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FIRST DOMESTIC AMPLIFIER WITH 10 CHANNEL CLUSTERS Follow us on www.youtube.com/ikusitv

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Self-installable

10 channel clusters

Single Family Homes

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