In this IABM TV interview, Chuck Buelow (VP of Business Development, EMAM) discusses the current state of the industry, including the shift to embracing cloud.
CGI OpenMedia Newsroom Solutions
The enterprise newsroom system OpenMedia provides journalists with all the functionality they need to accomplish their jobs. The core system includes searching agency wires, scheduling broadcasts, managing video and audio clips and writing and distributing news stories. OpenMedia means collaboration. From innovative research and planning tools and scripting, to multi-platform output, OpenMedia manages the complete journalistic workflow.
CGI MediaSolutions – Overview
CGI’s Media Solutions have been empowering international TV and radio stations for over 30 years. Our radio production solution dira and our newsroom solution OpenMedia are leading the way in journalistic workflows, paired with CGI’s global business and IT consulting excellence.
CGI dira Radio Solutions
The dira solution suite encompasses the entire production workflow required for media management in radio journalism: from broadcast production and the exchange of material and programs, through broadcast scheduling, to actual Onair playout, post production and archiving. CGI supports radio broadcasters with production workflow and visual radio solutions.
New Member – Hiscale
Hiscale - a leading German software vendor for scalable transcoding and workflow solutions joins the IABM family
Hiscale designs and develops powerful, scalable and modern software products for customers in the broadcast and media industry. The company is headquartered in Cologne, Germany. We leverage the latest technologies to ensure that our solutions meet the requirements for rapid deployment and cost efficiency, and enable flexible business models with cloud-based, on-premise or hybrid use of technology.
At the heart of the Hiscale portfolio is the FLICS product, a modern, flexible and high-quality transcoding solution designed specifically for broadcast and VOD applications, addressing common problems of traditional static transcoding installations. FLICS is fully based on modern cloud native technology and can be deployed on standard server hardware, in virtual or cloud environments, and in hybrid scenarios. It can dynamically manage cloud resources and set up new instances, automatically provision the transcoding software, and transfer content on demand without requiring any manual steps. As a result, FLICS makes hybrid and cloud-based video content processing highly cost-effective, leaving the customer to decide which resources to use.
The FLICS solution is available for file-based transcoding use cases, adaptive bitrate encoding, and live recording and live transcoding applications. It features a wide range of image processing capabilities and filters, including optional plug-ins for automatic loudness management and high-quality motion-compensated frame rate conversion for live and file-based conversions.
Hiscale's powerful JOBS video workflow orchestration platform is a media file workflow engine designed to simplify and automate the complexities of multi-vendor integrated environments for ingest, quality control, distribution and cloud processing. It manages and integrates with broadcast environments and has a wide range of existing integrations to transcoding, QC and transfer solutions.
Workflow systems are widely used in the market and have been so complex and proprietary that making changes to existing configurations or integrating new systems into your process has been a major challenge and required a great deal of involvement from the product manufacturer. With JOBS and its toolbox approach, you can easily set up your own workflows in a BPMN-based web-editor and make changes as you go. The powerful JOBS RESTful API, workflow scripting capabilities, command line integration options, and JOBS Plugin & Adapter SDKs, give our customers all the tools they need to build and extend their next-generation orchestration system. With its flexible architecture and customizable interfaces, JOBS is the ideal solution for future-proof workflow management of modern video supply chains.
The latest product family, SHIFT, was developed to efficiently manage the transmission of live video signals over the public Internet and other networks using IP-based protocols. SHIFT offers outstanding performance, highest quality (SD, HD, UHD) and easy control of live signal distribution with protocol switching and point-to-multipoint distribution: encrypted, lossless and low latency. By combining industry-proven streaming protocols with SRT video transport technology based on years of broadcasting and distribution experience, the SHIFT platform maximizes the efficiency of your content delivery in a cost-effective and scalable way.
Our team of highly skilled professionals, with years of experience in the broadcast and media industry, have developed the tools to make your day-to-day video streaming, transcoding, orchestration and live distribution business easy to manage, efficient and scalable!
For more information, visit www.hiscale.com
Balancing cost and quality
Jason Ho
Senior Business Development Director, Caton Technology
We do not need to talk around the concept of IP connectivity in media: that argument has already been won. For contribution circuits – from remote events and locations back to base – there is also an acceptance that IP is the way to go.
But there are a number of potentially conflicting constraints:
- accessibility
- reliability – images and sound have to arrive in synchronisation, with no freezes, glitches or significant latency
- quality – consumers expect crystal clarity, especially in sport
- cost
These would have been live issues now anyway, but the pandemic and the absolute need for remote working has forced the issue. Broadcasters, and particularly sports broadcasters, have scrabbled to find solutions. This year’s IBC Awards are dominated by remote production solutions, from the Olympics to e-sports.
Finding the bandwidth is the issue. Where once we could turn to C-band satellites, that spectrum is being transferred to 5G (and 6G) cellular and thus unavailable for ad hoc links.
Major venues will have large amounts of dark fibre capacity, which is fine. But that does not apply to secondary venues, and certainly not to the makeshift studios and production control rooms set up in people’s homes.
Adding fibre links means months of planning and installation. It also means commitment to a lengthy contract: most people cannot consider committing to paying for a service for years when they want it for hours.
The solution is already in all of our hands: the open internet. It can be implemented at very short notice, and you only pay for what you get.
But internet bandwidth will be constrained and not necessarily deterministically provided. You need to use codecs which deliver the optimum quality for the bandwidth available, and most important you need a transport layer which provides quality while working within the network limitations.
While the IP advocates talk about the benefits of open standards and COTS hardware, the inescapable fact is that professional video is a very different – and very much more demanding – data stream than anything else. So the transport protocol must be designed for realtime, broadcast-quality transmission.
At Caton we call this Caton Transport Protocols (CTP). We designed it for international transmission over open IP networks, while providing the service assurance that broadcast users expect.
As well as reliability, it also meets the challenge of quality. Sports broadcasters routinely expect 4k and HDR Ultra HD. At Caton we successfully demonstrated 8k delivery two years ago.
A second quality consideration is synchronisation. If you need to carry multiple sources over the public internet, where each individual stream will take a different path, the chances of sync errors grow rapidly.
But in sport, all the sources have to be timed, and the audio and video locked together, or the audience will immediately lose faith in your coverage. If the audience cannot be intuitively sure what is actually live, you lose credibility.
Quality, latency and synchronisation are relatively easy to maintain from point-of-presence to point-of-presence, and service providers will be comfortable in offering, say, four nines reliability on that basis. But that is not what users want: they need to be confident in the circuit from location to the studio, so they expect last mile performance to be part of the SLA. That much more challenging requirement is part of CTP.
Once you accept transmission over the open internet, then it is as easy to route signals to the cloud as to anywhere else. So you can simultaneously write to cloud storage while broadcasting live, and make the content available to multiple remote editors.
Again, this is not new, but most cloud editors depend upon low-resolution proxies. Caton has applications which overcome the limitations of VPN to allow the editor to work on real content.
Putting the material in the cloud means you can apply big data, processor-heavy tasks to gain added value. You might, for example, use artificial intelligence to accelerate and automate localisation.
In a simple application, this could be generating scores and information feeds in multiple local languages. But if you apply video analysis and face recognition, you could automatically generate descriptive reports and live text commentary, extending the reach with no additional operational cost.
The sports audience is very diverse. The hardcore fans will want rich statistics and detailed analysis from former players. But a much larger part of the audience wants to enjoy the game and, with a lower starting, will have more to gain from carefully-pitched additional information.
That is important because if you draw in the casual viewer, you popularise the game through understanding. If you popularise the game, you grow your audience. If you grow your audience, your grow your revenues.
The latest Cisco research says that 82% of all internet traffic will be video in 2022. Of course, much of that will be social media and YouTube, but premium quality video will play its part. Using appropriate tools, like CatonNet Video Platform (CVP), means that the public internet can deliver against the broadcaster’s four criteria: accessibility, reliability, quality and cost (and new revenue opportunities).
Remote production, in any genre, can now reasonably be expected to deliver uncompromised quality and synchronisation, automated localisation, and increased viewer engagement. That is a huge advance for the industry.
Brompton Technology: Making LED play nicely for in-camera visual effects
Richard Mead
CEO, Brompton Technology
In-camera visual effects using LED screens have moved very rapidly from a pioneering specialty to a mainstream technique being widely used across film and television production. The fundamental idea is to do your visual effects “in camera” by filming the action against a display showing the background scene, rather than using green screen and adding the background in post. That idea is not new, but the latest fine-pitch LED has significant advantages over other display technologies and can create flexible LED volumes that typically also include ceiling and wrap-around elements to provide realistic lighting. Large volumes for virtual production are now being built all over the world and kept busy producing major motion pictures, commercials, and iconic sci-fi and fantasy series, such as the latest, highly-anticipated series of Emmy-winning Star Trek: Discovery, which has just premiered on Paramount+ and was shot on Pixomondo’s flagship virtual production stage in Toronto, Canada.
PXO’s Virtual Production (VP) studio in Toronto, driven by Brompton. Picture credit: Pixomondo (PXO)
Alongside filmic production, many broadcasters have successfully embraced this new cutting-edge technology to bring major events to life in-studio, such as Fox Sports delivering the world’s first live to air xR broadcast at one of the most prestigious sports events on the National Rugby League calendar, the Dally M Awards. And the Serbian commercial television station, TV Nova, deployed the technology to give its viewers a unique view of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars.
From being able to put the viewers in the driver’s seat at the Formula One World Championship to bringing them into the eye of the storm, or even dropping them into Earth’s deepest, and possibly most alien realm, The Mariana Trench, these extended reality techniques can help build more informative and immersive broadcasts. The smart money is clearly betting that this is how much of our film and television content is going to be created in the future.
Early adopters working with LED screens didn’t always have a smooth ride. LED screens that were not designed with use on camera in mind can turn out to be unsuitable, and the wrong LED solution or the wrong pairing of screen and camera causes more problems than it solves. Even when working well, the LED screen was often a fixed point that every other department had to adapt around. But, despite those challenges, the technology’s multiple advantages mean the market for LED in virtual production has grown rapidly and manufacturers are responding with products tailored to its needs.
Brompton Technology is an established market-leader in video processing for LED walls for live events, film and broadcast, and started out developing products to meet the demanding requirements of the world’s largest tours, corporate events and award shows. LED video processing is the catch-all term for everything that happens between receiving source video and the actual LED driver chips within an LED panel. It typically consists of a processor that receives the video signal, does any necessary formatting and adjustments, splits the image into chunks that map to each individual LED panel and distributes that data to the panels – most commonly over Gigabit Ethernet. Within each panel is a receiver card that converts the video data into linear light control signals for the LED drivers.
Sonequa Martin-Green (center) films a scene in Pixomondo’s AR wall stage in Toronto. Picture credit: Paramount+
The video processing is sometimes overlooked as just the mapping function of the LED panel, but in reality there are many technical challenges in ensuring perfect synchronisation, achieving the lowest possible latency, correcting for the many non-ideal behaviours of LEDs and LED drivers, and managing the many trade-offs that arise from trying to squeeze the maximum performance out of an LED panel. Having the right processing is every bit as important as the choice of LED panel itself, and if you don’t know what processing is inside an LED panel then you can’t know what behaviour to expect.
Brompton has been working hard to ensure that the LED screen becomes a collaborative partner in the creative process rather than an obstacle to work around. This is an ongoing process of working with users to understand the pain points – then developing new features or integrating with complementary technologies to create a more optimised workflow for virtual production.
For example, creatives are used to being able to adjust their shutter angle to achieve a particular creative effect or manage motion blur. But with an LED screen in the mix, they have often been restricted to selecting a specific shutter angle to avoid visual artefacts. Earlier this year Brompton introduced ShutterSync®, a feature that allows the refresh timing of the LED screen to be adjusted to match the chosen shutter angle of the camera – putting creative control back in the hands of the user.
It is a similar story with colour, where LED screens can vary wildly in their achievable colour gamut and accuracy of colour reproduction. Brompton is a pioneer of Dynamic Calibration, a technology for LED that ensures accurate reproduction of colours within the gamut and intelligent management of out-of-gamut colours. Dynamic Calibration also underpins its implementation of HDR video, which is increasingly becoming a requirement for virtual production – in part due to the ability to encode absolute colour and brightness information into HDR content, which can then be faithfully reproduced on the LED screen.
Brompton Technology and Faber AV (part of the NEP Worldwide Network) offer sneak peek into the future of Virtual Production
Where custom colour management or on-set grading is required, Brompton’s Tessera processors support import of 3D LUTs (Look Up Tables) in industry-standard .cube formats. The capability to manage those 3D LUTs is now integrated into leading tools such as Pomfort Livegrade, so that Digital Imaging Technicians can now grade an LED screen in the same way they would manage any other monitor.
There are now even workflows available to support multi-camera virtual production shoots using LED screens. These rely upon Brompton’s Frame Remapping technology – which allows multiple different content streams to be interleaved so that a frame from each stream is shown in turn. Each camera can run at a different genlock phase offset so they each see their own unique content on the one screen. The typical application in virtual production is to allow different camera positions to see a background with the correct perspective.
Every project has a different workflow so there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. The key requirement is product reliability and flexibility that allows them to produce high-quality, immersive content at a faster pace. From smaller LED setups to larger volumes like those used on The Mandalorian, LED screens can deliver new possibilities to teams of all sizes.
The last 24 months have seen rapid, widespread adoption of virtual production using LED, and equally rapid advances in the technology available to make the LED screen a full partner in the creative process for film and broadcast production. By strategically utilising virtual production technology, broadcasters can gain an edge over the competition to present the information in a unique and immersive way, in real time, and with captivating graphics. Brompton Technology is continuing to support its many users in the space and advance the state of the art for virtual production and extended reality using LED.
Digital Acceleration in Broadcasting
Digital acceleration is impacting every market and company in the world, and the Broadcasting industry is being particularly impacted. This industry is needing to adapt in two different ways at once: not just the way in which consumers discover and access the products and services but the actual media products themselves are becoming digital. This near-constant evolution and transformation is causing real disruption, whilst also welcoming a multitude of new opportunities.
Endava at a glance
Endava is reimagining the relationship between people and technology. By leveraging next-generation technologies, our agile, multi-disciplinary teams provide a combination of Product & Technology Strategies, Intelligent Experiences, and World-Class Engineering to help our clients become more engaging, responsive, and efficient. The solutions we offer help our clients navigate their way through digital transformation and enable them to stay ahead of the competition through continuous digital evolution.
Our work in the Broadcasting space
From the digitalisation of complex infrastructures to enhanced personalisation, together with our clients we develop user-friendly, agile solutions which enable them to innovate their digital operations and provide improved services to their customers and users.
We support our Broadcasting clients with a range of services, enabling them to:
- Improve and extend content exploitation – we help content owners and aggregators re-purpose their content via standard channels, like video, web, mobile, as well as challenger and future platforms, like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), and to adapt their business models to exploit these changes and protect their businesses.
- Use data in a smart way – we help our clients get actionable insights from the vast quantities of data they have available, aiming to increase loyalty, user satisfaction and profitability.
- Operate more cost-efficiently – we help businesses optimise and automate their processes in order to drive costs down while increasing the number of products and services they can offer.
A real-life example
We supported a major European public broadcasting organisation in developing, maintaining, and continuously evolving their digital offerings. Keeping in mind the broadcaster’s mandate to provide offerings for a very diverse audience, their new online media library combines the traditional television experience with neat live and on-demand streaming offerings and interactive social media functions.
The result is a diversified digital offering that is available on the web and all popular mobile and TV platforms. It is popular with a broad range of users but especially with younger audiences compared to linear TV. With user satisfaction ratings of over 80%, our client’s digital offering is among the top-rated streaming services in its region – on one level with global streaming heavyweight Netflix. With our joint efforts, our client is able to reach and constantly push further the mark for their digital goals.
Learn more about us at www.endava.com
Member Speak – ViaLite Communications
By Amair Khan, Business Development Manager, ViaLite Communications
Tell us about the company – when it was founded, by whom and with what objective?
ViaLite Communications is a division of Pulse Power and Measurement Ltd (PPM) which was founded in 1994 by Neil Seager, who still remains an active and key member today.
Operating out of its headquarters near Swindon UK, the company started out as a distribution business but developed further with manufactured technologies such as RF over Fibre (RFoF). RFoF has become a key product offering in all of the company’s manufacturing divisions.
Fill us in with how the company has developed and grown to the present day
ViaLite has grown significantly over recent years; working alongside key customers around the world, adding local offices in the USA and Thailand. It’s also set up a network of highly experienced channel partners across the major trading countries; they typically come from the satcom and communications markets.
The RF over fibre market is a competitive and buoyant place as it is widely used across satcom and wireless technologies including GPS / GNSS, broadcast television, cellular and wireless telemetry. Through constant product innovation and using skilled technical account managers and channel partners, ViaLite has continued to grow its customer base and market penetration. By 2016, ViaLite had installed its 10,000 fibre link.
PPM and ViaLite has continued to increase its headcount and investment into the employee capability, and PPM recently renewed its Gold Investors in People status. With a team of over 60 employees working from the PPM HQ and remotely, the engineering and development teams are defining the next generation of fibre links to meet future broadcast, satellite, defence, and time and synchronisation needs.
In 2021, the company was acquired by BAE Systems and has become a wholly owned subsidiary, giving PPM an owner which shares vision and synergies in high technology development and customer base. The acquisition further supports the growth PPM have seen in US sales in both the commercial and aerospace telemetry sectors.
Today ViaLite supplies RFoF to the top eight World Teleport Operators and many of the top broadcasters around the globe. Several sites now have in excess of 500 links installed already, connecting up hundreds of satcom antennas between the outdoor and indoor locations.
What are your typical sectors and how do you compare to the competition?
Broadcast, satcom, aerospace and time and synchronisation are the key areas which we regularly supply into. Our satellite and broadcast markets are probably the biggest areas where we supply products for satellite downlink and uplink where data and video is distributed across GEO satellite networks.
Broadcast is another strong market for ViaLite where customers take our RF over fibre modules and integrate them into their own equipment for wireless camera links. These camera links are often used for filming sporting events with video content being backhauled to the studio or the OB trucks for processing.
Our fibre links are used extensively in the broadcast area covering major sporting events such as the Olympics, motor sport, tennis, soccer, NFL, ice hockey and even sailing. The key suppliers we work with on broadcast prefer our products due to their dynamic range and also their small form factor which makes it easier for them to build the products into their chassis equipment or IP rated outdoor equipment.
The ViaLite links operate with low power consumption which gives them the added benefit of longevity when used with battery powered systems. – With the world going greener we have already given customers the option to use our products with approximately half the power consumption compared to others on the market.
The broadcast market is a very cost sensitive market where clients want to keep their capital expenditure as low as possible and use equipment over and over again to get the best return on investment of their kit. To help with this cost reduction we have developed certain products which offer flexibility and quick changeover. Our latest product is the Blue OEM 1U Chassis where modules can be fitted into this chassis as and when required, and also replaced quickly and easily with different frequency versions if needed. The unit itself runs on a 12V power supply supporting up to eight fitted fibre modules. Broadcasters like this solution as it only takes up 1U of space in a rack or in a OB truck where space is limited.
On top of this ViaLite has also developed a wideband frequency 6GHz RFoF module which is IP55 rated for outdoor use with an outdoor IP rated power supply. This product covers a wide frequency range and offers customers the ability to change settings using USB-C connectivity on the module. The module also comes with the ability to supply an antenna and can even monitor active antenna faults. Again, for deployable solutions, this is a quick and easy way to get up and running in a very short time; ideally suited for outdoor news crews where a fibre link may be needed quickly for breaking news stories.
A key achievement includes helicopter broadcast systems where during motor racing events the helicopter video link is backhauled using a network of trackside antennas which are fibered through to the video production desk. The organisation behind the highest class of international auto racing for single-seater formula racing cars, not only use our fibre links for broadcast but also incorporate them for trackside comms and wireless microphones.
Numerous broadcasters around the world use our fibre links to broadcast audio for shows where wireless microphones are used in studio or outdoor operations.
Time and synchronisation for the broadcast industry is becoming increasingly important, as part of our broadcast customer needs we also provide GPS/GNSS fibre links which provide signals to go into broadcast equipment such as sync pulse generators or NTP enabled time servers. This allows accurate time to be distributed within the establishment to support operations.
What is ViaLite’s philosophy and aim?
I’d say error free, reliable RF over fibre links and the best all round experience possible.
The broadcast industry continued its technology trajectory moving towards the higher definition broadcast and streaming television standards. Now, with 4K definition requiring throughput rates of 15 to 25 Mb/s, and 8K requiring 80 to 100 Mb/s – depending on frame rate, higher performance camera and backhaul equipment is needed. With these greater bit rate applications being asked for, ViaLite links are suitable to support 4K and 8K video transmissions which broadcasters are looking to deploy.
Who are your typical customers?
Customers include those integrating products into their broadcast setups, broadcasters themselves, OB truck operators, satellite uplink/downlink operators and global media operators.
Our customers include the BBC, ITV, SKY, NEP, Euromedia Group, CTV, Broadcast RF, Broadcast Wireless Systems, DTC, Broadcast Rental, Vislink, Videosys and Prestigne.
ViaLite also supplies most of the major teleport gateway customers globally, providing carrier grade links to support their television and broadband services.
Fantastic. Why do your customers choose you – what is your secret sauce?
ViaLite has been developing fibre links for over 26 years and we know what we are doing to achieve superior reliability, performance, small form factor and low power consumption. Our links offer the best dynamic range to allow low and high power signals to be transported over fibre easily. Our standard fibre modules have been developed to cover up to 10km, but we have the know-how and products to achieve much larger distances in the 100’s of km if required.
By providing RFoF links which can be used with batteries for deployable solutions our links retain their performance where no mains power may exist, allowing our customers to drop off equipment and run immediately. Events like marathons, rallying and cycling are typical events where this happens.
The winter and summer games are typical events where our fibre links can be used in varying climate conditions. The links retain their performance at temperatures around -25 °C and also at +50 °C! One of the main reasons why broadcasters use the links is that they can send the kit around the world, where climate conditions are different, and still rely on fully operational links and performance to match what they need.
What issues do you see in the market?
COVID has obviously affected many areas of daily personal life and business; outside broadcast and events were negatively impacted. The market has improved significantly over recent months, but we are still some way off global freedom to travel, and large scale sporting events have mostly national audiences.
COVID has also accelerated the adoption of internet and cellular based broadcast communications using OTT video applications. The quality may not be as good when comparing to the bespoke video broadcast we had traditionally pre-COVID, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the longer term with trade-offs between video quality versus bespoke or bit-rate limited connections.
As IABM members, what services do you most value and why?
Support through discounts when exhibiting at key shows - leaves some budget to spend elsewhere. Promotion in marketplace (news coverage on website and in social media, IABM Shop Window etc.).
Manor Spirit from Manor Marketing
Jennie Marwick-Evans
Founder, Manor Marketing
Manor Marketing, one of the most respected marketing and communications agencies in the broadcast and media industry, celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2021. Industry veteran Dick Hobbs chatted with the founder of Manor Marketing, Jennie Marwick-Evans.
We’ve known each other for a very long time. How did you first get dragged into this strange and unique industry?
Growing up in Newbury, UK, the two big employers in the town were Bayer and Quantel. When I left college at 18, I picked Quantel – a very good choice in the end.
I spent three years at Quantel, where I supported the sales team. In those days you had secretaries, and I did the typing, making sure all was well. Quantel was very good to me: they sent me on courses to learn Spanish, and they flew me to the Montreux exhibition on the company jet (I think the jet was going anyway – I just sat in a spare seat)!
It was the absolute heyday of Quantel, and that sales team of 11 included some legends of the industry, who are still friends and colleagues now. I was proud to be part of ground-breaking technology that is still talked about today.
So, three years at the leading light in the UK broadcast market. Where next?
I did a couple of other jobs, but ended up at a company called Alpha Image, where I was PA to MC Patel, who is still a massive part of my life today.
Alpha Image was acquired by Dynatech Video Group and, as I was on the spot, people gave me stuff to do. I got involved in internal sales and marketing, which is where I learned my trade. I ended up running the European operation of Utah Scientific, another Dynatech company. I can still tell you all you need to know about routers – just ask me!
I naturally got to look at the competition, and it was very clear to me that there were a lot of British companies coming up with very clever products, that did not know how to sell them. So, I set up my first company, Jet Video Systems, acting as a distributor for some of them.
One of my biggest clients was Metawave Video Systems, and they tempted me to join them as sales and marketing director. I was with them as they were acquired by another broadcast manufacturer, and by 2001 I was looking for another challenge.
I was well-known by then, and a lot of companies tried to entice me. But I had sold against them in the past and I felt it would feel uncomfortable suddenly changing sides. So, in 2001 I set up my own agency. I was living in Manor Place at the time, so I called the company Manor Marketing.
Setting up on your own is exciting and scary. I know: I’ve done it. Who were the clients that got you going?
The first clients were Pro-bel and Chyron. Others, like TSL and IABM, followed on quickly. Since then, I’ve been fortunate – we’ve always attracted clients without having to aggressively sell ourselves.
Your background is in sales, the company says marketing, and you are often thought of as a PR business. What is Manor Marketing?
I am really clear about this. Our job is to help the clients get the purchase order. We use lots of techniques and tactics, but the only point is to make sure our client companies sell more of their technology, and that they are regarded as the obvious choice.
Because I’ve done everything from making the tea to sales direction, I understand what it takes. I’m still a sales girl at heart, but now I get my commercial fix through marketing, promoting the brand and drawing on the expertise of the clients to help them win sales and therefore, recognition. And I still make the tea!
How do you recruit, retain and motivate your team?
I’m never going to ask anyone to do a job I haven’t done myself. And I do those jobs now as required.
But I’m very definitely a people person, and enjoy working with colleagues to get the best out of them – and fill them with my enthusiasm, I hope. I love employing new graduates, building their confidence and capabilities, and challenging them to be the best they can be. It’s the same with people coming back to work after a break, for whatever reason. Everyone deserves a chance to be proud of themselves. That’s one of my drivers.
One other important team principle. I expect us all to work hard and be boundlessly enthusiastic. Until 5.30. Then we all go home and do our own things. I regard getting the work/life balance right to be vitally important. Of course, people who know me well would say that for me, this is an aspiration not always successfully practised…
I’m also excited by new technology and new ways of doing things. I thrive on challenge, and risk. At one time we solely relied on the trade press to get our news out. Now things move much faster, and we can directly message potential purchasers with tailored messages, for example. We use social media carefully but extensively. As the world changes, what we do has to change too. Business continuity is now the theme, with digital marketing and communications the route.
Many of the team have stayed with me for years. Some have even left to set up their own agencies! That’s fine – the market is big enough for a number of excellent marketing communications businesses.
How would you encapsulate the way you do business?
The first thing to say is that I take trust, responsibility and reputation very seriously. I’ve been around a very long time, know many key players, and my passion for the industry is still as strong as ever. That’s obvious in my long-standing involvement with organisations like the RTS and IABM, as well as IBC and NAB.
That principle leads into our association with clients. We are not a distant service. We see ourselves as embedded in their business, a part of their team. They trust us to just get on with it.
That’s why the reputation for trust is important: our clients can freely discuss their long-term strategies with us, which makes us very much more valuable than being reactive. Putting out a press release for a new product or a sale is important, of course, but even more important is building the market for that product or creating the path to winning that sale.
And in turn, it means our clients stay with us far longer than is typical, which I continue to find flattering.
Taking that further, I am regularly asked to be a consultant or marketing director for client companies. I am currently marketing director for three businesses, steering their operations to build commercial success.
So: 20 years. How are you marking the anniversary?
We thought about our values as a company. Trust and confidentiality. Reliability – if we promise something, then it will be there on time. Insights. Constant innovation, like digital tools and social media. Understanding.
And enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is at the heart of everything we do.
That, we felt, was the Manor spirit. And so, to celebrate, we created Manor Spirit, our own blend of gin. It took a lot of research, tasting and testing to get it right: a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. I’m really looking forward to playing Santa this year!
What next?
More of the same. The team – including a couple of recent recruits – is still excited by the work of our clients, and the industry in general. Our clients cover every aspect of the business, from lip sync to video compression pre-processing, subtitling to servers, playout automation to augmented reality.
We know and understand the media industry. It’s changing so fast at the moment, through the shift to IT hardware and principles, and the sudden enforced rush into remote production and the cloud. There is more than enough to keep us occupied: I have no desire to weaken our core values by moving into other markets.
Our current crop of clients all have order books that are constantly being filled. We have plenty to do!