The spring NAB Show is approaching. Between now and then Radio World will conduct several short Q&As with manufacturers about their plans and offerings, to help you get the most out of the big annual trade show. Christophe Poulain is vice president for sales and marketing for WorldCast Systems.
Radio World: How has business been for the company since last year’s NAB Show?
Christophe Poulain: Our sales worldwide have grown since NAB 2015 across all geographical areas. Our strength in innovative technologies such as our new transmitter design, SureStream technology for IP audio codecs and ScriptEasy for management and telemetry have certainly been a key advantage in driving our growth year-on-year. We have some major new product launches for 2016, which we expect will ensure that this growth will continue for the years to come.
RW: What new goodies will your company be showing? Why should attendees visit your booth?
Poulain: We have quite a few new “goodies” for the show. Center stage will be our new Ecreso FM 10 kW transmitter with a truly innovative design, loads of redundancy and our unrivaled 10-year warranty.
We also have a new product making its debut in the field of remote facility control and management. A successor to the highly successful Relio unit, the new Audemat Control offers a really high density of inputs and outputs and many new design features for easy maintenance such as extractable voice modem and removable SSD as well as ScriptEasy of course.
In addition we will also be launching the WorldCast Manager, a new PC application for SNMP-based monitoring of broadcast products from any manufacturer. As a special launch offer, we’ll be offering the full Platinum version free of charge until September 2016. All NAB Show visitors can pick up their free copy at our booth.
RW: What is the biggest problem or challenge facing users in your market segment right now?
Poulain: Well, I think the biggest challenge continues to be lack of time and resources. We are still hearing regularly of job cuts among both public and commercial operations and these cuts undoubtedly have an impact on those left behind. On the other hand, engineers are also being stretched as they are required to operate increasingly in the IT sphere. It’s the old issue of having to “Do more with less.” For our part, we endeavor to help by designing products that help them save time and remain proactive in the management of their network.
RW: What do you think about the new hall/floor layout this year?
Poulain: The NAB does seem to like to challenge us! While I think the location is a mild improvement on last year’s, I don’t think that being pushed to the back of a hall is what any of the radio manufacturers would choose. However, we are generally all in the same boat and we just have to put work in before the show to set up appointments and advertise our presence.
RW: How has IP technology affected your company?
Poulain: IP technology is integral to our business and has been for several years now. On the codec side, we have been working with many broadcasters helping them transition from legacy synchronous technologies like ISDN and T1 over to IP. In doing so, we have built up a wealth of knowledge which we now make available in a free eBook available to download from www.aptcodecs.com.
Throughout the rest of the WorldCast range, all our products are IP-enabled and, our new WorldCast Manager tool is helping bring together IP-enabled devices from many manufacturers in a single monitoring application.
RW: Social media is the new marketing frontier these days. Is it affecting the way your company does marketing/business?
Poulain: Definitely, I do think the broadcast community as a whole has not fully embraced these platforms as yet but there are some pockets of enthusiastic broadcasters actively sharing ideas and learning from manufacturers and each other on various social media platforms. We are keen to engage with these communities and are learning the best way to contribute to the exchange of information. It’s certainly on our radar and we are taking steps to increase our presence on social media and improve the content we contribute.
RW: In what areas should we expect growth or the most interesting projects?
Poulain: For us, certainly the most interesting projects are coming from the emerging countries where frequency planning is opening up some major opportunities in the world of FM.
RW: You’re a show veteran, what’s your favorite thing about the show? Least favorite thing?
Poulain: From a business perspective, it’s a fantastic show to meet customers and dealers because so many of them are there! On a more personal level, it is always fun to visit Vegas, take in a show, etc. On the downside, it’s a long way to travel for us Europeans! A long flight and jetlag can leave you feeling exhausted before the show has even begun!
NAB Show Booth: N6134
Info: www.worldcastsystems.com
Radio World invites you to register for a free NAB Show Exhibits-Only pass using our VIP code: LV9443.
To see more show Q&As visit our NAB Show 2016 Web page.
