The coming acquisition of Orban by DaySequerra caught the industry by surprise last week. DaySequerra founder and President David Day took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions.
Radio World: The first thing most radio engineers are going to think is — how does this affect the Orban processor I have in my signal chain?And will this affect support for other Orban equipment such as the computer cards and codecs?
David Day: This acquisition means no changes whatsoever to DaySequerra or Orban products now in the field. Both companies have and will continue to work hard to exceed our customers’ expectations and deliver superior support. As I write this, there are 25-year old DaySequerra products in for service and the same is true at Orban, whether it’s an 8400, a new PCIe processor or a codec — service is part of both companies’ heritage and it will continue to be a centerpiece.
RW: Will future Orban processors add DaySequerra specialties such as TimeLock?
Day: Yes, we plan to ship some very exciting new Orban products starting this fall; you’ll see the first of these introductions at IBC. Our combined technology will facilitate tighter integration in the broadcast radio and TV air chains to help our customers improve their quality of service, so you’ll soon see TimeLock as part of our Orban Inside strategy.
RW: Is Bob Orban going to be involved with the new company?
Day: Combining our engineering groups under Bob Orban’s leadership was an essential element in this deal. Working with Bob on integrating our TimeLock with Orban’s HD Radio processors, we found that we were both working on different parts of many of the same problems in both radio and TV. By looking at what each of us had done already, we found that through integration, we had a much shorter time-to-market than we would have had otherwise. This is a very symbiotic relationship both in engineering and, on a larger scale, in distribution. In addition, Jay Brentlinger will stay on as VP of marketing and sales to help us expand our distribution.
RW: What is the timeline on this acquisition?
Day: Our Orban acquisition has closed; CRLI’s shareholders’ approval later this month is a formality. We are now in the middle of the hard integration work that has to occur, and look forward to a bright future together with Bob and Jay’s team.
