Interview with Christophe Carniel, CEO NETIA

Over the last few months, NETIA has experienced a number of changes which show how determined its management team is to carry on being a heavyweight in a sector with fast ongoing technological evolution. NETIA CEO Christophe CARNIEL explains here the company's objectives for the next few years.

• NETIA has undergone a management buyout (MBO). What do you think are the advantages of the new share structure ? How will it affect NETIA's future development ?

"Since September, NETIA has been under management and employee ownership with a holding by two investors: I-SOURCE GESTION (France) and MANGROVE CAPITAL PARTNER (Luxembourg). The first of these has holdings in other digital audiovisual players and the latter has investments in the IP technology area, such as SKYPE in the Voice over IP sector. Right now is a key time in the technological evolution of the audiovisual sector and integrating IP technology is the next challenge for NETIA. The new share structure will, for instance, give us access to the financial and technological impetus required to fulfil this project. It's quite simply a new growth stage which marks our intention to make NETIA a central player in the Media Industry."

• This growth strategy and new impetus have also had a recent fillip in the merger with MANREO, the Media Asset Management software publisher. What will Manreo do for NETIA ?

"The merger is the first stage in the IP technology integration I just mentioned. Manreo develops software for capturing, indexing and broadcasting audio and video items over IP. These products are designed for broadcasting audiovisual items via mobile broadband video platforms, consulting audiovisual archives and sharing them easily over intranet/internet networks. For instance Manreo created an automatic system to put news online on the TF1 and France Televisions Interactive (FTVI) websites."

• What is your forecast for the economic and technological evolution of the market where NETIA is involved ?

"Technological developments are quite often the driving force for companies such as NETIA. We are absolutely convinced that IP technology will be the next vector for technological development. In our opinion within a few months it will help our customers to make substantial savings in IT infrastructure and network costs. This is a development which involves all the audiovisual markets (radio, television and postproduction). At the end of 2004, we were in a situation of high growth (over 30%), back to profit-earning capacity and with nigh-total borrowing power. This makes things look good for the next few years. Not many companies in our sector are as healthy as that at the moment."

• What are NETIA's choices in this situation ?

"NETIA recently submitted a European Project to design and develop new products in this environment. The project obtained the Eureka label, for a European programme to support technological cooperation, and financial backing from ANVAR, the French agency for innovation. The partnership is organised by NETIA and combines the software algorithm development work by the Fribourg Ecole d'Ingénieurs et d'Architectes in Switzerland with Belgian sound and/or image output quality control to the requirements of broadcasters. NETIA has joined forces with RTL Belgium for this. In the next few months, we hope to widen the partnership to take in 2 or 3 customers who are close to NETIA and our vision for the future."

• Most of NETIA's current customers are in Europe. How is this aspect developing ? What is NETIA doing to move into the American and Asian markets ?

"It's a fact that NETIA is now in a strong position in Europe. In 2004, we bid successfully, sometimes for some significant, you may say "benchmark", contracts in Asia and America competing some local candidates. We are now going to make the most of this and invest in marketing over the next few months. We also think very great potential is developing in Africa and the Middle East. We are currently in first position in the Mediterranean countries.This is why 2005 is likely to be a really exciting year !"

New products : powerful channel monitoring with Insider

Insider is a program for accessing the NETIA Radio-Assist database over an intranet. It is one of the leading intranet products in the NETIA range and our R&D teams are improving it constantly. Features under development include playlist creation for stream servers.

This tool is tailored to provide fast document access for broadcasting professionals. The latest version includes channel monitoring synchronized with broadcast tools. Insider was launched in 1998 and several additional features have been included since. Its primary vocation is to access and play back all documents contained in the database. The multi-criteria search features provides nearly immediate access. Insider can play a document both when it is being recorded and during live broadcasts. Writers can preview the line-up of news program or shows from their desks, and approve them with the "RTB" (ready to broadcast) label, for example.

With a fully redesigned user interface, the latest version of Insider provides several new channel monitoring features which are especially useful for radio hosts working in the studio while the technician is in the control room. With Insider, radio hosts can view the various steps in the broadcast just like the technician. In "Synchronous" mode, channel monitoring is fully synchronous with the broadcast, down to the second. Several tools help improve ease of use such as the continuous display of several counters (duration, intro, outro), immediate viewing of data on an audio clip (title, CD cover, comments, etc.), as well as access to tools for reading the master, the intro or the outro.

Insider has been installed in the Radio France Mouv' studios for several months and has efficiently provided radio hosts with the dynamic usage they require. Insider is also a tool for sharing and exchanging information. More and more radios operate offsite channels and need real-time communications with the local stations. In a single click, Insider lets you view or transfer documents from the local database to a remote database. Another benefit : the tool is easy to install on any computer with a standard sound card and Web browser.

Do your own channel analysis

NETIA launches a new program to analyze your channel, the Statistics tab.

Do you need to know the number of times an audio clip has been played ? the broadcast rate for Jazz ? or the number of times an advertisement has been broadcast ?

The new Statistics tool in Radio-Assist automatically displays these results per day, per month, or for the period of your choice.

Based on Crystal Reports, the Radio-Assist Statistics module makes it easy to create custom reports, listings, or graphs. Channel managers can design their own analysis tools for implementing queries or specific formulas on radio operations.

A Manreo solution for France Télévisions Interactive

France Télévisions Interactive (FTVI) is responsible for producing and editing the Web sites for all the channels of the France Télévisions group.

Since 2001, FTVI has relied on products from the Manreo range to develop its system for managing content and automating video broadcasting over the Web. With products such as Manreo Café and Hypercast Warehouse, FTVI benefits from numerous tools for managing its videos, including advanced multi-criteria searching, editing, and automatic migration from streaming Web servers to storage and archiving servers.

The next enhancement for 2005 will provide a major technical advance by offering "à la carte newscasts" over the Internet. Web servers will be able to either view the entire newscast, or directly access one or more features in the program. This breakdown by subject will also enable journalists to encode features on demand, in order to meet requirements for broadcasting to other IP channels, such as partner Web sites, cell phones, etc.

Telerama and NETIA partners

A technical partnership was recently signed between Telerama and Netia for creating a new Internet radio station..

British Sky Broadcasting Group

BskyB is the operator of the UK's largest digital television platform and a leading broadcaster of sports, movies, entertainment and news.

To meet the strong demand for quality programmes, BskyB has selected NETIA's Radio-Assist 7.5 to equip its studios and editorial staff.

Brussels: a new city radio

BXL, the new "City Radio" in Brussels has been on the air for several months. The Bel RTL Group chose Netia to implement the tools required for the new station's shows. This station strives to be dynamic, targetting an urban audience.

With AirPlaylist, BXL reaches its target audience and benefits from simple, effective automatic broadcasting. Programming comes alive thanks to a very flexible switchover from live to automated broadcasting. The fade in/fade out options with a jingle or a voice over, for example, help make the station's shows more dynamic.

Thanks to the easy implementation and intuitive, interactive tools, BXL has quickly become the City Radio that its creators wished to be.

Radio-Assist adapts to TRT operations

TRT (Turkish Radio Television), the national Turkish radio, has benefited from a complete Netia Radio-Assist system for over two years.

Each production workstation has all the classical Radio-Assist tools such as recording, editing, multi-track, and import/export functions, but also a few specific modules such as the Feder All automatic programming tool. This module greatly facilitates programming tasks and makes it possible to format the color of a musical program in advance.

As TRT wants to keep a list of all programs it broadcasts, the new Radio-Assist Statistics module immediately provides all the information required, prints broadcast reports, and helps programmers define their next playlists.

NETIA, the integrated solution for local and national programs

With the signing of another new contract in the United States, NETIA is more and more present in North America. WOUB, a non-commercial station from Ohio, has made the commitment to upgrade its existing studio site with NETIA's Radio-Assist system.

WOUB, operated by Ohio University in Athens (Ohio), provides non-commercial public radio service, primarily to southeastern Ohio. To improve planning, creation, and transmission of its extensive high-quality programming both on WOUB-AM and WOUB-FM, the operators had to replace their existing digital system with a more flexible and professional software solution.

NETIA and its distributor in the United States, TurnKey Media Systems, were chosen from among seven major companies to equip the facility with a competitive solution for broadcasting national and local content on two channels.

The Radio-Assist system is used extensively for the preparation of locally-originated programming, as well as automated capture and control of some programming from the National Public Radio. WOUB-AM and WOUB-FM is equipped with two radio control rooms and two backup control rooms provided with AirPlaylist, the software for automated and live-assist operations. With only a few mouse clicks, AirPlaylist software provides the flexibility that the stations require to prepare the local programming schedules and to switch automatically from local broadcast to national programs.

The four production studios benefit from the efficiency of the Radio-Assist Multi-track Editor and its browser, for mixing of several tracks with a full editing range of options and sound effects, and a wide array of. import and export capabilities (linear, MPEG, PCM etc.). With the ergonomic Radio-Assist interface, editing interviews and reports or mixing music is simplified and more efficient. To manage its audio-ingest needs, WOUB is equipped with the Feed-In and Feed-Plan modules. The planning software is designed to schedule the recording of external programs in a very efficient way. A recording calendar allows the user to define the date, time, length, period, and station(s) desired for audio capture. The WOUB operation has been configured to record up to 8 stereo inputs simultaneously..

Like so many radio stations in the United States, W OUB's broadcast schedule includes programming from different sources (local and national) on different channels (AM and FM). The Radio-Assist digital broadcasting system provides an efficient and reliable solution to this requirement for great flexibility in a blend of studio and outside sources, brought together in a manner transparent to WOUB's substantial audience.

New distributors : Denmark and Eire

A new distributor in Denmark :

NETIA reinforce its distribution network in Denmark with a new start up, DIGITAL SOLUTIONS A/S which provides sales and services to the professional Broadcast business. After many years of experience in the Broadcast sector, Steen Bogelund Malmberg and his team has a large aknowledge of the NETIA's products. DIGITAL SOLUTIONS A/S is also the distributor for Pinnacle and Sonic Solution.

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS A/S Fuglebaekvej 1D 2770 Kastrup Denmark Steen Bogelund Malmberg Tel: +45 2428 3960 Info: sales@digitalsolutions.dk Web: http://www.digitalsolutions.dk

A new agentin Eire :

FREDERIC ALBERT Bay View 59 Seacrest Co Wicklow Bray Tel: +353 1 286 8824 Info: fredalbert@eir.net

Where to meet NETIA ?

AES, Barcelona CCIB stand 2308, Congress Center International Barcelona 28-31 mai 05

IBC, Amsterdam RAI Center stand 8.321 9-13 septembre 05