Stephen Shpock
Q. What kind of products or services does your company offer for broadcasters?
Integrated Microwave Technologies (IMT) is comprised of the three leading microwave brands - Nucomm, RF Central and Microwave Service Company (MSC). We offer complete microwave video broadcast solutions to broadcasters worldwide. Nucomm is a premium brand of digital video microwave systems (including COFDM and VSB) for portable and fixed link applications. RF Central is known for its compact microwave video equipment and wireless camera systems for licensed and license free broadcast video applications. MSC is a unique group of engineering specialists performing integration, technical support, custom fabrication, installation and commissioning services. You can see MSC's custom integrated ENG trucks and mobile weather labs in all major cities across the country.
Q. What's new that you will you show at the NAB Show and that TV broadcasters should look for there?
As broadcasters continue to focus on bringing down all sorts of costs, including investment in new equipment and technologies, we wanted to make sure we show value-based, higher performance, feature rich products, with low cost of ownership and maintenance.
We are showing the progression of MPEG-4 technology throughout our full product line. The award-winning microLite MPEG-4 HD COFDM transmitter is now available in license free 5.8 GHz frequency.
This year in our booth you can see the Channelmaster TX7 paired with the Newscoder 4 with MPEG-4 encoding, as well as what we believe will be the only full HD small ENG truck at the show that has a complete line of MPEG-4 products.
MPEG-4 enables broadcasters and news organizations to work more efficiently, with an improved workflow and day-to-day operations. Customers can run their transmitters in a more robust mode, while their links operate with the reliability they have come to expect from SD, while delivering high quality HD resolution.
Q. How is your new product offering different from what's available on the market?
Our high priority initiative is to design new MPEG-4 products that help the broadcasters to cut costs, improve system performance and boost the efficiency of the workflow – from ENG truck to the studio.
We have increased performance reliability of our products, reduced total cost of ownership, and improved our service level.
Our systems are adaptable and modular in design, enabling broadcasters to adopt new technologies gradually, as system and network requirements change. Our customers can upgrade existing products rather than substitute them with new ones.
Q. How has your company been affected by the current economic situation and what are you doing to get through it?
I get this question a lot, probably because IMT has been growing through the downturn, not contracting and cutting R&D investments, like most of our competition. While we see that new technologies like MPEG-4 and 3D are increasingly being embraced by our customers, there is little doubt that the global economic downturn has significantly slowed down or even delayed broadcasters' capex plans.
In the last three years IMT has continued to grow and invest, supported by the high demand for our technology from military, aerospace and government (MAG) market segment. We are strongly grounded in both Broadcast and MAG markets. This is fundamental to our ability to weather cyclical downturns and achieve exponential growth in our chosen markets. Our continued R&D effort paid off, as we are able to adopt MAG technologies to the requirements of the broadcasters and vice versa.
We will continue to identify and leverage opportunities that help all our customers save costs, which we believe will lead to increased loyalty once the market picks up.
Q. Where are you based, and how many employees do you have? Anything else we should know about your company?
In November 2010, IMT moved its headquarters to the International Trade Center in Mt. Olive, New Jersey. Our 65,000 square foot facility features full functionality under one roof, including research and development, application engineering, manufacturing assembly, electronic testing and customer technical support.
We currently have a workforce of approximately 140 employees. IMT's move to Mt. Olive will increase the company's employment by up to 16 percent over the next year and will generate much needed good paying jobs in New Jersey.
We understand the economic and engineering challenges our customers face today, and we continue to be the leaders in efficient technology and deliver a broad range of solutions that help customers optimize the performance and extend lives of their existing systems and adapt to changes in technology gradually and cost-effectively.
