2021 – a year in review
/If the past year was a movie, would we call it a thriller, drama or perhaps action? There was certainly never a dull moment and the same was true for our business. Our company had a big 2021 with remarkable success, despite quite a lot of global uncertainty throughout both our direct market and the related markets that we rely on.
Perhaps our greatest achievement this year was the shedding of our skin after we relocated from a HQ of more than 20 years to a new address just around the corner in Artarmon. We learned that engineering people like to collect things and the path to the recycling centre was well worn by the time we were done. Being in a new home has given the entire team that weightless feeling you get when you declutter and we’re all now feeling focused on the future like never before.
Moving on from moving, the march to adapt production workflows to IP video and the flexibility it affords was everywhere. From the smaller production companies embracing NDI to the full-service players that are fully uncompressed with an ST2110 fabric, everyone knew that IP was the way to go. In the enterprise space where uncompressed is first preference, Techtel’s Bridge Technologies and their super flexible VB440 monitoring system became a must-have for anyone to build around this new and emerging standard. Broadcasters like the ABC, NEP, Nine Network, NPC & Foxtel have been busy converting their infrastructure to IP to take advantage of all the flexibility IP unlocks. The VB440 has become their eyes and ears, making a flexibility theory their new reality.
We saw big shifts in 2021 from companies that need to modernise their storage solutions like the Seven Network and NPC. Our partner Spectra has shown tremendous innovation in this area and it was their solutions that we found were time and again in front of the competition. In late October, Spectra released Vail, a game changer for their company and a product that will be truly disruptive in the cloud storage space for many years ahead.
Major venues including Sydney’s Olympic stadium , the Sydney Football Stadium, Marvel Stadium and the Melbourne Olympic Park Trust all took the opportunity to modernise and our partner Grass Valley was especially successful in this respect. Their Kahuna series of vision mixers was chosen to be at the core of the live audience experience and we look forward to seeing our sporting heroes shown on big screens like never before.
It was a year of continued deployment of LED displays throughout television studio sets and both the ABC and Network Ten made a further push in this area. The stunning backdrops that our customers create are transforming their productions and engaging the audience like never before.
Techtel’s software developers were busier than ever throughout the year, culminating in the release of V2.2 of Inflo™. Inflo now includes diverse video capture card support, artificial intelligence and asset management, all in a web-based platform. It will be another big year for Inflo in 2022, as we continue to respond to great customer feedback.
So, although it was a rollercoaster ride of a year, the people that work for Techtel are passionate, professional and they rose to the challenge. We didn’t just survive, we made great strides forward and I could not be prouder of everyone under our roof; staff, suppliers and of course our inspiring customers. Everyone keep doing what you do!
