Plans for 2024

The end of this year has been quite difficult for us, much like the past five years. It all started with the COVID-19 pandemic and continued with trade issues, and these troubled times seem to go on and on. In other words, a time of change has come.

Changes are also apparent in the TV broadcasting world. HD TVs are practically extinct as you can now only buy 4K sets. Additionally, the tiny cameras in some mobile phones exceed the parameters defined in the current broadcast TV standard.

Despite these difficulties, we believe that we have achieved a lot in R&D over the past five years. First of all, we continued to follow a conservative (or classic) approach to TV equipment that we have adhered to since the very early years of our company.

We try not to be deceived by the possibilities that the progress of electronics and AI promises us. We are aware that the sheer number of CCTV cameras installed in a given city (and their quality) outstrips the number of TV studios in that same city. However, we must also understand that this is not the same thing, both in terms of price and capabilities.

Our aim was to increase possibilities for studios while still providing equipment in the 3,000 - 10,000 USD price range. This race eventually produced a multi-purpose video switcher that replaces an entire studio from 30 years ago. Even now, such studios are still in operation. All our equipment supports broadcasting in the 1080i50 standard, and next year we plan to reduce the range of equipment produced for small studios.

TV program production usually requires 3 to 5-8 cameras. We understand that 4K studio cameras will cost tens of times more than consumer cameras. While top manufacturers already have 8K and 16K TVs in their product ranges, it's not viable to convert broadcasts to 8K or 16K.

Our main task for now is to promote 4K PTZ cameras, which we believe will dominate this market in the next five years. We have already implemented an optic fiber connection that allows us to transmit video from a camera for over 500 meters and have one cameraman handle 3 or 4 cameras. We believe that there will be as many such small TV studios in most cities as we see now, presumably one studio for every 100,000 people. The total equipment cost of the 4K studio is estimated to be 3-4 times higher than for similar existing HD equipment.

We have spent a lot of effort on R&D for an instant replay system. We devoted more than five years of work to this product and achieved quite good results, not only in hardware. We have also come to understand that it's very important to solve not only the technical tasks but also to try to anticipate the needs of the market, which sometimes changes significantly simply along with current fashion.

It came to us that it's more appropriate to implement some of the features as options, especially complex ones like replays. While we still have a standalone 4-channel replay system available, we also designed a single-channel replay add-on that will allow our customers to have as many replay channels as needed integrated into the video switcher. The estimated price for this option is less than 1,400 USD.

We finished a preliminary proof-of-concept design of the 4K video switcher and successfully tested it. However, we still don't see market demand for such a product from our customers. It's more advisable to handle 100 Hz video, which is easier and more in demand, especially for sports broadcasts.

Here's a list of our video switcher models that we intend to manufacture in 2025.
 

DSC938-10 SDI+2HDMI.

DSC948-6 SDI+2HDMI, optics option.

DSC958М-11 SDI+2HDMI.

RING22-22 SDI+HDMI optics option.

We can also start R&D for a 4K switcher in March if we decide that it's worth it.

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