Miranda's evolution spurred by new investments and partnerships
Contents
A solid track record
Video transport over networks
Canada's hi-tech hotbed
Building on Miranda's black boxes
At a time when investors are exercising greater caution investing in technology firms, Miranda Technologies Inc. has just received an infusion of $20 million dollars in venture capital. And these investors—SGF Tech, BDC Risk Capital, and Investissement Desjardins – express confidence that Miranda is well positioned for dramatic growth.
All based in Montreal, Quebec, SGF Tech (a division of Societe Generale de Financement du Quebec) invested $14 million; BDC Risk Capital (affiliated with Bank of Canada) invested $3 million; and Investissement Desjardins also invested $3 million.
A solid track record (Back to top)
"What impressed us the most about this company was its management—in administration, production, research and development, and sales," says Andre LaFontaine, director of business development for SGF Tech. "This is a strong, lean company, with no extra spending or disorganization. Everything is well focused on picking the brain of engineers, and listening carefully to customer feedback, then transforming those ideas into new products that come to market remarkably fast."
BDC and Investissement Desjardins have been investing in Miranda for the last two or three years, and have watched its fast paced growth, tripling its employees since 1997. Miranda, which was founded in 1989, is also expected to add 100 more high-tech jobs over the next three years.
Many of these jobs will be in the United States, specifically in Los Angeles, where Miranda's vice president of sales Darin Crosby has been actively recruiting personnel for the last three months. "Our new U.S. office is being founded in response to customer demand," Crosby says. "American broadcasters want to deal with locally-based organizations and this new West Coast office will be better able to support their needs." Crosby adds that the company wants to open at least three offices in the US before the end of the year.
Video transport over networks (Back to top)
Besides building a stronger U.S. presence, the $20 million investment will support Miranda's plans to expand aggressively into the Internet marketplace, bringing its expertise in video and audio signal interface and conversion to what it views as a burgeoning industry – broadcasting via the Internet.
"Today, the rapid growth of the Internet is fueling widespread interest in telecommunications companies," says Christian Tremblay, president of Miranda. "Tomorrow, video will become a key communications tool for the Internet. Miranda's development and expertise position us as a major player in this area."
Investor Andre LaFontaine felt that, based on Miranda's strong operational performance and overall track record, the company would likely be successful in its quest to become a major player in the streaming media business.
Miranda is not limited to just the Internet. Its new Media Transport Division – announced at NAB2000 – will focus on providing transport applications for video, audio, and data through both public and private networks. The company strengthened its chances for success by signing an agreement to license Nortel Networks' broadband video technology, considered the de facto standard in the video transport industry.
Under the agreement, Miranda will now be manufacturing and marketing the DV-45 series (NTSC DV codecs for compression), and intends to market the next-generation DV-MPEG SD7000 line of (MPEG-2 4:2:2/4:2:0) codecs, for more efficient digital video transport.
"Nortel Networks' cutting-edge technology is a timely and valuable addition to our expertise in digital video and audio signal processing," says Tremblay, Miranda's president. "The agreement allows us to leverage our long-standing expertise in the broadcast and post production markets to provide solutions for video transport service providers."
And Richard Romagnino, general manager, broadband video, for Nortel Networks comments: "Miranda's expertise in video signal processing and digital television—coupled with Nortel Networks' established market leadership in optical networking—will ensure our continued success in providing our customers with leading edge video transport solutions."
LaFontaine viewed the Nortel partnership as a move that couldn't miss because Miranda will be selling the DV-45, a world-class family of codecs. With revenues exceeding $21 billion in 1999, Nortel Networks is recognized as the global leader in telephony, data, wireless and wireline solutions for the Internet, and is actively developing a new high-performance Internet.
Canada's hi-tech hotbed (Back to top)
But LaFontaine noted, "many people do not realize that Nortel and Miranda are both Canadian companies. Nortel, which is based in Brampton, Ontario, actually benefits from the same high concentration of technical expertise that has propelled Miranda, Softimage, Matrox, and other leading digital video solutions providers in the area.
"One reason for this is that the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) based its engineering division in Montreal about 20 years ago," LaFontaine continued. "After leaving CBC, many of these engineers stayed in the area forming a critical mass that spawned Montreal's high concentration of successful video-oriented enterprises."
As part of its expansion, Miranda is also planning strategic acquisitions of companies offering products that round out its own extensive product line. While Miranda has not disclosed which entities it's considering, it is no stranger to acquisitions. Last year, Miranda acquired Digipath Video, of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, thereby absorbing that company's comprehensive Sahara line of routing switchers. It also bought AAVS of Paris, France, to acquire an extensive line of audio/video distribution and signal processing systems.
Building on Miranda's black boxes (Back to top)
According to Miranda's Darin Crosby, "Miranda's dramatic growth has been spurred by increased demand for its extensive line of signal conversion products. For example, since SD is not being replaced by HD equipment, Miranda's Symphonie is practical because it houses an assortment of up to 16 SD and HD video interface modules, from Miranda's Imaging Series, within the same frame. HD compatibility provides users with a familiar interface, flexibility, and protection of investment as they transition to HDTV."
"The reality is that it's still cost prohibitive for post facilities to buy a lot of dedicated HDTV equipment, and what they do put in tends to be clustered on islands surrounded by a sea of existing serial digital and component analog equipment that's still needed for the majority of the work," adds Crosby. "So, they're going to need converters to interface between their SD and HD equipment for a long time to come."
While many believed that parallel digital was being replaced by serial digital, Miranda continued to support parallel to serial converters, like the SER-800 HD Video Serializer and Deserializer that converts HD video from parallel to SMPTE-292M serial digital and vice versa. This has proved useful for HD systems like the Philips Spirit DataCine HD/film scanner that happened to have been designed for parallel digital output.
The newest product from Miranda is the Aquila HD Upconverter, a scalable, upgradeable system that converts SDTV to HDTV using third generation de-interlacing and interpolation technology, with on-the-fly control for positioning picture content during aspect ratio conversions.
"Until DTV reaches a substantial audience, producers and broadcasters will find it cost-effective to upconvert SDTV programs to HDTV for broadcast," says Crosby.
With hundreds of black box devices in its portfolio, Miranda's product line includes distribution amplifiers, analog to digital converters, video encoders, decoders and converters, video processors and generators, routing switchers, multiplexers and demultiplexers, serializers and deserializers, and converters for HD production and display.
"Well before Miranda became the success story that it is today, it distinguished itself from its competition with its determination, vision, and solid business growth strategy," says Robert Inglese, general director, BDC Risk Capital. "We were one of the first organizations to recognize Miranda's capacity to provide winning solutions for the booming digital video marketplace."
Claudia Kienzle has been writing for the broadcast industry for over a decade. She can be reached at claudiakienzle@mindspring.com. (Back to top)