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With the broadcast industry in the midst of exhibition season, Digital Broadcast caught up with Said Bacho, managing director, Harris Broadcast post-CABSAT for an assessment of the industry.

How did you rate this year’s CABSAT? Was the show mainly an opportunity to catch up with clients or was there new business to be had?

It was more or less non-stop on our stand. We uncovered several new regional opportunities and did not see any decline in this respect, despite the economic challenges. These enquiries came from customers all over the Middle East. CABSAT has always been a very regional show and this year was no different. We spoke to potential clients from KSA, Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain and, of course, the UAE. Outside the Gulf, we met clients from Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, which were all well represented.

What were the key technology trends that customers were interested in and have these changed from previous years?

HD remains the buzzword and HD playout appears to be moving along quite fast. File-based workflow solutions are still something many customers are looking to implement as well; in particular servers, editing, file management and scheduling were attracting interest.

Is the Middle East in a better position than other markets?

Yes, I would say so. Eastern Europe and Latin America are also doing fine.

Do you anticipate any change in the purchasing habits of your customers in the region?

I expect they will. The opportunities don’t seem to have been affected yet but I do expect that this will change at some point. It’s difficult to comment on the extent of this. It will depend on how some suppliers and manufacturers are perceived in the market place. As we all know some vendors have already been affected by the crisis and have gone public with this information. This could mean that they are affected even more in the future. So far though, Harris has been immune from this.

Do you have to adapt the way you do business to address the current situation?

We have to remain vigilant, realistic and be cautious about how we sell and how we spend.

For these reasons, I think the companies that emerge from this will be stronger than they were before. One of the reasons we saw so much traffic at CABSAT was because customers and dealers believe that Harris is one of those companies that will be able to ride out the downturn.

If customers are thinking about the long term now when purchasing technology, is there more scrutiny on aftersales?

Yes there is and we are still hiring in that area. We will be appointing two more service engineers in the region. Aftersales will represent fifty percent of our staff in the Middle East which signals how important this is for us.

Was this heightened interest in aftersales reflected by visitor’s questions at your stand during CABSAT?

Yes this was often discussed with customers and dealers. They have found it comforting to know that we have no plans to change our regional investments in this area.

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