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ViewCast.com, Inc. (VCST) |
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CEOCFO Current
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This is a printer friendly page! ViewCast Corporation is taking the lead
in providing end-to-end products and solutions for streaming video and rich media delivery
across interactive video networks BIO:
ViewCast develops products and services that provide
rich media and video communications solutions including Osprey® Video capture cards,
Niagara® streaming encoders and servers and Viewpoint VBX switches and gateway, and
provides professional IT services through its wholly owned subsidiary Delta Computec Inc. Osprey Video designs and manufactures the industry
standard streaming capture cards. Osprey offers a wide variety of solutions from the
Osprey-100, the first streaming capture card for the Internet, to our new professional
high-performance capture card, the Osprey-560. ViewCast Systems
integrates and delivers standards-based video communications solutions through its
streaming and video distribution systems. Niagara Streaming Systems™ provides turnkey
solutions for acquisition, compression, storage, catalog and retrieval of streaming video
for Internet/intranet delivery. Our video
distribution and conferencing system, Viewpoint VBX™, provides high-quality networked
video with minimal impact to existing network traffic. Viewpoint VBX can be deployed
across the whole enterprise - from boardroom to desktop, enabling up to four-way video
dialog and corporate-wide broadcasting. As globalization gathers speed, the need to
enhance communications in today's environment has never been greater. CEOCFOinterviews: Mr.
Platt, please give a brief history of ViewCast and what changes the company has recently
undergone? Mr. Platt: “Our basic premise is that video is becoming an integral part of the business communications lexicon, much like data and voice. To really understand that, we felt we had to get into a first-hand systems integration company. We recently acquired a systems integrator in N.Y., which is a benefit to us from a financial perspective but more importantly it is a benefit to us as it relates to our understanding IT systems integration. They are focused in the New York area, which is an extremely robust market for video communications. Our vertical markets of greatest attention are financial, government and education.” CEOCFOinterviews: What are the main services you provide? Mr. Platt: “We are becoming all the things in video throughout the interactive video network. We are vertically integrated from capture cards, with the Osprey® world-class brand recommended by Microsoft and RealNetworks®, up through our Niagara® line of encoders and servers. We have built upon our line of capture cards with the development of workflow management software called SimulStream for our Osprey® cards and encoder remote management software called Niagara SCX which allows one user to manage multiple encoding stations from any networked location. By packaging our hardware components and proprietary software into the Niagara system products, we offer tremendous productivity gains as well as very high-quality turnkey solutions. The Niagara systems are focused on the business video streaming market place where people will want to get into streaming as a communications vehicle, but do not want to put the whole thing together. We preload RealNetworksâ and Microsoft Windows Media applications so that the encoding and client software is integrated and our hardware drivers and our productivity software are included. We further preload additional software for combining and serving streaming video with presentation graphics so that the full experience of interactive video communications can be achieved without a professional production stall. That is our first line focusing on business streaming. The second line is our VBX or Video Branch Exchange, where we will source video from any location and deliver it to any kind of terminal anywhere in the world. The two of them work very well together. If you want to engage in an interactive videoconference direct from the desktop, you can do so, and if you want to access CNN or Bloomberg television broadcast, you can do so. If you want to access a DVD, you can bring that in and deliver that content where ever you choose. We can take the source video and convert that to streaming content through our Niagara and distribute it over the Internet either live or archived fashion. Those are our product lines and, of course, we have our systems integration organization DCi in New York, which is installing and maintaining a lot of data, text and video networks.” CEOCFOinterviews: Do people license products from you, and what is the revenue model? Mr. Platt: “The revenue model comes from a series of developments. As it relates to the product model, the majority of our revenue comes from the Osprey product lines, the capture cards, which we distribute worldwide through our authorized master dealers. In many cases we do not know the final user because the integrator incorporate the cards into video systems they are building and delivering to the end-user. A rapidly growing line of revenue is the turnkey systems product that I talked about, which is the Niagara series. The Niagara is a series of rack-mount encoders and servers as well as a superb portable model that has everything integrated into it. You can take the portable model to an event, capture it and immediately convert it to a streaming format for live webcasting. The Video Branch Exchange, where we will source video and deliver video anywhere, is really an applications product, and that revenue continues to grow because people are finding more applications. You can videoconference or video source from DSS or control cameras remotely, so you can have security cameras and many other video sources that can be accessed and managed all with a single interface. That revenue source is growing substantially as people understand their applications for video. We do not compete directly in the video conferencing world, although we can do that. Instead, we compliment and extend the use of video conferencing and interactive video throughout the organization. The source of half of our revenue is the DCi systems integration portion.” CEOCFOinterviews: Where does the equipment come from? Mr. Platt: “We design and manufacture as well as test, integrate and ship cards and software. We also do that with our turnkey systems. We will buy the third-party components and in our own manufacturing facility, we will test, integrate and ship with our proprietary hardware and software.” CEOCFOinterviews: Are you involved in getting the world to understand more of what they can do with video, and how do you reach the customer with regard to that? Mr. Platt: “We think video is a superb communications tool. Who knew years ago that we would be using the Internet and e-mail the way we do. There are many applications for video that are tremendous cost savers that exist in the market place today. They enhance communication and in many cases, they reduce costs. We just have to educate the public as much as we can. We have designed our website to be informative, educational and instructional. We are a relatively small player today, however we are growing.” CEOCFOinterviews: What are some of the features? Mr. Platt: “Component features are best described using vertical market examples. Starting with the financial vertical, brokerages houses want to access business video channels, such as Bloomberg, CNBC and MSNBC. They want to be able to communicate with those brokers in an interactive fashion with one of their top analysts so they need to supplement a videoconference session with broadcast video. They also need to be able to conference with other organizations in other parts of the world. It is a no-brainer in the financial market. They use video, they rely on video and they can get the most versatile video from us. Another market is an extension of security and surveillance. If you were to go to a large airline terminal, you would notice thousands of cameras spaced throughout. All these cameras are connected into the main security room. We can extend that video by providing an interactive video network that allows the video to be controlled and distributed to other locations where the decision makers are. These users can Pan/Tilt/Zoom the remote cameras, determine what activity is taking place in a given area via given camera, and then provide direction for the appropriate response to whatever that activity is. For business communications, a CEO wants to stream his quarterly message over the internet rather than using the traditional conference call. Plus, there are several distance education examples, where you are streaming information from one to many remote sites.” CEOCFOinterviews: What is it about ViewCast products that set you apart from the competition? Mr. Platt: “There will always be competition and it exists in each business segment in which ViewCast has presence. However ViewCast has the unique ability to wrap more applications up with a variety of video solutions that we manage more than anyone else. The capture cards and CODECs are very easy to use, our drivers are Microsoft certified and we have a high quality product. With the VBX, I think we have a couple competitors but our conferencing features are a little different. We will certify a series of video CODECs from people like SONY, KENBERG, PictuireTel, PYROCOM. If you are doing video conferencing to any legacy piece of equipment, say you have one of our systems installed in London and you want to attend in New York, it will be going out through a CODEC, either IP or ISDN, so you have the highest quality. In the case of our Niagara line, probably the most unique feature is the software that we have built in that will allow one station to control and manage one to fifty different remote encoders that could be located anywhere on the local or wide area network.” CEOCFOinterviews: Please tell us a little about the financial picture of the company. Mr. Platt: “The financial picture is a long time coming. Like anybody else, we were victims of the downturn and the absence of IT spending. We have had to reduce expenses substantially over the last three years to bring us in line with what really has been a flat revenue stream. That has changed in the last two quarters and we are seeing revenue growing substantially. We believe we are very close to profitability in what otherwise has been a dismal last two-and-a-half years.” CEOCFOinterviews: Are you finding the concerns about travel are helpful to you? Mr. Platt: “The government has issued tremendous cuts in travel, spending money in other places such as security and surveillance. Being able to videoconference and talk face-to-face is a real benefit. As I said, we are not a premier video conferencing company, but we will extend video conferencing to the desktop and will allow multiple people to talk on one conference. We think that has made a big difference and I think as people get familiar with the product it is going to increase.” CEOCFOinterviews: What
are you doing on the research front? CEOCFOinterviews: What should potential investors know that may not be apparent when they first look at your company? Mr. Platt: “I joined the company a little over three years ago and the stock was seven dollars and nine cents. We had a shell of the company and some technology. Today the stock is around fifteen cents and we have a company with a growing revenue stream. We are approaching profitability with consistent revenue streams from our acquisition of DCi. Shareholders should see a company that is on the move, a company that is showing improvement and a company that is very close to breaking out and being a substantial force in the business video.” CEOCFOinterviews: What are your biggest challenges going forward? Mr. Platt: “The biggest challenge that we have is ready cash and the ability to fund the various initiatives that we have in front of us. As I said, the expenses are down but we need cash to grow. As we have managed expenses, we have reduced head count and we have a tremendous stress level on a lot of our people. They are very fine and motivated people but there are a lot fewer of them and we expect a great deal out of them. I would say that it is a combination of stress on our people that we try to make up for by recognizing true accomplishments and rewarding that by making sure they have a fulfilling job experience. We have to keep a close eye on cash management and look for ways in the future to raise additional cash to continue to grow the business.” disclaimers |
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