The Value of Broadcast Industry Partnerships
Beyond the largest global enterprise businesses, it’s nearly impossible to cover the world as a manufacturer without the assistance of in-country partners. Dielectric has long relied on the professional services and relationships of dealers and integrators in Asia, South America and elsewhere to get closer to the end customers.
While most North American broadcast manufacturers favour this strategy, there has been a tendency to “go it alone” on our continent, where direct sales are traditionally more successful. But seasons change as do business opportunities, and there comes a time where it makes strategic sense to align with companies you know and trust for a specific mission.
That moment arrived last year when FM Radio business opportunities escalated in the United States and Canada. While no stranger to radio, our North American business had largely been focused on TV opportunities over the previous decade, fueled through the U.S. spectrum repack and early ATSC 3.0 trials and technology developments. As those opportunities wrapped up and gave way to expanded FM activity, the moment for strategic partnerships arrived.
Enter SCMS (United States) and Pippin Technical Service (Canada), Dielectric’s valued FM Radio partners in North America.
SCMS Success
Much of Dielectric’s recent FM radio business success is owed to SCMS, widely recognized through North America as a leading distributor of radio’s strongest brands. Since hitting the pavement on behalf of Dielectric and its FM antenna systems, SCMS has boosted FM sales by a very large margin over the first year, leveraging its strong industry relationships and knowledgeable sales team to secure major wins with Minnesota Public Radio and Maine Public Radio, among other commercial and public radio projects.
On the commercial side, SCMS will soon close a major deal with a large commercial FM broadcaster involving a master FM antenna system in Michigan. Beyond partnerships, Dielectric’s engineering efforts over the past 18 months have birthed innovative solutions for enterprise-level master antenna projects, including a range of FM manifold combiners with clever modular designs.
“The number of master antenna products that enter our view is rising as the leading tower companies continue to buy more real estate, and broadcasters continue to consolidate,” Matt Cauthen, Vice President, SCMS. “The tower companies bring the most opportunity as they court more stations onto their towers. That creates the demand that’s spinning up industry wide.”
SCMS’s brand reputation in radio was always on the radar of Dielectric executives, and the cyclical nature of the transmission business inspired them to bring SCMS on board to build their FM presence.
“SCMS has been instrumental in introducing the merits and expanse of our FM product line to executives and engineers unaware of our research, development and engineering efforts for radio,” said Keith Pelletier, President and General Manager, Dielectric. “Moving forward, we anticipate that SCMS will specify us into more installation-based projects with complete RF system buildouts.”
Progress with Pippin
Broadcast Dialogue readers are by now familiar with the Dielectric brand as the company has been a consistent voice on Canadian RF activity over the past two years. The success of its SCMS partnership inspired the company to enter into a similar partnership in Canada.
Pippin Technical Service (PTS) was clearly the right choice for several reasons, including the opportunities for FM radio business taking shape through Pippin’s most active regions. That includes the majority of Western Canada, beginning in Manitoba and extended west through four provinces, as well as Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north. PTS’ Saskatchewan headquarters offer an ideal central access to point to all six regions, including Alberta and British Columbia.
For PTS President and CEO Tyler Everitt, Dielectric’s FM product depth – including an expanded line of cost-efficient and lightweight FM ring antennas – signals new opportunities for Dielectric, PTS, and radio broadcasters.
“We see a lot of opportunity for the FM replacement market coming together where we can refresh aging broadcast infrastructure,” said Everitt. “These projects usually begin with the transmitter and soon extend into the rest of the RF chain. That means new combiners, filters, transmission line and antennas, and the opportunities to modularly build onto exciting systems as new frequencies are added.”
The PTS partnership, which effectively was set in motion around the beginning of this year, has quickly developed as the companies consider new equipment which included modifying a combiner system to be able to operate five high-power stations in HD radio plus the addition of a new station. Dielectric’s clever new technologies with manifold combiners and RingMaster antennas are going to be instrumental in the expansion market as new signals are added to existing sites.
PTS’ initial strategy includes developing presentations that will breed familiarity with the Dielectric brand and its range of products. Beyond sales and marketing, PTS’s turnkey services for Dielectric will include RF site planning, system design, integration, commissioning, and post-sales technical support and maintenance. This full suite of services, along with PTS’ RF expertise, territorial reach and long-standing industry relationships, makes PTS the ideal Canadian partner for Dielectric.
“PTS’ impressive reach has already taken the Dielectric brand into some of the further reaches of the country, while their strong reputation brings us closer to more broadcasters throughout western Canada,” added Daniel Bizet, International Sales Manager, Dielectric. “That creates new opportunities for the existing replacement market as well as with new FM licenses that we anticipate will surface this year and and beyond.”
Dielectric President Keith Pelletier joined Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about the evolution of the industry and the importance of broadcast industry partnerships. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
