Televes Deutschland GmbH is a fully owned subsidiary of Televes Corporation, a group of more than 20 technological and industrial firms dedicated to manufacturing products and solutions that convert telecom infrastructures in buildings and homes into vanguard platforms that offer advanced audio-visual services to its users.
Televes Deutschland was created in 2008, when Televes purchased Preisner, a well established brand that operated since 1992 in the German and Austrian markets providing TV distribution products to the professional installation market.
Interview with Matthias Dienst, General Manager at Televes Deutschland.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
TELEVES: TV distribution services continue to be at the heart of our activity. Televes Deutschland offers all products necessary to bring a TV signal into the television sets at home. Whether cable TV, satellite TV or Digital Terrestrial Television, we design and manufacture everything from the roof antennas and dishes, to the modulation headends, the passive distribution amplifiers and splitters… all the way to the TV outlet, including fibber optics or coaxial cables, or even WiFi Access Points. We really are a one-stop-shop solution for any TV installation. We even manufacture complex and highly technological field spectrum analyzers and signal strength meters, an invaluable tool for installers to be able to certify the quality of their work beyond any doubt.
Televes has undertaken an aggressive diversification strategic plan within the last four or five years. We have taken advantage of the knowledge we have generated as a corporation with more than 60 years designing and manufacturing our products. We have a state-of-the-art electronic manufacturing plant, where we are able to mount the latest SMD components into our products, including the most advanced MMIC technologies, and we melt and conform our own metal and plastic components.
This has allowed us to enter adjacent markets to our core TV Distribution business, such as the Hospitality sector, where we implement high speed fiber optic networks and integrate interactive TV and Digital Signage services for hotels and hospitals, as well as the industrial LED Lighting public and private sectors, both for outside or inside lighting projects, with products designed and manufactured by Televes and including the latest remote control technologies for a more efficient network management. Lastly, we have developed the Carelife advanced eHealth solutions for the elders at home, where their houses have sensors, and the system learns the habitual patters as to alert a medical team or a family member if any of those standard parameters have not been met and could indicate a state of alarm, for example a sensor in the bathroom alerts of excessive time inside.
E.E: What’s the news for 2021 about new products?
TELEVES: In 2021, Televes Germany plans to introduce a variety of new products to provide electrical installers and system integrators with complete solutions for high-performance telecommunications infrastructures in the residential, business and hospitality sectors. In the “Hospitality” area, in which Televes has integrated all active network products, such as IPTV headends for hotels or also the housing industry, Televes is expanding its product portfolio with its own network switches and routers, as well as VoIP telephony. The aim is to offer customers complete solutions from a single source. This strategy is underlined by a consistent new product area called DataCom, which covers all necessary products for structured cable data networks, including the passive components like CAT cables, sockets, patch cables and racks as well as optical distribution technology.
Especially for the German markets, Televes will introduce a new compact QAM head-end station “K20”, which is suitable for the processing of TV program packages in hotels, guest houses or even apartment buildings. This TV solution, of course developed and produced in-house, which will be available in different packages for 8,16,24 and more programs, is characterized especially by its small and compact design in a high-quality cast housing.
With the new optical solution “Overlight”, Televes enables the transmission of satellite signals over long distances to many subscribers. SAT signals are received via a wideband LNB and converted into light by means of an optical converter, which can be transmitted over long distances with low attenuation. In the area close to the subscriber, the signals are then converted back and distributed to the individual TV sets. This is a solution that is both future-proof and economically attractive, especially for the housing industry.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
TELEVES: The steadily growing data consumption and the associated demand for broadband access opens up promising new opportunities for Televes. In order to optimally serve this market, with all its individual needs and target groups, Televes offers an extensive product range from traditional TV reception and distribution technology to the hospitality, DataCom and professional LED lighting sectors.
In the core TV Distribution area, Televes, as a full-range supplier, offers all products for coaxial TV transmission with multi-switches, headends and the associated distribution technology components, which is supplemented by its own designed high-quality range of measuring equipment – the H30 Evolution for day-to-day business, or the MOSAIQ6 for specialists.
The range of services in the new DataCom business unit extends from a complete product portfolio for structured cabling to Ethernet switches, routers with firewall functionality, WLAN access points and 19″ racks.
The Cat 7 and Cat 6A copper cables from the DataCom product portfolio support data rates of up to 10 Gbit/s, thus offer high performance reserves with regard to increasing transmission speeds in the LAN as well as for end devices. For the construction of optical infrastructures, freely configurable cables with two to 48 single-mode fibers, as well as pre-assembled variants are available, with which large distances can be bridged without additional amplification thanks to an attenuation of just 0.3 dB/km. In addition, splice and pre-assembled patch boxes, patch panels and adapters for various connection systems are available, as well as high-speed HDMI cables for connecting end devices via Ethernet.
The network devices of the WaveData series enable flexible deployment scenarios for wired and/or wireless data transmission. The Ethernet switches support speeds of 1 Gbit/s or 10 Gbit/s.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
TELEVES: We certainly have to look at the private market and the project and industry sectors differently here. Data consumption, digitization and networking are definitely increasing everywhere, but to different degrees. In addition, there are financial, regulatory as well as ecological aspects that slow down or also change one or the other technological trend.
Germany is a “free to air” market in the TV sector and thus a classic SAT market. In particular, the extension of SD broadcasting via satellite will lead to planning security for the next few years. Satellite is and will remain the most attractive transmission path for the private sector due to its program diversity, transmission quality and also the lowest costs. The classic, high-performance coaxial distribution will remain the dominant technology in the next 5-10 years.
The situation is already different in the project and industrial sectors. Structured cabling, but even more so optical transmission, to cover the rapidly increasing broadband requirements, are the solutions that the market needs here.
In principle, however, a distinction must always be made between the market for modernization projects and the market for new buildings. While there is complete flexibility in the selection and planning of infrastructure for new buildings, the requirements and obligations for existing buildings are completely different. This is the great advantage and also the strength of Televes, because Televes masters all infrastructures from coaxial technology, CAT distribution and optics to Wifi solutions.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
TELEVES: There are currently various market trends:
- The streaming of TV programs, which is made possible by the IPTV standard and represents an additional supplement to conventional linear TV broadcasting.
- The digitization of schools, which is a major topic, not only due to the Corona virus pandemic.
- The modernization of hospitals, elderly´s homes and nursing care facilities, as TV, Internet and broadband availability are also elementary issues there for guests, and we can source the service with our CoaxData/EoC solution.
- And then we have broadband expansion, as well as 5G network evolution in the radioelectric spectrum, as another technology where Televes is active.
The different market trends have different characteristics for the different target groups. There are trends that have long since ceased to be trends and are now a reality (e.g., IPTV solutions in hotels, EoC solutions in care facilities), but there are also trends that still need to be observed in terms of the direction they are taking, such as 5G.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
TELEVES: All products are certainly innovative, but I find the telecom signal measurement technology particularly innovative. Televes designs and manufactures its own measuring devices at its state-of-the-art facilities headquartered in Spain. With the H30 Evolution, we have a TV signal measurement device that is suitable for all types of reception DVB-S/S2, DVB-T/T2 and DVB-C. With the “Evolution” version it is possible to transfer the measurement results via Bluetooth to other devices for analysis and documentation. Another innovation for the measurement of optical signals is in the planning stages at this time, also in a small compact measuring device which is proving to be a specialty.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2021?
TELEVES: Much of it still depends on the course of the Corona pandemic. So far, the industry has experienced relatively little impact from Corona. The main reason for this is the exemplary and responsible behaviour of retailers and craftsmen.
We are currently only seeing a downturn in some investments in hotels and industrial projects, which are either being postponed, scaled back or cancelled altogether.
Having people restricted and confined in their houses has launched the demand for restoration and repositions for home projects. The construction industry remains at a high level, and the various trends we have already mentioned will ensure that the market in 2021 will be roughly on a par with the previous year. For Televes, we see growth of 5% – 10%, and we also see a lot of growth impetus for the following years.
The only bottleneck could be the development of raw material prices and the supply chains. But we will manage that, too.