The adaptation processes generated by the covid-19 pandemic consolidated Bitcentral’s position in the audiovisual industry. For more than a decade, with their Oasis solution, they had already been ahead in time for remote contribution, and although they did not do so in anticipation of a requirement like the one we live in, they did lay the foundations to offer their customer base, including those of Latin America, a range of solutions and services to match current demand. Fred Fourcher, CEO of Bitcentral, responds.
After 2020, what is the main bet of your company for this post Covid’19 era?
We believe strongly that remote production, even if not an essential requirement as it has been during the pandemic, will be the future for the industry. We are improving all of our tools to provide greater access to content and provide more ways for customers to distribute that content to viewers.
In the company’s strategy, what is the vision for Remote Production, IP, and the Cloud?
We pioneered Remote Contribution via our Oasis product ten years ago and have seen the benefits both before the pandemic, but even more so today in the midst of it. Integrating IT techniques into the broadcast workflow has been a success factor for Bitcentral. We have several products that rely heavily on the cloud and see that as a continued opportunity for growth, particularly for applications that need to seamlessly scale.
Facing Latin America… What is your company’s perspective for the region?
Bitcentral has strong ties to Latin America with our headquarters and development center in Mexico City. Our team continues to find new opportunities for us to grow in the region. We are well-positioned throughout North and Central America, as well as in the Caribbean. We are planning on focusing and increasing our presence in South America by developing a strong network of regional partners who will be supporting our efforts which started several years ago, while reiterating our commitment to stay and grow our installed base.
How did your company adapt to changing times in the face of the new economic environment caused by covid-19?
The economic impact was very short, the uncertainty gave way to the reality that our customers needed to continue to deliver content as they had before and required updated solutions to do that. The most significant adaptation was remote integration and training for new customers. We deployed over 50 systems last year and did almost all of them remotely. It was a huge win for us and for our customers to be able to continue deploying our solutions without requiring travel. This was not something we had anticipated doing, but as with remote production, we do see this as a trend that will continue in the future.
How do you expect to face the relationship with your clients in the future? Will you keep in-person events a central part of your strategy or will you make changes? What will that new strategy be like?
We expect in-person events to restart eventually, but it is uncertain when. As with training and deployments, the use of remote tools like Zoom allow is to stay connected with customers and discuss their needs even when we can not meet in person. We do see the benefit of the larger events as part of a strategy to engage with the industry and look forward to that returning.
For more information about Bitcentral’s Core News suite please call 949-253-9000 or email: sales@bitcentral.com.
About Bitcentral, Inc.
We are Bitcentral—one of the video industry’s most trusted and innovative software providers. For more than 20 years, we have helped the biggest names in broadcasting create workflows that maximize the value of media. With our industry-changing solution FUEL™, we’re bringing our innovative approach to video to the digital world to create an innovative curation process—and an extraordinary viewing experience. In addition to FUEL, we are part of everyday news operations with our Core News™ solution, the No. 1 news production platform in the U.S. reaching millions every day, and Central Control™, which provides a flexible toolset for master control operation with modules to execute all the processes that converge into playout. Bitcentral is based in Newport Beach, California, and its Latin America headquarters is in Mexico City. Schedule a demo today with a Bitcentral expert to see how FUEL is revolutionizing digital streaming for the present and the future. Learn more at https://bitcentral.com/.