Thomson Broadcast

Thomson Broadcast is a French electronics manufacturer which designs, produces, deploys and services television and medium-wave radio transmission systems.

Thomson Broadcast

Company type	Private
Industry	Broadcasting, media
Headquarters	Colombes , France
Products	Television and radio transmission systems, microwave links, head-ends, UHF television transmitters, medium-wave radio transmitters, passive components, cooling systems, local and remote network management systems
Number of employees	80 (approx)
Subsidiaries	GatesAir
Website	thomsonbroadcast.tv

History

Thomson Broadcast is a legacy of the former Thomson Group, which first transmitted television programs on July 10, 1937 from the Eiffel Tower.^[1] Thomson Group led to the creation of two companies in 1995: Thomson-CSF, specializing in defense and Thomson Multimedia (TMM), specializing in electronic consumer goods. Thomson Multimedia acquired the DVD manufacturer Technicolor and Grass Valley, a company focusing on cameras and video technology, in 2000 and 2001.^[2] This reinforced a strategy to produce and sell professional equipment (instead of consumer goods) which was fully implemented in 2005, when Thomson acquired Thales Broadcast & Multimedia.^[3]

From 2000 to 2008, Thomson/Thales Broadcast & Multimedia reinforced its position in transmission deployment. In 2000, Thales Multimedia Multimedia introduced two one-megawatt longwave transmitters in Roumoules, France, to broadcast Radio Monte Carlo from Great Britain to North Africa.^[4] In 2008, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) gave a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in technical or engineering development in the "Monitoring for compliance standards for ATSC & DVB transport streams" category to Thomson, Pixelmetrix, Tektronix and Rohde & Schwarz.^[5] That year, All India Radio ordered a one-megawatt S7HP medium-wave transmitter from Thomson.^[6] In 2009, Thomson experienced serious financial difficulty.^[7] The following year, Thomson Grass Valley announced the sale of its radio and television transmission activities to a German private equity firm^[8] and was renamed Technicolor.

The Arelis Group acquired Thomson Broadcast's transmission portfolio, including its radio and television transmitter lines, in December 2012.^[9] Based on the Arelis Group's manufacturing capability, Thomson Broadcast received a contract to deploy next stage transmission DTT (digital terrestrial television) transmitters to Israel.^[10] By 2013, its asset turnover was said to have increased by 20 percent;^[11] this growth led to a global increase of 440 percent from 2012 to 2015. The Cape Verde digital transition was achieved with a Thomson Broadcast transmission turnkey system in 2015,^[12] and the company competed in other African projects against the Chinese media company StarTimes.^[13] Proposing DTT system and medium-wave radio transmission systems around the world, Thomson Broadcast is involved in Digital Video Broadcasting and Digital Radio Mondiale.

In August 2018, Thomson Broadcast was acquired by Groupe Sipromad, and is currently managed as part of the Technology Business Unit under the entity Phenixya.^[14]

In April 2022, Thomson Broadcast began the process of acquiring GatesAir.^[15] The acquisition was closed in August 2022. ^[16]

Products

Products manufactured by Thomson Broadcast include:

• Radio and television transmission systems
• Gigativy high-power television transmitters
• Megativy II medium-power television transmitters
• Dreamline low-power television transmitters
• S7HP Neo medium-wave radio transmitters
• RF passive components

References

1. "Technicolor Sells Off Thomson Video Networks". Streaming Media Magazine. 2011-03-09. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
2. "Thomson : une histoire mouvementée, de l'électricité à l'image". Les Echos (in French). 2009-07-24. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
3. "Thomson acquires Thales Broadcast Multimedia" 20 December 2005, http://www.tvtechnology.com/multiformat/0112/thomson-acquires-thales-broadcast-multimedia/252796
4. "Émetteur de Roumoules", https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89metteur_de_Roumoules
5. “Winners of 59th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards” January 2008, http://emmyonline.com/tech_59th_recipients
6. "All India Radio" MW SPT " Rajkot /AIR -WEST/FS/URDU SINDHI BALUCHI/विदेश सेवा/ GENERAL OVERSEA SERVICE ESD- DELHI". wikimapia.org. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
7. "L'avenir de Thomson est désormais entre les mains de ses créanciers". Le Monde.fr (in French). 2009-03-10. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
8. "Grass Valley sells system integration business to German private equity firm" 7 August 2012, http://blog.devoncroft.com/2012/08/07/more-broadcast-vendor-ma-grass-valley-sells-systems-integration-business-to-german-private-equity-firm/
9. "Le groupe Arelis reprend Thomson Broadcast” 20 December 2012, https://businessclubdefrance.com/2012/12/20/derniere-minute-le-groupe-arelis-reprend-thomson-broadcast/
10. "Thomson Broadcast wins Israel DTT contract". Digital TV Europe. 2013-07-16. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
11. "Les excellents résultats 2013 de Thomson Broadcast (Groupe ARELIS) se finalisent avec un déploiement en Afrique". industrie-mag.com (in French). Retrieved 2022-06-30.
12. étrangères, Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires. "Relations bilatérales". France Diplomatie - Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères (in French). Retrieved 2022-06-30.
13. "Télévision : en Afrique, la bataille de la TNT fait rage – Jeune Afrique". JeuneAfrique.com (in French). Retrieved 2022-06-30.
14. Ramjan, Umayrah (2018-08-09). "Group Sipromad takes over Thomson Broadcast". Nextv News. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
15. "Thomson Broadcast to Acquire GatesAir". TV Technology. 2022-04-24.
16. "Thomson Broadcast Closes Purchase Of GatesAir". TV Technology. 2022-08-04.

External links

• Official website