Nvision Acquisition Gives Miranda New Depth

By Ken Kerschbaumer

The NAB exhibition floor will feature a new and improved Miranda Technologies booth, courtesy of Nvision routing and master control products that came over as part of Miranda’s acquisition of Nvision late last year. And for sports production clients Strath Goodship, CEO of Miranda, says the deal will mean tighter integration between 3Gbps-capable routing products from Nvision and Miranda’s multiviewer products.

“Routing systems are the products that are called for early on in the planning stages of a new project,” says Goodship. “So this brings us into a project a lot earlier and while we aren’t interested in providing all the pieces of a new facility puzzle there is strategic value in getting involved early on.”

Miranda’s Kaleido-X multiviewer is a perfect example. “That system is tied into the routing switcher but we also have other HD products that hang off the Nvision router quite nicely.”

Goodship says that on paper there are areas of overlapping products, like master control systems. “But our master control market is different than what Nvision’s has been,” he explains. “Nvision master control systems address the need for panels and manual intervention while Miranda’s systems are more for multichannel playout and automated systems.” Together the systems will offer a broader product line.

In these uncertain economic times the acquisition signals a commitment by Miranda to broaden its market. Previously Miranda had three business units: infrastructure products, monitor control, and playout and graphics. The Nvision acquisition adds a fourth: routing and master control.

“We’re going to continue to invest in research and development,” says Goodship. “We’re very healthy and maintaining an investment in product development is essential. It takes a long time to build up an engineering team that has enough experience to be productive so you can’t just drop that and change at will in a tough economy.”

More importantly, says Goodship, continued R&D readies Miranda for the eventual upturn in business. “There is still a lot of HD conversion to be done around the world and there is renewed interest in the 3Gbps routing market,” he explains. “And new technologies like 3D and new platforms like mobile TV and nonlinear TV are all areas broadcasters are going to have to invest in. So we’re going to position ourselves to have the right products in place when demand picks up. TV is still the biggest form of entertainment and it will continue to be so during a recession.”