Harkesh Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL), a Government of India Enterprise, under Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, is a broadcast technology expert with 33 years of experience in planning, design, and execution of projects, broadcast station management, training and research. Gupta has been with BECIL for over six years preceded by an innings of over 26 years in senior capacities with All India Radio (AIR) and Dooordarshan.

On key services offered by your company

BECIL basically provides consultancy, system integration, and turnkey solutions to broadcast organizations in India and abroad. We provide broadcast professionals to Doordarshan and undertake operation and maintenance of broadcast systems. We also participate in tenders floated by Prasar Bharati and other organizations.

On your major expansion plans for 2008-09

BECIL is comparatively a small PSU. It is a 13-year old company which started its services in March 1995 with a small equity of Rs. 36.5 lac and a turnover of about Rs. 90 lac with a profit of about Rs. 9 lac. The company has grown many fold over the years to generate a turnover of over Rs. 110 crore with profitability of Rs. 13-14 crore. The net worth of the company has grown to over Rs. 11 crore, whereas the equity has increased only marginally to Rs. 1.36 crore.

The major expansion plans of BECIL are implementation of Private FM Phase III, which the government is considering actively. The licenses are likely to be issued during the current year and some of the stations would start coming up within one year. Apart from FM stations which have been one of our main businesses last year, BECIL is establishing an Electronic Media Monitoring Center in Delhi. BECIL being a government company plays two major roles - in the first place to provide various services, as stated above to its clients and secondly to help the government in its policy implementation and also to regulate the content. The electronic media monitoring center will monitor all the sky channels from the content violation point of view. In future, this service is likely to be extended to cover cable networks as well, which is quite a challenging task given the large number of cable operators and their geographical location throughout the country. There are an estimated 60,000 local cable operators in India.

Another scheme we are eyeing is small radio stations called community radio which are basically non-profit radio stations where licenses are given to the NGOs, government institutions, and educational institutions. During the current financial year, other major activities include setting up of TV studios for Delhi College of Engineering, Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, Sangeet Natak Academy and expansion of telecast of ISRO through tele-education. Our expansion plans also include projects in neighboring countries such as Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and South Asia markets.

On major challenges in the broadcast market

The broadcast market in India is on the verge of another boom and there are a host of exciting technologies which are opening new doors of opportunity. For example, digital TV transmission, high definition television, mobile television, IPTV, wireless triple play network offering voice over telephone, broadband Internet, and a bunch of television channels in frequency bands 26-29 MHz, which is thinly utilized presently. Digitization in production and delivery of content, blurring of boundaries between TV and films with the advent of high definition technology and forthcoming Commonwealth Games would fuel the crusade. There are major expansion plans on anvil for private FM network. Even satellite radio is planning to complement its services through terrestrial means using L band. Consumer today wants a choice of technology and multiple delivery modes and providing him with the right technology and efficient means of delivery is a challenge to the broadcast industry. Migration from analog to digital is both an opportunity and a challenge. Availability of adequate frequency spectrum would also be a major challenge for the broadcast industry. The basic reason why the broadcast industry is shifting from analog to digital is for the efficient use of the spectrum. There is a lot of pressure and demand from various security and telecom agencies for additional spectrum and due to this there is a need for more efficient utilization of spectrum. With a large number of new services through a host of delivery platform, regulation of content will be a big challenge for the government. Another challenge and an area of concern is shortage of trained manpower for broadcast industry, both from the content as well as engineering perspective.

The government and the private industry also need to address manufacturing of consumer goods as India is a huge market and there is a very good potential for manufacturing of these items within the country rather than importing them.

On major projects implemented in 2007-08

In 2007, our main business was Private FM projects. We created Common Transmission Infrastructure (CTI) for transmission of multiple FM channels from the same location in 87 cities in the country, which was an unprecedented quantum of work, consisting of 245 FM channels, which was made possible in a short time frame of 1½ years. Besides Private FM, we have done highly prestigious projects such as high definition television for Lok Sabha and Rashtrapati Bhawan. Apart from this we made towers for FM radio broadcasting. We also implemented TV and radio projects in Afghanistan.

On strategic advantages for broadcasters in the Indian market

India is a country of many regional languages, which is a great opportunity for the broadcasters to provide regional content unlike in other countries where there are only one or two languages. As far as content availability is concerned, India is a major film producing country which gives easy availability of content in the form of films, songs, and related programs. Another advantage for broadcasters is the availability of easy finance with the globalization of economy. There are several investors ready to invest in India. The government is also encouraging more and more private participation. Availability of educated and cheap manpower in India is another advantage. With the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in 2010, audience for television and radio will boom and people would like to listen and view high quality audio and pictures. There will be a gradual switchover from analog to digital mode which would benefit the broadcast market in India. Growing quest for high quality audio and video would also help the consumer industry to grow.

On the major role of BECIL in Phase III FM project

BECIL would offer its services as a system integrator for implementing the private FM Phase III project. BECIL definitely has an advantage to assist the government in successful implementing the Phase III project for FM radio broadcasting due to its past experience. Other roles include helping the government in monitoring and regulation of content and providing technical inputs to the ministry on the technological issues. A number of technologies are coming to India and it is difficult for the common man to understand the pros and cons of these technologies. We need to take a cautious approach. BECIL also has an important role to assist Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and TRAI on the technological issues.

On your major vendors

For the FM transmission equipment, we have companies from USA, Germany and Australia. We have vendors such as Audio Arts, Axia, and Yamaha for consoles. Other vendors include RCS, Enco, Next Gen, and Power Gold for content management software, FM transmitters from Harris, Rohde & Schwarz, and Broadcast Electronics, and medium wave transmitters from Thomson. Antennae come from RFS, Jampro, SWR and Kathrein. Combiners come from Teracom apart from RFS and Jampro. We have purchased TV equipment from Panasonic, Ikegami, and Sony.

On your future plans

Having come this far from a small turnover and presently standing at over Rs. 100 crore, which might be small as compared to other PSUs, but big for a consultancy organization, we expect to see the company grow to a turnover of Rs. 500 crore in a couple of years. The major activities planned are to provide infrastructure for the Phase III FM project and mobile television. We would continue to provide broadcast professionals to the industry. We also plan to educate and train manpower in broadcasting. We are also working with some business partners and trusted vendors to market and support broadcast equipment.

J C Convertino Turns to Shure UHF-R wireless for ABC's Good Morning America show

Veteran audio engineer John ëJCí Convertino, the man behind the music mix on ABCís popular program, Good Morning America, has selected Shure UHF-R wireless for mixing purposes. Just like other morning shows all over the television airwaves, ìGood Morning Americaî makes good use of live music.

ìSo many acts have been through here that itís easier for me to recall those I havenít worked with as opposed to those I have,î says Convertino, ìIn the 10 years Iíve been doing this, everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Rascal Flatts to Maroon 5 and Lenny Kravitz has been on our stage at one time or another. The pace here is exceptionally fast, with each artist essentially showing up just as they would for any other tour stopî.

The auto-scan and auto-sync features inherent in the system save valuable time in the setup process. The Shure technology has sonic purity and rock-solid dependability. The UHF-R had to offer the features such as:

 Shureís updated wireless workbench network setup and control software

•   Ethernet and USB compatibility
•   Shureís patented audio reference companding
•   Networked auto frequency scan
•   Infrared auto transmitter sync
•   Switchable transmitter output power