There is no doubt that Altech is one of the leading South African companies still listed in the electronics sector of the JSE, but it would be impossible within the limitations of this series of articles to cover every division of the company. There is one however, that undoubtedly stands head and shoulders above the rest, and this is UEC, whose factory is located in Mount Edgecombe near Durban.
Before its acquisition by Altech in 1986, the then UEC Projects was mainly involved in defence electronics (eg, naval systems for submarine system upgrades) rather than commercial electronics where it did have a range of pre-pay meters, radio systems and remote controls. The defence part of the company was consolidated with Teklogic to form ADS which has been subsequently disposed of by Altech. UEC Commercial launched itself into a new market niche in 1994 when, in collaboration with MultiChoice it developed the first DVB compliant, MPEG-2 Integrated Receiver Decoder. From those early days, and its new focus, the company has never looked back. In fact, it was almost the subject of a separate listing during 2001, a project put on hold as a result of the volatility in the IT stock market sector. In anticipation of its listing, the name of the company was changed to UEC Technologies. During 2000 an in-house subsidiary, MediaVerge Solutions was formed to focus exclusively on interactive television application software.
Today, UEC is totally focused in the design, development and manufacture of compressed digital television and data reception for satellite, terrestrial and cable television as well as for Internet service providers. To maintain its leadership position in this global business, UEC has established strategic partnerships with global leaders in this technology. These include Irdeto Access (IRD development) in Holland, STMicroelectronics (development of integrated chipsets for IRD requirements) in France, NEC (Japan), Nagra (conditional access solutions) of Switzerland, NDS (advanced STBs) in the UK, OpenTV (USA) and Broadcom (USA). In Altech's 2003 Annual Report, the expected technology mix from these partnerships was Irdeto (53%), NDS (36%) and Nagra (11%).
The company now employs some 600 people (with over 40 electronic and software engineers) in its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Mount Edgecombe. More than R12 million was recently invested in equipment to provide an additional SMD capability and more than 5000 decoders can be produced each day. The company is certified to ISO 9000 and is in the process of implementing an ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. While each decoder is individually tested and inspected, UEC ensures total customer satisfaction by carrying out a further quality assurance audit on 10% of all units produced.
In terms of products, UEC is continuously developing and releasing new products and offers a full range of digital satellite, terrestrial and cable decoders. As an example its DSD820 Multiview digital settop-box, an eighth generation device that is both MPEG-2 and DVB compliant. It provides access to both free-to-air and encrypted services and offers such extra features as Internet and e-mail access, over-the-air software download capability and Teletext support. While UEC itself will focus on the further development of integrated receiver decoders, its subsidiary MediaVerge Solutions provides software solutions and applications that allow users to make use of interactive TV, allowing Internet browsing, banking, e-mail access and so forth.
The accolades that UEC has received over the years are too numerous to detail in full but mention must be made of its 'SABS Design Institute Awards' in 1996 and 1999, the Altech 'Most Improved Company Award' in 1998 and its achievement of being the 'KwaZulu-Natal Exporter' of the year in 2002. The company also received 'The President's Award for Export Achievement' in 2000 and was the winner of the 'President's Export Award for Electrical and Electronic Products' in 1999. During 1999 UEC was also the winner of the dti 'SPII Innovation Award'.
While UEC exports decoders all over the world, a major client is MultiChoice Africa. During 2003 the company delivered its one-millionth digital satellite recorder to MultiChoice. (Note that the millionth digital satellite decoder manufactured by UEC for all customers was delivered in 2000). MultiChoice Africa was also the world's launch customer for UEC's Multiview digital settop-box (STB), the industry's first solution that enables simultaneous viewing of two encrypted channels on two independent televisions using a single STB and smartcard.
Besides the local market, UEC exports almost 30% of its products into the Middle East and has a dominant share of the Australian market. Besides that, during 2003 it secured its first orders to supply the large cable TV market in the USA with STBs, initially through Bell South. UEC also sells into Europe through a third party, the Japanese company Kenwood, which manufactures its products under a royalty agreement.
This series looks at some of the leading companies in the electronics industry in South Africa today. To simplify presentation and avoid perceptions that they are being 'rated' in any way, this coverage is being presented in alphabetical order. In the next issue of Dataweek we examine a company that has become a global player in the critical fire detection field.
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