Altech UEC has made 20 million set-top boxes
2 April 2014
News
February 2014 marked the occasion of the twenty millionth set-top box (STB) to roll off Altech UEC’s production line.
Having started manufacturing STBs in 1993, the company’s average output of close to one million units per year has seen it become Africa’s largest developer and manufacturer in this arena.
Danie du Toit, group managing director of Altech Multimedia (under which Altech UEC resides), sees this as an important milestone in the company’s history. “In the past year we invested approximately R60 million in expanding and upgrading our factory infrastructure to cater for demand for terrestrial set-top boxes and this is beginning to pay off,” he says. “On 25 February, our best day to date, we manufactured 39 660 set-top boxes, that is one set-top box off the production line every 2,2 seconds.”
Craig Venter, group executive of Altron TMT, with a memento to mark the milestone.
According to du Toit, the biggest market for Altech UEC at the moment is the rest of Africa thanks to the rollout of digital terrestrial television. “Africa is digitising at an increasing rate, with the sub-Saharan market alone estimated to be in excess of 60 million set-top boxes. With our recent upgrades and our focus on productivity and technology innovation, we have the capability to manufacture seven million set-top boxes per annum,” he states.
Not only did the upgrade to its manufacturing operation lower the cost of production and increase output, it also enabled Altech UEC to create more jobs, in line with the South African government’s job creation objectives.
“The upgrade investments created an additional 120 specialised and sustainable jobs, bringing to more than 700 the number of people employed directly in our manufacturing operations. In addition to this, we have a global design and development team of approximately 130 engineers. As a Level 2 B-BBEE contributor, our investment in technology and production processes is one example of our commitment to creating employment as part of the digital migration process and government’s overall job creation targets,” du Toit concludes.
Further reading:
SACEEC celebrates standout industrial innovation on the KITE 2025 show floor
News
Exhibitor innovation took the spotlight at the KITE 2025 as the South African Capital Equipment Export Council announced the winners of its prestigious New Product & Innovation Awards.
Read more...
SA team for International Olympiad in Informatics
News
The Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa has named the team that will represent South Africa at this year’s International Olympiad in Informatics.
Read more...
Anritsu and Bluetest to support OTA measurement
News
Anritsu Company and Sweden-based Bluetest AB have jointly developed an Over-The-Air measurement solution to evaluate the performance of 5G IoT devices compliant with the RedCap specification.
Read more...
The current sentiment of the global electronics manufacturing supply chain
News
In its latest report, the Global Electronics Association provides an analysis of the current sentiment and conditions in the global electronics manufacturing supply chain as of June 2025.
Read more...
Global semiconductor sales increase in May
News
The Semiconductor Industry Association recently announced global semiconductor sales were $59,0 billion during the month of May 2025, an increase of 19,8%.
Read more...
New president for Avnet EMEA
News
Avnet has announced that Avnet Silica’s president, Gilles Beltran, will step into the role of president of Avnet EMEA.
Read more...
DARPA sets new record for wireless power beaming
News
In tests performed in New Mexico, the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay program team recorded over 800 W of power delivered for about 30 seconds with a laser beam crossing 8,6 kilometres.
Read more...
Nordic Semiconductor acquires Memfault
RF Design
News
With this acquisition, Nordic has launched its first complete chip-to-cloud platform for lifecycle management of connected products.
Read more...
Trina storage demonstrates high efficiency and long-term reliability
News
Independent testing confirms 95,2% DC efficiency and 98% capacity retention after one year of operation.
Read more...
From the editor's desk: AI – a double-edged sword
Technews Publishing
News
As with any powerful tool, AI presents challenges, some of which, if not carefully managed, threaten to undo the potential that it can offer.
Read more...
printer friendly version