FROM small beginnings as an importer and reseller of broadcast audio and video products, Malaga company Tieline Technology has become a world leader in the development and manufacture of the technology.
FROM small beginnings as an importer and reseller of broadcast audio and video products, Malaga company Tieline Technology has become a world leader in the development and manufacture of the technology.
Already boasting the ABC among its customers in television and radio broadcasting, Tieline Technology works in community radio and with the Catholic and Morman churches for the broadcast of religious sermons.
Capturing markets in community and remote broadcasts was an obvious choice for Tieline Technology as its products allow professional quality digital audio to be transmitted using a phone line.
The company plans to capture an increasing share of the corporate market and is developing technology in wireless, video and Internet.
With backgrounds in broadcast engineering, Tieline joint directors John Gouteff and Rod Henderson were already familiar with the issues and opportunities available in the market when they formed the company in 1981.
“We knew from our experience in industry that there was demand for it,” Mr Gouteff said.
He said the company’s audio codec products allowed professional broadcasters to transmit digitised audio through a phone line at a fast rate while maintaining a high sound quality.
He likens the concept, at its simplest, to the way a fax machine works.
After working at the ABC for 17 years as a broadcast engineer, Mr Gouteff bought into the company in 1994, becoming partners with company founder Rod Henderson.
It was then that the company – originally called Television Communications – began to broaden in scope from importing and reselling equipment, to developing its own products.
“We were more interested in manufacturing than selling,” Mr Gouteff said.
TVC had already built a solid reputation through major installations into most television stations, private video organisations and government departments. TVC had also developed and manufactured its own small range of video switching and distribution products.
In 1995 the company changed its name to Audio Video Communications, reflecting the growing range of video and audio products including broadcast-mixing consoles, signal measurement and amplification products, which were sold across Australia.
In 1997 the company received a $50,000 State Government Research and Development grant, which was used to develop a range of digital audio codecs, and the company’s (now) flagship product, Tieline Digital Audio Codec.
Mr Gouteff said the product was “reasonably successful” and that from 1998 the company started to develop an international distributor channel and export markets.
After opening an office in Indianapolis in the US, Tieline secured relevant trademarks and the Internet domain www.tieline.com and changed its name to Tieline Technology (2002).
With a six-figure turnover, Mr Gouteff said that Tieline currently channelled 15 per cent of gross turnover into research and development. It won an industry and export award in the category of emerging exporter in 2001.
“We are very comfortable where we are, but we are looking at expanding,” Mr Gouteff said.
“Fifty per cent of our market is export markets.”
