US presence lifts Tieline's stocks

A trip to Las Vegas by one of its directors in 1998 was the catalyst for Malaga-based Tieline Technology’s growth from a technology and service supplier to becoming the manufacturer of broadcast audio products.

Established in 1981 as Television Communications Pty Ltd, Tieline specialises in the manufacture of broadcast and industrial audio and video products, used widely in television and radio stations, private video organisations and government departments.

In addition to servicing metropolitan and regional Australia, its global distribution network spans both North and South America, Europe, the UK, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Starting out as predominantly a TV and radio engineering company, Tieline made the transition into product development manufacturing with its suite of Codec products, which enable the bi-directional transmission of broadcast quality audio over a normal telephone line.

The basic idea for the product was bought back from the US by director John Gouteff, who attended the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas.

After a number of evolutions and added functionality, the Codec series of products has become Tieline’s flagship, and has a variety of applications.

In addition to the radio and TV broadcasting abilities, the system is also used by captioning companies and for courtroom translators; essentially, wherever there is a need to transfer high quality sound to a remote location with little loss of clarity.

Director Rod Henderson said Tieline was one of only a handful of companies in the world that offered this type of product. 

“The customer has one box which suits all their needs, and we tend to feel that were the leaders in that respect,” he said.

Having developed a strong international distribution network, the company began to encounter issues dealing with customers in the US.

After trying to use re-sellers in the US, the company realised that the only way to effectively service this huge market was to open an office there.

“Opening an office in America was the best way of getting the latest technology into the market as fast as possible,” Mr Henderson said.

“The market is quite parochial; they want to deal with their own companies. The only way to do it was to have our own office.”

The city of Indianapolis was chosen for its location in the middle of the country, making distribution easier and more convenient when dealing with east and west coast time zones.

Mr Henderson said a major contributor to the development of Tieline’s export markets was the Australian government’s Export Marketing Development Grant Scheme, a program which provides financial support over a number of years to aspiring and current exporters.

“The costs involved were staggering,” he said. “[EMDG] helped us significantly in developing export markets. It was the one thing that encouraged us to put our efforts into exporting.”

Tieline now has five people in its US office, in addition to its 26 WA staff, with the US now the company’s biggest market.

The grant also enabled Tieline to set up a third office in Zurich in January to service  growing markets in Europe and the Middle East.

The company is focused on expanding its Zurich office, which has only one staff member.