Pace founder starts rival

["Kenneth Watt" <kwatt@xxxxxxx>]

Sorry for the cross post

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A new company that will design, make and market not only set-top boxes but
IDTVs and personal video recorders has been set up by joint Pace founder
Barry Rubery and Turkey's Beko.

Fusion Digital Technology - which is targeting an international market for
digital TV reception products - is 70%-owned by Beko, the rest by Mr
Rubery=
.


Based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, the joint venture company will produce
free-to-air and pay products for digital terrestrial receivers, digital
satellite receivers, IDTVs, personal video recorders (receivers with
built-in hard disks) and DVD players for the UK and international markets.

Barry Rubery is the new venture's chief executive with the post of chairman
taken by Beko president Ali H. Sumerval.

Mr Rubery, who with David Hood founded Pace Micro Technology in 1982,
admitted to ERT Weekly: "Clearly people will be looking at it as
setting up
in competition to Pace, and clearly it is."=20

But, he added, Fusion will not have Pace's reported =A31 million a week
overheads. It is, as his sales manager Keith Wiggins put it, "Our
intention
is to stay mean and lean".

It currently has 22 staff, 14 of whom are engineers.

Fusion designs its own products, many of which will be manufactured by
Beko=
.
However, Mr Rubery pointed out that as Fusion was a separate company it
could have its products made by other companies if it made economic sense
t=
o
do so.

First products in the UK will be a 28in widescreen IDTV, available in June,
followed by a DTT receiver in August and a personal video recorder (PVR) in
September.

One of the major plus points of the Fusion line-up is the fact that the
company has acquired its own bandwidth. Therefore, it does not have to rely
on the UK's free-to-air digital terrestrial TV service Freeview to supply
a=
n
on-screen EPG (electronic programme guide) which Freeview has already said
will not be available until early next year.

As a result, all of Fusion's UK products will be launched with their own
seven-day rolling EPG, useful in the case of the IDTV and DTT receiver and
essential to make full use of the personal video recorder which has twin
tuners and a 40GB hard drive (enough for 80 hours of programming).

Although it is launching a relatively small initial range of products,
Fusion will be adding to it quickly. It hopes to have a 14in IDTV on the
market by Christmas and will be adding a 21in model next year.

Also in the pipeline for early next year is a Freeview receiver with not
only a PVR built in but also a DVDR - for, said Mr Wiggins.
"appreciably
less than =A3400".=20

Other items pencilled in for an early 2004 launch are LCD ITVs and an IDTV
with a PVR built in.

Mr Rubery also added that the company was also looking at an
"after-market"
in peripherals - particularly when interactive services take off. It has
already made provision for adding such items as external modems and flash
memory for those who want to download games.

Although the company has pledged that its pricing will be highly
competitive, it has no intention of playing in the cheap end of the market.
Mr Wiggins told ERT Weekly that, it saw its target audience very much at
th=
e
mid-market Philips/Thomson level.=20

Why did Mr Rubery and Beko choose to launch a digital TV receiver company
a=
t
this point.

Mr Rubery responded simply that the timing was right. There has been a
consolidation of broadcasting platforms not just in the UK, and he pointed
out the launch of Freeview was of particular interest, but in the rest of
the world, too.

With only the fittest digital broadcasting platforms left, he said
"They no=
w
have a clear way forward whether broadcasting via satellite, terrestrially,
or cable and either free-to-air or pay television."

Fusion chairman Mr Sumerval added: "We are proud of our expertise as a
volume producer of high quality, cost effective consumer electronics
products both for global OEM customers and our own brand.

"We believe this combined with Barry Rubery's renowned skill and
expertise
which was so fundamental in making Pace the world leading supplier of
digital television products in the 1990s, will be a winning combination and
will quickly establish Fusion as a major player in its chosen
markets."