ALLIED TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED 
By Altech UEC SA (Pty) Ltd, the largest developer and manufacturer of set-top boxes in Africa, celebrated the production of its twenty millionth set-top box in February 2014.
"This is an important milestone in the history of Altech UEC since we first started manufacturing set-top boxes back in 1993," said Danie du Toit, Group Managing Director of Altech Multimedia under which Altech UEC resides.
"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. 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," he added.
According to Danie, the biggest market for Altech UEC at the moment is the rest of Africa due to the roll-out of Digital Terrestrial Television.
"Africa is digitizing 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. This ensures that Altech UEC is well placed to meet current and future demand for set-top boxes, particularly in light of the migration to Digital Terrestrial Television, both in South Africa and the rest of Africa," he said.
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," he concluded.
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors:
About Altech UEC
Altech UEC SA (Pty) Ltd is a leading developer of digital technology for the Pay-TV industry and specialises in the provision of integrated solutions comprising specialised hardware supported by innovative software solutions and logistical support services.
Altech UEC's range of leading set-top boxes is specifically designed to offer operators the optimum combination of features, performance, quality and reliability whilst ensuring global cost competitiveness. With over 15 years of experience in middleware and conditional access integration, Open TV, NDS Core, MHEG and IDWay middleware solutions are readily available and all products support industry leading conditional access solutions such as NDS, Irdeto, Nagravision and Conax.
Altech UEC's comprehensive product portfolio incorporates satellite, terrestrial, cable and IP transmission modes and spans the range from value-engineered entry-level devices to high-end hybrid solutions.
For further information please contact:
Danie du Toit
Group Managing Director
Altech Multimedia (Pty) Ltd
Tel: +27 31 508 2868
Danie.DuToit@altech-multimedia.com
Chris Van Zyl
Group Manager: Corporate Communications - Altech Head Office
Tel: +27 11 715 9037
Email: cvanzyl@altech.com
www.uec.co.za
www.altech.com
|
distributed by
|
