How Artel Video exceeded customer demand, solved supplier miscommunications and inventory management with Vitex
Artel overcame vendor support and supply chain complications by partnering with Vitex: Here’s how Vitex helped the AV pioneer advance their technical solutions and resolve their inventory and supply headaches.
CASE STUDY
Customer Profile
Artel Video Systems is the world’s leading provider of large-scale broadcast platforms used for multi-media transport by stadiums, government, broadcast studios, enterprises and more. With its technical advances in satellite, optical networks, IP (Internet Protocol) and video-over-fiber networks, Artel is a recognized pioneer in the media transport industry. The company has received two Emmy Awards, 2014 and 2017, among many industry awards that recognize their engineering and technology innovations.
The company relies heavily on proven-quality fiber optic products to support their demanding real-time, uninterrupted audio and visual media transport solutions.
The Challenges
As streaming platforms have taken over as an anywhere, anytime, any device model, the broadcast industry has become one of the fastest changing tech landscapes in the world. Consumer viewing switched from scheduled broadcasts to viewing on-demand, which changed network architecture; Artel’s response to the newer technology and volume demands on IP networks which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. The global pandemic that aggressively pushed Artel to support streaming networks was difficult as the company faced their own staffing shortages and work-from-home complications. Working with a lower-cost Chinese fiber optic vendor added a significant layer of frustration to an already challenging work environment, especially when Artel’s client required TAA transceivers.
HIGHLIGHTS
Industry
Broadcasting Systems & Media Transport
Challenges
Fiber Optic Expertise
Product Quality
China-based Supplier Inconsistency
Inventory Management
Solutions
US-Based Tech Support
Superior-Quality Products
Inventory Management
Custom US-Based Stocking Management
TAA Compliance
Products
10G SFP+ CWDM Transceiver
10G SFP+ DWDM Transceiver
10G SFP+ Optical Transceivers
3G SDI Transceivers
“The pandemic hit us hard,” says Khenedy Vongsanith, Operations Manager at Artel. “We were short-staffed, 80% of us were working from home, and it was very trying to get products out to our customers. Moreover,” continues Vongsanith, “we had problems with a supplier. There were time-zone issues—they [Artel’s supplier] are based in China—which slowed things down: lead-time issues and language issues. We communicated mostly through email.” With a relationship riddled with communication missteps, Artel needed a different supplier that satisfied their technical and supply chain teams and met their clients’ TAA compliance requirements.
The Solution
Fiber optic, especially transceivers, are essential to meeting the demands of streaming live events, from immersive football games and the Olympics to music and awards shows. Much of Artel’s innovative technology, notably DigiLink and FiberLink, relies on superior quality fiber optic video transceivers.
Artel turned to Vitex, a “good business partner” (per Vongsanith) and long-standing Artel supplier of over twenty years, to provide the needed TAA compliant 10G SFP+ fiber optic transceiver products and eliminate the communication and supply chain difficulties with the Asia-based vendor.
Designed-in technology components, like 10G SFP+ optical transceivers, are vetted by Artel’s award-winning engineering team who are ultra-selective about product quality and testing. “We are most pleased with Vitex’s products. We haven’t had any quality issues,” says Vongsanith, “and Vitex is always responsive and reactive to urgent requests. Our customers prefer US-based companies. We do also. It’s much easier to us to deal with a vendor based in the US and products here… I can pick up the phone and Vitex will get us the products we need.”
Vitex continued to steadily supply fiber optic transceivers and supply chain support to Artel throughout the pandemic without any delivery or quality hiccups.
The Results
Pandemic or not, Artel has found working with Vitex to be a success in three critical business areas; Vitex, as a developer and supplier in fiber optic applications, has a strong grasp of the complexities of solutions-based fiber optic engineering that Artel’s engineers want. Secondly, working closely with Artel’s procurement department, Vitex developed an innovative and custom inventory program to reduce lead times and tariffs. And, finally, Artel was able to meet their own quality high bar and satisfy TAA-compliance demands.
Vongsanith appreciates the extra services that Vitex provides, “Vitex keeps the products available for us in New Jersey, releasing them as needed. Before, the products would get held up at customs, and we would not know about [that] until they were past our due date. Now, we are getting products to our customers quicker. As you know, with the component shortages, companies are always looking for availability.”
The Latest Success
Artel’s newest product, SMART Multimedia Delivery Platform in openGear, won the 2021 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show Product of the Year award that also depends on Vitex. Rafael Fonseca, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Artel, explains, “[the] SMART OG (openGear) card is a software-defined platform which allows our customers to on-board legacy video signals into the newly adopted world of IP [over Ethernet] in broadcast. This on-boarding uses fiber optic transmission in the physical layer. Vitex components are an integral part of the solution, enabling the SMART OG platform to connect to IP networks via fiber.”
For best-in-class transceivers, specialized product development and other superior fiber optic solutions, contact us at info@vitextech.com.
