Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Jan 03, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Jan 03, 2003 |
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Marketing
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Strategy Pinnacle bid to position video products as commercial tools Chitra Phadnis
BANGALORE, Jan. 2 PINNACLE Systems, the Nasdaq-listed digital video products company, is trying to position its offering as "commercial tools" and "more than just entertainment" in India, said Mr Krishan Sanghi, Manager, India RIM, Pinnacle. With digital video products becoming a lot more affordable and the solutions getting easier to use, the company is trying to encourage the use of video in areas other than entertainment. Apart from video conferencing, which is here to stay, companies could look at other applications including corporate presentations, video operating manuals, video for training, in showrooms, in security systems, and in call centres. The Karnataka police, for instance, use Pinnacle products to videograph traffic violators, Mr Sanghi said. The biggest consumer of Pinnacle professional products in India is the thriving wedding video industry. Pinnacle's ProOne, the most popular product in this segment offers scope for all the special effects. According to the company, it has a 70 per cent market share in this segment. One of its biggest advantages over other companies is that Pinnacle offers local after-sales support and service in India. "We are the only digital video company to do so," Mr Sanghi said. Pinnacle, which prides itself on offering special solutions for each market, has a focus on the Indian wedding video market. "No other market requires four-hour long videos," Mr Sanghi said. The company is also planning to offer products at the lowest rates with its entry-level product, the PCTV Plus, a TV tuner priced at only Rs 3,500. This tool allows users to watch television programmes on the PC, with options to pause the programme halfway to answer the doorbell and get back exactly to where it was stopped. Users can get instant action replays and zoom in and out. Pinnacle has a worldwide strategy of acquiring technology companies and using those bits to enhance its own solutions. A lot of features are bundled along with the main product, the strategy being to make money through volume sales and amortise the costs over large user base. The company has made 18 acquisitions so far, with the latest one being just a few weeks ago. The company caters to a wide range of users from individual homes and hobbyists to the broadcast and professional live production units. The beauty of the product is that all products are on the same platform and scaling up is very simple. "You do not need to junk your old systems," Mr Sanghi said. Pinnacle products are behind the graphics for Doordarshan newsroom and sports coverage. Films such as Gladiator, The Mask, Star Wars I, Dr Doolittle, and Chicken Run used Pinnacle's Hollywood FX. In India, Maruti and Mico are looking at Pinnacle products for training. "We are growing globally at 30 per cent every quarter,'' Mr Sanghi said.
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