The Hindu Business Line : Ittiam Systems sets up presence in Paris

Bangalore June 14 Ittiam Systems has set up a direct presence in Europe. Korea and Japan are next on the radar of the Bangalore-based digital signal processing (DSP) firm, its founder, Mr Srini Rajam, said.

Ittiam Systems Europe SARL, located in Paris, has a total of 40 project leads. The rollout is at its beginning and the firm will soon add application engineering expertise to the team. Technology alliances will also be formed. The subsidiary will develop Europe-specific multimedia solutions and broadband communication applications.

Europe contributes to 10 per cent of the company's business and will grow to 25 per cent in the next three years. "We plan to reach $5-10 million in three years," said Mr Marc Guillaumet, Vice-President, Marketing, Ittiam, who heads the subsidiary.

Digital video surveillance, multimedia mobiles and the portable media/ entertainment markets are the top segments being targeted by the company. Video surveillance presents the most immediate market opportunity and the firm will offer its digital encoding solutions. In UK, three million cameras have already been deployed, and the worldwide potential for digital video surveillance is 50 million units.

TV in CAR

Television is moving out of the home and onto your mobile, and even your car, said Mr Rajam. In Hong Kong and Korea, automobiles are being fitted with digital video broadcast satellite devices, which receive TV signals via a satellite network. Ittiam's DSP solutions enable these devices to receive and decode the signals, ensuring that passengers watch their programmes without jitter or latency that could affect viewing pleasure. He said India too could see such products in use soon.

Ittiam employs 200 engineers in India and will ramp up to 240 this year, and 300 by next year.