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APRESENTAÇÃO > CASE STUDIES
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In search of the Television of the FutureOCTAL already sells in 14 countries and assures the partnership with Microsoft
Microsoft chose Octal TV as its partner and TV Cabo became its first customer in the TV Interactive area. With regards to telecommunications, Octal already sells in 14 countries.
Microsoft has chosen a Portuguese company to be one of the few at world level, to operate with the new platform of the Bill Gates Company in the Interactive Digital Television. We are referring to Octal, a subsidiary of Novabase (51%) which includes the Novabase Interactive Television division, that has already been working in this area for three years. The partnerships and synergies achieved (Microsoft and Novabase) allowed it to earn its first project regarding of the television of the future: to supply Set Top Boxes to TV Cabo. This year, the company is preparing to launch a STB for land digital television with support for ADSL and incorporated video recording. "As is our custom, we decided to invest earlier in this field, despite the inherent risk", says Nuno Duarte, Administrator of Octal and Novabase. The partnership with Microsoft appeared in a natural manner. "We were already developing Internet access products for PCs with the Windows OS. As the North American company was also entering this area, via the Microsoft TV platform, we decided to base our product on the same enviroments", explains Nuno Duarte. According to this administrator, the project had, since its begining, global ambitions, "in fact likethe projects that we invest in". If the interactive digital television area shows very interesting perspectives, what can one say about Octal? The numbers are clear: 60% of the company's business is in this sector, which already sales 10% of its production abroad. The telecommunications department started in 1997, initially with the development of products for Internet access (RDIS, ADSL, etc).
Internationalization in the telecommunications area
The appearance of novale business opportunities, such as new means of access to the Net besides PCs, and their awareness of the reduced dimension of the Portuguese market, made the administration of Octal look in other directions to bet in other whereabouts. "About three years ago we created Octal Spain and started our process of internationalisation. Octal Germany was created in 2000", remembers the administrator.
Today the company sells equipment to 14 countries and it has in its client portfolio, names like Telefónica, the DSL or Slovenian Telecom. According to Nuno Duarte, the investment in the entering in the European, American and Asian markets is still on and so the company will be present at some of the world's most important exhibitions. Octal was created about 10 years ago by a team of investigators, from Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa and INESC, and was supported by AITEC. The company focused its activity in electronic systems and, later, moved to access control systems and solutions in the ticketing area, an area that is still in activity. In the recent years, growth has reached recorded values to the order of 90%. OCTAL - Engenharia e Sistemas, S.A. |
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