In Broadcast - February 2013 - 32

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 16 - FEBRUARY 2013

N E W S

InVIEW

Banking On The Media Industry
By Paul Robson
Medialease

f you’ve ever wondered why you
need an asset finance broker to
help you expand your TV or film
business, read on…
Late last year, in amongst the
BBC’s battles and the hangover
from London 2012, a news story
broke that had huge ramifications
for SMEs and, pertinently, media
companies in this country.
As there is a good chance that you
missed it, I’m going to fill you in: ING
has decided to pull out of the UK.
Yes, you read that correctly. A Dutch
bank has closed a UK subsidiary.
Massive huh? OK, I can already
sense a certain amount of ‘so what’
emanating from those of you at the
back. So, I’ll explain…
ING Lease provided asset finance
facilities, via intermediaries (or
brokers), to small businesses in
the UK. And we’re not talking a few
quid, we’re talking more than £2

Leasing contracts enable the equipment budget

billion a year in leasing contracts for
things like cars, farm equipment and,
more fittingly for you, dear reader,
broadcast kit.
With bank loans and overdrafts
increasingly hard to obtain, ING
was making it possible for someone
like me to arrange an equipment
purchase for someone like you, with
the leasing company owning the kit
while you use (and pay for) it.
But now, in one fell swoop, ING’s
facility is no longer available. With
those remaining banks that do lend
direct to customers still demanding
rock solid security (not to mention
imposing unrealistic banking
restrictions) in return for their loans,

it has created a UK lending scenario
that is far from ideal.
As frustrating as it was, I won’t go
into the detail about ING’s decision.
But I do want to say that contrary to
what you might think or read, there
are banks that have already started
to take up the slack. Companies
like Aldermore, Investec and even
Hitachi Credit (a firm famous
for funding sofas and laser eye
treatment) have all started paying
attention to SMEs, and in turn, the
media market.
The thing is that these lenders,
like ING before them, only work
through brokers. So customers
cannot go directly to them. This is

where someone like Medialease
[And, of course, a number of other
finance broking firms – Ed.] comes
in. With less money available overall,
an intermediary that knows your
market and the equipment used
within it – and has access to large
amount of funding – has never
been more useful.
We are unlikely to be in a position
to solve all your financial problems,
but if you want to buy kit and
your bank is asking for too many
guarantees, wants to rearrange
your banking set-up or overdraft
or is simply making the deal too
complicated, we may well be in a
position to provide you with a simple
alternative using one of our bespoke
lending banks.
It is no exaggeration to say that
the closure of ING Lease UK was a
big story as it has left a huge hole
in the UK economy. The good news
is, you don’t have to fall into it...
Paul Robson is the Managing
Director of Medialease, a
specialist finance company
providing asset funding and
ﬁnance solutions to the broadcast
television and ﬁlm industries.

Innovative Boxx TV Squares Up To HD Video
Scott Walker and Darrell Bilton put their technical and commercial minds together to create Boxx TV…

he cleverness of Boxx TV has
always been in its ability to
invest in the right technology in
order to design and develop a
set of innovative products for the
broadcast sector,” says company
Co-Founder Marketing Manager
Darrell Bilton. “We’ve had a great
run so far but I believe the best is yet
to come as the standards are moreor-less settled for the time being
and the silicon is reaching a point
where it is sophisticated enough
to effectively address the quality
requirements for our customers”.
In terms of features, Boxx TV cofounder and Technical Director Scott
Walker, an Emmy award winning
cameraman, knows exactly what
broadcast professionals want from
their microwave products and is
always on the look-out for more
innovative RF solutions along with
new features to incorporate into
Boxx TV’s current suite of products.
Boxx TV’s flagship product the
Meridian is primarily used for live-toair broadcast, ENG, Steadicam and
portable monitoring applications.
The Meridian is an RF transmitter
with five distinct flexible antennas,
which transmit an uncompressed
HD video with almost zero delay.
Using a unique MIMO technology

for transport, Boxx has been able
to deliver incredible RF performance
and functionality at affordable prices.
If the reliability of wireless links
was ever in doubt, the list of shows
and movies which have used Boxx
TV’s equipment should reassure –
the walls of Boxx TV’s London HQ
are covered with posters from the
feature films and top rated TV shows
where the company’s equipment
has been used.
Meridian’s chief benefit is enabling
the feeds from wireless cameras to
blend perfectly with cabled cameras,
with no lip sync issues at all; a Boxx
TV customer recently stated that
“you would be hard pressed to say
which camera was wireless”.
Meridian has found its place
in live, multi camera shoots with
wireless cameras and the “money
shots” on top rated Saturday night
entertainment shows. Eliminating
the lip sync issue makes it ideal for
musical performance. Meridian was
chosen for ‘Strictly Come Dancing’,
‘X Factor’ and ‘The Voice’– all shows
with high production values, where
it enabled the artistic camerawork
from the Steadicam or overhead
rails – long sweeping shots
with movement.
While Meridian makes an ideal

enhancement to the Steadicam
in the studio, that’s not
all – it’s also used for
news reporting, general
elections and sports.
Combining zero delay and
HD without a high cost, Boxx
TV is making an outstanding
contribution to film assist work
and film-making with HD and digital
cameras such as Red. Because
the Meridian can relay such high
quality video to the director and
the vision mixer – a picture good
enough to light with – the director
can immediately see if he’s got the
shots he wanted, and if not he can
reshoot straight away and save
production costs – this way, Boxx
is making a radical change to the
way movies have been made for
the last 50 years.
Boxx TV’s mission for 2013 is to
be a centre of excellence for RF –
to find a way to do everything and
to continue to innovate. Today the
product range includes Meridian,
with its iris and tally camera control
add-ons, which are not limited to
Boxx TV’s own products, and RF
links for all broadcast and video
productions, outdoor screen
applications, conference centres,
videography and webcasting.

Boxx TV’s ﬂagship product Meridian
offers low-latency HD video over RF

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In Broadcast - February 2013

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