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News |  21 Jan 2014 12:28 |  By RnMTeam

RCS ready with low cost and quality products for Phase III

MUMBAI: Phase III will not just be a concept for Radio stations, but for software companies that support the radio industry in India as well. Sound Software Company RCS has been a name in the Indian media market for more than 12 years and more than 35 years around the world. The company has seen all the phases in Indian radio businesses and radio has been the strength of the company in India. It has also expanded its services to Music channels in India and Internet radio stations.

RCS software is one of the largest players in India and around the world. RCS India general manager Shankar Balakrishnan has been with the company for almost 10 years and is the spokesperson for the company in India. In a conversation with Radioandmusic.com’s Jescilia Karayamparambil, he spoke about RCS and its expectation about the radio industry.

Excerpts:

How has the journey been for RCS in India?

The advantage for RCS is its quality products available in the market. The main reason behind the success can be attributed to two things. One is the quality of the product we have maintained over many years across the world. It is because we understand the radio industry and for that we have hired a team that is professionally involved with radio and aware about the industry. It is always better to hire professionals in the radio industry rather than computer engineers who would have to be trained to understand radio. It is also important to have a dedicated team that understands radio and the needs of the industry.

In Phase I we had 10-12 clients now we have more than 100 radio stations and 15 music channels in India. We have a diversified market. The second reason for our success in India can be attributed to monitoring services- AirCheck. It was the most important product that resulted in RCS growth. This service is present in limited countries and India is one of them. AirCheck helps the industry gain more and more competitors and also helps companies analyse content. It is very economical for the client as well.

The accuracy level is tremendous and that is the key to the success of the monitoring service. It has opened markets for every subscriber like advertising agencies, music label companies, radio stations and various networks.

We have top most label companies, be it Bollywood or label companies in Southern India using these facilities. We have 8-10 top music label companies subscribing to the service. Through this service label companies can determine which station is playing their content occasionally.

What are the various products that are available?

We have 20 products and services throughout the world. The most successful product in the market is GSelector, Linker SQL, Master Control SQL and so on. GSelector is not just for radio but has become an industry standard for television scheduling. MTV and 9X use these products. Master Control is the leading music automation service in India. NexGen Digital for the play-out is used by more than 50-60 stations. Zetta is our latest product which was installed at one of the stations in India recently. These are the list of products that have been successful. Apart from them, we have AirCheck and we plan to come out with more and more products as the industry demands.

What is your role in Television?

Our role in Television is limited to music channels. Our forte is not getting into general entertainment. It is in scheduling music. The programming of music channels is in same lines with radio programming. Our products allow radio stations to automate the services helping them save time and concentrate on other creative aspects. Radio is our strong point; we provide down key solutions for radio stations. We do everything from promo scheduling to traffic management to play out of content and monitoring services. We provide 360 degree solutions when it comes to radio. We have also done very well in Television.

Tell us about the hold RCS maintains in regional Space

We have Bengali, Bhojpuri, Punjabi and Marathi music channels as clients. This gives us the regional edge, not just for Television but radio as well. It gives us impetus on approaching more and more regional clients. We have Malayali, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Odiya, Punjabi and pretty much all the regional radio stations as our clients. Our software is used in all these regional spaces. The space is mostly influenced by the regional film music in their space which is usually equivalent to Bollywood at times. We take care of approximately 200 radio stations and channels put together.

What are the challenges RCS has faced in India?

I have been with RCS for ten years now. The term challenge does not come by the way of competition. It comes in the way of requirement for our clients and the need to constantly address those requirements.

After Phase II was introduced every station was doing their standalone music management and taking care of their content, so it moved from that to the bigger group stations in Phase II from 30-40 stations. We have managed to network all of these bigger groups, even the smaller groups for that matter. Once we face any challenge in products and services we go and tell our developers in United States. The Indian market is regarded as one of the biggest markets presently and in the last four-five years it has been considered as one of the biggest markets for RCS. Our after sales services are something we take pride in and that is our achievement. The requirement in the industry is the challenge and it is our achievement as well. And we are ready for Phase III.

Elaborate on your Phase III plan?

We have developed products and services that can cut down operational cost for stations that want to expand in smaller cities. GSelector, Aquira and Zetta are products that are tailor made for the Phase III kind of situation, which can help radio stations enter small markets without spending too much. As smaller markets will not make much revenue as compared to larger markets, they might have to work towards reducing operational cost. The earlier mentioned products will help stations achieve their targets. These are all enterprise systems which will allow them to operate their stations so well that the operational costs will reduce substantially.

Master control is the most user friendly automated service according to our clients around the world. NexGen is the stable automation. We have mixed both in Zetta which gives the product the stability of the NexGen and user-friendliness of Master control. It will help clients control the cost of their existing station or re-launching their stations. It will be ‘the’ product during Phase III.

Our expectation with Phase III is that it should help expand the wings of radio stations across the country and that in return will help our products to go to various cities.

Have you depended on Phase III for growth?

We have not relied completely on Phase III for our growth. We have gone ahead and started our services such as hosting and streaming for our clients. We have ventured into more in-store radio and Internet radio. In the current period radio stations have to find alternative space other than terrestrial radio stations. The internet radio cannot be attributed to the delay of Phase III completely. Radio stations are now taking to the internet due to the need to diversify and grow.

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