Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/813438
www.postmagazine.com 37 POST APRIL 2017 BUSINESS www.postmagazine.com 37 POST it's systems architecture and design — hardware deployment that's not just Mac, by the way. T2's parent, years ago, was Tekserve and Tekserve was exclu- sively an Apple dealer. We still sell a lot of Apple products, but T2 was never exclusively Apple, because we're B2B. So, we also sell and deploy lots of other brands, including HP, Dell, Lenovo. "We are also experts in big storage, particularly media-oriented storage with products from EMC Isilon, Harmonic, Panasas, NetApp, but our focus is not big data center storage but media specialty storage because there are different demands on the workflow and different demands on the hardware. It's not the same box you would slam into a data center and it's not configured the same way and you won't engineer the solution the same way. "We also have network systems architects, so Cisco expertise, Arista, Brocade and all these brands and our real power alley is deploying these backbone networks optimized for media transport. When you're dealing with me- dia in an IP world, you've got to be very conscience of certain restraints that are not necessarily as strict in the world of standard data. "And Axispoint's ability is to come in, analyze the workflow, take a MAM prod- uct and something like search engine from Levels Beyond or what have you, and optimize it and configure it for the customer's environment, so they really do get all the efficiencies." DiSano: "We're providing everything from that upfront consulting, design of a solution, and we'll do that together. Then T2 is procuring the right hardware for that, after they've architected a solution, they're configuring it, imple- menting it and we are providing all the customizations." How is MPE a good fit for T2? How has it expanded your offerings? Gepner: "MPE has a tremendous rep- utation in the broadcast rental space. They did a lot of Avid and Adobe Premiere system rentals. We wanted the ability to expand our offering to our customers. They operate their own fleet of trucks here in the city — they have their own 24/7 technical support, 24x7x365, which we were not able to offer, because we weren't primarily a rental house and they are a really good one. It was a really natural fit and what it allows us to do, we now have access to his entire catalogue, in addition to our own. So it's not just 500 iPads for a shareholder meeting, but we can now provide a full editing facility onsite. If somebody needs cameras, we have cameras, if they need EVS's, we have EVS's, so it makes us a much more full-service, full-solution provider." Does that allow you to grow even further in the post market? Gepner: "Absolutely. There's even a scope for a try-before-you-buy type of thing. If someone is thinking of buying a new edit system, for instance, they can rent an entire Avid system or Premiere System before they decide to buy it. It gives our customers the ability to scale on-demand. In the world of production facilities, you may get a show in for 13 weeks, and you're not sure whether it's going to get renewed. If the show comes back and gets renewed for another sea- son or two, then it's time to buy." Can you talk more about how you see the post market as an area of growth and your strategic direction? Gepner: "It's our wheelhouse. It's where we live. As far as strategy is concerned, we believe we can obviously service the traditional post production envi- ronment. Many of the bigger New York and LA post facilities come to us for their solutions. The thing that we bring to the post production industry, is a full understanding of the needs and emerg- ing needs of the workflow. IP video is not new to either one of us. You know how the industry right now is embrac- ing it, and manufacturers of acquisition hardware are racing to get products to market now. This year at NAB, I expect that's what we're going to see a tre- mendous amount of effort. But, both companies have been here for a long time. We understand the requirements for media-based storage and for me- dia-based software." DiSano: "The transaction closed in January and now the two companies are coming together…and we're excited about this. We're thinking about solu- tions as well. We have nothing to announce today, but we're thinking about unmet needs in post and media companies and how we can get even better at solving them. We're excited to hit the ground running this year as a combined firm and really make a difference in this market." DiSano