Roger...I agree. And with the explosion underway in telecommunications of all kinds the environment should be good for MFCO:
Established in 1967 in East Syracuse, New York, MFC occupies a modern 40,000
square foot facility with an impressive complement of analytical and design
software, test instrumentation, prototype and manufacturing equipment to create
passive filters, components and sub systems in the frequency range of 10 MHz to
50 GHz.
MFC manufactures filters for eliminating interference and signal processing
for such markets as Cable Television, Broadcast, Mobile Communications,
Avionics, Radar, Navigation and Defense Electronics. The Company designs
waveguide, stripline/ microstrip, transmission line, miniature/subminiature
and lumped constant filters in such filter styles as: bandpass, highpass,
lowpass, bandstop, multiplexers, tunable notch, tunable bandpass, high power
filters, filter networks, amplitude equalized and delay equalized. The Company
actively produces over 1,700 standard products and has designed more than 5,000
custom products for specialized applications.
MARKETS
-------
Microwave Filter Company, Inc. (MFC)
------------------------------------
Cable Television (CATV) - MFC serves this market principally with three
product groups. One popular area includes standard and custom filters used at
the headend to process signals and remove interference. A very popular
application involves removing or re-routing channels to organize programming
line-ups.
A family of trap filters, "Fastrap," is used by cable operators to restrict
or permit the viewing of pay per view or other premium programming. The traps
can be ordered in small and large quantities, are 100% inspected and delivered
overnight.
Since all operators initially receive programming via satellite, products
from our satellite market cross over into cable television. C-band satellite
receive systems are prone to various types of terrestrial interference which
are curable in many cases by applying filters.
Cable television is establishing a place for itself in the afterglow of the
Telecommunications Act of 1966. This important federal legislation removed
restrictions from telephone companies offering video services and from cable
companies offering telephone service. Its purpose was to increase competition
among those service providers. A result of this legislation has been the
convergence of several industries such as the acquisition of TCI, the largest
US cable television company, by AT&T. Though it may appear as though this
legislation has encouraged monopoly, instead it has offered companies the
ability to combine resources and acquire capital for new projects. In recent
years, the demand for fast and varied data services has greatly increased. The
next few years will see these converged companies working towards delivering
consumers the high-speed voice and data services they demand.
Broadcast - Several areas of broadcast are served by Microwave Filter
Company with the most active being Wireless Cable.
Wireless Cable is a video delivery service that has attempted to compete with
cable television throughout this decade with limited success. This service
delivers programming over-the-air using microwave frequencies. Television
programming is received via a small rooftop antenna. The signals are then down
converted for reception by the television set. At the home, the equipment looks
the same as that supplied by a cable television company with the exception of
the rooftop antenna.
Forces that worked against the success of this market were limited financial
sources, access to programming, channel limitations and regulatory obstacles.
While some of these obstacles were overturned, the industry struggled for
financial backing. Unfortunately with modest finances, business plans could
not be met. Nor was it possible to invest in new technology necessary to offer
new services now being demanded by the public. Despite its problems, Wireless
Cable is a viable technology for fast two-way data delivery and telephony.
Interest in this technology is still keen. Over the last two years, several
telephone companies have been acquiring Wireless Cable systems because of
their potential in delivering high speed data. It is also a viable technology
in international markets that lack the infrastructure for cable television
delivery. The hope is that this market will rebound domestically with the help
of the telephone companies.
4
<PAGE>
The most significant product sold to this market is our channel combiner used
at the broadcast site to reduce tower costs. By combining channels at the
transmitter, additional expensive coaxial or waveguide runs up the tower
become unnecessary.
MFC offers the widest selection of channel combiners to meet a variety of
system specifications. Combiners in different configurations and constructed
of different materials offer the operator better or best options depending on
budget or other system requirements.
Another area which is predicted to revive Wireless Cable is LMDS,
frequencies between 28 and 31 GHz which have been designated for fixed
wireless broadband services. Canada has been leading the way in the
development of this market by rolling out voice and high speed internet
access. In the US, the FCC has also been auctioning off frequencies over the
last two years. Several systems utilizing this technology have also been
launched in numerous overseas markets. LMDS essentially uses the same
operating equipment as Wireless Cable providers. Microwave Filter Company
sells a notch and bandpass filter series to remove interference at the
transmitter to this market.
LPTV - Low Power Television or LPTV is an option in the U.S. as a
multichannel subscription television service. A system similar to Wireless
Cable can be configured to deliver channels of programming to areas
where off air signals cannot be received. The only difference between both
services is broadcast frequency and the type of antenna located at the
subscriber's home. An LPTV receive antenna would look like any other off air
broadcast antenna in contrast to the microwave antenna used for Wireless
Cable. LPTV frequencies are easier to obtain and there are more LPTV than
Wireless channels available. In fact, due to the limited number of Wireless
Cable frequencies, Wireless Cable operators are using a combination of Wireless
and LPTV frequencies to increase the number of channels offered to their
subscribers. As a broadcaster, LPTV differs from traditional television only
in broadcast power. With lower broadcast power, the service has a smaller
reception area than high power broadcast stations.
Microwave Filter Company provides channel combiners and interference filters
for this industry. The channel combiners are used to group channels and
eliminate additional coaxial runs to the broadcast tower. Filters are also
used in broadcast equipment to eliminate interference.
Radio and Television Broadcast - MFC primarily serves these broadcast areas
with interference filters to reduce equipment harmonics. Other broadcast areas
served also include AML, telemetry and STL/ENG relays.
Similar to cable television, the broadcast industry is also moving towards
the digital delivery of both audio and video broadcast.
Satellite - Filters and traps for removing interference are provided to both
commercial and home C-band TVRO antennas. A variety of products are available
that offer protection and or solutions to interference that affects the
feedhorn, downconverter, and receiver. A variety of filters are also available
for satellite services utilizing higher frequency bands such as 12, 13 and 18
GHz.
Direct Broadcast Satellite or DBS is a version of home satellite programming
delivered direct to the home. It differs from C-band TVRO by the size of the
receive antenna. DBS broadcasts at a higher frequency requiring a smaller
satellite dish than C-band TVRO. Both satellite dealers and cable television
5
<PAGE>
systems market the service to offer consumers television options.
Mobile Radio - MFC provides filters to a variety of mobile radio services
such as cellular telephone, two way radio and paging to eliminate interference
in transmit or receive equipment. With the number of services increasing and
our air waves becoming more congested, filters are increasingly important to
many transmit operations. Cellular telephone has been the largest mobile
radio growth market. The Cellular market is beginning to level off and now
Personal Communications Services (PCS) is an area of mobile radio on the rise.
Microwave and RF - This market encompasses both commercial and military
applications. Filters in defense applications are used for such purposes as
air to ground communications, radar and land communications. In commercial
areas, filters are used to protect such equipment as receivers, transmitters,
transceivers and any other electronics used for signal processing. In addition
to filters, this market is also served with MFC's Ferrosorb product line.
Ferrosorb is a microwave absorbing material available in sheets, loads and a
variety of other shapes. The product is used to offer protection by shielding
signals or absorbing selective bands.
In 1992, MFC's acquisition of certain assets of Chesterfield Products added
an expanded line of products to enhance the RF filter line. Many of MFC's
traditional filters are components added onto a system. Chesterfield provided
MFC with the capability to manufacture miniature and subminiature filters
which are components built into electronic systems. Another Chesterfield
capability has provided us with the resources to expand our filter design
range down to 5 KHz.
There has been an increased demand for filters in the OEM (Original Equipment
Manufacturer) market. In response to this demand, MFC has purchased new design,
fabrication and test equipment to design filters up to 50 GHz. OEM orders are
larger than those received for other markets and facilities such as a soldering
oven have been added in the manufacturing area for large volume production.
|
