QUINCY, Ill.� Broadcast Electronics is now fully owned by IIC Acquisitions, headed by BE Vice President of RF Engineering Brian Lindemann. Radio magazine spoke with Lindemann, shown at left,�to find out more.
Lindemann, through IIC, previously owned shares of the company and recently acquired the outstanding equity positions, including those owned by private equity firm First City Crestone. Broadcast Electronics is a privately held company with about 50 employees, and the terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The company will continue to operate as a Limited Liability Corporation.
�Broadcast Electronics has been an innovator in the past. We are going to continue to be an innovator in the future, and there�s no question about that,� Lindemann said in a phone interview.�
�We�re at the point where, from a manufacturing perspective, there is still plenty of market share to be served, and Broadcast Electronics has a phenomenally good name in the industry, and we have some very committed customers,� said Lindemann. �One of the things that Broadcast Electronics does probably better than anybody else in the world is customer service.�
Even though Lindemann has added new responsibilities, he emphasizes that the current leadership structure of the company will remain in place. Beck (right) will continue in his current role, which he has held since July 2015.�
�Tom Beck is in charge,� Lindemann said in a phone interview, saying that Beck�s leadership has been �one of the best things to happen to the company in a while. He knows products, he knows the marketplace.��
Lindemann will also retain his vice president of RF engineering title, in addition to his position as owner (although he noted, jokingly, that he has not had new business cards made to reflect that change). His purview continues to be overseeing the engineering staff of the RF products division. The RF Engineering Group currently includes BE FM and AM Transmitters & Marti Electronics.�
�We are going to continue to innovate in the transmission field. We have innovated in the past and it�s one of the things that we have done a rather poor job of getting the word out about the technology that we have, how things work, what we do,� Lindemann said.�
As a specific example, he noted a paper he presented at a past NAB Show on �SNMP and the security aspects of SNMP using SNMP version 3, and that was not well received in the industry. Nobody wanted to know anything about cybersecurity. Nobody wanted to know how to secure their SNMP network, how to keep their transmitters safe from hackers. Now, here we are four years later, it�s the big buzzword…. All of our products that offer SNMP offer SNMP v.3, and we thought it would be a big hit, but nobody seemed to want it then, but hopefully they�ll want it now.��
Lindemann also cited the example of HD Radio diversity delay time alignment, another current hot topic. This was offered with the company�s XPI 10 EXP embedded exporter.
The company�s other two groups are headed by Jim Roberts, has product responsibility over the Studio Products Group (AudioVAULT�Studio Automation and TRE �The Radio Experience�); and Ryan Burgoyne, who has product responsibility over theCommotionsocial media platform.�
�For us, it�s a great thing. It is the right thing at the right time,� said Broadcast Electronics President and CEO Tom Beck, echoing Lindemann�s optimism. �
�We�ve had great owners, and although we�ve had a number of them, it�s amazing looking back that we�ve stayed intact, with our core business, our core products as we are. So I�m actually thankful for that, but sure, sometimes private equity firms can be more short-term focused, and it definitely feels more that we can focus more on longterm things, and I think it will enable us to serve the radio broadcasters better. It will allow us to do more things in the technology arena,� said Beck.
