Rapid TV News

Ondas initiates OEM radio orders

Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 30-07-2008

Spanish-based would-be satellite radio provider Ondas Media on July 30 issued integration contracts to its technology partners Delphi, Germany’s leading audio research specialists the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute (FHG) and Certicom to begin integration activities of its satellite radio system in Nissan vehicles, “in addition to two further leading luxury car manufacturers in Europe”. 

Ondas also announced that Dave Kruger, formerly COO at the company has taken on the mantle of CEO. Krueger replaces Jacinto Palacios who will remain at the company but in a consulting capacity.

Kruger, speaking exclusively to Rapid TV News, said that the Nissan (and Infinity) announcement was just the first, and that two major and well-known European brands were in advanced discussions with Ondas, and for “wide-ranging” installation plans across the complete product ranges. For each of these players the key availability dates would be 2011-2012.

“We would not want to exclude luxury models, but our discussions include putting in Ondas-ready radios across all model lines and allow for a ramp-up over a five-year period to include every model from a manufacturer,” Kruger said. He added that the deal being discussed assumed pre-paid subscriptions would flow to Ondas, which meant 100% of a subscription went directly to Ondas “in advance of when a vehicle is sold”.

This meant, Kruger said, that Ondas would not initially be held back or wholly dependent on having to sell subscriptions direct to consumers via the after market. “This is fundamentally different to the experience in the US [by XM and Sirius]”.

Kruger also hinted that the car makers were enthused by the media line-up that would be on offer by Ondas. While he had nothing to announce as regards partnership deals with car makers, “and some of them have indicated their willingness” Ondas was concentrating on volume commitments and what was a “win-win” financial arrangement for all parties. 

This particular move follows Ondas Media’s instruction to Space Systems/Loral (Dec 2007) to begin work on a satellite delivery system. Kruger said the work was proceeding absolutely on schedule, while at the same time Ondas still needed to achieve its funding milestones to keep everything on track “but we are confident that we will, as are these car companies otherwise they would not be entering into these agreements”.

Kruger said at the other end of the project the company was very aware of the key dates which needed addressing as to terrestrial repeaters for European service, especially in core target markets like Germany. “We have already begun this process, and have been in discussion with the key terrestrial players,” said Kruger.

Yesterday’s news has Ondas taking the next technology stage with its commitment to hardware provider Delphi and FHG - which is responsible for the core RF and Waveform – and which have now been contracted to ensure Ondas Media’s satellite radio and media system matches the detailed specifications from the OEMs for installation in production vehicles.

“Depending on the OEM’s specific internal schedule, these contracts will assure Ondas Media’s delivery of factory-installed radios in millions of cars sold in Europe in the 2011 and 2012 time frame,” confirmed Christoph With, CFO at Ondas. “This represents a significant growth in capital expenditure approved by our shareholders and reflects a major build-up of our execution plan. We are very appreciative of our initial OEM customers taking the initiative to commit to installing their ONDAS-enabled radios into their vehicles this far in advance. Definitive commitments like these are unprecedented in the satellite radio industry in terms of timing and scope”.

Kruger said that Ondas is on schedule to deliver European satellite pay-radio beginning in 2011.

Kruger addressed recent developments at Worldspace, and he said that people “in the know” knew the difference between the two models. “I have nothing to say pejoratively against Worldspace in any way whatsoever. The people we are dealing with recognise the differences between us [and Worldspace] and they do not confuse us. What we don’t want to see happen is that the public gets confused.”

Recently Solaris Mobile, the SES-Eutelsat j-v said they’d welcome audio clients. Kruger didn’t rule the model out. “We are already partnering with others, and have led the way for some time now with a consortium or partnership approach [to getting on air]. Without being specific we have already had discussions with others on alternate routes to market. We will happily pursue any approach which gave us a fast track to market, and companies that have established distribution patterns might give us distinct advantages, and accelerate our schedule to market.”