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Sowell

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TELE-audiovision eng
TELE-audiovision eng

1) Sowell is an engineering firm and OEM receiver manufacturer founded in 2004 by 5 partners in China. 2) They produce DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-S, DVB-S2, and ISDB-T receivers with plans to expand to South America and export to Eastern Europe. 3) In 2011, they will release an ISDB-T/DVB-S2 combo receiver in Q2 and a DVB-S2/DVB-T2 combo receiver in Q3 based on new chipsets to expand their product lines and international markets.

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COMPANY REPORT Receiver Manufacturer Sowell, China Sowell, an Engineering Firm that¡¯s an OEM ? Founded by 5 Partners ? ISDB-T and DVB-T2 Receiver in 2011 ? Overseas Offices in the Plan ? Shenzhen ? User Friendliness is Company Philosophy A team of five R&D engineers are the felt the same way and so in founders of the OEM company Sowell. 2004 they founded their own The driving force and General Manager company Sowell. of the young company is Eagle Chain. He was, like his four colleagues, an R&D We met up with General Man- employee with a large receiver manufac- ager Eagle Chain in Sowell¡¯s office turer but over time didn¡¯t feel so comfort- in Shenzhen who started off by telling able with that company. All too often he us how it all began: ¡°All we had was the Sowell¡¯s¡ö offices with was assigned projects that had nothing money we had saved while employed their 70 employees to do with receivers. His four colleagues with that other company. We pooled are located on the seventh floor of this office building in Shenzhen. Receiver production takes place in Baoan which isn¡¯t too far from here and close to Shenzhen¡¯s airport. 200 employees work in the production facility. 200,000 receivers per month can be produced by one shift; if all three shifts are used, receiver production climbs to more than 500,000 boxes a month. ¡ö General Manager Eagle Chain working in his office in front of a painting of the Great Wall. 104 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
www.TELE-satellite.com ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª 1 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine 105
SOWELL Company Details OEM Receiver Manufacturer, China www.sowell-tech.com Engineers in Research & Development | Total Number of Employees ¨‹ ¨‹ 0................................ 50 ................................ 100 Average Turnover (Previous, This, Next Year Estimates) ¨‹ 0................................ 25 ................... 50 Mio US$ Production Certi?cates DVB Main Products Receiver for DVB-S/S2, DVB-T/T2, DVB-C and ISDB-T, Receivers with 3D graphics www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/eng/sowell.pdf TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/... Download this report in other languages from the Internet: Arabic ????????? www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/ara/sowell.pdf Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/bid/sowell.pdf German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/deu/sowell.pdf English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/eng/sowell.pdf Spanish Espa?ol www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/esp/sowell.pdf French Fran?ais www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/fra/sowell.pdf Hebrew ??????? www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/heb/sowell.pdf Chinese ÖÐÎÄ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/man/sowell.pdf Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/pol/sowell.pdf Portuguese Portugu¨ºs www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/por/sowell.pdf Russian §²§å§ã§ã§Ü§Ú§Û www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/rus/sowell.pdf Turkish T¨¹rk?e www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/tur/sowell.pdf ¡ö Receptionist Lisa provides a friendly But what¡¯s the situation with ISDB-T? Available online starting from 28 January 2011 greeting to all visitors. Pan Smile tells us, ¡°In the second quarter all of our money together and came up to Europe and 5% to Southeast Asia. of 2011 we¡¯ll be coming out with a combo with about US$ 70,000 which we used as ¡°2011 will bring with it even more sig- receiver with DVB-S2 and ISDB-T built on starting capital.¡± The company¡¯s name nificant changes; we will start exporting the Mstar 782X chip family.¡± in Chinese is actually Shi Wei; from that to Eastern Europe and above all to South came the anglicized version Siwei and so America.¡± But Sowell isn¡¯t just concentrating on that it would sound better in English, the the South American market; Europe is name became Sowell. ¡°That name actu- Wait, did she just say ¡®South America¡¯? just as much in focus: ¡°In the third quar- ally matches our company philosophy¡±, That could only be ISDB-T receivers! This ter we¡¯ll be introducing a combo receiver comments Eagle Chain, ¡°we want to do led us to Pan Smile. He is one of Sowell¡¯s with DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 based on the everything ¡®so well¡¯.¡± five founding partners and is not only Mstar 785X chip family which is also Vice General Manager but is also first and Linux compatible.¡± For the fourth quarter The five partners originally founded foremost the Director of the Research they¡¯re planning on a multimedia unit: ¡°It Sowell as a software designing firm. ¡°It and Development team. Oh, and inciden- will be based on the new Trident Apollo took us only five months before we were tally, he¡¯s also Production Manager. He series chips with which the OSD can for able to sell our first software to a manu- gives us the latest Sowell product news. the first time be presented in 3D.¡± Since facturer¡±, remembers Eagle Chain, ¡°At it will be a multimedia receiver, it won¡¯t that time it was a software solution for Up until now Sowell¡¯s success prod- necessarily be just the OSD in 3D; but the Conexant chip.¡± uct has been a receiver series based on games can be presented in 3D as can the ST7101 chip. The product palette other applications that work with 3D But the days as a simple software pro- includes a DVB-S2 receiver as well as graphics. vider lasted only a few years: Sowell two combo variants: a DVB-S2 + C and a started their own receiver production DVB-S2 + T. The newest receiver series If you take a closer look at Sowell¡¯s in 2006. Back then they manufactured is based on the NXP chipset and is intro- product development, you¡¯ll realize that DVB-S receivers for the Middle Eastern duced by Sowell in their TELE-satellite the company is very close to the cus- market. Sales Director Amanda gives us ad. ¡°The advantage of the NXP chip is tomer: there¡¯s ISDB-T in South America some more details: ¡°Up until 2009 we that it¡¯s not only more economical but as well as DVB-T and 3D in Europe ¨C delivered most of our products to the also sports additional features such as these are segments that will very soon Middle East but in 2010 that began to multimedia and is also compatible with become the talk of the town. change.¡± Geographical product distribu- Linux¡±, reveals Pan Smile the reason for tion was 80% to the Middle East, 15% switching chips. If you¡¯re that close to reality, a great 106 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
deal of thought must go into what fea- tures are currently in demand. In talking with Eagle Chain it¡¯s clear that quite a bit of observation and analysis is going on. Eagle Chain cites an example: ¡°I¡¯m amazed with Apple and their products. They are precisely geared towards the end-user and thus very successful.¡± The conclusion according to Eagle Chain: ¡°We have a similar view with our soft- ware development, namely a customer- friendly operation of our products.¡± It is exactly for this reason that Eagle Chain is skeptical about how IPTV will develop; for TELE-satellite though, it¡¯s a subject that is being approached very ecstati- cally: ¡°The large telecom providers all have their own agenda and that is selling their data packages to end-users; they are focused solely on that concept.¡± He 1 doesn¡¯t see that the user¡¯s point of view is considered regarding IPTV and wishes there¡¯d be an approach similar to that of Apple: following a path based strictly on the end user without looking back at what the provider wants. Sowell¡¯s General Manager Eagle Chain isn¡¯t just thinking about the further development of IPTV. The general future of the receiver is also on his mind. ¡°Will the receiver transform into a multimedia receiver in the future¡±, asks Eagle Chain, ¡°or will the receiver¡¯s functions gradually shift over to the TV itself?¡± It¡¯s a ques- tion that¡¯s on all of our minds and for which we all don¡¯t yet have an answer. But even if there aren¡¯t any answers, everyone at Sowell is still optimistic about the future. Pan Smile revealed to us that his current team of 40 engineers 2 will be expanded to 80 in 2011. ¡°We also employ five engineers from Europe here in Shenzhen who are primarily respon- sible for customer support¡±, comments Pan Smile. Sales Director Amanda is also optimistic: ¡°Over the past several years we were able to increase our sales 50% every year. In 2010 our sales were around US$ 30 million and for 2011 we expect that to rise to US$ 45 million.¡± General Manager Eagle Chain added some more optimism: ¡°In 2011 we are planning to open our own offices in Sao 1. Sun Guanghua is also a Software Engineer and a founding partner. 2. Software engineer Peng Yi is one of Sowell¡¯s founding partners. 3. What magazine is laying there on Designer Zoe Lee¡¯s desk? Yes, she takes care of Sowell¡¯s ads in TELE-satellite. She also works on the graphical layout of a receiver¡¯s OSD as well as the packaging, user manual and everything else at Sowell that involves graphics. 3 108 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
Paulo for the South American market, in Dubai for the Middle Eastern market and in Europe ¨C most likely in Germany ¨C for the western and eastern European mar- kets.¡± The young company Sowell, founded more out of necessity rather than a con- scious decision, has maybe because of this developed itself extremely fast and dynamically. The five partners are fix- ated on the success of their company and immediately invest any profits back into the company. That¡¯s why Sowell is growing so fast. ¡°We are currently look- ing for a new and larger office here in Shenzhen¡±, revealed Eagle Chain just before we left. Sowell: a company firmly on an expansion course that does every- thing ¡®so well¡¯. Sowell¡¯s Sales Team 1 2 1. Sowell¡¯s Sales Director Amanda. You¡¯ll run into her at trade shows such as CABSAT in Dubai. She says, ¡°All of our managerial staff have many years of experience in this area because they all previously worked successfully in this sector with other companies.¡± 2. The customer is taken care of here in the Sales Team. For every region there¡¯s one responsible employee. 3. Always busy: Roger Xu is responsible for the 3 European Sales Team. 110 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
Research & Development 4 at Sowell 7 5 4. Pan Smile is not only one of Sowell¡¯s founders and partners, he is also Vice General Manager. But above all else he¡¯s in charge of the R&D team and is also a Production Manager on the side. 5. Sowell¡¯s software engineers work here. 6. Six test engineers check out the software here in the Test Center. Liu Xiongzi is seen here testing the functions of a receiver¡¯s OSD. 7. Even the hardware has to be tested. Six engineers work in the Hardware Test Center. Satellite antennas are also available here; one is pointed to AGILA at 146E, another is aligned to TELSTAR at 138E with a third one pointing to CHINASAT at 115E. 6 www.TELE-satellite.com ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª 1 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine 111

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Sowell

  • 1. COMPANY REPORT Receiver Manufacturer Sowell, China Sowell, an Engineering Firm that¡¯s an OEM ? Founded by 5 Partners ? ISDB-T and DVB-T2 Receiver in 2011 ? Overseas Offices in the Plan ? Shenzhen ? User Friendliness is Company Philosophy A team of five R&D engineers are the felt the same way and so in founders of the OEM company Sowell. 2004 they founded their own The driving force and General Manager company Sowell. of the young company is Eagle Chain. He was, like his four colleagues, an R&D We met up with General Man- employee with a large receiver manufac- ager Eagle Chain in Sowell¡¯s office turer but over time didn¡¯t feel so comfort- in Shenzhen who started off by telling able with that company. All too often he us how it all began: ¡°All we had was the Sowell¡¯s¡ö offices with was assigned projects that had nothing money we had saved while employed their 70 employees to do with receivers. His four colleagues with that other company. We pooled are located on the seventh floor of this office building in Shenzhen. Receiver production takes place in Baoan which isn¡¯t too far from here and close to Shenzhen¡¯s airport. 200 employees work in the production facility. 200,000 receivers per month can be produced by one shift; if all three shifts are used, receiver production climbs to more than 500,000 boxes a month. ¡ö General Manager Eagle Chain working in his office in front of a painting of the Great Wall. 104 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 2. www.TELE-satellite.com ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª 1 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine 105
  • 3. SOWELL Company Details OEM Receiver Manufacturer, China www.sowell-tech.com Engineers in Research & Development | Total Number of Employees ¨‹ ¨‹ 0................................ 50 ................................ 100 Average Turnover (Previous, This, Next Year Estimates) ¨‹ 0................................ 25 ................... 50 Mio US$ Production Certi?cates DVB Main Products Receiver for DVB-S/S2, DVB-T/T2, DVB-C and ISDB-T, Receivers with 3D graphics www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/eng/sowell.pdf TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/... Download this report in other languages from the Internet: Arabic ????????? www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/ara/sowell.pdf Indonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/bid/sowell.pdf German Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/deu/sowell.pdf English English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/eng/sowell.pdf Spanish Espa?ol www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/esp/sowell.pdf French Fran?ais www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/fra/sowell.pdf Hebrew ??????? www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/heb/sowell.pdf Chinese ÖÐÎÄ www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/man/sowell.pdf Polish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/pol/sowell.pdf Portuguese Portugu¨ºs www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/por/sowell.pdf Russian §²§å§ã§ã§Ü§Ú§Û www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/rus/sowell.pdf Turkish T¨¹rk?e www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-1103/tur/sowell.pdf ¡ö Receptionist Lisa provides a friendly But what¡¯s the situation with ISDB-T? Available online starting from 28 January 2011 greeting to all visitors. Pan Smile tells us, ¡°In the second quarter all of our money together and came up to Europe and 5% to Southeast Asia. of 2011 we¡¯ll be coming out with a combo with about US$ 70,000 which we used as ¡°2011 will bring with it even more sig- receiver with DVB-S2 and ISDB-T built on starting capital.¡± The company¡¯s name nificant changes; we will start exporting the Mstar 782X chip family.¡± in Chinese is actually Shi Wei; from that to Eastern Europe and above all to South came the anglicized version Siwei and so America.¡± But Sowell isn¡¯t just concentrating on that it would sound better in English, the the South American market; Europe is name became Sowell. ¡°That name actu- Wait, did she just say ¡®South America¡¯? just as much in focus: ¡°In the third quar- ally matches our company philosophy¡±, That could only be ISDB-T receivers! This ter we¡¯ll be introducing a combo receiver comments Eagle Chain, ¡°we want to do led us to Pan Smile. He is one of Sowell¡¯s with DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 based on the everything ¡®so well¡¯.¡± five founding partners and is not only Mstar 785X chip family which is also Vice General Manager but is also first and Linux compatible.¡± For the fourth quarter The five partners originally founded foremost the Director of the Research they¡¯re planning on a multimedia unit: ¡°It Sowell as a software designing firm. ¡°It and Development team. Oh, and inciden- will be based on the new Trident Apollo took us only five months before we were tally, he¡¯s also Production Manager. He series chips with which the OSD can for able to sell our first software to a manu- gives us the latest Sowell product news. the first time be presented in 3D.¡± Since facturer¡±, remembers Eagle Chain, ¡°At it will be a multimedia receiver, it won¡¯t that time it was a software solution for Up until now Sowell¡¯s success prod- necessarily be just the OSD in 3D; but the Conexant chip.¡± uct has been a receiver series based on games can be presented in 3D as can the ST7101 chip. The product palette other applications that work with 3D But the days as a simple software pro- includes a DVB-S2 receiver as well as graphics. vider lasted only a few years: Sowell two combo variants: a DVB-S2 + C and a started their own receiver production DVB-S2 + T. The newest receiver series If you take a closer look at Sowell¡¯s in 2006. Back then they manufactured is based on the NXP chipset and is intro- product development, you¡¯ll realize that DVB-S receivers for the Middle Eastern duced by Sowell in their TELE-satellite the company is very close to the cus- market. Sales Director Amanda gives us ad. ¡°The advantage of the NXP chip is tomer: there¡¯s ISDB-T in South America some more details: ¡°Up until 2009 we that it¡¯s not only more economical but as well as DVB-T and 3D in Europe ¨C delivered most of our products to the also sports additional features such as these are segments that will very soon Middle East but in 2010 that began to multimedia and is also compatible with become the talk of the town. change.¡± Geographical product distribu- Linux¡±, reveals Pan Smile the reason for tion was 80% to the Middle East, 15% switching chips. If you¡¯re that close to reality, a great 106 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 4. deal of thought must go into what fea- tures are currently in demand. In talking with Eagle Chain it¡¯s clear that quite a bit of observation and analysis is going on. Eagle Chain cites an example: ¡°I¡¯m amazed with Apple and their products. They are precisely geared towards the end-user and thus very successful.¡± The conclusion according to Eagle Chain: ¡°We have a similar view with our soft- ware development, namely a customer- friendly operation of our products.¡± It is exactly for this reason that Eagle Chain is skeptical about how IPTV will develop; for TELE-satellite though, it¡¯s a subject that is being approached very ecstati- cally: ¡°The large telecom providers all have their own agenda and that is selling their data packages to end-users; they are focused solely on that concept.¡± He 1 doesn¡¯t see that the user¡¯s point of view is considered regarding IPTV and wishes there¡¯d be an approach similar to that of Apple: following a path based strictly on the end user without looking back at what the provider wants. Sowell¡¯s General Manager Eagle Chain isn¡¯t just thinking about the further development of IPTV. The general future of the receiver is also on his mind. ¡°Will the receiver transform into a multimedia receiver in the future¡±, asks Eagle Chain, ¡°or will the receiver¡¯s functions gradually shift over to the TV itself?¡± It¡¯s a ques- tion that¡¯s on all of our minds and for which we all don¡¯t yet have an answer. But even if there aren¡¯t any answers, everyone at Sowell is still optimistic about the future. Pan Smile revealed to us that his current team of 40 engineers 2 will be expanded to 80 in 2011. ¡°We also employ five engineers from Europe here in Shenzhen who are primarily respon- sible for customer support¡±, comments Pan Smile. Sales Director Amanda is also optimistic: ¡°Over the past several years we were able to increase our sales 50% every year. In 2010 our sales were around US$ 30 million and for 2011 we expect that to rise to US$ 45 million.¡± General Manager Eagle Chain added some more optimism: ¡°In 2011 we are planning to open our own offices in Sao 1. Sun Guanghua is also a Software Engineer and a founding partner. 2. Software engineer Peng Yi is one of Sowell¡¯s founding partners. 3. What magazine is laying there on Designer Zoe Lee¡¯s desk? Yes, she takes care of Sowell¡¯s ads in TELE-satellite. She also works on the graphical layout of a receiver¡¯s OSD as well as the packaging, user manual and everything else at Sowell that involves graphics. 3 108 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 5. Paulo for the South American market, in Dubai for the Middle Eastern market and in Europe ¨C most likely in Germany ¨C for the western and eastern European mar- kets.¡± The young company Sowell, founded more out of necessity rather than a con- scious decision, has maybe because of this developed itself extremely fast and dynamically. The five partners are fix- ated on the success of their company and immediately invest any profits back into the company. That¡¯s why Sowell is growing so fast. ¡°We are currently look- ing for a new and larger office here in Shenzhen¡±, revealed Eagle Chain just before we left. Sowell: a company firmly on an expansion course that does every- thing ¡®so well¡¯. Sowell¡¯s Sales Team 1 2 1. Sowell¡¯s Sales Director Amanda. You¡¯ll run into her at trade shows such as CABSAT in Dubai. She says, ¡°All of our managerial staff have many years of experience in this area because they all previously worked successfully in this sector with other companies.¡± 2. The customer is taken care of here in the Sales Team. For every region there¡¯s one responsible employee. 3. Always busy: Roger Xu is responsible for the 3 European Sales Team. 110 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª www.TELE-satellite.com 1
  • 6. Research & Development 4 at Sowell 7 5 4. Pan Smile is not only one of Sowell¡¯s founders and partners, he is also Vice General Manager. But above all else he¡¯s in charge of the R&D team and is also a Production Manager on the side. 5. Sowell¡¯s software engineers work here. 6. Six test engineers check out the software here in the Test Center. Liu Xiongzi is seen here testing the functions of a receiver¡¯s OSD. 7. Even the hardware has to be tested. Six engineers work in the Hardware Test Center. Satellite antennas are also available here; one is pointed to AGILA at 146E, another is aligned to TELSTAR at 138E with a third one pointing to CHINASAT at 115E. 6 www.TELE-satellite.com ¡ª 02-03/201 ¡ª 1 TELE-satellite ¡ª Global Digital TV Magazine 111