WiredHub.com - World's First Television Broadcast Engineering B2B ASP

Singapore, March 1, 2000- WiredHub.com, a subsidiary of Acma Ltd (SES: "ACMA"), launches its website today as the world's first engineering and communications work hub for the television broadcast industry.

An industry first-mover, WiredHub.com provides premium broadcast engineering services and back-end applications via the Internet, targeted at the US$20 Billion television broadcast systems market worldwide. Immediate customers comprise satellite/terrestrial television broadcasters, radio broadcasters, broadcast and cable networks, institutional audio-video facilities, video post and production facilities.

Jeffrey Tan, CEO of WiredHub.com, formerly Managing Director of International Broadcast and National IT award winning firm, Symbolic Technologies, has carved a niche for WiredHub.com in being the first B2B Internet player to enter the virgin markets for broadcast facilities design, documentation, acquisition, management and maintenance.

WiredHub.com will offer the world's first centralized online virtual work hub that lets television broadcast engineers and executives conduct their day-to-day engineering and management operations in a more cost-efficient and time-responsive manner.

As the television industry migrates from analog to digital domain, there is a paradigm shift that results in the convergence of technologies amongst the broadcast, telecommunications and IT industry.

The digital realm promises multi-channels, non-degradable audio, video and picture quality, enhanced interactivity, focused advertising and more services. The benefits are reduction in operational costs and increase in business revenues. As facilities upgrade towards the digital dominion, the need for analysis on existing facility systems and having instant information access for the purposes of facility maintenance and growth has become even more critical.

Hitherto, owing to lack of resources, time, manpower and funds for an in-house IT and engineering team, such information was not readily accessible or available. Moreover, engineers cannot cope with the laborious task of maintaining, updating and detailing engineering documentation and generating reports, in addition to managing daily operational issues.

In developed economies, facilities find it more cost-effective to outsource" their engineering and IT services with the aim of concentrating on their own core business competence.

"In April 1997, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that by 2006, all broadcast must be fully digital in the US. Going digital reaps tremendous benefits for broadcasters and users. This has created a 'rush' to upgrade to digital not just in the US alone, but worldwide. However, facilities built over the years lack proper documentation which are essential for broadcasters to better manage their operations and make time-critical decisions in evaluating their move towards the digital world," says Jeffrey Tan.

"WiredHub.com will fulfill this need, not only for the US markets, but for all developed economies, by being their virtual back-end IT and engineering department, and assisting a smooth transition for facilities in migrating to digital. Inadequate documentation results in more system down-time and this translates to a more costly facility maintenance and eventually a loss of business revenue."

WiredHub.com offers a cost-effective solution that will ease facility engineers' workload. By leaving the mundane task of systems detailing, documentation maintenance and report generation to WiredHub.com, facility engineers are able to focus on their main professional expertise i.e. system design and equipment maintenance. With such information readily available via the Internet on a 24 x 7 basis, facility managers will have better control and immediate information access to their facilities, budgets and schedules.

"At WiredHub.com, we advocate intelligent design documentation. Firstly, we believe in giving power back to the engineers, and let them concentrate on system design and equipment maintenance, and not systems detailing, documentation maintenance and system report generation. Secondly, we leverage the Internet to bring manufacturers and customers online to conduct product enquiries and product configurations. Thirdly, we extend the concept for users to track their infrastructure status, design progress, facility value, system warranties and maintenance information by hosting their IT hardware and service requirements." adds Jeffrey Tan.

At its initial phase, WiredHub.com leading-edge broadcast engineering services include:

·   "blue-printing" of existing facilities into an intelligent digital database

·   converting of facilities system diagrams and manufacturer's product information into VidCAD format

·   deploying of web-based enterprise-wide document management systems

·   providing a 24 x 7 online manufacturer digital library of product information

·   offering a 24 x 7 repository to host engineering documentation with a back-end documentation maintenance service.

As a further value added service to its customer, WiredHub.com is currently developing proprietary cutting-edge web-based client and back-end application technologies so as to offer the industry its free web-client browser due to launch in mid-April 2000, during the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2000 trade-show in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. This industry show drew over 200,000 visitors last year.

"The Internet allows WiredHub.com to extend world-class competitive engineering services from our talent pool in Asia and Russia, to high-waged markets in US, Canada, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. Naturally, our customers are mostly industry blue chip names. It is our vision to provide a virtual collaborative engineering workgroup that allows customers and suppliers to engage in all technical, commerce, engineering, operational, maintenance and management transactions," cites Jeffrey Tan.

"Where equipment need to be wired up to allow transfer of data, video, audio, voice or graphics, that's where our business lies."

WiredHub.com has set up online offices in Moscow and Singapore. It will soon set up sales offices in the US and Europe in order to address the markets there. Work will be re-channeled back to its online engineering work hubs in Singapore, India and Russia in order to be more cost-competitive and thereby increase its overall profit margins.

Currently in discussion with a number of large multinationals and major US networks to take advantage of its services, WiredHub.com is set to win several contracts in the coming weeks. The company expects to be profitable within the first twelve months and profits are forecast to take a quantum jump in the second year of its e-business.

"In order for us to serve our worldwide customers better, be ahead of competition and raise the market entry-barriers for competition, we will, over the next 24 months, establish worldwide sales offices; localise our content; deploy multiple servers; increase our back-end engineering resources; unroll more products and services; and build intuitive market-driven web-applications. It is our intention to apply for an IPO on NASDAQ in due course to raise funds to fuel our expansion program," says Jeffrey Tan.

WiredHub.com has an authorised capital of S$20 Million. The initial paid-up capital is
S$810 000 with ACMA holding $510 000 and its 65% owned subsidiary Symbolic Technologies holding $300 000. A further S$190 000 shares will eventually be issued to management. The Acma group, which had over US$300 million in revenues in 1999, has committed to financially support WiredHub.com in its expansion program.

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About WiredHub.com

WiredHub.com is the world's first premium engineering and communications work hub for the broadcast industry. The first Internet industry-mover in this cyberspace, WiredHub.com is an active promoter of the VidCAD Ready program from VidCAD Documentation Programs Inc., USA.

WiredHub.com's core service offerings include back-end documentation service and an online work hub where broadcast and communications professionals manage digital "blue-prints" of their facilities. These services are complemented with consultancy expertise to assist facilities operators in implementing a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to transform their engineering diagrams into digital media. WiredHub.com's unrivaled library conversion service offers equipment manufacturers a uniform specifications standard for their products. These same libraries will be available digitally to broadcast and communications engineers worldwide so that there is a single source of marketing, technical and sales information.

The company offers a revolutionary 24-hour collaborative workspace where a virtual workgroup can leverage the Internet to securely browse and view CAD drawings. Acting as the overall facility asset manager, WiredHub.com allows facilities to track their infrastructure status, design progress, facility value, system warranties and maintenance information. WiredHub.com is a subsidiary of Singapore mainboard listed company, Acma Ltd.

For more information, please visit: "http://www.wiredhub.com"