Pace plc

Pace plc (lse|PIC) is a UK developer of set-top boxes for Cable television, Satellite television and IPTV operators, founded in 1982. They took over from Amstrad as the main supplier for BSkyB. They were the first manufacturer to ship boxes for Sky Digital (UK & Ireland) in 1998 and for a time were the only provider of Sky+ boxes. Pace is also the main supplier of set-top boxes for SKY Network Television in New Zealand.

The company started off making dial up modems, and claims to have developed the first consumer modemsFact|date=June 2008.

Overview

Pace's head office is in Saltaire, near Bradford in West Yorkshire. It occupies a large proportion of the Victorian textile mill complex called Salt's Mill.

In 1995, they manufactured the world's first DVB decoders for Australian satellite company Galaxy, and had shipped a million DVB units by 1997. By 1998, they were developing solely digital decoders.

Pace was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1996. The modem division was dissolved in 2000.

The company has, for many years been one of the few UK based manufacturers, with close to a monopoly on the supply of cable decoders, DTT equipment, ADSL based VOD systems and satellite decoders suitable for use on UK networks. Pace do not tend to produce retail products, but did produce the first freeview PVR, the Twin.

In 1999, Pace purchased the set top box division of Acorn Computers, this becoming its Cambridge office. As a result, for a number of years, Pace owned RISC OS, and used technologies based on it in its decoder equipment. The Cambridge office was closed down in 2003 for cost cutting reasons. [http://www.drobe.co.uk/riscos/artifact604.html] .

In 2001, Pace announced that it was outsourcing the last 25 percent of manufacturing output which remained at Saltaire. Thus the head office is now an administration and design/development centre.

In March 2002, Pace became the first company to market a free-to-view DTT receiver via the Pace DTVA. This, technically, was the first Freeview receiver on the market, although Freeview didn't begin until October that year.

In 2005, Pace in conjunction with Australian subscription television provider Foxtel launched the first DVB-C Personal Digital Recorder with Foxtel iQ [Pace Press Release - http://www.pace.com/corporate/newsroom/pacenewsitem.asp?id=10250]

In April 2006 Neil Gaydon became CEO, taking over from John Dyson, and Mike McTighe became the new Chairman, taking over from Sir Michael Bett.

The most recent development for Pace has been a breakthrough in the US market where it is now delivering products to Comcast and DirecTV - the largest cable and satellite operators in the world.

In April 2008, Pace acquired the 'Set-Top Box and Connectivity Solutions' division of Royal Philips Electronics, approximately doubling the size of the company. [ [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article3072875.ece The Times Online] ]

In May 2008, Pace changed its name from 'Pace Micro Technology plc' to 'Pace plc'. [ [http://www.pace.com/corporate/mediahub/pacenewsitem.asp?id=10661 Pace Press Release] ]

Customers

* Time Warner Cable - United States
* Comcast - United States
* DirecTV - United States
* Mediacom - United States
* Rogers Cable - Canada
* Vidéotron - Canada
* BT Vision [cite web
title = BT Vision orders new Pace STBs
url = http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a95903/bt-vision-orders-new-pace-stbs.html
last = West
first = David
publisher = Digital Spy
date = 2008-05-13
accessdate = 2008-05-13 ] - United Kingdom
* Sky Digital - United Kingdom
* Virgin Media - United Kingdom
* SKY Italia - Italy
* Premiere - Germany
* Kabel Deutschland - Germany
* Viasat - Scandinavia and the Baltics
* Digiturk - Turkey
* UPC - Netherlands
* MultiChoice Africa - South Africa
* Foxtel (+ Optus Television) - Australia
* SKY Network Television - New Zealand
* Shaw Communications - Canada

References

External links

* [http://www.pace.com Pace plc - Corporate world wide website & Shop portal]