TechFront inks deals with Future, BCCI

Technology Frontiers Limited (TechFront), a Chennai-based Visualisation product company, has signed a 10-year agreement with the Future Group to supply multi-broadcast digital systems with touch screen capabilities within its malls and affiliate group stores.

The agreement with Future Group, on a lease-based, revenue-sharing basis, involves the supply of 600 'Touchme' machines, and is expected to add $12-15 million (around Rs 40 crore and Rs 60 crore) to the company's topline, said managing director M S Muralidharan on Tuesday.

Touchme machines are vertically integrated video systems equipped with 50-inch high-definition screens and full-touch screen application. The large format display system provides online transaction and payment facilities, and can also provide real-time web browsing, mobile recharge facilities, online banking and gaming services. The company is positioning the machines, assembled in Chennai and priced at $8,000 apiece, for online ticketing at locations such as airports, stations, theatres and malls.

For the upcoming cricket series between India and South Africa, TechFront has secured exclusive distributorship rights from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to install giant LED screens measuring 20 x 40 feet at the three main cricket venues of Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kanpur. Under the contract with BCCI, TechFront will also install and manage LED scrolling screens over 180 ft on the boundary ropes.

"We will not operate on a per-second ad rate basis with BCCI. Instead, anchor sponsors like HSBC and Kotak Mahindra Bank will release the advertisements on a match-by-match basis," Muralidharan said.

TechFront, which expects revenues of Rs 65 crore in fiscal 2008, is a leading player in the field of digital systems for cricket. Around 50 per cent of its current revenues are fetched from overseas markets in West Asia and Europe.

Muralidharan said that the company had also clinched orders from football clubs in West Asia, Europe and Asia. "Besides, we are implementing projects involving digitisation of information and visual presentation in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Vadodara by installing LED screens in key locations," he added.

Muralidharan is majority shareholder in the company with 70 per cent holdings, with the rest being held by institutional and individual investors. TechFront is targeting revenues of Rs 100 crore by the end of fiscal 2009. The company's giant LED screens and scrolling display systems used in sports stadiums are manufactured by MIRC Electronics in Hyderabad.

South Africa-based Tella Vista and Belgium-based Barco are among TechFront's key competitors in the public visual space in the European, African and West Asian markets.