1980The beginning of the 1980s was a time of global satellite fever. In the USA satellite transmissions were viewed through cable networks, the Soviet Union sent into orbit their Horizont tele-vision satellite and Western Europe had its own OTS experi-mental satellite orbiting the globe.

Putting into orbit the second generation OTS satellite, which began to transmit more regularly programs from the UK based Satellite Television, enhanced the confidence in the future of those who believed in satellite technology. New con-tent was provided for the existing community aerial networks and TV viewers started to take a serious interest in the new transmission technology.

International satellite transmission of television program-ming finally took off in 1983 as the European Communication Satellite (ECS 1) was put into orbit in June, of that year. Thanks to this, SAT systems had suddenly something substantial to re-ceive as the satellite was relaying programs for nine Central European television stations.

With the expansion of cable television networks the conven-tional master aerial amplifier died out since it no longer could be used as the headend, and secondly because the network amps were often placed outdoors. Teleste’s sheet metal constructions were unfit for such harsh conditions. R&D began thinking on how to rise up to the challenge. Product development en-gineers began to design new generation cable television prod-ucts, CATV for short. The idea was to make them as modular and modifiable as possible so as to make them answerable to a number of requirements set by the demand, not to forget easing the production. Pieces of equipment designed to be installed outdoors would be enclosed exclusively in tight aluminium cast casings.

International breakthrough: the market leader in cable and satellite technology

The microwave low noise

converter, or microwave part,

was the ”high tech” product of its

time and the most important piece

of a satellite receiver. The size of

receiving dishes could easily increase

from three metres to five metres

in diameter, if the quality of the

microwave converter was poor. The

first converters cost the same as a car

in the early 80’s; nowadays, they are

rather inexpensive.

’s

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The basic building blocks of constructing cable television networks were developed within a 2 year time frame. The head-end series of SAT500 was modular also by its internal struc-ture. This advanced piece of equipment was small in size and contained a satellite receiver. A small number of “jars“ provid-ed the basis for allowing a number of different products to be assembled. Teleste’s fi rst heavy-duty trunk amplifi er AXA and its smaller cousin SLA were introduced to the market together with other new products like APU antenna-outlet and K6 pas-sives for outdoor conditions.

Cable Network or Aerial on the Roof

Satellite transmissions could soon be received in Nordic cable te-levision networks. The most popular among these – and also the only ones to begin with – was the family entertainment provi-der Sky Channel, Music Box geared to young people, the Soviet Union’s TV1 and the French language culture-driven TV5.

In the media, satellite channels received loads of attention. When it came to the mode of receiving these transmissions there were technical solutions to choose from and these were of-ten discussed. The new technology was new even to the equip-ment manufacturers while the consumer was confused whether it would make sense to tap into the cable television network or to obtain a master or a private aerial in order to get a piece of the action. Of these options Teleste could make available cable and master aerial networks. Teleste also made sure that consumers were informed in a matter-of-fact manner about the new tech-nical solutions. All the options were made known impartially even though the private aerials were not included in the com-pany range of products.

Miami Vice seen through satellite. The fi rst satellite de-

modulator developed in co-operation with VTT is visible

on top of the TV.

AXA trunk amplifi ers were often installed in this kind

of street distribution box, which was placed every 500

metres in the network. When adjusting the network, the

most important tools were a level measuring set and a

car. Often you needed to be patient as well...

Sky Channel became one of the

most popular satellite channels in

the 80’s.

62

To gain first-hand experience in the construction and op-eration of cable television networks Teleste had built an ex-perimental network including 500 households in the Turku neighbourhood of Petrelius. This network was then used to run six channels from a transmission centre located at the Teleste plant. One of these was a text channel for announcements. The network was also used as a reference in business bargaining. The foremost objective was to get familiar with the operation of a cable television company and then put this information to use in marketing.

In addition to commissioning the cable networks and master aerials Teleste got down to promoting business development, training electricians, designing networks, servicing equip-ment in the field and at the plant installation resources were improvised whenever required. In short, anything and every-thing was made to ensure that the introduced new technology ran as smooth as possible and that everything worked without a hitch.

This cable network covered a whole neighbourhood and was capable of transmitting scores of different television and radio programmes. The added benefits were that little money was been wasted as the number of channels went up and additionally local TV broadcasts could be received. The collective nature of the arrangement was a problem, as each housing company had to decide whether to join to cable or not. Single-family houses were not included.

Master aerials could be installed in blocks of flats, terraced houses and communities of twenty or so single-family hous-es. The antenna owners needed to sort out the licenses which turned out to be very complicated; another was that transmis-

Cable television network devices were so complicated

that it made sense to design them to be internally modu-

lar. A small amount of different sets were used to create

hundreds of different kinds of final products.

The CATV product range at the beginning of the 80’s.

The boxes are moving from being sheet metal to cast

aluminium.

The first SAT500 main amplifier

was the smallest and most advanced

product of its time.

63

At the end of the 1980s a per-sonal computer on a desktop was still a rare sight. Many clients and visitors in the hou-se were surprised to see such a large number of computers: there were more of them at Teleste than they had seen anywhere else and once the computer had invaded every desk they started to infiltrate the negotiation rooms.

These machines were also put to effective use. As early as in the mid-1980s the first steps in computer aided dra-wing and planning had been taken. Mechanical design was

the first area to embrace the CAD and CAM design applica-tions. This allowed designing directly at the terminal, which made a number of in-termediate stages redundant. Drawing from schematic diagrams and the design and documentation of printed bo-ards followed suit. Later on software was introduced for examining the functioning of a electronic circuits on a com-puter. Production technology was being developed getting prepared for the era of auto-mation.

Construction of an Local Area Network (LAN) began right after the middle of the decade and this was to become one of the largest in Turku. Teleste adopted the use of email from a very early stage.

Early Utilisation Of Computers

64

In the R&D the computers facilitated to document test results and transfer

them to product documents.

Late 80’s the self made software

package was utilised in design of

cable television networks.

1986 the drafting boards were replaced by personal

computers. In the picture Jaana Ketonen (nowadays Lii-

kanen) draws the circuit diagram of SAT500 with Cadstar

software.

In the production the computers controlled the test

equipment and the robot. Even the complicated measu-

rements were possible to do for every product.

65

sion methods could change, which meant that your equipment could suddenly be rendered obsolete.

The third option was a private aerial or dish, which was a con-sideration in single-family houses that could not join a cable net-work or a master aerial system. Private dishes were the most ex-pensive and also the only option outside densely built-up areas.

Building Cable Networks in Sweden

Hannes Kulvik became Teleste’s Chairman of the Board of Di-rectors in 1981. Thanks to him Teleste’s drive for internationa-lisation gained a whole new momentum.

As to the marketing of satellite and cable television the Nor-dic Countries provided the first line of action. In the early 1980s, the market situation was still very fluid but by the mid-dle of the decade Sweden passed a new cable television act while Norway and Denmark increased the number of satellite televi-sion distribution licenses. Teleste’s marketing efforts focussing on Scandinavia hit the nail on the head.

In the broadcast centre of the

test network, Elina Männikkö wri-

tes new program information on the

teletext channel and monitors the

quality of the TV channels broadcast

in the network. The ”studio” had its

own TV camera for own programs.

“We found out about their plans to start building a net-work in Sweden by running a market research. We made a visit to Televerket and told them we can supply whate-ver it takes to do it. Later on the executive at Televerket Aronsson said he was ama-zed by the young lads from

Turku dropping into their headquarters telling them that the rumour has it that you have plans about star-ting to build a cable televi-sion network and that they had this idea of selling them (Televerket Aronsson) the required equipment. So they decided to leave the door

open for us since we were, after all, way ahead in the network business. Once the deal was finally clinched and we had shaken hands on it, Erkki Bäckman, who was visibly moved, told me: ‘son, that must have made the biggest deal of your life’”, says Pekka Ketonen.

66

An experimental network was being built in Sweden in Lund. The first deal with the Swedish operator Televerket involv-ing headends was struck by Teleste’s Managing Director Erk-ki Bäckman and Director Pekka Ketonen of Teleste Antenna. Bringing the contract home took a lot of nerve since the Turku-based company was completely unknown to the state monopoly Televerket. After numerous attempts Marcus Moberg, a mem-ber of Teleste’s Board of Directors, managed to get 20 min-utes with Televerket’s CEO. Because time was scarce there was nothing that Messrs. Moberg, Ketonen and Bäckman could do but get straight to the point. The dumbfounded CEO heard that it was known that Televerket intended to build a cable net-work in Sweden and that Teleste was bent on getting a 50 per cent market share in the country when they would start making it. This meeting did the trick; Teleste managed to get a foot in the door so that in the end a contract was made with Televerket about construction of a cable network. The deal struck in 1983 marked the starting point of a long client relationship between Teleste and Televerket. Turku also provided a venue for training Televerket’s engineers in cable network and master aerial tech-nology. Within a year after the deal the Lund network occupied no less than 2,000 subcribers after which Televerket announced that they would acquire 90 per cent of the required cable televi-sion and satellite equipment from Teleste. In the end the entire Swedish cable network was built using Teleste’s products.

Televerket management and

technical experts visiting Teleste

in the early 80’s. In the background,

you can see Teleste’s first five-metre

satellite dish on Kaurakatu.

Teleste organised a lot of trai-

ning for Televerket installers and

technicians in Turku and Stockholm.

The European Organization for

Nuclear Research, CERN, has a lar-

ge optic cable-based video network

supplied by Teleste.

68

The client relationship with Televerket provided the foun-dations for Teleste’s growth for the entire decade. When the Swedes stopped building cable networks in the early 1990s, Tel-este went into recession.

Steady Demand in Central Europe

Teleste’s cable television products had no competition in Con-tinental Europe and no market either, for that matter. This re-sulted in Teleste excepting companies who bought just one sys-tem from them, which allowed them to get familiar with the new line of business. Driven by Tero Jousi, export manager of Teleste Antenna, active promotion of the products began in Central Europe. Teleste’s share of the entire European satel-lite receiver market rose fairly quickly up to 40 per cent and suddenly the company started to get inquiries concerning sa-tellite dishes from Switzerland, France, Holland, Belgium and Scandinavia. Teleste’s way of having a closer look at the Ger-man market was establishing a local subsidiary there. Germa-ny provided the market for the SMA100 satellite master aerial headend, which was the only programmable state-of-the-art device on the market and ultra modern compared to any com-petition. Teleste’s reps were “running along endless corridors in order to get the SMA100 officially approved by the authorities”, as Pekka Ketonen put it. The product was well received in the market, it was the authorities that rocked the boat by withhol-ding sales permits since the product was different from what the Germans were used to. Finally the official OK was received and the marketing of SMA 100 could begin.

In the 1987 Montreaux show, Teleste presented their SOF100 fibre optical system, 550 MHz broadband amplifiers, SAT900

“There was a belief that satellites would soon take over the terrestrial televisi-on channels. In this satellite fever there was no noti-on of the possibility that copyright and other issues affecting the transmission operation would impede technical development. As a matter of fact the pre-sent Internet technology is facing similar problems and transmission open for all has proved to be im-possible to implement in practise”, says Ilkka Rita-kallio, who joined Teleste in 1980s to be in charge of R&D.

Towards the end of the 80’s,

Teleste started to target the Central

European market as purchases by

Televerket diminished. In this pictu-

re, the export department planning

marketing in the Benelux countries.

The SOF100 fibre optic link was

the first commercial fibre optic

product of Teleste.

69

headend and SMA100. This show was the busiest event Teleste had taken part in so far proving that the cable television indus-try was about to take off also in Europe. Thanks to this show Teleste established contacts with the European Laboratory for Particle Physics CERN and received assignments involving im-age transmission equipment to be delivered to their particle re-search centre. Teleste was supplying CERN with equipment in co-operation with Rediffusion AG, the biggest cable television operator in Switzerland.

Two years later, again in Montreaux, Teleste was among the first companies to introduce the first generation of the present AM fibre optical links. SOF800 became one of Teleste’s main articles that kept selling for the next 10 years, that is, until the next generation kicked in.

At the end of the 1980s in addition to Scandinavia Teleste’s important clientele included Belgium, Holland, Portugal and

Teleste developed a new product

for master aerial reception – the

SMA100 head end.

The SAT900 head end system was

a major cable television network sys-

tem. The same mechanism was used

in all Teleste fibre optic links.

70

Switzerland. Teleste’s rep visited Belgium on a weekly basis. During this time the Belgian CATV operator Integan started to reform their network determined to become one of the most advanced in Europe and Teleste was involved in it. The agent in Holland was Hutronic B.V. Due to constant demand for Teleste agents in Central Europe subsidiaries were established in Ger-many and Belgium.

Entry into the UK by an Acquisition

As early as in 1970s Teleste had established ties in the UK by taking part in the first exhibition held at the Finnish Embassy in London. A local retailer for the aerial accessories was found right away. However, it was not too easy to get into the local market and sales failed to pick up even in the following decade. Nonetheless, it was obvious that the commencement of the cab-le television construction in the UK was right round the cor-ner and the company was determined to get involved in it. It was also known that the Americans were about to get into the European cable television network market with the UK provi-ding them with a foothold in order to do so. They had the buil-ding permits for networks in their pockets and a few small-scale networks were already up and running. It was obvious Teleste needed something similar of their own to get their foot in the door.

The move was carried out in 1989 by acquiring the aerial manufacturer Labgear Ltd from Cambridge to be renamed Teleste Cablevision Ltd. The acquisition of Labgear expanded Teleste’s product range to include indoor aerial amplifiers and

The Labgear main office in 1989

in the middle of old Cambridge.

The actual factory was in Ealy, 20 km

north of Cambridge.

The products were meant to be

used in the internal networks of the

houses and the products were sold

directly to the end customer through

catalogue stores and radio and TV

shops. Packaging was an important

part of the product.

Teleste still has two offices

in England, in Camebridge and

Fareham

71

SMD (Surface Mount Device)

components were particularly well-

suited for high-frequency devices

and often improved the features of

devices.

indoor aerials for single-family houses and flats. It turned out to be necessary to make some R&D modifications with Teleste’s own products to accommodate them in the British market.

The UK set out building cable television networks at such a late stage that the time for laying coaxial cable underground was over as fibre optic cable had arrived – just the last mile was stretched with coaxial cable. Teleste had come a long way in the use of fibre optic cables and now this knowledge could be put in good use in the UK.

The Flagship – Aerial Business

The success of Teleste’s aerial business was contributed by a number of coinciding factors. The competitive edge was clear-ly boosted by focussing early on cable television and satellite technology and Teleste’s decades of experience. The operation was based on long-term client relationships while the wide pro-duct range kept clients happy and the R&D was working to cre-ate increasingly affordable and efficient products making use of the state-of-the-art components of the field.

Products and methods of production were developed side by side. To make it in the business of the 1980s particular effort had to be made to streamline the production, enhance the quality control and speed up R&D. The use of surface-mountable com-ponents – SMD for short – was accompanied by assembly automa-tion while measurement automation brought in improvements in product reliability. The product range included all the required appliances relating to cable television and master aerial systems from demanding headend solutions to aerial plug sockets.

Teleste’s principle has always

been to fulfil the product’s technical

specifications. By automating measu-

ring and product testing, even the

most difficult measurements could

be performed for all of the devices

delivered.

72

The rapid development and advances in the Scandinavi-an market was reflected in the growth figures in the turnover made by Teleste’s aerial business. From 1981 to 1982 the invoic-ing went up by at least 40 per cent. In 1985, Teleste was the big-gest cable television supplier in Scandinavia with the number of viewers using their equipment was more than three mil-lion. Teleste was the first one in Europe to start manufacturing

SMD (Surface Mount Device)

components were originally

mounted manually. The light from

the Logpoint device marked the

location for the component on the

PCB. Only when SMD mounting ma-

chines came into being were all of

the benefits of the new technology

able to be used. The picture shows

Teleste’s first Universal pick and place

machine.

The Board of Directors for Teleste in 1984. From left

to right: Pekka Valkama, Martti Tiuri, Hannes Kulvik and

Marcus Moberg.

Teleste’s management in the mid 80’s. From left to

right: Hannu Tikka, Jarkko Klemelä, Markku Aalto, Pekka

Ketonen, Pekka Valkama and Erkki Bäckman.

73

pay-TV equipment. As to the Orbital Test Satellite (OTS) – ESA’s first communications satellite – half of the demand for European reception equipment was supplied by Teleste.

In 1984, boosted by the growth in the aerial business, Tel-este’s turnover exceeded for the first time the FIM 100 mil-lion limit. In its 30th year of operation the number of Teleste employees stood at 470. In that year Sponsor Oy made public their intention of turning Teleste into a listed company. Some-time later they announced that arrangements were being made involving a restricted sale of Teleste shares to Sponsor’s share-holders. Teleste Oy shares were quoted on the OTC list from June 1985 to June 1989.

The large number of staff received training in issues related to quality, excursions were organised where a number of cam-paigns where designed to promote quality. At Teleste quality

The managing director of Finnish

PTT, Pekka Tarjanne, connects a cab-

le to the satellite receiver. Soon after

this, congratulations could also be

heard on the Music Box channel.

> The Littoinen factory in 1984.

Soon after this, the yard was filled

with big satellite dishes in their

packages and large rolls of cable

as Teleste also sold Nokia antenna

cables at that point in time.The Teleste Antenna quality prize

was an indication of the systematic

development of quality systems.

The key personnel of Nordic sales observing the

celebration.

74

was a concept that came to denote more than just high quality of the products – thinking in terms of quality affected every as-pect of the company operation. This matter was also registered elsewhere: Teleste Antenna received an award from the Finnish Society for Quality as recognition for their merits relating to the creation of quality norms.

In the mid-1980s some personnel reshuffling took place: Jarkko Klemelä became CEO of the Teleste-owned language laboratory manufacturer Auditek and Markku I. Aalto was se-lected as head of the Teleste Audio business unit. Pekka Valka-ma became CEO following Erkki Bäckman who left Teleste for Hartwall in 1986.

Trafotek moved out of Littoinen leaving the plant build-ing vacant. It was renovated and enlarged for Teleste Anten-na’s Aerial business unit. At the inauguration, under the eyes of

Televerket’s management had

big plans in Sweden and Teleste

factory’s expansion was a welcome

sight for them.

The Littoinen factory still had enough room for a big

celebration.

^ The Nousiainen factory after

expansion.

75

76

invited guests, a cable was connected relaying the venue’s TV monitors with new programming of the Music Box while the station sent their regards and many happy returns for the new plant. The company was constantly growing and there seemed to be no end in sight. In no less than four years a new enlarge-ment of 2,000 square metres was completed in Littoinen. In the spring of 1989 a third domestic plant unit began in Forssa and this was followed by a new factory hall of 1,000 square metres in Nousiainen for aerial products.

Language Laboratories Prepare for the Computer Age

The R&D of the language laboratory business were faced with a new challenge. Automatic data processing, working on perso-nal computers was entering the teaching methods in schools at a phenomenal rate. This was an area where many pupils outper-formed their teachers.

In the beginning of the decade the time had come for the Teleste subsidiary Auditek to start working on a system de-signed for computerised teaching. The new system was called AMC 100 and it soon became the most popular educational computer in Finland.

Meanwhile Auditek made amazing success in gaining ground in the international markets they had been striven after for years. Besides Scandinavia, laboratories were sold to West Germany, Belgium, the Soviet Union, Greece, Syria, Malaysia, Libya, Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

In the mid-1980s Tandberg, the Norwegian language labo-ratory manufacturer and a long-term partner to Teleste, sold 70 per cent of their business to Auditek. This acquisition turned Teleste - through the subsidiaries of Auditek and Tandberg - to the leading manufacturer of language laboratories in the world. Part of Tandberg’s production was moved to Finland.

In 1989 the work related to digital audio received external recognition as Auditek received the National Computing Award for the development of Gentleman-TAO software.

The founder of Auditek Jarkko Metsätähti established Vi-siotek Oy, a new company of his own. Teleste sold education-al computer equipment to Visiotek since there was no interest in getting involved in the manufacturing of school computers. Bigger companies like IBM and Nokia were moving into that business.

Teleste had, nevertheless, taken to the language laboratory business and started drafting a new comprehensive plan of ac-tion for it. The plan drew special attention to the principle of focussing the operation primarily on the area of language labo-ratories. Digression into anything else, no matter how interest-ing they might appear, should be avoided.

< Auditek developed the AMC100 teaching computer for schools.

Upon Tandberg selling the ma-

jority of their business to Auditek

Teleste – through its subsidiaries

– became the world’s leading manu-

facturer of language laboratories.

The most important issue was that

on and off Auditek’s and Tandberg’s

retailers competed for the same

customers.

77

The computer-based language teaching laboratory TECS was developed in the new premises built in Kaurakatu along with the introduction of CAD based design and testing. On top of this, software development was initiated in support of the computer aided language teaching. Finally, production of a Finnish cassette recorder was commenced.

Teleste’s Sound Reproduction System Achieves SuccessTeleste’s audio business – Teleste Oy Audio – had undergone substantial internal reshuffling. The changes made involved staff, organisation and products. This new drive was aimed at making sure that the company could respond to any new requi-rements set by the consumer market by coming up with state-of-the-art products. In addition to the conventional functions involving amplifiers and speakers, one had to be able to solve complex issues related to PA systems in public premises. As a result, Teleste signed an agreement with the West German Dy-nacord thereby improving Teleste’s chances of reforming pub-lic address systems while allowing them to take on assignments which included disco audio playback.

Teleste was no stranger to combining conventional speakers and amplifiers in a number of ways to create systems of their own design. Business was booming and by the middle of the decade the share of these coaxial control systems of Teleste Audio was close on one half of their total operation. Coaxial-based systems made installation essentially easier, this allowed inclusion of additional functions while making system designs straightforward. Teleste supplied PA systems to the most out-standing public premises in Finland, examples include the Par-liament Building, Neste Corporation headquarters, the largest theatres and the brand new Helsinki Underground.

Sizeable projects were plentiful including the processor-con-trolled service and audio playback systems delivered to two new ferries operating between Sweden and Finland and two large-scale hotel systems carried out in Helsinki. Conference systems

Teleste’s voice was audible in the

headquarters of Neste.

The PA system for the Helsinki

metro was a big project.

Processor-based service and PA

systems were delivered to two new

ferries.

78

The voting system for the

Finnish parliament was a major

delivery project for Teleste; it re-

quired a lot of new technology to

be developed. Testing was done

by 200 conscripts, who got to play

In Turku, as in many other towns, the city council room has a Teleste voting system.

parliament members for a day and

press buttons. The system is still in

use to this day. In other words, Teles-

te participates in national decision-

making on a daily basis.

79

80

were still biding their time. Deliveries of voting machines for city councils were also on the negotiating table.

At the same time Teleste’s hospital systems reached an all time high in terms of volume even though competition in the field had intensified. In 1985 more than 2,200 beds in hospitals, health centres and old people’s homes were equipped with Tel-este’s hospital systems.

Teleste Sound System is Everywhere

Where, then, could one come across Teleste’s audio and control systems in the 1980s? Now, schools, for instance, had Teleste systems in place, the bell to signal breaks could be controlled, headmaster’s announcements could be addressed to all the pu-pils, music could be channelled to every classroom not to forget central television transmissions.

Teleste’s ship and hotel systems increased the satisfaction and safety of passengers and guests alike, as they were wel-comed through a centrally controlled television when entering the room for the first time. The screen informed the passengers about topical events onboard or at the hotel and the passengers could signal the control room from the cabin by pressing a but-ton thereby establishing a connection for communication. An-nouncements could be directed to selected cabins or part of the ship. The hotel system substantially enhanced service functions thanks to the cleaner being able to see the relevant work pro-gramme on the TV screen in each room.

Whenever a hospital patient needed attention the person simply pressed the call button within their reach and the nurse having received the call could have a word with the patient without delay. Even the public premises in the hospitals were equipped with call buttons. The equipment installed in the pa-tient rooms allowed them to listen to music, change the channel at will and make external phone calls.

Due to the public address systems built by Teleste, stands at sporting events could hear the results made even further out and the noise-controlled amplifiers would respond to the cur-rent level of spurring, relaying the sound at a volume adjusted to the situation and the number of spectators.

Decades of accumulated experience allowed combining natural and electronic acoustics in churches and other public buildings.

Public announcements on the underground, train stations and airports alike would reach the passengers anywhere no matter whether it would be in a cafe, toilet or elsewhere within the area. Teleste built sound playback and communication sys-tems for various transport stations and entire traffic networks. The Helsinki Underground, for instance, allowed the public

The usually complicated acous-

tics of churches posed big prob-

lems for the sound system. One of

the most important challenges was

to reduce echo. In difficult cases, the

sound was delayed when delivered

to various parts of church and the

echo could be eliminated almost

completely.Sports fields and stands were traditional places to spot Teleste.

The help is as close as Teleste’s

patient telephone.

81

announcements to be assigned with a priority while addressing desired sections of the underground network.

Teleste would also build a module fitting the decor of any official premises that contained an overhead projector with a stand, slide projectors and a flap board. A television set and a screen for the slides were included, embedded in a wall-mount-ed module. There was a remote control for the lighting, cur-tains and the microphones.

In the early 1980s discos were mushrooming driven main-ly by the cost-effectiveness in comparison to live performanc-es and the Hollywood blockbuster film Saturday Night Fever, which effectively spread disco mania around the world. This development marked new pressures for the makers of sound re-production systems including Teleste.

Private enterprises could be served by Slocon SL 2000 tel-ephone system, which was both a conventional telephone and an intercom providing a neat solution for internal telephony of business units operating in different parts of the country. Upon vacating the premises an employee could transfer the calls di-rectly to the centre or when engaging in negotiations have them transferred to the negotiation room. The operator could see the messages on the monitor left by any subscriber. Moreover, the system included call waiting and call holding services, public and group announcements and speed dialling. On top of all that SL 2000 provided a set with loudspeakers and included a clock and radio. Other systems in the field by Teleste included SL 1000, a multimedia designed for close connections, and the smart paging device Teleste Telecourier.

Thanks to the conference technology developed by Teleste a participant in the meeting could have the speech in the lan-guage of his/her choice by accessing the interpretation system. Personal microphones and the voting devices allowed the per-son to make his voice heard or opinion known.

^ A terminal for a conference and interpretation system.SL1000 was a multimedia device similar to a close-distan-

ce, fast-dial phone.

> The central equipment of Multinet network,

which was used in conference, hospital and hotel systems.

A disco hostess surrounded by

Teleste technology wondering what

to play next. After Teleste had

bought Soundline, Teleste moved

into restaurant sound systems.

82

Boom Years in R&D

Teleste was ahead of the game. In the 1980s new products de-signed for satellite and cable television operation were conti-nually introduced to the market. These included broadband amplifiers, new headends, SOF800-AM fibre optic link and a 48-channel SOF900-FM fibre optic link. Fibre optic cables were believed to form the basis for future broadband network applications, which would reach far beyond the boundaries of cable television business. One of these applications was the fib-re optic link delivered to CERN designed to be used in the transmission of video signals for monitoring and controlling large-scale particle accelerators.

In co-operation with the Technical Research Centre of Finland Teleste created the Tele-X satellite reception station. From 1986 to 1987 several significant product groups were completed including SAT900 and SMA100 headends and the SOF100 fibre optic link. The demand for the recently intro-duced third Finnish terrestrial television channel kept Teleste effectively busy as did the launch of the European TV satellite Astra at the end of the decade.

A new transmission network was developed for hospitals, ho-tels and conference systems using coaxial cable as the transfer me-dium. The new system was called Multinet. One single network could now be used for carrying data for a number of purposes.

As the amount of required product development efforts in-creased Teleste founded a new R&D unit of 12 people in Espoo to work on the development of the MHE master aerial head-end. A while later a new R&D unit was established in Salo.

When antenna device and sound

skills were combined, they resulted in

a Multinet communications net-

work, where traditional multi-line

cables could be replaced with a single

antenna cable. Installation costs were

reduced and transferring the devices

in the network became easier.

The Tele-x satellite receiving sta-

tion included a dish and a digital 34

Mbps satellite receiver. The project

taught us a lot – if nothing else, how

to write documentation – as the

work was ordered by Ericsson Radio.

83

< Gun Johans-

son (nowadays

Nordin) soon

after the move

to Littoinen.

The final adjustments of

the satellite receiver are

controlle.

Matti Susi performing

temperature tests for

SAT500 unit.

Export team in the 80’s. From left Ulla Hippula, Reijo

Hyvönen, Tero Jousi, Erik Lindberg and Stina Salminen

People at their wo rk in the golden 80’s

v Henry Gylen assembling the microwave converter for

the satellite system.

> Pekka Keto-

nen watching

closely when

Pirjo Pahlberg is

testing SAT500

unit.

84

Every AXA trunk

amplifier was carefully

tested in production.

The sales and marketing of

Teleste Antenni late 80’s.

Erja

Saarikoski

started her

career as

manager

of finance

in1984.

People at their wo rk in the golden 80’s

> Sales and marketing depart-

ment mid 80’s.

Teleste Antenna moved from leased premises Kaurakatu 48 to Littoinen in 1984 and in the same year Teleste’s personnel doubled.

85

Audio Grows by AcquisitionsIn the 1980’s Teleste’s lines of operation also included inter-coms. Head of the audio business unit Markku Aalto was acting upon Sponsor’s view concerning growth through acquisitions. In a few year’s time the business expanded by acquiring the in-tercom lines of Slocon, ITT and Ericsson.

The telephone system bought from Slocon was also sold abroad. Norway came to provide the primary market as the lo-cal telephony had just recently been deregulated. Teleste’s Slo-con 2000 telephone system received the Norwegian approval in February 1988.

Teleste also began production of cassette recorders by acquir-ing the production line and product specifications of an Italian precision mechanics company and cassette recorder manufac-turer Panta Spa. Manufacturing of the Finnish microprocessor- controlled recorders was commenced under Auditek.

The acquisition of the entire capital stock of the manufac-turer of presentation equipment, Suomen Esitysväline, further strengthened the company’s sound reproduction line. After this the client could be supplied with the actual audio systems and any related equipment like panels. Another clinch was the Pori-based supplier of restaurant audio equipment company Sound-line. These products were in high demand since the end of the decade was a boom time and the Finnish restaurants were up-grading their systems continuously. As a result, if, at the time, one would have a stroll in Teleste’s storeroom one could come across the most peculiar items, take the bow of a frigate, for starters.

There was a vision concer-ning the use of optical fibre. In the early 1980s there was an architectural drawing on the wall of Pekka Ketonen’s

study about how all the out-door cables would be fibre and indoor stuff would be coaxial cable. “And as we know this is the way it is

today. We made amps with optical input and coaxial out-

put. We were clearly ahead of the times since in those

days the others didn’t have anything of the kind. It ra-pidly became our main pro-

duct”, says Pekka Ketonen.

Building the mechanics for tape

recorder required accurate fine

mechanics; Teleste hired a clockma-

ker to build tape recorders. This is

how the manufacturing of Finnish

microprocessor-driven tape recorders

was launched.

86

Sponsor’s Faith in Teleste is Rock-Solid.

Towards the end of the decade Sponsor was considering letting go of all the other Sponsor group companies and concentrating exclusively on the development of Teleste. At the time there was potential for growth in all three of Teleste’s core busines-ses consisting of aerials, audio systems and language laborato-ries. Relinquishing all the other holdings was, after all, consi-dered too radical and the project was abandoned. The fact that the issue was considered at all is, however, a telltale sign of the proprietor’s determined faith in Teleste’s growth potential.

Teleste’s premises in Littoinen are

expanded.

Teleste Antenna in Littoinen after

expansion in 1989. The satellite

dishes in the yard were used to re-

ceive any channel imaginable to test

the products with actual signals. In

addition, new products were being

developed. Melting snow and ice off

of the dishes was one of the most

difficult problems, until we started

using internal car heaters that were

placed behind the antenna, between

that and the heat-insulation shell

– this could not have been invented

by someone not living in the Nordic

Countries.

Slocon SL2000 was also an ordinary

phone.

87