Telect Inc., the big Liberty Lake-based maker of telecommunications equipment, has launched a new division to serve the broadcast industry and industrial customers, as well as the relatively new and fast-expanding market of home automation and entertainment.


Telect has been serving the broadcast and industrial markets informally for several years and began targeting the high-end home market more aggressively last fall. The new division, called the Signal Management Group, cements the companys pursuit of those growing business sectors, Telect says.


We recognize that in todays marketplace, voice, video, and data are all converging with the telephony market, says Wayne Williams, Telects president and CEO. For us, expanding from our standard telephony products into the audio-video realm is a logical way to respond to the changing marketplace while growing our company.


The new division already has a line of products, called VersaFrame, which include professional audio and visual modules, controllers, and patch panels for broadcast, cable-TV, production, distance-learning, videoconferencing, and home-automation and entertainment uses. The gear handles both audio and visual signals in both digital and analog form.


While (the division) may be a relative newcomer to the broadcast and entertainment markets, it has a full line of innovative products, as well as strong financial backing from a long-established leader in the communications field, says John Hartis, the divisions newly named managing director.


Hartis says the divisions current products have been designed primarily for commercial purposes, such as in television and cable operations, restaurants, airport terminals, and convention facilities. Telect has recently sold such gear for all the Disney Co. retail stores and in several of the Hard Rock Caf nightclubs. Still, he says, the gear also is starting to be used in high-end residences, for integration into home theater systems, security systems, and home-automation systems. Later, products might be introduced for more mainstream home uses, he adds.


In addition to Hartis, Telect has added or promoted the following people in the new division: Scott Dhaenens, industry marketing manager; Dave Tewel, manager of systems engineering; Dick Jones, applications engineer; Dick Carroll, western region sales manager; and Michael Creamer, sales representative for the Pacific Northwest states. In all, the divisions sales and marketing team employs 10 people. The products are manufactured in Spokane along with other Telect products for telecommunications.


Telect designs and manufactures fiber-optic, digital, and analog-based communications products for voice and data systems. It sells internationally to the telephone, utilities, broadcast, cable-TV, and entertainment industries.