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Dear Sir or Madam
I wish to submit some information for your consideration. Although my area of expertise is video and audio communications I am very much open to looking at other
industries if positions become available. Being an entrepreneur for many years it is difficult to know how I fit in the corporate scheme. I am quite diverse in my abilities from marketing to
management to organizing large projects. I work and communicate well with all operational levels.
My background information may in part be difficult to relate to so I will provide a few reference points.
- Concord Pacific, a billion dollar development company owned in part Mr. Li Ka Shing (Hong Kong billionaire)
- Concord's 3 billion dollar False Creek site, in downtown Vancouver. This project is enormous with about fifty 30-story luxury apartment
buildings.
- Pacific Place, the name of the Concord site
- PPC, Pacific Place Communications, the joint venture company providing services to Pacific Place
- Stentor, A powerful corporate body that is comprised of all national telephone companies
- Netlink, a large US provider of national broadcast signals
- SMATV, Satellite Master Antenna Television, a satellite system supplying signals to apartment buildings.
- CRTC, The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, the governing government body regulating the telecommunications
industry
I wish only to demonstrate that I am a capable businessman and that I am comfortable working with Telecom presidents, engineering groups and installation
crews.
Thank You
Respectfully
Grant Smith
Background Information:
As per the cover letter, CCTV wishes to provide some background information on the company and its President, Mr. Grant Smith.
Background: For the years 1980 - 1986, I was involved in small and large single building SMATV (satellite master antenna television) systems in the Calgary area,
including design and installation.
Key Points:
- Managed one of the first satellite companies in Calgary
- Involved in sales and installed of one of the first very low power (VLP) 1-watt video transmission systems. This specific six-channel system was installed for the
community of Lake Louise, Alberta
- My sales figures for one year amounted to 1.5 million. This included SMATV, UHF and in-house distribution Systems
Performance:
1986 - 1991: Hired by a mid-sized cable company in the capacity of General Manager to take over two newly acquired, financially troubled cable systems. I performed as
follows:
- Increased market share from 52% to 87% in 3 years
- Increased commercial revenue (hotels and motels) from $6,000.00 per month to $200,000.00 per month in 2.5 years
- Increased total equity by $2.8 million in 3.5 years.
NOTE: received corporate "President's Award" for performance
Projects:
1991 - Started Canadian Cable TV Ltd. (CCTV Ltd.) as an SMATV/CATV consultant
- Presented B.C.Tel executive with the concept of SMATV as a business in the spring of 1991
- Contracted by B.C. Tel as a consultant to develop the SMATV idea
- Concord Pacific and B.C. Tel as joint venture partners agree to proceed with SMATV using Concord's 3 billion dollar False Creek site in April 1992. The
new company was named Pacific Place Communications Ltd. (PPC)
- Worked on terrestrial interference problem in Vancouver and recommended a dual cable design (for future video-on-demand or data services) as part of a
standard configuration
- CCTV hired engineers for in-house cable design and assisted in the equipment selection for the headend build. CCTV contracted a third party to build
complete headend and satellite farm
- Assisted in choosing, and was responsible for acquiring optical transmitters and receivers for fiber delivery
- CCTV designed the programming package (channel lineup) for Pacific Place
NOTE: This package was unique in the industry. The 40 plus channels including Superchannel, Family Channel, and five superstations for $29.50, was less that
half the price Roger's Cable was charging. This program offering received national media coverage for many months and demonstrated that other service providers could compete with cable
T.V.
- CCTV contracted with all networks and service providers (for PPC), administered all payables and handled most equipment acquisitions
- We have had substantial involvement in the legal and regulatory issues from the very beginning, and have worked closely with all participating legal
departments and outside legal firms
- Met with the CRTC in Vancouver and Ottawa in an attempt to sustain the "exemption for licensing" position we were operating under
Formed new company in November of 1993 named Western CCTV Distribution Inc. The company is 20% owned by Pacific Place Communications (which is the Concord/B.C.Tel
joint venture company) and 80% owned by CCTV Ltd. The transfer of over $600,000.00 in assets was made to Western to meet foreign ownership regulations. All payables relating to the operation were
thus administrated by Western (CCTV Ltd.). This strategic move allowed the system to operate until the licensing application was successful. Grant Smith was placed in the position of President of
this company.
CCTV Ltd. has consulted to numerous large corporations including Stentor and Netlink in the U.S. (owner and provider of the Denver network signals). Our primary focus
in 1996 was Multipoint Distribution Systems (MDS) and fiber optic delivery systems. These specific areas were to be the largest competitive markets to Cable T.V.
CCTV Ltd. has been working for the last few years with a U.S. based corporation with regards to digital compression of video signals. This company (name withheld due
to confidentiality agreement status) has tested its encoding, compression and decoding technology over a CATV fiber/coax system with remarkable results. We in the industry, know the value of a
competitive MPEG-2 based digital set-top box and CCTV has been working towards a reasonably priced, fully compliant unit.
Expertise:
CCTV Ltd. has been quite successful in the areas it has pursued. As a businessman, I have dealt primarily at an executive level, however I have been directly involved in system builds as well. I have
a good understanding of the following categories:
- The legal and regulatory environment
- Standard contracts and agreements
- Capital cost analysis
- VHF and UHF transmission and reception
- C-Band and Ku-Band satellite receive equipment
- Analog main trunk distribution, (RG-6 to .750 hard-wire) underground and aerial including passive and active equipment
- In-house distribution, residential and multi-family (hard-wire)
- In-house distribution, addressability for multi family
- Digital DBS (KA-Band) delivery
- MDS and MCS applications (digital format)
- Point to point broadband microwave (12 GHz)
- Terrestrial interference (4 GHz) and its impact on incoming analog satellite signals
- Programming providers and network contracts. Through many years in the industry, I know most program providers on a personal and/or first-name
basis
- Pay-Per-View and Video-On-Demand
- General marketing and promotion
- Customer service. NOTE: this is fundamental to our past and present operations
Personal Philosophy
I am very much involved in the concepts of positive thinking and positive action. I believe honesty is the best policy and structure my life and work according to
this mode of thinking.
Personal Data
Birth Date: September 13, 1952
Married with two children, aged 20 and 17 years.
If you require any further information or references, please email me at: cctv@shaw.ca or by telephoning:
1.403.678.4269
Thank you
Respectfully,
Grant Smith
President
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