UK media group Carlton Communications Plc, which operates independent television franchises in London and the Midlands, is seeing exciting prospects for its Quantel visual effects systems after a healthy year’s trading. The group saw revenue up 6.2% to 1.68bn British pounds with profits up 20% at 295m pounds. In spite of this, shares were down 14 pence at 489.5, due mainly to the fall in the FTSE 100 index during the day. The products division, which includes Quantel, contributed revenue of 165m pounds. Excluding the sale of the Abekas Video Systems unit at the end of last year (CI No 2,752), this represents an increase of 22%, the company said. Quantel provides tapeless visual effects systems, Henry, for television, and Domino for film. It also offers Paintbox and Picturebox graphics equipment for still images and Hal for moving pictures. The graphics range was augmented this year with the launch of Combo, a product aimed at smaller broadcasters which combines Paintbox graphics and Picturebox still store. Carlton says Henry is maintaining a clear lead in the high end special effects market, and was used to bring science fiction to the small screen in the series the X Files. It is also widely used in commercials. The company says its Clipbox video server launched this summer (CI No 2,757) and Editbox tapeless editing system are adding a new dimension to the company’s growth. Customers for Clipbox include CNN in the US, British Sky Broadcasting Plc in the UK and CLT in Luxembourg. Solid State Logic saw another year of growth, with profits up by some 15%. The company says it is seeing an increasing use of surround sound techniques and Solid State’s digital systems are playing a key role in this. Carlton proposes a final dividend of 6.7 pence, making a final dividend of 11.1 pence, up 17.5%.
