eng TELE-audiovision 1411

COMPANY REPORT
Software Developer
High-end Software
Development for
Digital TV
Alexander Wiese
ë
Novi Sad
Right in the heart of Europe there
is a company with a total of 400 engineers
looking at continuously improving
software for digital TV reception
and at bringing to fruition new ideas
and strategies. These days, you’d expect
businesses like that to set up tent
on far away shores, so it’s all the more
surprising to find RT-RK in the city of
Novi Sad in Serbia. With a population
of 400,000 Novi Sad is the second largest
city in Serbia, right after the capital
Belgrade, and it is here that a small
centre for highly-specific software solutions
has come into being. Two large
enterprises in that line of business are
located here – and they are even headquartered
in neighbouring buildings,
sharing the same staff cafeteria. One
of the two companies has a focus on
energy and ways to save energy, while
the other company bears the name RT-
RK and offers a whole range of software
solutions for digital TV technology
(www.rt-rk.com).
“Our local University of Technology
here in Novi Sad has an excellent reputation
based on its top-notch study programmes,”
Vukota Pekovic explains. He
holds the position of „Head of QA Systems
Group“ and as such manages and
coordinates various teams of software
developers at RT-RK. Referring to the
university, he at the same time leads us
■
back to the very beginnings
of RT-RK. “The company came
into existence in 1991, when
university professor Vladimir Kovaceyic
together with four of his colleagues
established a spin-off company.”
One of the initial tasks of the newly
founded business with its then workforce
of 12 engineers was to develop
computerised telephone systems.
Then years later, in 2001, a German
company from the automotive industry
took notice of RT-RK and acquired
a shareholding in the company. The
company had grown to employ more
than 100 engineers by that time and
with the new partner from Germany its
development strategy was extended to
also cover the consumer sector and –
above all – the automotive sector. At
one point in time the original founder
of RT-RK, professor Vladimir Kovaceyic,
felt that automotive technology had
taken over too much of the company’s
business and sold his shareholding,
only to create a new company with a
renewed focus on audio and video developments.
After another few years
the German automotive partner also
withdrew, which paved the way for the
original RT-RK founder to merge his
newly established business with the
existing RT-RK company. Vladimir Kovaceyic
also took over all employees,
Professor Vladimir Kovaceyic is the founder and manager of software company RT-RK,
which develops a whole range of innovative applications for the digital TV business.
which subsequently created a workforce
comprising 350 engineers in
2012. “This number keeps rising, and
thanks to our impressive growth rates
we now have 400 engineers,” Vukota
Pekovic proudly states. Until 2011 RT-
RK had been spread across a number
of different buildings close to the university
in Novi Sad. In that year, however,
RT-RK moved to a new large-scale
office building close to another major
software company. “There are still
some 100 engineers working in one of
the original premises in the vicinity of
the university, while our headquarters
here has some 250 engineers. We also
have a branch office in the capital Belgrade
with 50 engineers,” Vukota Pekovic
continues, providing some details
about the company’s three sites.
400 engineers is quite a number
– what are they actually working on?
“40% look at new software for chipsets,
while 50% develop software for TV
panels and receivers. This software
is then sold to manufacturers, OEM
manufacturers, IC producers, content
providers and also large distribution
companies for digital TV.” What about
the remaining 10%? They are involved
in the newly created division of telecom
technology. “This year we will generate
sales of around 15 Mio Euro and we’re
looking at annual growth rates of 15%
to 20%.”
As always, we are hugely interested
in on-going projects that are currently
in the pipeline for RT-RK engineers. The
BBT product line (bbt.rt-rk.com) that
focuses on receiver testing looks particularly
interesting to us, since more
than 100 software engineers are allocated
to that division alone at the moment.
BBT is short for Black Box Testing
and come to think of it, there could
hardly be a more fitting description. RT-
RK offers a test environment that allows
an in-depth check and evaluation
of digital TV receivers according to a
virtually unlimited set of clearly defined
114 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Leading Digital TV Industry Publication — 11-12/2014 — www.TELE-audiovision.com