Capital spending on expensive equipment was never likely to be a priority for broadcasters struggling with declining advertising revenues, and this has had a definite knock-on effect for broadcast equipment specialist Vislink. Delays to spending decisions in important sectors plagued the first half and caused underlying orders to fall 14 per cent to £20.5m. But management reckons that brighter news is in the pipeline after seeing a notably better start to second-half trading.
Order intake might have been sluggish but Vislink benefited from a much better performance in its traditional markets. For example, revenues at the broadcast division rose by 42 per cent to £24.2m, helped by a rebound in European markets, the integration of Gigawave and healthy demand for wireless camera systems in the US. Geographically, the UK performed best with sales 62 per cent higher at £18.3m. By contrast, under-pressure government budgets kept surveillance revenues flat at £3.3m, but the division reported order intake of £4.2m.