Aztech Systems evaluates plant sites in Indonesia
Aztech Systems evaluates plant sites in Indonesia
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Multimedia company Aztech Systems is planning a new plant overseas and is currently evaluating possible sites, president Michael Mun has said.
"We are evaluating sites in Bintan, Indonesia, and Suzhou in China," Mun told reporters during a tour of its Singapore factory on Monday.
He declined to say how big the plant would be, but added: "A decent sized factory should be about 100,000 sq feet." Mun did not say how much Aztech would invest in the new plant but said it was likely to be rented.
The new plant could start production as early as the second half of this year if a suitable site were found, said Mun.
Aztech has 160,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Singapore, Batam in Indonesia and in Dong Guan in China. Together, they produce 600,000 boards for audio and video products and personal computers and 200,000 CD ROM drives a month.
Mun said Aztech would launch its first desktop video- conferencing card at a computer show in Germany in March. The card, based on the ITU-H.320 conferencing standard, is designed for Windows 95 and transmits video images at 15 frames per second.
It also plays back 24-bit MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) movies with full motion video quality.
"According to Dataquest report 1995, worldwide shipment for video conferencing hardware is expected to hit four million units by the year 2000, about a 3,000 percent increase from 1995," said Mun.
The card is aimed at both the original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and retail markets, he said.
The video conferencing card, packaged with a camera and software, will be priced at US$1,499. Mass shipment is expected in June.
Aztech is also launching a three-dimensional video and audio integrated accelerator card named 3D Galaxy Multimedia Accelerator, to bring arcade quality games to the PC. The 3D Galaxy is aimed at the worldwide game home markets, said Mun.
Bundled with various CD games, it will be priced at US$329 and mass delivery is expected in May.
Patricia Ng, Aztech's vice-president of marketing and sales said the company expected to sell 50,000 units of the video conferencing cards a year and 100,000 of the 3D Galaxy cards per month.