OSS BroadNet Co., Ltd.: An Everyday Salaryman Turns Entrepreneur

Eiji Miyazoe
CEO and President, OSS BroadNet Co., Ltd.

Eiji Miyazoe graduated from the Resource Engineering Division of the School of Engineering at Tohoku University. After being engaged in research and development at Fujitsu Limited Cable Television Division, he joined General Instrument Japan (currently Motorola) in 1998, where he worked as an application engineer and provided technical support for cable network transmission devices. In 2000, he joined Liberate Technologies, where he was in charge of business development. In the following year, he established his own company, OSS BroadNet Co., Ltd., and is currently president and CEO.

Q: Please tell us a little about your business.

Miyazoe: We sell software that monitors cable television networks. In more specific terms, we sell business administration software that pinpoints problem areas and effectively informs a cable television station's technicians of those problems. The end users are not consumers, but cable television stations, so unfortunately no matter how much market penetration we have, our brand recognition doesn't increase.

Q: Did you always want to start your own business?

Miyazoe: No, not at all! (laughs) I was comfortable working for other companies and didn't feel any particular need to start a business.

Q: Did you have any ambition to become the CEO of a company?

Miyazoe: No. I studied in the ordinary way, went to college the ordinary way, job hunted the ordinary way, and went to work the ordinary way. (laughs)

Q: So why did you start your own business?

Miyazoe: Around the time I left my first job at Fujitsu for the major cable manufacturer General Instruments (now Motorola), DOCSIS, the cable modem standard from America, was spreading throughout the world. At General Instruments, I worked on expanding the market for DOCSIS in Japan and providing technical support for cable network transmission devices such as optical node amps, which were being imported to Japan. In order to support these products, it is vital to have sensing technology to detect any failures. However, when we used sensors made by the headquarters in America, we started getting all kinds of complaints about repeated failures in our products. I wondered if there was a different way to monitor the devices and told people at headquarters over and over that we should commercialize monitoring software--but my suggestion fell on deaf ears. That's when I began to feel that the only way to sell monitoring software was to start my own company. My company was born more out of a desire to solve customer's problems than any vision or enthusiasm for starting a company.

Q: What is the attraction of cable television?

Miyazoe: Cable is an interactive media. When I was in college, I read the book The Media Lab, by Professor Stewart Brand at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and I became dedicated to cable. From that point on, I developed a habit of thinking of everything in terms of cable television! (laughs) That book said that in the next 20 years there would be a financial revolution, a liquidation of real estate, and a birth of interactive media centered on cable television. I've believed cable television is going to change since I was in school. Not all of those predictions came true, but I think we can say that cable television is a major form of media in America. The penetration of cable television is now over 40% in Japan as well.

Q: In 2009, TV broadcasts are going to switch to digital. Is this going to have any effect on your business?

Miyazoe: The switch to digital broadcasting is a big opportunity in two respects. One is that there will be a new market for monitoring downstream images. When viewers complain about poor image quality, the television stations' excuse that "noise" is responsible will no longer work. With the current monitoring software, not all locations hindering the downstream image can be seen, so a better product is necessary.

Another opportunity is that it will probably be necessary to monitor the data of IP television. Discussion is popping up all over about how to reuse the channels that were used by analog broadcasts. I think that these channels will be used for transmitting large amounts of data. With the current DOCSIS technology, you can only transmit data at 30 Mbps (megabits per second). However, next-generation DOCSIS technologies will be able to transmit data at over 100 Mbps. I would like to do further research on technology for monitoring the next-generation DOCSIS and to make next-generation DOCSIS almost synonymous with OSSBN's products.

Q: What about the influence of fiber optics?

Miyazoe: I think it is immense. I don't think that the word "cable" is very good. That technology is already past, and all that remains is the cable television business. In ten years, they will all be optical communication providers. However, this revolution will not occur overnight, so there will be a period where cable and fiber optics coexist. Then there will be a gradual move to optical. In order to proceed in stages, we need tools to alleviate the hiccups that will occur along the way, so I think there is a great business opportunity there. This business opportunity will probably disappear when everything has switched to optical, but I think this period, where everyone is saying "Optical is coming, optical is coming," is a great chance. We are currently doing research and development on the next-generation DOCSIS and monitoring software for optical communications.

Q: Has the economic slowdown had an effect on your business?

Miyazoe: Yes. We were finishing a contract with a certain cable company and they suddenly contacted us to say that they no longer had the budget to buy our software. When we asked why, they said that their fund management had failed. However, the cable television industry is similar to the infrastructure industry, so it takes almost a year for it to reflect market conditions. The retail industry receives an immediate blow, but the electrical power industry is not influenced much by recessions and there is a possibility that demand for electricity will actually expand. Cable television companies use utility poles, so their business is strongly connected to electrical companies. I think that the effects of the downturn will be minimal compared with other industries.

Q: By the way, how do you spend your time outside of work?

Miyazoe: I'm a big fan of the Sharks pro-hockey team, so I go to their games a lot. I played ice hockey myself in college. I wasn't very good, though. I'm from Nagasaki (a city and area with a warm climate in the south of Japan), so I had always longed to play winter sports. I didn't ski because a movie called Watashi wo Suki ni Tsuretette (Take me Skiing) was popular at the time, and it gave the impression that skiing was a light and frivolous activity.

Q: Oh, so you were more the serious type.

Miyazoe: Yeah, but that didn't last! (laughs)

Q: I've heard a rumor that the reason you set up your business in San Jose was because it is the home of the Sharks.

Miyazoe: Um, this interview is going to be made public, right? Then no, that wasn't the reason at all! (laughs)

Q: Do you still play ice hockey now?

Miyazoe: I think if I were to play in a game now, I'd just end up getting some broken bones! (laughs) I just skate. If you don't exercise for a long time, you lose mental sharpness and become more and more negative. When I work out, I feel like everything will be fine, and I like that.

(Editor: Michiru Lackey)