Ed Millana founded MSI in 1997 in Butuan City, Philippines after gaining experience in electronics and communications engineering. MSI initially provided repair and installation services but later began manufacturing its own broadcast electronics equipment under the Digital ST brand after securing permits from the National Telecommunications Commission in 2009. Digital ST products are now used globally by broadcasters and resellers recognize the quality of MSI's research and development efforts, which allowed it to become a regional representative for other foreign brands in the booming broadcast electronics industry.

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From the brains to a brand
Filed Under: Science & Technology , Electronic Commerce
First Posted 16:29:00 01/22/2011 inquirer.net
MANILA, Philippines?For several decades, Asian industries have seemed content to remain at the
background, providing manufacturing, research and other support services for Western brands.
In the last few years however, regional suppliers such as BenQ, HTC and Huawei have begun to make that
leap of faith to the forefront, casting themselves in the retail shelves and spotlights, and facing customers
worldwide carrying their own names.
Here in the Philippines, Butuan-based broadcast electronics company Marjeds Systems Inc. (MSI,
www.marjeds.com) is similarly throwing its hat in the global game, behind its own brand, Digital ST.
Digital ST is MSI?s stamp on its line of broadcast equipment for digital radio, TV, cable and satellite
systems. The Digital ST product portfolio includes broadcast transmitters, satellite uplink and distribution
facilities and equipment, as well as set-top boxes. MSI?s big, hairy and audacious goal is to be a key
player as the broadcast media industry inches closer toward full digitalization.
An ambitious goal, perhaps, but one that MSI majority owner and CEO Ed Millana, 39, believes the
company is prepared for. After all, he himself has trained for this moment since Grade 5.
Yes, Grade 5.
In 1984, Ed Millana?s father unexpectedly received a call to take on a job in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
He hurriedly prepared for his overseas contract, but was left to settle one last item of business before his
trip: what to do with an already paid-for non-formal course in electronics at the Agusan National High
School in Butuan? Gamely, his fifth-grade son took his slot. Six months of entire Saturdays at school later,
Ed Millana finished the course, topped his class and even graduated with honors.
In high school, Ed carried on his passion for electronics, repairing television sets and Betamax
video-cassette player-recorder units from his home-based shop. He later began his tertiary education at
Urios College in Butuan, where he earned a certification as an electronics technician, before moving to
Manila where he earned an Electronics Communication Engineering degree from the University of the East
in 1995.
Following a two-year stint with electronics company WEC, where he mastered the R&D and design
aspects of radio communications equipment, Millana returned to Butuan in 1997 to become an

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aspects of radio communications equipment, Millana returned to Butuan in 1997 to become an
entrepreneur. He founded MSI with a starting capital of P10,000. His company?s business initially
consisted of more repair work on radio communications equipment.
MSI?s big break came in 1998, when it was commissioned by Keppel Communications as a
sub-contractor to survey prospective cell sites in Cebu for Globe Telecom. Two years later, SMART
Communications hired MSI to build cellsites for its new digital GSM network, a contract that soon
expanded to over 250 cell sites. Apart from SMART, MSI also built some 50 cell sites for Globe Telecom.
In 2006, with a worthy war chest from its lucrative cell site construction contracts, MSI decided to invest
heavily in research and development, spending on software, test equipment and engineers.
The gamble paid off, as MSI began bagging contracts for R&D work from Chinese and Korean original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It was also awarded projects by UK defense contractor Racal
Communications.
Three years later, armed with experience and expertise as a subcontractor, MSI decided it was ready to
break in to the scene with its own brand. In 2009, MSI secured permits from the National
Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to manufacture and distribute broadcast electronics equipment.
The company subsequently began producing its own Digital ST-branded products.
Today, MSI?s Digital ST equipment is all over the world. In the Philippines, its transmitters are used by the
likes of Progressive Broadcasting Network and block timer UNTV. Abroad, Digital ST equipment has been
brought by MSI resellers to customers in several countries?even those on the leading edge of broadcast
electronics themselves, such as EMC in Germany, RRSat and Sentinel-SMG LLC in the United States,
and SET Ltd in Georgia. A Digital ST satellite encoder even reportedly sits on a rack of a Fox affiliate in the
US.
Apart from selling its own equipment, MSI now is also the regional representative of foreign brands in the
booming broadcast electronics space. These include the Israel-based LiveU brand of backpack satellite
uplink equipment.
?The Filipino has always been known to be crafty, brainy?in our own lingo, ?wais,?? says Millana. This has
served us well in supporting foreign business, whether as subcontractors or as service providers, he
explains.
?The challenge?and opportunity?for all of us now,? he shares, ?is to move up to the next level and bring
our own brands to the rest of the world.?
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