Draft:Etere

Etere is an Italian international software company headquartered in Singapore. It focuses on creating software solutions for the IT and Broadcast Media sectors. It began in 1987 in Tolentino, Italy, as Societa Italiana Software (SIS) 'SIS' before the company split and renamed itself 'Etere' in 1999. Etere creates software for use in broadcast media and in IT offices mainly comprising of media management, automated workflows, and playout automations.

The company was founded in Italy by Fabio Gattari and Fabio Mazzocchetti. In 1999, SIS decided to split in two different companies; Etere and SIS Nord Italia, with Fabio Gattari taking charge of Etere and Fabio Mazzocchetti, SIS Nord Italia. Since then, Etere has established a worldwide customer and distributor base. To better facilitate the global reach of the company, it has moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2012.

The word Etere means Luminiferous aether in Italian, the wave-based light that has the unique ability to penetrate empty spaces, an exceptional property of waves.

History
Societa Italiana Software (SIS)'s first product was the SETA software built in 1992. The traffic and billing system for radio stations was integrated with a digital playout using standard PC and an audio card produced by another Italian company, Audiologic. It was the first in the world to produce a full audio broadcast using standard PC and audio stored in a network file server shared with multiple users using Novell Netware software. The SETA software was a solution that produced traffic, billing and scheduling documents as requested by the law of Italy for broadcasters. In 1989, SIS developed the Etere software for private broadcasting, a year later, SIS launched a software to manage transmission log and this was met with great success. In 1991, SIS worked together with Italian company, Audiologic to introduce a radio automation system based on computers that enabled them to manage a majority of the radio stations in Italy.

In 2012, Fabio Gattari helped to open a new entity in Singapore, Singycon Pte. Ltd. was launched as a consultancy for the Asia market. Fabio moved to Singapore while the Italian managers manage Etere SRL. Due to the economic crisis, Etere SRL was forced to close in 2015. Its employees created a new entity, MERP Systems, with the help of the Italian Unions (Confederazione Generale del Lavoro, Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions, Italian Labour Union). Singycon engaged MERP systems as subcontractors to expand the Asia and worldwide business. Singycon registered the Etere name as a trademark, as it was unregistered before. The new company was registered in Singapore as Etere Pte. Ltd. and it launched a new and more efficient software code that was developed from 2012 in Singapore. Etere Pte. Ltd manages all new and existing customers of Etere srl.

Around the same time, a few key founders of MERP created a new company, Tecla system to move the businesses from MERP and Etere to them. This was discovered in November 2015 and MERP was forced to close the activity, they experienced legal action and a big loss. By then, half the founders have left MERP systems to join Tecla system. However, Tecla system closed all activities after 4 months of its launch.

In 2016, Etere Pte. Ltd. opened a new Italian company, SGY srl in Tolentino Italy to serve as a support centre. Many of MERP former employees moved to SGY srl to manage the new business. SGY srl was developed with a new grant from the Italian government that was set up to help businesses start a new company in the earthquake area of Tolentino. The grant was set up in response to the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake that had damaged 40% of buildings and most of the production activities in Tolentino.

Achievements
In 2004, The Chamber of Commerce of Macerata in Italy selected Etere as one of five companies in the province who have distinguished themselves in their respective sectors of activity for their excellent and qualified results, including its position as the top fourth company in the world in the field of software for radio and TV.

In 2012, Etere MERP was shortlisted for the Digital Studio Awards for Innovation of the Year.

In 2016, Etere's contribution to the radio industry was featured in the book "Amo La Radio (I love radio)" written by Andrea Mosca and published by Agora & Co.

Products
In its early days, Etere focused on radio automation software systems. As the company expanded, it moved its focus to creating software for the television broadcasting sector. Etere products are mainly only software based, with the intention of operating without the need for hardware. Etere developed the Media Enterprise Resource Planning (MERP) framework, now referred to as the Etere Ecosystem, which manages the end-to-end broadcasting workflow with modular software solutions including Media Asset Management, Newsroom, Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM), Automation, Censorship, Airsales and Broadcast Management System (BMS), Ad Insertion, Closed Captions and Subtitle-Insertion and Channel-in-the-Cloud. Etere is used by customers worldwide including RAI Italy, TVRI Indonesia, CNBC Indonesia and TVD Momo. Etere works with a number of partners including Apple, Newtek, Adobe, and Bluefish444.