Company - Sofia Digital

OUR KEY PLAYERS

Ari Pöyhtäri

CEO, Co-Founder

Responsible for the overall management, strategy and business development. One of the Co-founders.

Juha Joki

Director, Broadcast and Testing

In charge of DVB Broadcast products and testing and certification services.

Juho Mäyränpää

Sales Director

In charge of sales, distribution, product packaging and marketing operations.

Mika Kanerva

COO, Executive Vice President

Responsible for ongoing business, operations and R&D. Also one of the Co-founders.

Tommi Riikonen

Product Line Manager

Responsible for Sofia Backstage^® Studio and Sofia Backstage^® Author.

WE COME FROM FINLAND

Finland in the late ‘90s was a real hotbed of exciting new innovations. Digital mobile phones, internet technologies, digital broadcasting… many pioneering new technologies later affecting billions of lives were developed here from the scratch.

In this exciting atmosphere some of the founders of Sofia Digital met during a common research project about nascent digital TV broadcasting. It soon developed into a business idea, and Sofia Digital was founded in the year 2000.

Back then, while many device manufacturers were creating their individual solutions, Sofia Digital believed in universal standards and following them. “Sofia” means “wisdom” in Greek, and adhering to standards is a wise thing to do.

Nowadays, Sofia Digital combines the pioneering knowledge of digital broadcasting and internet technologies with Scandinavian design and usability ideals. This way, our solutions are both functional and pleasant to use.

This Finnish recipe for success has been proven time and time again in every corner of the globe – with very satisfied customers. The way we see it, everyone in Sofia Digital should be proud of the results of their work.

WHY FINLAND

For a small country, Finland has been the home of many groundbreaking companies and technical innovations such as Nokia and Linux. Finland was also one of the first countries to adopt DVB technology, which led to pioneering work with digital TV standards and technologies.

Sofia Digital operates in Tampere area, some 200 kilometres from the Helsinki metropolitan region but easily reachable via a train connection. Tampere is known for its industrial history and in particular Finlayson textile factory which was the largest industrial facility in Finland for a long time. It was in Finlayson's factory building where the first electric lights in Finland and the Scandinavia were turned on in 1882. The power for the lighting came from the near-by Tammerkoski rapids where the Finland's first hydropower plant was established.

Today the factory buildings and Tammerkoski rapids are still and an important landmark in Tampere, but unlike the factories which are not operational anymore the rapids are still being used as before. Sofia Digital is proudly continuing the area's industrial tradition by using the green energy coming from the Tampere rapids.