Cinedeck Adds Industry Experts to North American Team

Cinedeck has appointed skilled industry experts, with considerable knowledge in file-based workflows for the entertainment industry, to further support sales and deployment of its Cinedeck RX and MX record, playback, monitor, and transcode systems in live, broadcast, and postproduction markets across North America.

Cinedeck has signed former Assimilate product specialist Michael Forrest, as its new Product Specialist for the West Coast, and Daine Pearson, from US sales and marketing concern Asia Media Products, as its new Sales Engineer for the East Coast. The signings follow the recent appointment of Suzette Ferguson as Cinedeck Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, and are designed to leverage a wave of recent successes for the Cinedeck MX and RX – including sales to Madison Square Garden in NY and Vendata in Los Angeles, plus deployment on Bravo channel’s culinary show Top Chef, and The Rolling Stones’ recent NY concerts.

As Product Specialist for the West Coast, Forrest will work out of Los Angeles on product R&D, liaising with customers on workflow integration, technical support and training. Forrest is a quadruple Emmy Award-winner for broadcast design and editing, and has over 17 years of experience as a creative digital artist, producer and online editor/colorist. He has worked with major Hollywood studios and post houses including Walden Media, Warner Bros. MPI, Sony Studios, Freemantle Media and MBA Productions. As a finishing artist he has delivered the HD, 2K and 4K masters for many features, broadcast shows and trailers. He also applied conform, color and compositing skills to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and Hostel, plus top-rated TV shows Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers and Storage Wars. While at Fullerton College, Videosymphony and Moviola, he trained hundreds of international Avid editors. He joins Cinedeck from Assimilate, where he designed workflows and demonstrated file-based camera-to-post solutions to customers.

Pearson also brings a wealth of file-based production knowledge to Cinedeck. He joins the company after a stint as Sales Manager with Asia Media Products (AMP), where he helped to introduce Cinedeck RX and MX systems to major customers including US Navy/Dahlgren, NBC and CNN. Prior to AMP, Pearson was the technical and marketing specialist for Grass Valley’s Infinity range of file-based products. He also has considerable production experience working as a director, producer, DP and editor on documentary, corporate and news productions for a variety of international and American organizations, such as CNN/Turner Broadcasting, ABC, BBC, Microsoft, The Learning Channel and the Comedy Channel. As systems designer and integrator, Pearson developed Avid, digital linear as well as more traditional component video postproduction systems.

“Cinedeck is experiencing significant momentum in sales and deployments of its technology on high-profile live broadcasts and episodic TV productions. Bringing in additional vertical-market experts, to help the company capitalise on this success, while enhancing the reseller and customer experiences, will position Cinedeck for worldwide growth,” said Suzette Ferguson, Cinedeck Senior VP of Worldwide Sales. “Furthermore, we are getting set to expand our product line and release significant new products and software features during 2013 – including a next-generation, ultra-portable recorder with RAW and 4K support, plus enhanced tape deck replacement toolsets. Michael and Daine possess all of the knowledge and workflow expertise in these areas as well to move the company forward as an industry leader.”

Speaking about his appointment, Forrest said, “I like to work at the digital vanguard, and Cinedeck is a growing company with a well-respected product family built on innovative technology. It’s a busy and exciting time and I look forward to working closely with customers who want to reap the rewards of tapeless, file-based production and post.”

Pearson commented, “Cinedeck has made considerable strides in tapeless, file-based workflows by collaborating with customers in production, broadcast, mobile OB and post-production and responding to what they need. We now want to build on those strong foundations and introduce the phenomenal capabilities of the Cinedeck RX3G and MX recorders to brand new customers across the US.”