Front Porch Digital Joins USC’s Entertainment Technology Center

Front Porch Digital has joined the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC), a nonprofit, member-funded organization that explores issues related to the creation, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content.

ETC@USC acts as an organizer and accelerator for entertainment technology and commerce through research, publications, events, collaborative projects, and shared exploratory labs and demonstrations. As an expert in digitization, migration, metadata, and content storage, Front Porch Digital will use its membership to help the entire industry address some of its most challenging data management issues, and then transfer those advances to other markets such as sports, government, archiving, and broadcast.

“Front Porch Digital leads the industry in content storage management and they are experts on so many topics of interest to our membership, so we are delighted to have them join our organization,” said ETC Chairman Vince Roberts, who is the executive vice president of global operations and chief technology officer at Disney/ABC Television Group. “Front Porch Digital is already taking a very helpful role in our metadata workgroups and has invested a lot of executive time and thought leadership into this relationship. We welcome the company’s involvement.”

Front Porch Digital has always worked collaboratively with individual industry partners. By working within the auspices of the ETC, it can broaden that collaboration. Joining at the Gold Member level, Front Porch Digital will have the opportunity to participate in all of the ETC’s projects and working groups. Being an active participant in the industry’s cutting-edge projects ensures the company will remain at the forefront of innovation surrounding CSM, migration, and digitization. In that way, Front Porch Digital will ensure that its customers’ needs are well-represented as entertainment technology develops and changes.

“Working within the frame of the ETC is an entirely new level of collaboration,” said Mike Knaisch, president and CEO of Front Porch Digital. “Our membership in an institution so well regarded for its contributions to the entertainment industry enables Front Porch Digital to participate in ETC’s research projects and act as a subject matter expert, when relevant.”

Knaisch continued, “I have long thought that the ETC@USC is one of the best examples of industry collaboration in the world, so I have involved my best, most talented people in the organization and its initiatives. We are ready to go to work.”