Crawford Media Services Future-Proofs Sports Industry Through Digitization of Legacy Content

The Sports Video Group is pleased to welcome Crawford Media Services as a corporate sponsor. Based in Atlanta, the privately owned company provides end-to-end creative and postproduction services, as well as solutions for mass migration of legacy content to digital formats, storage and archiving, media-asset management, and e-commerce–enabled online publishing.

“Sports video is more than just a way to extend viewership beyond the arena,” says EVP/CTO Steve Davis. “Close-ups, editing, graphics, replays, and commentary capture the drama and tell the story in ways that can only be done with media. That’s why demand for sports content will only continue to grow. Growing demand means growing value, so it’s important to preserve legacy content and to use solid management practices for new content. Membership in SVG allows Crawford Media Services to be a part of the sports-video community; to teach, to learn, and to be immersed in this vibrant industry.”

In 2007, Crawford launched its media-management division, offering mass digitization, hosted asset management, digital archive, OTT services, and a distributed-metadata workforce. These services were specifically designed to solve problems for specialty-content owners, including long-term security, visibility, and access for large content collections.

Crawford works with numerous clients in the sports industry. The company digitized 26,000 hours of legacy content for the WWE’s OTT channel and more than 3,000 hours of network Olympics coverage for The Paley Center for Media. In addition, Crawford has worked with the ACC and IMG/University of Georgia, as well as with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, the United Nations, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, to name a few.

Founded in 1981, Crawford has also been a creative postproduction company for more than 30 years, offering editorial, graphics, audio, and film services. The company’s purpose-built facility incorporates custom-designed digitization stations, state-of-the-art data center, redundant cooling and generator power, plus dark fiber into the Southeast’s largest carrier hotel.