Grass Valley Names John Carter to Director of Business Development; Deploys GV Alyve for Miss Germany 2020

Grass Valley has added to the live and sports market in EMEA with the appointment of John Carter as director of business development. Also, the company’s cloud-based video production and distribution solution was central to AKK TV’s live streaming of the Miss Germany 2020 competition, held on February 15 at the Europa-Park Arena near Freiburg.

Miss Germany 2020
GV Alyve, allowed the German OB company to leverage one-click distribution of the live HD event stream to Facebook and the dedicated Miss Germany YouTube channel.

“We looked at a number of different solutions on the market and GV Alyve exceeded our expectations both on functionality and ease of use,” commented John Sturm, Managing Director of AKK TV. “We’ve worked with the Grass Valley and LOGIC teams in the past and they really understand our requirements. The added capability GV Alyve brings to our workflow allows us to grow the live streaming area of our business without adding complexity to our OB set-up.”

Using GV Alyve, the AKK TV production team was able to quickly and easily create digital broadcasts from within a web browser, switching seamlessly between live streams to create the final feed. Integrating seamlessly with AKK TV’s existing Grass Valley workflow, GV Alyve also allows graphics to be added to the live stream and provides a straightforward interface for managing social interactions across multiple platforms. The system was supplied by Grass Valley’s German reseller, LOGIC media solutions.

“We’re very pleased to see a successful first deployment for GV Alyve with AKK TV. In today’s live productions environment fast and smart ways of working are central to our customers’ needs,” says Pete Semerak, Grass Valley’s vice president, production GV Alyve gives broadcasters and production companies a simple way to integrate online and social delivery, allowing production staff to distribute media to viewers with a single click and ultimately satisfying consumer demand for always-on content.”

John Carter
Based in Newbury, Carter rejoins Grass Valley to leverage his experience of live production applications and workflows and the mission-critical demands of mass audience sports coverage.

Carter’s career spans three decades in the broadcast media industry, holding both technical and commercial positions across sales, engineering and senior product management. He joins Grass Valley’s EMEA management team in a senior commercial role reporting to Tim Banks, vice president of sales, EMEA.

“We are delighted to welcome John back to the Grass Valley team. He brings extensive expertise and strategic thinking that will further strengthen our lead position in this key growth market for Grass Valley,” says Banks. “John is highly regarded and respected by customers, partners, and colleagues alike and he will act as a voice of authority evangelizing the benefits of our live solutions for UHD, HDR, and IP workflows. Grass Valley is deeply committed to putting our customers at the heart of everything we do, and as their needs for live and sports change we will collaborate closely to develop innovative approaches designed to ensure they and we remain at the forefront of the industry.”

Prior to his appointment, Carter was vice president of product management for EVS, with responsibility for the company’s production switcher portfolio and roadmap. Previously, Carter was senior product manager with Grass Valley, with a focus on switchers and vision mixing products and oversaw strong revenue growth and a series of market breakthroughs.