Kevin Callahan, Fox Sports, VP, Field Operations and Engineering

Kevin Callahan is tasked with providing coverage of events large and small, both on location and from the studio. He joined Fox Sports Media Group in the summer of 2013 to oversee the technical planning and development/deployment of new technology. One of his key roles is overseeing Fox’s World Cup operations and engineering, as well as operations for Fox’s entire soccer portfolio. For the previous eight years, Callahan was the engineer in charge of Game Creek’s Fox trucks. In that time, he served as EIC for the NFL on Fox, including Fox’s coverage of Super Bowl XLII, Super Bowl XLV, and NASCAR on Fox. Callahan has worked with vendors and Fox to migrate to a tapeless workflow on site and expand a tape-based workflow from site to the studio. Prior to joining Game Creek Video, Callahan worked for NBC News Tech Ops providing live coverage of news events from around the world.

Brandon Costa, SVG, Director of Digital

Brandon Costa covers the sports video production industry with a focus on live streaming, over-the-top (OTT), social media, and other digital distribution technologies and platforms. He also directs SVG’s internal digital strategies launching the company’s video outfit, ‘SVG On Demand,’ designing and overseeing its mobile application, ‘SVG Mobile,’ and serving as executive producer and host of The SVG Podcast. Costa serves as program director of networking events serving the SVG College and SVG Digital communities. Prior to his time at SVG, Costa spent five years producing digital content for MLB Advanced Media.

Keith D'Alessandro, NASCAR, Senior Coordinating Producer

Keith D’Alessandro is the senior coordinating producer for NASCAR, Live Events and International Production. An Emmy award-winning live events producer, he also serves as lead producer for NASCAR Productions and NBC’s coverage of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championships. With 30 years of experience in television production, including 25 years in remote production, D’Alessandro has supported some of the biggest events for ESPN, ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, and other streaming platforms.

D’Alessandro started with NASCAR in 2003, as lead producer of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on SPEED Channel and FS1. Prior to NASCAR, he worked in production at ESPN for a decade, starting in studio production working on SportsCenter and many other ESPN studio shows. D’Alessandro then became part of their live event staff, serving as associate producer, tape producer, and ISO producer for ESPN’s original Emmy award-winning NASCAR coverage.

D’Alessandro resides in Davidson, NC with his wife and three children.

Jorge Duarte, NBCUniversal, Senior Director of Production Engineering

Jorge Duarte is the engineering lead for NBCUniversal at Telemundo Center, supporting sports, news, entertainment, scripted, and unscripted productions. He  joined NBCUniversal in the summer of 2019 and is leading the technical planning, design, and implementation for the 2022 World Cup. In his nearly 20 years of experience working in television, production and engineering, Duarte has supported events including the 2010 & 2014 Men’s World Cup, as well as numerous news events and entertainment shows.

Duarte holds a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Florida International University.

Duke Duong, Equinix, Head of Media and Entertainment

Duke Duong is head of media and entertainment solutions at Equinix. He has led teams and operations at top firms such as NASA, Ascent Media (Deluxe), Hulu, Disney, HPE, Hitachi, SIMMWAVE, Comcast, and Equinix. With over 20 plus years in implementing strategic and tactical enterprise technology solutions in various industries, he spent 17 years building out and supporting broadcasters, content creation, and OTT platforms. Duong is currently leading and developing state-of-art solutions to help Equinix M&E customers to transform their digital infrastructure to support today’s digital needs.

John Faratzis, The Professional Fighters League, VP, Production & Programming

Mike Flathers, Signiant, Chief Solutions Officer

With over 30 years of software engineering experience, Mike Flathers has a passion for pushing the technology envelope. He has a proven track record of working alongside customers to create solutions to some of their most complex problems with an API-first mindset. A media and entertainment veteran, Flathers has deep technical experience with media and its surrounding workflows. An Emmy Award winning technologist, prior to joining Signiant, he was CTO for IBM’s Aspera business unit and an IBM distinguished engineer. Flathers was part of the executive team at Aspera when it was acquired by IBM in 2014.

Prior to Aspera, Flathers held several hands-on technical leadership positions, including CTO at Sorenson Media. He has deep networking experience having spent 14 years at Novell after the company acquired Excelan where he was a developer and technical leader for the LANWorkplace product, the first suite of TCP/IP utilities for DOS and Windows. As the chief solutions officer at Signiant, Flathers plays a hands-on role, where he works closely with customers and internal Signiant teams to bridge the gap between the solutions customers need and Signiant’s product and integration roadmap.

Bruce Goldfeder, NFL Media, VP, Broadcast Engineering

Bruce Goldfeder is VP of Engineering for NFL Media in his 10^th season, after a storied career including VP of engineering at CBS Sports for seven years, director of engineering at Venue Services Group for two years, engineer in charge/director of field operations at Madison Square Garden Network for 20 years, and audio sweetening engineer at All Mobile Video for four years.

Prior to coming to NFL, Goldfeder had been a key member of the engineering leadership team for eight (8) Olympics including 1992 (Barcelona Spain), 1996 (Atlanta USA), 1998 (Salt Lake City USA), 2000 (Sydney Australia), 2002 (Nagano Japan), 2004 (Athens Greece), 2006 (Torino Italy), and 2008 (Beijing China).

At NFL, Goldfeder oversees the entire technical engineering plant at NFL LA, including technical design, infrastructure, staffing, budgets that supports the full facility including the 5 stages/PCRs/ACRs, Podcast, VO Booth, Newsroom, all offices, as well as connectivity to SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, NFL Films, Encompass Atlanta, all 30 stadiums, and more.

Most recently, Goldfeder oversaw the technical plan, IT coordination, IPTV design, 2110 routing design, stadium coordination, studio technical/design, and security for the migration to the 2021 move to Inglewood NFL LA facility.

Bill Herbstman, Producer and Associate Director

Freelance network sports producer and associate director Bill Herbstman has enjoyed a four-decade-long career in sports television production that has earned him more than 39 Emmy Award nominations and nine wins. His remarkable career has taken him across five million air miles across the world, and he has the unique distinction of having worked on live sporting events in each of the 50 states. A 1983 graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in political science, it was reading Jim McKay’s My Wide World as a boy that cemented his love of sports television and led him to carve out a niche in the industry that is unrivaled. His expertise runs the gamut of sport and encompasses every level of competition, from collegiate to professional and 13 Olympic Games, beginning in 1980 in Lake Placid through the 2016 Games in Rio. Herbstman has worked for every major network, serving on-staff at CBS Sports from 1984-87, ESPN from 1987-89, and at NBC Sports from 1991-2002. Since 2002, he has been a freelance associate director at those outlets, as well as ABC, Fox, The Golf Channel, and numerous others. He has performed in various capacities on nearly every major sporting event, including the Grand Slam of Tennis (Australian, French, US Opens and Wimbledon); Golf’s Majors (The Masters, US and British Opens, and The PGA Championship); Horse Racing’s Triple Crown (The Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes); and Auto Racing (The Daytona 500, The Indianapolis 500, Formula 1, NASCAR, CART, Champ Car, and The American LeMans Series, for which he produced the NBC Sports package in 2000 and 2001). In football, Herbstman has been involved in the broadcast of NCAA regular season and Bowl games, and has worked on NFL game coverage for four major networks and ESPN, including four Super Bowls and the highest-rated in history—Super Bowl XVI in 1982. In addition, Herbstman has also been a member of the Directors Guild of America since 1997.

Kristian Hernández, SVG, Senior Editor

Kristian Hernández is currently the senior editor of Sports Video Group. In his role, he is responsible for covering team-based and in-venue productions and various other sports technology topics within the industry. In addition, he is the program director for the annual SVG Venue Summit and SVG Teams Summit.

Before joining SVG, Hernández served as co-founder of CHC-TV, the first student-run television studio at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, PA. While at CHC, Hernández produced a daily sports show named “On the Hill with Hernández” — covering all men’s and women’s athletics for the college. Also, Hernández spearheaded the college’s newspaper, “The Griffin”, as its Sports Editor. Hernández graduated with a BA in Communications. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he currently lives in Queens, NY.

Kristopher Hritz, RBMH, North America, VNOC Operations Lead | Live Event Streaming

Kristopher Hritz is currently the head of RBMH North America, Media Technologies: Live Broadcast and Streaming. He oversees the glass to glass technical process from camera to end user devices of events both in the U.S. and globally, providing experiences that deliver brand relevance through unique live events and delivers them to owned channels, as well social media platforms where consumers spend their time most. Hritz has worked in livestream for many years and has been responsible for the live content of many brands including, Blizzard Entertainment, Marvel Digital Entertainment, Billboard/PMC, Nike, Chipotle, and Red Bull.

Ken Kerschbaumer, SVG, Co-Executive Director, Editorial

Ken Kerschbaumer is co-executive director of editorial services for the Sports Video Group and SVG Europe. He was a co-founder of SVG along with Paul Gallo and Marty Porter in 2005 and has been writing about how sports networks and leagues use video and audio technology to deliver a quality TV experience since 1991. Kerschbaumer began his career in 1991 at Television Broadcast magazine before joining Cahners where he was founding editor of Digital Broadcasting magazine. In 2000, he joined Broadcasting & Cable magazine as senior editor of technology where he covered all aspects of broadcasting, cable, and internet content creation and distribution.

Dan Maloney, Matrox Video, Technical Marketing Manager

As technical marketing manager at Matrox Video, Dan Maloney has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and the product development of digital video solutions. He is responsible for defining the infrastructure strategy for end user product lines, including webcasting, video transport, and signal converter products. Maloney engages audiences around the world, having spoken at some of the broadcast and media technology industry’s most well-known conferences, including IBC in Amsterdam, BVE in London, and NAB in Las Vegas.

Colin Moran, LTN, VP of Production Products

Colin Moran joined LTN in 2019. Before joining LTN, he served as an audio engineer and ultimately rose to vice president of workflow integration and business operations specializing in remote production for sports broadcasting. Moran has served as a freelance remote mobile broadcast engineer, audio engineer, sound designer, and music composer. A distinguished audio engineer, he has worked in production for top broadcasters (CBS, Fox, NBC) and networks (Cox, ESPN, NFL Films).

David Neal, Fox Sports, EP of FIFA World Cup on Fox and VP, Production

One of the most prolific and accomplished sports producers of his generation, with four decades of production experience and winner of 36 Emmy awards and a prestigious Peabody award, David Neal serves as executive producer of FIFA World Cup on Fox and vice president, production for Fox Sports.

David Neal joined Fox Sports in 2012 and is responsible for all aspects of the FIFA properties on Fox – World Cup, Women’s World Cup, Confederations Cup and other high-profile events involving the U.S. National teams. Under Neal’s guidance, Fox Sports set new viewership records for its coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada, 2016 Copa America Centenario, 2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup Russia,  2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France, and is ready to raise the bar this winter with the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup Qatar.

Continuing his legacy of building exceptional on-air talent rosters, Neal has added numerous standout broadcasters to the Fox Sports lineup including Emmy award- winner Fernando Fiore, former U.S. WNT midfielder Aly Wagner who made history as the first woman to call a men’s World Cup telecast on U.S. television, former U.S. MNT midfielder Stu Holden, former Arsenal star Ian Wright, former Real Madrid coach Guus Hiddink, four-time Champions League winner Clarence Seedorf, England’s record goal scorer Kelly Smith, and former German defender Ari Hingst.

Neal also contributed to Fox Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII, including shoulder programming on Fox, FS1, the Fox Sports Regional Networks and Fox Sports Digital platforms. His efforts included working closely with the NFL and the New York/New Jersey Super Bowl Host Committee to plan and implement the network’s comprehensive offerings.

Before joining Fox in 2012, Neal spent more than 30 years at NBC Sports where he produced nine Olympics, four NBA Finals, two World Series and a Super Bowl pregame show. Neal produced many memorable NBC Sports live telecasts, including three of the four most-watched NBA Finals games in U.S. television history: Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals – Michael Jordan’s dramatic final game with the Chicago Bulls (No. 1, 35.9 million viewers), Game 5 of the 1998 Finals (No. 3, 30.6 million) and Game 5 of the 1997 Finals (No. 4, 30.3 million viewers).

At Univision from 2011 to 2012, Neal led the successful launch of Univision Deportes Network in the spring of 2012. He served as executive producer for Univision’s coverage of the Concacaf Gold Cup and CONMEBOL Copa America in 2011. He also created the popular Fútbol Central which continues to be one of the network’s most watched studio shows.

At NBC, Neal held dual roles as executive vice president of NBC Olympics, responsible for the production, programming and technical engineering departments of NBC’s Olympic division, also serving as executive producer of NBC Sports, giving him additional responsibility for all NBC Sports productions. In addition to 33 Sports Emmys and two Primetime Emmys, Neal’s innovative and creative vision was recognized with a Peabody Award for NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Beijing.

Immediately following his storied 30-year storied with NBC Sports, Neal formed David Neal Productions in 2010, producing more than 250 hours of television for varied clients including Univision, NBC, CBS, and Velocity.

In September 2008, Neal was named among the Mediaweek 50, an honor that recognizes individuals that advance innovation, revenue and influence in their industry.

Neal graduated from the University of Southern California in 1978 with a degree in broadcast journalism.

Donatto Punyed, Telemundo, Director, Technical Programs & Media Systems

Donatto Punyed has been with Telemundo since 2018, joining as project manager on the PMO team and project managing events such as the FIFA 2018 World Cup, FIFA 2019 Women’s World Cup, Copa America 2019, and Olympics 2020. He has also supported many technology and engineering projects from digital infrastructure enhancements to AR/VR Studios. Before joining Telemundo, Punyed worked at Univision as a project engineer in support of media systems, studio developments, and large scale projects including the 2014 Men’s World Cup. He has a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering and is based in the Miami area.

Jon Raidel, Vizrt, Global Lead for Live Production in Cloud

Jon Raidel is Vizrt’s global lead for live production in the cloud. He has 15 years of experience in live television production. Raidel comes from the NFL Network where he was technical operations manager for eight years. His background as a technical director in live sports has traveled him all over the world working for brands such as the NFL, NBA, ESPN, Fox Sports, and other regional networks.

David Rosen, Sony, VP, Cloud Applications and Solutions

David Rosen has global responsibility for leading Sony’s Ci Media Cloud SaaS business. As one of the original founders, he has grown the business from inception into the largest and most profitable SaaS company in Sony’s history. He is a valued technology thought leader within Media & Entertainment and has been a significant contributing force in bringing the reality of cloud based production and broadcast workflows to many of the largest media organizations in the world. Prior to launching Ci, Rosen helped create the Digital Media Group within Sony Pictures where he was responsible for delivering solutions to enable the studio to transition from tape-based to file-based workflows. While at Sony Pictures, he also spent two years developing and bringing to market the Distribution Backbone, the industry’s first automated supply chain for post theatrical manufacturing and distribution. Rosen started his career as a software developer and solutions consultant with Oracle Corporation where he consulted with Fortune50 companies and multiple government agencies.

Oscar Sanchez, CONCACAF, Executive Producer and Director of Broadcast Operations and Media Distribution

Oscar Sanchez is an Emmy Award-winning director of broadcast operations, executive producer, and writer. His previous experience includes successful roles at the FIFA World Cup in 2018, London Olympic games in 2012, Copa America Centenario 2016, and more than 6,000 football games produced in the last 7 years in 41 countries. 

Rick Seegull, Riedel, VP, System Consulting

Rick Seegull, vice president of System Consulting for Riedel Communications, is responsible for overseeing and assisting the team of engineers who design and implement Riedel’s comprehensive portfolio of products within video and broadcast facilities throughout the Americas. Seegull also develops Riedel’s product training programs and represents Riedel North America on industry technical panels and on standards committees. Prior to joining Riedel, Seegull created and managed both startup divisions and departments involved in all aspects of the product chain, from concept and design to manufacturing, marketing, and sales. Seegull graduated from the Polytechnic University of New York with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering.

Brian Sullivan, NEP Group, CEO

Brian Sullivan is chief executive officer of NEP Group, the leading media technology partner for content creators around the globe. Sullivan joined the company in August 2020, bringing more than 30 years of broadcast industry experience and expertise to NEP along with a passion for driving customer-focused innovation.

Sullivan comes to the NEP team most recently from McKinsey & Company where he was a senior advisor to the Consumer, Tech & Media teams. Prior to McKinsey, he served in executive leadership roles at media giants Fox Networks Group, SKY Deutschland AG, and Sky UK. He was president and COO of Fox Networks Group (later acquired by The Walt Disney Company) and, earlier, for Fox’s Digital Consumer Group. During Sullivan’s successful tenure at Fox, he oversaw advertising, distribution, digital, and international, including Fox TV Group, Fox Sports, FX Networks and National Geographic. He built the company’s streaming strategy and platform and its direct-to-consumer business. Sullivan also served on the boards of Hulu and National Geographic Partners during this time.

Prior to Fox, Sullivan was chief executive officer of Sky Deutschland AG, the leading pay-tv broadcaster in Germany and Austria, where he is credited with one of the largest turnarounds in European media history. During his five years with the company he and his team championed a customer-first approach with innovations like Sky Go, one of the first on-demand entertainment and live sports streaming services in the world. Before Sullivan’s time at Sky Deutschland, he spent 15 years at Sky UK, where he held nine separate roles across the entirety of the business, eventually rising to managing director of the Customer Group. During this time his teams helped develop several innovative “firsts” in Europe, including the Sky Digital platform, Sky Interactive (including live multiscreen sport), Sky+, a personal video recording (PVR, also known as “DVR”) service, high definition TV (Sky+ HD), and Sky Broadband.

A native of Philadelphia, PA, Sullivan currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. He attended Villanova University and has served on the Boards of Directors for several companies. Today, Sullivan is an active Board member of Technicolor AG and Astrolabs LLC.

Nick Upchurch, LiveU, Senior Sales Engineer

Nick Upchurch is a senior sales engineer within the company’s Sports division. He serves a critical role within the sales organization, acting as a customer advocate, ensuring their technical requirements are fully understood and met. Upchurch is the main technical point of contact for sports industry customers across the West and Central regions. In this role, he provides support for some of the biggest names in professional sports including NFL Teams, rights holders, sports associations, and universities. Prior to joining LiveU, Upchurch spent many years in the IP satellite industry, both in network services and antenna manufacturing

Bob Whyley, Tennis Channel, SVP, Production, and Executive Producer

A televised-sports veteran and member of the network-management team since 2003, Bob Whyley oversees all aspects of Tennis Channel’s live, first-run and tournament-coverage programming.  He has held the role of senior vice president, production, and executive producer since 2011.

As the primary force behind all Tennis Channel match coverage, Whyley is responsible for special-event telecasts during US Open, Wimbledon, French Open, Australian Open, Davis Cup, and Fed Cup competition and the men’s and women’s year-end championships. He assigns all on-air talent, interacting with and managing a roster that includes tennis legends Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport, Tracy Austin and Jim Courier, as well as sportscasting veterans Brett Haber, Ted Robinson, Ian Eagle, and many others. He also oversees the multi-hour encore, highlight and news shows that air each day during the sport’s four majors.

Whyley joined Tennis Channel as director of production in 2003 when the network launched, and has managed the production department’s operational needs since then. He was promoted to coordinating producer in 2007 and vice president of production in 2008, when he saw to planning, scheduling, and other process in conjunction with the network’s high-definition transition. Since then, Tennis Channel has heavily expanded its high-definition production to include all domestic tournaments and the four major, “Grand Slam” events.

Since 2007, Whyley has managed all domestic tournament production for Tennis Channel. This has involved producing the world feed, the official tournament telecast that is used by CBS, ESPN2, and all international networks, during almost all Olympus US Open Series events.

At Fox Sports Net in Los Angeles for five years before joining Tennis Channel, Whyley served as a production coordinator, production manager, associate producer or feature producer on that network’s coverage of a wide variety of competitions. These included ATP World Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tennis, NASCAR and Formula One auto racing, NCAA football, NCAA basketball, NBA Halftime Report, NFL Europe, and Major League Baseball.