SVG’s Sports Content Management Forum was back in person on July 27 at the Westin New York at Times Square. This event featured a full day of sessions packed with media-asset–management (MAM) leaders from major sports broadcasters, leagues, teams, streaming outlets, and technology vendors.
Developed by the SCM Advisory Committee and its new Chair Anne Graham (Manager Sports Media Services, Warner Bros. Discovery), this year’s agenda addressed the current state of the industry and how sports-media organizations can future-proof their content in an ever-changing world.
Key topics included adapting to remote and hybrid workflows, storage/archive planning on prem and in the cloud, best practices in metadata assignment and management, sustainable and eco-friendly storage systems, MAM and orchestration planning, and much more.
PROGRAM AT A GLANCE
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27
(All times are in Eastern Time Zone)
9:00 a.m.: Registration Opens
9:30 – 9:40 a.m.: Welcoming Remarks
9:40 – 10:30 a.m.: State of the Industry: Futureproofing Your Content in an Everchanging World
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.: Zixi Case Study: Next Generation Live Event Management and Distribution
10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Networking Break
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Keynote Session: Inside NBC Olympics’ Digital Workflows From Tokyo to Beijing
12:00 – 12:45 p.m.: Adapting to Remote and Hybrid Workflows: Are We Ever Going Back to the Office … and What Is the Office?
12:45 – 1:45 p.m.: Networking Lunch
1:45 – 2:30 p.m.: Storage & Archive Planning: On Prem, in the Cloud, and the Impact of Growing File Sizes
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.: Signiant Case Study: The Content Explosion for Sports Teams – Here’s How to Meet the Challenge
2:45 – 3:15 p.m.: Storage Sustainability: Building Better Infrastructure Today To Create a Brighter Tomorrow
3:15 – 3:45 p.m.: Networking Break
3:45 – 4:30 p.m.: Metadata Madness: Best Practices in Metadata Assignment
4:30 – 5:15 p.m.: MAM & Orchestration Planning: Making the Right Decisions for Your Unique Organization
5:15 – 6:00 p.m.: Networking Reception
Featured Speakers
The Westin New York at Times Square
270 W 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
The Westin New York at Times Square, NYC
(All times are in Eastern Time Zone)
9:00 a.m.: Registration Opens
9:30 – 9:40 a.m.: Welcoming Remarks
By SCM Advisory Committee Chair Anne Graham, Manager Sports Media Services, Warner Bros. Discovery
9:40 – 10:30 a.m.: State of the Industry: Futureproofing Your Content in an Everchanging World
The pandemic rapidly accelerated many of the technology trends already being seen in the M&E industry, drastically changing many organizations’ media-management roadmaps. Meanwhile, with so much consolidation among both vendors and broadcasters in recent years, how can media managers ensure that content is always available and discoverable by whoever needs it wherever they are? Learn how major sports-media organizations are rethinking their internal workflows, embracing the cloud in order to innovate, and finding new ways to monetize their existing content.
Moderator: Dave Klee, A+E Networks, VP, Strategic Media Solutions
Confirmed Panelists:
Padraic Boyle, MLB Advanced Media, Senior Director, Enterprise Media
Kendall Ginsbach, Riot Games, Global Lead, Content Operations
Anne Graham, Warner Bros. Discovery, Manager of Strategy and Planning, Sports Media Services; 2022 SVG Sports Content Management Chair
Dustin Myers, Fox Sports, SVP, Production Operations
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.: Zixi Case Study: Next Generation Live Event Management and Distribution
With live sporting events returning to pre-pandemic numbers and content rights being acquired by next-generation platforms, Zixi has released new capabilities in its ZEN Master control plane to help customers dynamically manage the production and distribution. Zixi will describe how one its major customers, Amazon Prime Video, is using these new capabilities to distribute thousands of soccer matches, with end-to-end control and visibility and how Zixi is providing powerful automation that deploys AWS infrastructure only when it’s needed and releases it after each event is completed to manage costs.
Confirmed Presenter: Kevin Parks, Zixi, Senior Director, Field Engineering
10:45 – 11:30 a.m.: Networking Break
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Keynote Session: Inside NBC Olympics’ Digital Workflows From Tokyo to Beijing
The NBC Olympics team is no stranger to monumental challenges. However, the pandemic-fraught Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Games took “challenge” to an entirely new level. In this keynote session, NBC Olympics media management leaders take the stage to go inside their groundbreaking digital workflow systems for both Tokyo and Beijing, as well as how they dealt with the ultra-quick six-month turnaround from one Games to the next.
Presenter: Jim Miles, NBC Olympics, Director, Digital Workflow Systems
12:00 – 12:45 p.m.: Adapting to Remote and Hybrid Workflows: Are We Ever Going Back to the Office … and What Is the Office?
Although sports-media organizations had been exploring remote- and cloud-based technologies for several years, the pandemic drastically accelerated their development. Now, as the industry looks to emerge from the pandemic, these workflows have become integral to the media-management and postproduction ecosystem. Hear how cloud and SaaS offerings are changing sports-media organizations’ MAM philosophies and how these technologies are enabling remote collaboration and innovative multi-site postproduction ecosystems.
Moderator: Grant Nodine, NHL, SVP, Technology
Confirmed Panelists:
Byron Chapman, PGA TOUR, Director of Media Asset Management & Media Workflows
Ed Coleman, CBS Sports, VP, Post Production and Media Services
Jeff Herzog, EditShare, Director of Solutions, Product Management
Dennis Radeke, LucidLink, Director of Strategic Development
12:45 – 1:45 p.m.: Networking Lunch
1:45 – 2:30 p.m.: Storage & Archive Planning: On Prem, in the Cloud, and the Impact of Growing File Sizes
Sports leagues, broadcasters, and content producers of all sizes are challenged with The Big Archive Question: Where do I store my stuff? And, with more content being created every single year and file sizes continuing to grow with the arrival of 4K and HDR, this question has never been bigger. Technology leaders and content owners discuss finding a happy medium between on-premises and the cloud, file-format and codec considerations, retention policies and the question of keeping/discarding physical tapes, and much more.
Moderator: Tab Butler, SVG Sports Content Management Committee, Former Chairman
Confirmed Panelists:
Tom Blake, Imagen, Commercial Director
Alex Grossman, DataCore, VP, Product Management and Product Marketing
Chris Halton, NBA, SVP, Media Technology and Operations
Adam Japhet, Major League Baseball, Senior Director of Corporate Infrastructure
Grant Nodine, NHL, SVP, Technology
2:30 – 2:45 p.m.: Signiant Case Study: The Content Explosion for Sports Teams – Here’s How to Meet the Challenge
As the fan experience becomes more personalized and interactive, sports teams are being asked to transform their media operations into high-volume content factories. The modern sports team must deliver more content to more places in more formats and do it all quickly. Clips must be delivered to the team’s social media channels and influencer communities, to the players themselves who are trying to build their own personal brands, to hundreds of screens in the venues, and beyond. Signiant acquired Reach Engine in 2021 to bring additional capabilities to the Signiant Platform to help solve challenges exactly like this. Learn what Signiant is seeing in the market and how it has packaged the necessary components into a fit-for-purpose content factory for sports teams.
Confirmed Presenter: Matt Gaede, Signiant, VP, Global Customer Acquisitions
2:45 – 3:15 p.m.: Storage Sustainability: Building Better Infrastructure Today To Create a Brighter Tomorrow
Sustainable data storage has become an increasing concern throughout the M&E industry as media workloads increase at an exponential rate. Today, IT and media-management leaders are being asked to implement workflows and technologies engineered to reduce power, cooling, and waste in order to build a sustainable model for the future. This session provides an update on how vendors and users are working together to create a more sustainable ecosystem.
Moderator: Tab Butler, SVG Sports Content Management Committee, Former Chairman
Confirmed Panelists:
Rich Gadomski, Fujifilm Recording Media U.S.A., Head of Tape Evangelism
Nathan Halverson, Spectra Logic, Senior Solutions Architect, Professional Services Team
Barbara Lange, Kibo121, Principal and CEO
3:15 – 3:45 p.m.: Networking Break
3:45 – 4:30 p.m.: Metadata Madness: Best Practices in Metadata Assignment
What metadata schema are you using to describe your content: a home-grown one or an established schema as a backbone? What taxonomy/ontology do you use to populate it? Are there any emerging industry standards? Media managers and technology leaders take the stage to discuss best practices in metadata assignment.
Moderator: Anne Graham, Warner Bros. Discovery, Manager of Strategy and Planning, Sports Media Services; 2022 SVG Sports Content Management Chair
Confirmed Panelists:
Padraic Boyle, MLB Advanced Media, Senior Director, Enterprise Media
Roy Burns, IMT, VP, Media Solutions
Ian Owen, University of Notre Dame, Digital Media Asset Program Manager
4:30 – 5:15 p.m.: MAM & Orchestration Planning: Making the Right Decisions for Your Unique Organization
MAM and orchestration systems have never been more integral to the success of a sports-media organization. However, the question of whether to go with a best-of-breed, home-grown, or enterprise-wide system is not an easy one to answer. This panel will address a variety of topics, including how MAM vendors follow the OAIS Reference Model (Open Archive Information System, ISO 14721) and how orchestration systems deal with rights, archive, logging plus data feeds, and taxonomy/ontology management.
Moderator: Jason Dachman, SVG, Chief Editor; 2022 SVG Sports Content Management Forum Program Director
Confirmed Panelists:
Rex Canning, WWE, Senior Director of Media Management Services
Chris Cruz, CBS Sports, Director of Media Services
Skip Levens, Quantum, Marketing Director, Media and Entertainment
Savva Mueller, Telestream, Director, Product Management – Content Management Business Unit
Glen Sakata, Dalet, Manager, West Coast USA
5:15 – 6:00 p.m.: Networking Reception
Tom Blake, Imagen, Commercial Director
Tom Blake is a pioneer of cloud-native media asset management. Since 2012, he has been advising sports federations on the migration of archive and distribution workflows to the cloud. He is innovating with early adopters such as ATP Media and IMG and architecting multi-petabyte and multi-cloud strategies for the English Premier League and FIFA, amongst many others.
Padraic Boyle, MLB Advanced Media, Senior Director, Enterprise Media
Padraic Boyle joined Major League Baseball in February of 2008 as part of its information-technology transformation. In his role as business relationship manager, he provided technical direction to the business verticals of the Office of the Commissioner and also served as a technical liaison to MLB Productions and MLB Network.
Reaching into his rich media background, Boyle took on the role of technical lead for MLB and architected the league’s digital-asset-management system, the DIAMOND Platform, which was nominated for the 2012 Sports Emmy George Wensel Technical Achievement Award. The DIAMOND Platform is hosted in MLB’s Secaucus facility where it serves MLB Productions and MLB Network. DIAMOND also has a cloud-based presence to facilitate video services for internal departments within the Commissioner’s Office, Clubs, and MLB.com.
Prior to joining Major League Baseball, Boyle was the VP of technology for Venaca. Venaca was a systems integrator with a unique set of applications which primarily addressed digital asset management/media asset management (DAM/MAM) solutions for the broadcast industry. Clientele included Lifetime Television, MTV, Scripps, Turner Broadcasting, and the Paley Center for Media.
Before Venaca, Boyle worked for Lifetime Television and was heavily involved in the architecting, development, and implementation of Lifetime Television’s digital asset management system from the ground up. This involved ingest and archive to tracking and repurposing content owned and/or purchased for distribution on Lifetime’s networks. Boyle was also the co-principal and VP of technology for DataVision, a systems integration and consulting company in the magazine publishing, financial, and television broadcast industries.
Roy Burns, IMT, VP, Media Solutions
Roy Burns has over 20 years of experience advising clients in the media and entertainment sector. After graduating from Musicians Institute in 2002, he stayed on as a professor of Recording Theory, and Pro Tools 101 until 2008 when he joined Crown Media Family Networks as director of media operations.
At Crown, Burns owned the development and implementation of media asset management leveraging both on-premise and cloud based architectures. During his tenure, Crown Media’s original content creation grew by more than 400% and saw the launch of two additional 24-hour networks, as well as their OTT and SVOD initiatives.
Today, Burns is on the forefront of emerging media workflows and technologies. He is an active member of both SMPTE and HPA. At IMT, Burns is a member of the Advanced Consulting Team with a primary focus on MAM and workflow orchestration. He partners with clients to map their current and future media workflows and define best practices, as well as recommend and implement scalable, forward looking solutions.
Tab Butler, SVG Sports Content Management Committee, Former Chairman
Tab Butler is an Emmy Award winning media consultant specializing in media management, workflow orchestration, and software development for digital and linear content production and distribution. With extensive experience in ‘live’, studio, and post production, as well as business development and sales, he offers a wealth of experience in advancing technology adoption within the broadcasting industry.
Butler’s experience includes over 12 years as the senior director of media management and post production at MLB Network where he worked closely with executive leadership to design, develop, and deploy original file-based infrastructure of MLB Network’s January 1, 2009 launch. During his MLB network years, Butler continued to manage, develop, expand, and adopt new technologies, leading the marketplace with state of the art post production and media management technologies and workflow advancements.
Prior to MLB Network, Butler spent over 10 years in sales, marketing, and business development, growing revenues for Grass Valley, EMC’s Media Group, SeaChange International, and IBRIX. His extensive experience in ‘live’, studio, and post has roots from years at NBC in engineering, operations, and management.
Butler previously served as the committee chair of the Sports Content Management Committee.
Rex Canning, WWE, Senior Director of Media Management Services
Rex Canning is the senior director of media management services at WWE. He and his team are responsible for fulfilling the company’s day to day media management needs and execution of migration projects. Canning works with producers, editors, and engineers to build workflows that support the company’s production staff and network delivery teams. Hailing from Brooklyn, NY he has a been working in professional media creation since 2009 with a primary focus on post production and archive for the past decade. Starting out his career as a set PA on Law & Order, Canning eventually moved into the advertising and news industries; now drawing on that experience directing archive and media management strategy for WWE.
Byron Chapman, PGA TOUR, Director of Media Asset Management & Media Workflows
With over 15 years of experience, Byron Chapman has worked in many facets of post-production. When joining the PGA TOUR in 2012, he worked to transition outdated analog tape-based workflows to more modern file-based workflows.
Recently, Champman led a project to switch the entire edit infrastructure from an isolated network environment to an edit system that users can leverage from anywhere around the globe with internet access. This increased the access from 15 onsite editors to upwards of 80+ users editing and sharing projects around the globe.
Currently, he is working on finishing up a multi-year project of migrating over eight petabytes of high-res, mezzanine, and low-res proxy video files into a cloud-based MAM system. This will provide the PGA TOUR’s production team even greater flexibly, scalability, and opportunities to build out new workflows to take advantage of different tools the cloud has to offer.
Chapman’s day-to-day consists of overseeing the MAM department and supporting 15 editors and 65 producer/editors on various software applications and post-production workflows.
Ed Coleman, CBS Sports, VP, Post Production and Media Services
Ed Coleman is the vice president of post production and media services at CBS Sports. He is responsible for the overall strategy, development, and execution of operational procedures related to the editing and media management of all CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network programming.
Coleman started with CBS in 2012 as the director of post production for CBS Sports Network where he led in the development and implementation of all edit and MAM systems. Prior to joining CBS, he was the director of post production for AMC Networks, and was responsible for the day-to-day management of AMC’s New York-based edit facility which serviced AMC, IFC, WE, and Sundance Channel.
With over 20 years of experience building edit facilities and MAM organizations, Coleman is leading CBS Sports into the future with the continued development of cutting edge post production and media management innovations.
Chris Cruz, CBS Sports, Director of Media Services
Chris Cruz is the director of media services for CBS Sports. He is responsible for the proper management of all digital asset management systems developed for CBS Sports studio and remote productions. He also oversees the personnel utilized for the acquisition, distribution, and archiving of all digital content.
Cruz started working with CBS Sports in 2012 as the manager of digital archives. In this role, he developed the division’s first digital asset archive. He also led the team of media managers responsible for the strategic digitization and archiving of CBS Sports legacy programming.
Having developed these systems from the ground up has given Cruz a keen understanding of digital content management. He’s also a key contributor to the development of all cloud and AI initiatives at CBS Sports.
Jason Dachman, SVG, Chief Editor; 2022 SVG Sports Content Management Forum Program Director
Jason Dachman oversees all aspects of SVG’s North American editorial operations, including the thrice-weekly SVG Insider newsletter and SVG’s annual print publications. A member of the SVG team since 2009, Dachman also serves as program director for SVG’s RSN Summit, Sports Content Management Forum, Sports Graphics Forum, and TranSPORT event. Prior to joining SVG, he spent three years covering local sports for The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, MA, and two years on the production staff of SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s The Ron & Fez Show. Dachman began his career in the Sports Information Department at Northeastern University in Boston, where he also earned a B.A. in media communications and cinema studies.
Rich Gadomski, Fujifilm Recordig Media U.S.A., Head of Tape Evangelism
As head of tape evangelism for Fujifilm Recording Media U.S.A., Rich Gadomski is responsible for driving industry awareness and end user understanding of the purpose and value proposition of modern tape technology. He joined Fujifilm in 2003 as director of product management, Computer Products Division, where he oversaw marketing of optical, magnetic, and flash storage products.
Previously, Gadomski held the position of vice president of marketing, commercial products, where he was responsible for the marketing of data storage products, value added services, and solutions.
He has more than 29 years of experience in the data storage industry. Before joining Fujifilm, Gadomski was director of marketing for Maxell Corp. of America where he was responsible for the marketing of data storage products. Prior to that, he worked for the Recording Media Products Division of Sony Electronics.
Gadomski participates in several industry trade associations including the Active Archive Alliance, the Linear Tape-Open Consortium (LTO), and the Tape Storage Council. He also manages Fujifilm’s annual Global IT Executive Summit.
Gadomski holds a B.A. from the University of Richmond and an M.B.A. from Fordham University.
Fujifilm Recording Media U.S.A. is the leading manufacturer of commercial data tape products for enterprise and midrange backup and archival applications. It provides long term data storage products and software through its Fujifilm Data Management Solutions team.
Matt Gaede, Signiant, VP, Global Customer Acquisitions
Matt Gaede started with Signiant when the first SaaS products for Media & Entertainment were pioneered. Currently acting as vice president of global customer acquisitions for Signiant, Gaede worked his way up from inside sales manager and sales director roles to his current position. His rise within the company is due to his leadership building skills and ability to scale goal-oriented teams. Gaede’s focus continues to be making metric-based decisions to best position sales individuals and teams to increase revenue, grow market share, and increase efficiency. He has worked exclusively in the SaaS field since 2010 holding a previous position as team lead with AppNeta. Gaede holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business management from Roger Williams University.
Kendall Ginsbach, Riot Games, Global Lead, Content Operations
After beginning his career in France, Kendall Ginsbach moved to the U.S. to participate in the launch of the Pac-12 Networks, where he lead the development of media management and archiving operations.
In 2017, Ginsbach moved to the NFL to build and run the Digital Content Library. From concept to reality, this media platform developed into the League’s central library, delivering streamlined access to media assets and workflow acceleration tools that generate efficiency for content creation and exchange throughout the organization.
Anne Graham, Warner Bros. Discovery, Manager of Strategy and Planning, Sports Media Services; 2022 SVG Sports Content Management Chair
Anne Graham is the manager of strategy and planning for sports media services at Turner Sports & Bleacher Report, part of Warner Brothers Discovery. Joining Turner Sports in January 2017, she primarily focuses on media workflow analysis, documentation, and project planning.
Graham received her master’s degree in library and information studies from Florida State University and a master’s degree in information systems from Kennesaw State University. She specializes in digital preservation and archival description.
Alex Grossman, DataCore, VP, Product Management and Product Marketing
Alex Grossman is the vice president of product management and product marketing at DataCore. With more than two decades of product and market development, formally chief product officer and founder and CEO of Symply, he drove Symply to pioneer hyper-converged workflow infrastructure for media professional and story tellers with award-winning UI/UX designs, cloud, disk, and tape solutions. Prior to forming Symply, Grossman was the vice president of Big Data and Media and Entertainment at Quantum corporation responsible for all Big Data and media-centric product line development, go to market, and cloud initiatives. Under his direction, the company launched several new and innovative product lines including the award-winning StorNext 5 shared files system, StorNext in the Cloud, Lattus-extended-online Object storage, and the StorNext Pro product line.
Before Quantum, Grossman was founder and CEO of Active Storage, where he drove development of the award-winning M-media products that became the open-systems de-facto standard storage infrastructure for major content providers. During his tenure the company patented several industry-leading concepts that revolutionized workflow management for media storage. Prior to Active, he was an executive with Apple, heading up the server and storage product lines, running all product management and responsible for driving development, marketing, and management. Earlier, Grossman served as senior vice president of sales, marketing, and product development at MicroNet Technology – a leading developer and manufacturer of products for Apple and IT managers. He has authored and contributed to several patents. Grossman led the team that developed the world’s first Firewire-based storage area network.
Chris Halton, NBA, SVP, Media Technology and Operations
Chris Halton serves as SVP of media technology and operations at the NBA, where he is responsible for leading technical strategies for the league’s content creation, media acquisition, distribution, and archiving platforms.
Since joining the NBA in April 2014, Halton has implemented new digital and broadcast technologies for NBA courtside stats capture and League Pass linear video and VOD distribution. These include the NBA’s Game Distribution Center, creating continuous multi-angle live game feed production for digital and broadcast licensees, and NBA Content Network, which is a cloud based B2B portal for NBA licensees to search and download finished product, directly from the NBA via self-service API’s.
Halton played a key role in the creation of the NBA Replay Center, which debuted in the 2014-15 season, overseeing all software development for the application. Lastly, Halton was instrumental in the introduction of NBA’s co-located IP multicast linear distribution facilities now distributing NBA League Pass live games, globally.
Before joining the NBA, Halton spent eight years as VP of technology for CNBC. He oversaw software development, infrastructure, and technical operations for CNBC.com; mobile and on-air platforms, including CNBC’s global market data ticker plant; real-time on-air graphic systems; and supporting self-service newsroom publishing tools.
Halton began his professional career in 1995 as a design engineer with Sandvik Coromant in Fair Lawn, NJ. He was promoted to technical lead in 1998, responsible for the build-out and management of the company’s e-commerce web offerings.
Halton graduated from Kean University in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering and design.
Nathan Halverson, Spectra Logic, Senior Solutions Architect, Professional Services Team
Nathan Halverson has been with Spectra Logic for eight years and is a senior solutions architect within the Professional Services Team. Halverson has years of hands-on experience with all of Spectra’s storage solutions in many different types of environments. He uses that experience to design innovative long-term storage solutions and is a key technical expert on a number of large-scale customer projects. With experience in a variety of verticals including research and genomic sciences, Halverson can architect both traditional and new era solutions to fit any group’s growing needs.
Jeff Herzog, EditShare, Director of Solutions, Product Management
Jeff Herzog is the director of solutions, product management at EditShare. He has spent time as both a post-production supervisor in broadcast and post-production, as well as a product manager for Verizon Digital Media Services live OTT streaming business.
Adam Japhet, Major League Baseball, Senior Director of Corporate Infrastructure
Adam Japhet is the senior director of corporate infrastructure at Major League Baseball. He is responsible for the infrastructure, systems, and platforms that operate the league’s enterprise portfolio of applications, including their digital media archive.
Dave Klee, A+E Networks, VP, Strategic Media Solutions
David Klee is the vice president of strategic media solutions at A+E Networks, a global entertainment and media company with cable television channels including A&E, History, FYI, Viceland, and Lifetime. He is building a new technology team based in New York, focused on engineering and strategy for media supply chain systems, leveraging the cloud to drive agile transformations.
Before joining A+E, Klee was the director of media management technologies for Univision Communications (UCI), the largest Spanish-language media company in the U.S. with a portfolio of broadcast, cable, and digital properties. There, he built a new engineering team focused on software development for media supply chain tools, along with optimizing workflows for entertainment, news, and sports verticals.
Prior to Univision, Klee had the opportunity to work in media management, live production, creative, and operational roles for a variety of organizations including the Arizona Cardinals, ESPN, and most recently NBC News in New York where he managed a team focused on MAM and media software engineering. Klee holds a Master of Science in information management from Arizona State University and is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect.
Barbara Lange, Kibo121, Principal and CEO
Barbara Lange is principal and CEO of Kibo121, a boutique consultancy firm focused on guiding media tech companies in taking practical steps on their path to sustainability. Lange completed 12 successful years at SMPTE, the global professional association that supports the technical framework and professional community which makes quality motion imaging available to consumers in a variety of media formats. As executive director, she was responsible for executing the SMPTE Board’s strategic vision to ensure continued relevance in a fast-paced global media technology ecosystem. Under Lange’s leadership, membership grew by more than 30%, more than 200 leading-edge industry standards were published, and the Society educated thousands of professionals through virtual and in-person events. Lange oversaw the Society’s centenary year in 2016, including its first ever capital fundraising campaign which became the basis of a subsequent 3-year strategic business plan. This work furthered SMPTE’s visibility with an emphasis on attracting a younger and more diverse membership demographic while rebranding the Society and expanding its technology brief. In 2021, Ms. Lange led the launch of SMPTE’s newest initiative, Rapid Industry Solutions, a concept that enables a proactive approach to solving industry problems across commercial and academic organizations. The program attracted many new corporate members as well as securing a prestigious MegaGrant from EPIC Games.
Prior to her role at SMPTE, Lange had a career in business/product management in scholarly publishing, and held executive positions at the IEEE, the world’s largest technical association. She holds a B.A. in Chemistry and German from Washington and Jefferson College and completed the Executive Development Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Lange has been recognized for her leadership by Washington & Jefferson College, the IEEE, StudioDaily50, and TVNewscheck’s 2020 Woman in Technology Award. In 2021, she was honored by TVB Europe as a 2021 Technology Leader to Watch and by Broadcast & Cable with the 2021 Tech Leadership Award.
Skip Levens, Quantum, Marketing Director, Media and Entertainment
At Quantum, Skip Levens helps drive engagement and awareness for the StorNext shared storage platform and ecosystem, and Quantum CatDV, with a mission to help creatives worldwide produce their best work and bring their full team’s creativity to bear. Previously, Levens was the server and storage technology evangelist at Apple and was co-founder of two storage companies dedicated to building and designing fast workflow storage for media and entertainment professionals.
Jim Miles, NBC Olympics, Director, Digital Workflow Systems
Jim Miles is responsible for the design and implementation of NBC Sports and Olympics systems for intake, postproduction, and asset management workflows for domestic and international sports coverage. He was formerly a project manager for NBC News engineering in New York and has spent the last 15 years with NBC modernizing post production workflows and implementing large scale editing, playback, and MAM systems.
Savva Mueller, Telestream, Director, Product Management – Content Management Business Unit
Savva Mueller is the director of product management for Telestream’s Content Management Business Unit. He is responsible for driving growth and defining the go-to-market strategy for industry-leading solutions including DIVA and Kumulate. A widely recognized expert in content management, newsroom computer systems, and news production workflows, Mueller had over 20 years of experience in product management, quality assurance, field support, and training with Masstech, Avid, and Tektronix prior to joining Telestream in 2021.
Dustin Myers, Fox Sports, SVP, Production Operations
A California native, Dustin Myers has happily worn many hats in the media and entertainment industry. A graduate of the American Film Institute, and a multiple Emmy winner, he has worked across documentaries, broadcast, and digital media. Myers has been with Fox Sports Media Group since 2003, leading the teams for Super Bowls in New York, Houston, and Miami; FIFA World Cups in Canada, Russia, and France; and feels this is the year for the Dodgers.
Grant Nodine, NHL, SVP, Technology
Grant Nodine started his career working as a systems librarian at Editel. He moved on to working as a web developer on sites like Rodale Press’s MensHealth.com. He later co-founded a web development firm called Mercury Seven where he worked as the firm’s chief technologist. 20-plus years ago, Nodine arrived at the NHL where he has been involved in building a technology infrastructure that supports NHL.com and all 30 of the team’s websites, numerous systems to produce and deliver streaming media, and many other large technology implementations.
Ian Owen, University of Notre Dame, Digital Media Asset Program Manager
Kevin Parks, Zixi, Senior Director, Field Engineering
Kevin Parks is a senior media technology executive with over 20 years of experience developing and deploying solutions for major media companies including Comcast, Disney, Viacom and others. Parks leads the Zixi Field Engineering team as part of Zixi’s customer success organization that maintains best-in-class service for Zixi customers. Prior to joining Zixi, he lead sales engineering teams at Comcast Technology Solutions, at Disney Streaming Services, and at Vubiquity.
Dennis Radeke, LucidLink, Director of Strategic Development
With over 25 years of experience in video and audio technology and workflows, Dennis Radeke has seen the transition of video from tape to files on local disks, to network storage, and now to the cloud. Along the way, he has helped major sports leagues and their teams transition to new workflows, storage, and creative tools.
At LucidLink, Radeke works with sports and other media companies on how to effectively migrate and maximize the cloud to edit HD/UHD video in real-time at any distance. Topics such as egress, cloud infrastructure, data security with a focus on simple workflows, and painless migration come up regularly as a part of his role at LucidLink.
Prior to LucidLink, Radeke spent 16 years at Adobe where he focused on video workflows as well as the emerging Adobe Stock business.
Glen Sakata, Dalet, Manager, West Coast USA
Glen Sakata has over three decades of product, market, and sales development experience across the Media & Entertainment industry. Working with studios, broadcasters, MVPDs, and digital platforms, Sakata has an extensive track record of launching transformative technologies from studio robotics, master control automation, video processing, statistical multiplexing, and media logistics solutions to meet their constantly evolving business challenges.
Registration is now closed. Please contact Andrew Lippe ([email protected]) with any questions.