Andy Beale, BT Sport, Chief Engineer

Andy is chief engineer for BT Sport, joining the innovative and disruptive British broadcaster at the beginning of its journey in 2012 to oversee the technology and construction of the landmark BT Sport Production Hub in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. He played a pivotal role in the development and launch of Europe’s first commercial live sports Ultra HD channel: BT Sport Ultra HD, and its HDR successor: BT Sport Ultimate. Beale led BT Sport’s pioneering Dolby Atmos launch and groundbreaking advances in live VR 360. Recently he has delivered world firsts in 8K TV, 8K VR, and 5G remote production. Beale is now pushing the envelope with sustainable live cloud production. Previously, he was head of engineering for Sports Media House, Octagon, and before that delivered projects worldwide for respected system integrator IPK.

Beale is co-founder of Rise Up, an IBC award-winning broadcaster-led STEM schools program that aims to inspire the next generation of broadcast engineers and is on the board of inclusion advocacy group Rise. He is also a SMPTE Fellow and was named Technology Leader of the Year at the 2021 IABM awards.

Jonathan Berger, Fox Sports, Executive Director of Cross-Platform Production

Jonathan Berger, Fox Sports’ executive director, cross-platform, programming & production, joined the company in 2016 and currently oversees a team dedicated to the production of digital content surrounding the company’s studio shows and podcasts. Berger manages the distribution for everything that appears on the “second screen” related to the network’s award-winning lineup of titles, including Undisputed, The Herd, Club Shay Shay, Tom Rinaldi Presents: Wesley, among many others. Prior to his time at Fox, Berger, a native Los Angeleno and proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin, worked at MSNBC and NBC News, until landing in his true passion: sports.

Phillip Blucas, Mobile TV Group, Director of Cloud Control

Scott Bounds, Microsoft, NorthEast Region Media CTO

Scott Bounds is the Microsoft NorthEast Region Media CTO and guides customers on their business transformation to the cloud. Bounds focuses on content creation and production workflows, asset management, and the use of Microsoft AI and openAI technologies in media. He is a 27-year veteran of Microsoft, spending over 15 years in the media industry in a variety of management and technical roles.

Paul Briscoe, TAG Video Systems, Chief Architect

As TAG’s chief architect, Paul Briscoe brings to TAG over 30 years of experience delivering leading-edge solutions from both the client (CBC) and the vendor (Leitch, Harris, Imagine) engineering perspectives. Briscoe leads the charge driving the roadmap for TAG and in helping clients define their requirements in making the transition to IP.

A SMPTE fellow with several patents and an author of numerous industry standards to his name, Briscoe is TAG’s evangelist and visionary. He lives in Toronto, Canada with his family.

Allen Broome, Mediakind, CEO

Allen Broome is chief executive officer and has led MediaKind’s research and development organization for the past two years as the company’s CTO. Before joining MediaKind, Broome led pivotal technology change in the media industry for over 20 years, including most recently as VP of cloud engineering at Comcast Cable.

Since joining MediaKind in October 2019, Broome has helped advance the company’s teams in the industrialization of broadcast-quality OTT streaming while also reshaping its portfolio to enable full-service solutions. Under his technology leadership, MediaKind’s 11-time Emmy-winning Engineering team has successfully broken down the barriers of live video delivery.

With a background in software development, Broome is a technical leader with a proven track record of building motivated and productive teams. He has over 15 years of experience in engineering and leading projects that deliver innovative and highly scalable IP video products and services.

Over a nine-year period working for Comcast, Broome held a number of roles, including VP of cloud engineering, where he was responsible for aligning the company’s overall cloud strategy, working across both private and public cloud platforms.

Prior to this position, Broome led the Service Delivery R&D function, where he led his team to delivering over 20 patents ranging from encoding, adaptive bit-rate delivery to network optimizations, and IP ad insertion. He also developed Comcast’s video optimized CDN, as well as founding and leading the Video IP Engineering and Research (VIPER) Team responsible for the architecture, development, and operations of Comcast’s X1 video platform.

Broome previously held director and technical roles in Crosslabs, Z Tel, Tornado Development, and SwitchCo.

Broome holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of South Carolina and the Turk School of Business at Dartmouth. He was the recipient of the CED award for Multi-Screen Pacesetter in 2014.

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.

Jason Dachman, SVG, Chief Editor

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.

Jason Dvorkin, AWS, Media & Entertainment Industry Specialist, BD Leader

Jason Dvorkin is an industry specialist in the media & entertainment vertical for AWS. He helps customers and partners accelerate their adoption of AWS services to support their content workloads. Dvorkin works with executives and technology owners to address their technical and non-technical transformation challenges, providing domain expertise for cloud adoption and achievement of key business objectives in broadcast, content production, media supply chain and archive, direct to consumer, and data science and analytics.

Dvorkin started his career producing live events and broadcasts for the New England Patriots, New England Revolution, and Gillette Stadium. He then went on to work for multiple tech start-ups in the areas of media asset management and media workflow orchestrion and machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Erling Hedkvist, arkona, Sales and Business Development

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.

Mike Kelley, Grabyo, President, Americas and APAC

Mike Kelley is a sports & entertainment executive with 25 years of experience working at the intersection of content, distribution, and technology. Currently, Kelley is president of the Americas & APAC for Grabyo – managing a team that works with various sports & entertainment properties, broadcasters, and publishers in North & South America. Grabyo is the leading cloud video production platform in the media industry – providing efficient tools to clip, edit, produce, stream, and monetize content across all major social and OTT channels. Grabyo’s clients include NFL, UFC, WWE, PGA, NASCAR, Univision, Big Ten Network, USTA, Premier League, Formula 1, La Liga, Wimbledon, Formula E, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC, and many others. Ultimately, Grabyo is on the forefront of a quickly evolving media distribution and monetization business for content – that now includes social media platforms, OTT products, and mobile devices.

Prior to Grabyo, Kelley led business development and strategy for the leading OTT platform company, NeuLion, before they were absorbed by Endeavor/IMG. From 2007 – 2013, Kelley led BD for Ensequence, the leading interactive TV provider – working with top networks, broadcasters, and distributors in the U.S. – as internet functionality began to merge into the TV experience. Previously, he was also VP of marketing for Yahoo!’s Media & Entertainment division, having led their partnership with FIFA for the 2002/2006 World Cups, and many other sports & entertainment properties. Kelley was also director of sponsorships for MasterCard for several years, and worked at U.S. Soccer in marketing and broadcasting around USA/World Cup ‘94.

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 Lannon, ESPN, Manager, REMI Operations

Dan Lannon is a manager in production operations at ESPN and leads REMI Operations. REMI Operations is a team responsible for the technical and operational planning and execution of all live events that are produced utilizing a remote integration production model.

Deon LeCointe, Sony, Director, Networked Solutions

Deon LeCointe is the director for networked solutions at the Imaging and Professional Solutions of America division at Sony Electronics. LeCointe works with television networks and broadcasters to design and build equipment that delivers live content to millions of homes around the world. He leads a team of solution architects, engineers, and marketing professionals that oversee development, sales, and marketing of products designed for news, sports, and entertainment.

After graduating from the University of Miami with a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. in electrical and computer engineering in 2007, LeCointe joined Sony. He has taken on a number of roles involving post-production workflow technologies, A/V codecs and compression, IP Video transmission, 4K production, and content management systems for broadcast and news.

LeCointe has overseen the deployment of IP systems at CNN Studios at Hudson Yards in New York and Telemundo Studios in Doral, Florida. He also led the deployment of slow-motion video capture and replay systems for Sunday/Monday/Thursday Night Football, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, and the World Series.

Greg Macchia, Riedel Communications, VP, Business Development, Live Production

Gregory Macchia has 25+ years of experience in the live broadcast production industry. Before joining Simplylive in 2017 to manage the region, he was the SVP, Americas for EVS Broadcast Equipment where he spent over 18 years building the Americas sales and technical operations. Macchia holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh University.

Dan MacDonald, Chyron, Director of Product Marketing

Dan MacDonald is the director of product marketing for Chyron. Playing a vital role in the expansion of Chyron’s all-inclusive production platforms and cloud-native technology, MacDonald spends his day-to-day helping clients understand how to leverage emerging technologies to simplify their production workflows and deliver stunning sports streams to their audience.

Before joining Chyron in 2020, MacDonald’s experience ranges from hands-on volunteering with local Rogers TV sports productions in his home of Ottawa, Ontario – to nearly five years collaborating with development teams for leading broadcast technology vendors to bring new products to market.

Todd Mason, Broadcast Management Group, CEO

Todd Mason has a long history of ushering in impactful industry workflow changes. In 2021, he built the first complete cloud production ecosystem that enables centralizing the technology at the BMG Cloud Control Center and decentralizing production teams. This allows accessing the best production talent from anywhere in the world. Mason has a track record of working with significant manufacturers to develop the technology, assemble engineering teams, and facilitate the training of production teams, to adapt to this new way of working. As a result, he has rolled out innovations at record speed. This latest conversion will be one of the most significant industry changes resulting in lower production costs, improved quality, lower client capital expenditures, and a positive environmental impact.

Mason has played a significant part in other industry advances. In 2018, he launched a full-time over-the-top (“OTT”) financial news network for America’s top brokerage and investment firm, TD Ameritrade. In 2002, Mason built the first completely tapeless production facility. In 1994, he helped take the film industry from Steenbeck to non-linear editing.

Mason is a sought-after live broadcast director for a wide range of programming. This includes music, news, entertainment, series, and specials.

In 2022, Mason was the broadcast director for all ten January 6th hearings. These broadcasts had a total viewership more than 130 million people. Mason directed the cast interview broadcast for the Disney + series Willow and directed the cast interview show for Amazon Primes’ new series Riches. He directed two of the Netflix cast talk show Geeked. One was for Cowboy Bebop and the second was for The Witcher, which was shot in London. For MGM, Mason directed Rocky IV: The Ultimate Director’s Cut movie premiere and The Raging Bull 4K Screening. For Amazon, he directed a concert with Andra Day and for Oprah: A Performance with Andra Day. For IMDb, Mason has directed live post-Emmy and Oscar shows. He has also directed three days of live 90-minute shows at SXSW for Mashable/Twitter called The Mashable Show and several live broadcasts for truTV’s Impractical Jokers at Comic-Con. Mason has served as executive in charge of production for hundreds of shows, most recently two 2021 Daytime Emmy awards show for the National Television Academy. One was the first to be produced in a completely virtual environment.

Mason keeps BMG active on the global stage, collaborating with both domestic and international partners. BMG works with companies interested in producing shows for the North American market and with American companies creating content for global markets.

Mason has built an impressive senior and middle management team of broadcast industry leaders who take ownership of their areas of responsibility.

John McDonough, Fortinet, Senior Cloud Architect / DevOps Engineer

For the past three years, John McDonough has been a senior cloud architect / cloud DevOps engineer at Fortinet, delivering innovative cloud deployment and automation solutions to global customers. Prior to Fortinet, he was a developer advocate for six years for Cisco Systems’ DevNet, finishing out the 18 years he was at Cisco.

During his 35-year software development career, McDonough has contributed to Open-Source projects, Ansible and OpenStack; has been a distinguished speaker at more than 30 Cisco Live events; and has spoken about Open-Source contribution and Data Center and cloud automation at many industry events, including SXSW, DevOps Days, API Days, HashiConf, MS Build, and Github Universe

McDonough resides in the country in Sussex, New Jersey with his family.

Tyrone Millard, Google Cloud, Key Account Executive, Sport

Tyrone Millard works at Google Cloud, overseeing the largest sports customers for Google. For the past 15 years, Millard has been actively engaged in the media and entertainment and sports industries driving technology innovation. He is a member of Google’s Sports Steering Committee and the M&E Industry Council – teams focused on driving product development and GTM strategy across all of Alphabet.

Janel Moorefield, LiveU, Vice President of Sales, Sports

As the director of sports sales, Janel Moorefield is responsible for driving the strategy for LiveU’s Sports Group. She has been integral in bringing LiveU Sports solutions to professional teams, sports associations, and production companies, allowing them to create more unique live content and increase fan engagement. Throughout her career, Moorefield has worked with broadcasters, producers, and distributors of sports, entertainment, and news seeking reliable and robust backhaul video services. She is a graduate of Florida State University where she received her Bachelor of Science in business management.

Bryan Nelson, Alpha, Broadcast Accounts Manager and Cloud Evangelist

Bryan Nelson has been with Alpha, a systems integrator, for more than 30 years helping broadcasters and production facilities keep pace with the latest technologies. His areas of expertise include live production, remote contribution, and editorial workflow.

In recent years, Nelson has become a well-known advocate for Cloud and Virtualized NDI production and deployed solutions for NBC, CBS, Fox, Televisa, NFL, Riot Games, and PGA Tour, for projects such as the NFL Draft, Super Bowl, and World Cup. Alpha is provider of Cloud live solutions including VizRT Vectar Plus, Ross Video CPC, Gallery Sienna, Grass Valley AMPP, Waves, and many others.

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. Twenty-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.

Nathan Peterson, Tagboard, CEO

Nathan Peterson is the CEO of Tagboard, a cloud production studio designed to enable producers with the world’s most efficient cloud workflow for real-time data graphics, viewer engagement, and analytics. Emmy-nominated for Digital Innovation, Tagboard is used daily by more than 500 major news, sports, and entertainment organizations to produce shows you watch and engage with every day. Peterson joined Tagboard in 2017 as the head of marketing, before taking the company over in 2021 to lead a diverse group of talented individuals on a mission, vision, and values-driven journey that has Tagboard certified as a Great Place to Work two years in a row. The team is fully remote, with 50 people across 18 states – while Peterson resides in Seattle, where he sits on the Seattle Sports Commission and the Board of the University of Washington Business School.

James Piccirillo, Game Creek Video, Director, Network Systems

James Piccirillo is the director of network systems at Game Creek Video, where he oversees GCV Anywhere, information technology, and web development. Since its launch during COVID in 2020, GCV Anywhere has facilitated thousands of remote broadcasts across Game Creek’s 15 control rooms and 25+ enabled mobile units. Piccirillo started his career at Game Creek in 2015 and has served as engineer in charge on both baseband and IP mobile units for events like NASCAR in HDR, The PGA Championship, and NFL on Nickelodeon.

Corey Smith, CBS Sports and Paramount+, Senior Director, Digital, Software Engineering

Corey Smith joined CBS Sports and Paramount+ in March 2022 as the senior director of digital and software engineering. He leads the technical team building the next evolution of advanced production technology, strengthening CBS Sports’ leading cloud-based hybrid television production platform. Smith has been transforming digital television and broadcast systems since 2011, and he previously worked on Microsoft’s Xbox Live team, managed Sinclair Broadcast Group’s digital news publishing operations across the U.S., and tackled the next generation of cloud encoding and distribution systems for Activision Blizzard Esports. His primary focus for Activision Blizzard Esports was on the cloud-based production and broadcasting of Overwatch and Call of Duty Leagues globally.

Julie Souza, AWS, Head of Sports, Global Professional Services

Julie Souza is the global head of sports for AWS Professional Services, driving innovation in sports data (tracking, AI/ML/CV), virtualized production, direct-to-consumer interactivity and monetization, fan data and analytics, and smart venue solutions. Prior to joining AWS, Souza led strategy and business development for Second Spectrum, the official data analytics partner of the NBA, EPL, MLS, and others. She held similar roles leading business development and driving strategy for ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and CBS Sports Network.

Souza holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.