REVOLVING DOOR:
Brian Williams has announced his retirement following a 50-year career that’s seen him cover more than a dozen Olympic Games, in addition to the NHL, CFL, Major League Baseball, PGA TOUR, Canadian and World Figure Skating Championships, World Cup Skiing, Formula One, and the Breeders’ Cup, among many other sporting events. Originally from Winnipeg, Williams began calling university basketball play-by-play in 1967. He started his professional broadcast career with CHUM radio in Toronto. After a year at CFRB, he joined CBC in 1974, serving as the studio host for the CBC’s coverage of the CFL, Formula 1 and horse racing, in addition to acting as the play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Blue Jays. He made the move to CTV and TSN in June 2006 where most recently he’s been contributing regular features to CFL ON TSN, hosting the network’s coverage of the Canadian Triple Crown of horse racing, as well as figure skating on CTV and TSN. Read more here.
Robert Dépatie is joining Rogers Communications as President and Chief Operating Officer, of the newly-created Home & Business Division, which encompasses Connected Home, high-speed internet, television, smart home monitoring services, and Rogers for Business. Dépatie has nearly 20 years of executive leadership experience in telecom and media, including four years as a member of the RCI Board of Directors. He was previously President and CEO of Quebecor Inc. and Quebecor Media and also served as President and CEO of Vidéotron for a decade.
Cam Barra has been promoted to Program Manager at Vancouver’s Sportsnet 650 (CISL-AM). Barra joined Sportsnet in 2017 as the producer of Vancouver Canucks games and the content producer for Canucks Central at Noon with Satiar Shah. Prior to joining Rogers Sports & Media, he was a producer and operator with TSN 1040 (CKST-AM) and 1410 (CFTE-AM) for four years.
Gord Rennie is the new Technical Producer of Toronto Today with Greg Brady and The Kelly Cutrara Show on AM 640 (CFMJ-AM) Toronto. Up until this past October, Rennie was the Technical Producer of the CHFI morning show for 16 years and prior to that produced the Mike Cooper & Christine Cardoso Show on 97.3 EZ Rock (CHBM-FM).
Levon Sevunts is leaving CBC Montreal to join the UN Refugee Agency in Canada (UNHCR) in a communications role. Sevunts has had a 31-year journalism career that included stops at the Montreal Gazette and freelance work as a foreign correspondent covering the war in Afghanistan, the civil war in Darfur, and the humanitarian relief effort in Chad for the Toronto Star and The Washington Times. He joined CBC Montreal in 2006 as the producer of daily current affairs program, The Link. After a two-year stint with Breakfast Television Montreal as a producer and writer, he returned to CBC in 2015 as a radio reporter and producer. Most recently, he’d been the lineup editor for CBC Montreal News at 11 p.m.
Chantelle Bellrichard is leaving CBC Vancouver to join Spotify-owned Gimlet as a producer working on Connie Walker-hosted podcast Stolen. Bellrichard has been a writer, reporter and researcher with CBC since 2012, most recently working with the CBC Indigenous Unit.
Daniella Ponticelli is leaving Global News Regina to return to CBC Saskatchewan. With Global Regina since late 2019 and the morning news anchor on Global News Morning for the past year, Ponticelli previously did a brief stint with CBC as a camera operator and video editor. She’s also the play-by-play voice of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey broadcasts, heard on Pattison Media stations and the HuskieFan app.
Kayla Karim is joining CityNews Toronto as a producer. The 2020 College of Sports Media graduate has been a video journalist with Global News Kingston for the last eight months. Prior to that, she reported for Global in Thunder Bay.
Joe Scarpelli has moved on from Global Winnipeg where he’s been a Digital Broadcast Journalist since 2018, filing for television, radio and online. Prior to arriving in Manitoba, Scarpelli was with Global Lethbridge and CHEX-TV Durham
Jessica Robb has left Global Lethbridge for a new opportunity. Robb has been with the station since March. Prior to that, she was an editorial assistant with the Global Edmonton newsroom for nearly two years.
Robyn Smith, Editor-in-Chief at The Tyee is leaving after more than a decade with the publication. Dave Beers is stepping into the EIC role, while the independent online news site will be hiring a Managing Editor.
Kevin Ritchie has stepped down as Editor of Now Toronto, saying he’s moving on to another opportunity to be announced at a later date. Ritchie started as a contributor to the publication in 2016, holding roles including Senior Culture Editor. He’d been Editor since Dec. 2019.
Trillian Reynoldson is moving on from her morning news anchor role at CKDM Dauphin, MB to join Golden West Broadcasting’s stations in Weyburn, SK. The Western Academy of Broadcasting graduate is now writing, reporting and anchoring for AM 1190 (CFSL-AM), Magic 103.5 (CKRC-FM) and Big 106 (CHWY-FM).
Clare Smyth has joined the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) as Manager, Business Affairs, supporting members with business affairs inquiries including production financing and recoupment. Smyth arrives from Corus Entertainment where she primarily handled contract management for the last 14 years. Kyle O’Byrne has also been promoted from Manager, Media Relations & Communications to Director, Policy, supporting CMPA policy, advocacy and research initiatives. Sarah Jesson is also promoted to Manager, Executive Office & Board Secretary. She was previously Executive Assistant to President & CEO Reynolds Mastin.
Joanne Kerrigan has been named the first-ever Executive Director of Women in Film and Television – Atlantic (WIFT-AT). Kerrigan has a varied background spanning filmmaking, communications and marketing, change management, and non-profit governance, including the Khyber Centre for the Arts, Linda Joy Media Arts Society, Moving Images Group, and the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative. She was most recently leading the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre in organizational renewal as Interim Executive Director.
Marni Wieshofer has been appointed Thunderbird Entertainment Group’s Interim Chair while a search for a new chair is underway. Brian Paes-Braga, who has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2019, and Paul Sparkes, who has served on the board since 2012, did not stand for re-election.
Tripp Wood has joined D-BOX Technologies, the Montreal-based haptic and immersive entertainment provider, as Vice President of Sales, Home Entertainment. Wood has over 20 years of business development, partnership and sales experience in the home entertainment industry, including The Walt Disney Company, Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures Home Media. He’ll be based in Los Angeles.
RADIO & PODCAST:
CBC Radio One leads with radio listeners, A12+, in Toronto, Calgary and Edmonton in David Bray’s breakdown of the new PPM release from Numeris, completing the 13-week period covering Aug. 30 to Nov. 28. In Toronto, CHUM-FM was #1 with Women 25-54, delivering a 16.6% share (down from 19.3%), while boom 97.3 is on top for Men 25-54, posting a 12.6% share (up from 11.5%). In Edmonton, NOW! Radio holds top spot for F25-54 and M25-54, delivering a 13.7% share and 13.0% share, respectively. In Calgary, 101.5 Today Radio takes #1 spot for F25-54 delivering a 10.5% share, while X92.9 reigns with M25-54 at 12.6%. In Vancouver, it’s a Corus sweep with 980 CKNW grabbing #1, A12+, with 12.2% share of hours tuned. Taking top spot for F25-54 is Rock 101 with 11.9%, while CFOX holds the lead for M25-54 listeners, delivering a 16.2% share with that demo. In Montreal, CHMP 98.5 FM is #1 for A12+ (Franco) with a 24.7% share, up from 18.7%. For A12+ (Anglo), CJAD 800 is #1 with a 26.8% (down from 28.4%). Read more here.
Stingray Group is asking the CRTC to waive more than $9 million in tangible benefits for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 broadcast years, citing a cumulative revenue decline of $78 million since the beginning of the pandemic, excluding government subsidies. Stingray says it’s filing the application “to address the serious financial impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Stingray specifically” and “certain trends that developed during the pandemic have the potential to continue long-term, clouding the future of the Canadian radio business.” It also cites a dramatic reduction in subscribers to its pay audio service as Canadians turn to unregulated music streamers like Spotify and Apple Music. Stingray argues that these developments have impacted the value of its Canadian broadcasting assets – the same value determined by the commission at the time tangible benefits were imposed.
The 82nd Annual 560 CFOS Sun Times Christmas Fund Broadcast was held Dec. 5 in Owen Sound. Benefitting 23 local charities in Grey & Bruce counties, the Christmas Fund Broadcast has been an annual tradition in the area since CFOS signed on in 1940. The broadcast usually features live performances from the Roxy Theatre across from the radio station. Due to COVID-19, this year and last year’s performances were held in a “virtual” format with music submitted in advance and played on-air with live MCs and pledge readers from Bayshore Broadcasting’s three Owen Sound stations. By the end of Sunday’s broadcast, $27,000 had been raised with the total expected to rise through the remainder of December.
SiriusXM has launched Neil Young Radio, a new limited-run channel with music and content curated by the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. The channel coincides with Young’s upcoming album release for Barn on Dec. 10. Neil Young Radio will span tunes from the rocker’s half-a-century long catalogue, including his time with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Promise of the Real, through his 50-year collaboration with Crazy Horse. Young will share personal stories about his collaborations and process for writing, recording and performing, sitting down with SiriusXM host David Fricke for an exclusive conversation. Additionally, the channel will feature weekly concert broadcasts from Young’s vaults, celebrity guest DJs and a Barn track-by-track album special. The channel (ch. 27) is available through Monday, Dec. 13.
Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) delivers new radio play, Christmas Thieves (A Small Town Radio Play), featuring AMI-audio hosts. Written by Greg Oliver Bodine and produced with Playscripts Inc., the play takes place on Christmas Eve in America’s heartland with radio host Bjorn Gundlarrsen preparing for the telethon that will keep his tiny, polka-themed radio station afloat. Christmas Thieves (A Small Town Radio Play) stars Kelly and Company’s Kelly MacDonald; Ramya Amuthan; NOW with Dave Brown’s Dave Brown; The Globe and Mail Today reader Mike Ross; and Low Vision Moments host Jennie Bovard. It airs Dec. 24, at 2 p.m. ET and Dec. 26 at 5 p.m. ET on AMI-audio.
Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights have released their Podcast Download – Fall 2021 Report, which finds Spotify is now the number one listening source for podcasts in the U.S. The study, fielded online between Sept. 30 and Oct. 29, was executed from a nationally representative sample of 600 weekly podcast listeners, 18+, who spent at least one hour listening to podcasts in the past week. It found that as the podcast “big three” – YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify – expand share, Spotify is now the single leading listening destination for podcasts with 24% of survey respondents citing the platform as their go-to for accessing podcasts, followed by Apple Podcasts (20%) and YouTube (19%). Read more here.
Stitcher has released a snapshot report summarizing the year in podcasting, featuring insights from some of the top publishers on Stitcher around how they monetize and promote their shows. Key findings include that small dips we saw during the first two waves of the pandemic have fully recovered with listening growing this year to above pre-pandemic levels. Fewer people sought out current events via podcasts — at least via searches, compared to 2020, when we saw a huge spike in search terms related to the presidential race, pandemic, and Black Lives Matter. 57.7% of creators whose audience is over 25,000 listens/month report self-selling sponsorships or ads to earn money from their show, while 41.5% rely on paid subscriptions and 36.6% use an ad network to help sell ads. For smaller shows, merchandise sales led the way to earn revenue (47.2%), followed by self-sell ads (26%) and soliciting subscriptions/donations (23%).
LISTEN: Hilary Brown knew she wanted to be a foreign correspondent when there were no women on the job. She ended up becoming the first female foreign correspondent for ABC News, reporting from trouble-spots around the globe from the early 1970s onward for more than 35 years, filing from every continent except Antarctica. We welcome Hilary Brown to this episode of Broadcast Dialogue – The Podcast to talk about her new memoir War Tourist, which documents a well-lived life as well as some of the baggage that comes with a lifetime of covering conflict. Listen on your favourite podcast app or here:
SIGN OFFS:
Rich Elwood, 67, on Dec. 2. A radio personality, actor, stand-up comedian and comedy club owner, Elwood was a staple on the Vancouver comedy scene with his Punchlines Comedy Theatre. Among the comedians that headlined at Punchlines were Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Norm Macdonald, and Howie Mandel, in addition to opening the door to many up-and-coming comics. Among his acting roles over the years was a part in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore in the mid-1990s. Elwood’s radio career included stops throughout the 1970s at C-FUN as a disc jockey and CKNW as a talk show host. He would also step in for Red Robinson on CISL-AM.
Malcolm Barrie, 89, on Nov. 20. While Barrie hailed from Perth, ON and graduated from Ryerson, he began his broadcasting career in radio in Nassau, Bahamas in 1955. Following CHEX-TV’s opening in Peterborough, he joined the station as the producer of interview shows like the Doug Hall Show and Summer Scene. Among other shows he created and produced were Campus Quiz, which saw grade eight students from various schools compete against each other; 80s variety show Silver Basketball, starring Ron Oliver; and the popular Dance Party. Barrie was also responsible for producing the station’s annual Easter Seals Telethon for children.
TV & FILM:
CBC/Radio-Canada has announced highlights of its coverage of the XXIV Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 which will take place from Friday, Feb. 4 to Sunday, Feb. 20, featuring seven sports and 109 medal events across 13 competition venues. CBC/Radio-Canada will broadcast from every venue, including Canadian medal-winning moments, totalling more than 3,500 hours of live content across all platforms, with broadcast partners TSN, RDS and Sportsnet also offering live event coverage. Throughout December and January, CBC Sports will air the weekly Road To The Olympic Games, available on CBC TV and CBC Gem, as well as live streams of key competitions on cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app. Starting Dec. 21, Radio-Canada Sports will air Le rêve olympique, an original series of athlete portraits profiling top Canadian medal contenders. The eight-part docuseries will be available on ICI TÉLÉ, ICI RDI and ICI TOU.TV.
TSN’s coverage of the 108th Grey Cup featuring the reigning champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers and hometown Hamilton Tiger-Cats will include six hours of preview coverage on Grey Cup Saturday, co-hosted by CFL ON TSN’s Marshall Ferguson and BarDown’s Luca Celebre, live on-location in Hamilton. Sunday’s live coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET with a five-hour pre-game show, with the game to begin at 6 p.m. ET on TSN, TSN.ca, and the TSN app. The broadcast team will be led by play-by-play announcer Rod Smith alongside game analyst Glen Suitor, and a panel featuring host Kate Beirness with analysts Matt Dunigan, Milt Stegall, and Davis Sanchez. James Duthie will also be joined by Jim Barker and Calgary Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell to provide additional analysis, with TSN Football Insiders Dave Naylor and Farhan Lalji. SPORTSCENTRE reporters Sara Orlesky and Matthew Scianitti will focus on the Bombers and Ticats, respectively.
The Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), in partnership with Netflix, the Black Screen Office (BSO), the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO), and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), has opened a call for applications for the 2022 edition of the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative. In its fifth year, Diversity of Voices will welcome up to 100 BIPOC creators and producers of film, television, and digital media content from across Canada. Selected participants will receive full registration to the 2022 Banff World Media Festival as well as a tailored stream of programming and access to networking opportunities with key industry decision-makers. A sub-group of 25 professionals within the cohort will be selected to take part in the Diversity of Voices Pitch Program, which will provide them with additional mentorship and networking or pitching opportunities. The deadline to apply is Jan. 7.
CineFAM is launching a Women of Colour (WOC) Content Creator Database that will live on the Canadian not-for-profit’s website. Founded by award-winning filmmaker and Academy member Frances Anne Solomon, CineFAM aims to build capacity and viability for women creators of colour and provide multiple platforms for their work to be shown. The goal of the database will be to enhance the visibility of women of colour in the film industry in hopes of widening their networks and accessibility to larger resources. CineFAM wants to feature as many creators as possible. If you identify as a WOC filmmaker or creator (director, videographer, screenplay writer, actress etc.), you are encouraged to fill out an application.
Liquid Media Group says it’s in the final stages of an agreement to provide recoupable last-mile financing for three films through the company’s newly-formed production funding unit Liquid Media Production Funding. The film slate will mark the unveiling of Liquid’s blockchain approach, designed to help independent producers participate in the benefits of blockchain, including community engagement, owner-controlled distribution and monetization opportunities. In development with Eluvio, it leverages tokenization and NFTs as value-adds for filmmakers across the content lifecycle. This week, Liquid also announced the closing of its acquisition of content recommendation engine iGEMStv, which uses a blend of machine learning and human curation to help audiences discover movies and TV series.
HISTORY drives into the New Year with two Corus Studios series leading the network’s 2022 lineup. New series Lost Car Rescue premieres Jan. 13, following a team of young car hunters as they travel to uncover and extract classic cars that have been abandoned in the Northern Canadian wilderness. Then, Rust Valley Restorers – which had its most successful launch with Season 3 – returns for fourth season Feb. 24. Other series rolling out in the New Year include Beyond Oak Island premiering Jan. 9, and Swamp People premiering Jan. 27.
Food Network Canada’s winter lineup sees the addition of the highly-anticipated Peacock Original series Baking It (6×60) premiering with back-to-back episodes (Dec. 8). W Network will also simulcast the first episode which features hosts Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg overseeing challenge teams of bakers creating holiday-themed culinary creations, judged by opinionated real-life grandmothers. Premiering Jan. 3 is the return of Corus Studios series Wall of Chefs (10×60). Additional new series and seasons include Raid the Fridge (6×60), Guy’s Chance of a Lifetime (6×60), Alex vs America (5×60), Kids Baking Championship, Season 10 (10×60) and new episodes of Carnival Eats (8×30).
Bell Media-owned French-language network, Noovo has acquired the rights to adapt Survivor for French Canada. The Banijay reality competition series has been produced in 48 territories since its launch in 1997 with this year the format’s most successful to-date with 24 productions confirmed. Bell Media is working with ToRoS productions on a local version that will resonate with Quebec viewers.
Off the Fence, winner of this year’s BAFTA and Oscar for Best Documentary Feature (My Octopus Teacher), has announced a distribution deal with Canadian production company Infield Fly Productions for Curb Your Carbon, a humorous documentary narrated by Ryan Reynolds. Commissioned by CBC and premiering Jan. 14 on The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, Curb Your Carbon travels the globe to unveil 10 ways to fight climate change like waste less food, eat less meat and eat more bugs. Curb Your Carbon was written by Liam O’Rinn, who also directed with P.J. Naworynski. It was produced by Dugald Maudsley and Gillian Main of Infield Fly Productions, and produced in association with CBC.
ONLINE & DIGITAL MEDIA:
Rumble, the Toronto-based video platform, and CF Acquisition Corp. VI, sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald, have entered into an agreement that will see a combined company called Rumble Inc. publicly listed on Nasdaq. Based on a philosophy of unrestricted free expression and neutrality, Rumble has grown popular with those censored on other platforms, with Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick confirming this week it’s reached a distribution deal with Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform. Rumble boasted 36 million average monthly active users in Q3 2021, including 44 million monthly active users in August. The transaction, expected to close in the second quarter of 2022, values Rumble at $2.1 billion, with current Rumble shareholders having the ability to earn additional shares of the combined company if the stock reaches price hurdles of $15 and $17.50 per share.
The Maple Leafs take on the Wild this Saturday! #PuckDrop
❤️ this tweet and we’ll notify you when the puck drops on the first #HockeyNight in Canada game every Saturday until the end of the year as we stream the first few minutes LIVE on Twitter! pic.twitter.com/hTPJfvLXKj
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 2, 2021
Sportsnet and Twitter Canada have launched #PuckDrop, a new Twitter experience that invites Canadians to watch live NHL action on Twitter with Sportsnet. As of Dec. 4, fans can watch the first five minutes of Sportsnet’s first Hockey Night in Canada game on Twitter, free of charge, live from the @Sportsnet account. The complete broadcast will be available on Sportsnet NOW, at no charge, where viewers can follow the rest of the game. As part of the experience, users will be able to like a promoted @Sportsnet Tweet to receive a push notification when a select number of NHL games go live on Twitter throughout the season. Twitter says the NHL was the most talked about sports league on Twitter in Canada this past year with 65% of Canadian hockey fans saying Twitter is the social media platform they use to follow sports.
Kraft Peanut Butter has teamed up with so.da and Twitter to develop Kraft Peanut Butter Television, a digital-first variety show starring the Kraft Peanut Butter bears, Crunchy and Smoothie. Hosted by ET Canada’s Carlos Bustamante, #KraftPBTV marks the ninth Twitter Original series with so.da and a new marketing approach for the brand, taking on an entertainment-first philosophy to engage viewers through in-feed videos, Twitter polls, and conversation cards. With all five episodes now released, the series has reached over four million Canadians and generated over 55 million impressions with almost half a million engagements to date.
REGULATORY, TELECOM & MEDIA:
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) received over 17,000 complaints between Aug. 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021 from Canadian consumers about internet, phone and TV services, up 9% year-over-year. The report says disclosure of information and billing issues were raised most often with the most complained-about services, from highest to lowest: wireless, internet, television and local phone. Of the 405 service providers that participate in the CCTS, 10 accounted for over 80% of all customer complaints. Bell accounted for more than 20% of all complaints (down 7.8% over last year), while 13% of complaints were about Rogers (a 32% increase). Rogers’ flanker brand Fido came in third attracting roughly 10% of complaints (a 49% increase). Videotron saw a 57% surge in complaints, Xplornet a 35% increase, and Suntel a 218% surge, while Cogeco complaints dropped by 27%, Eastlink 33% and Shaw Direct 47%.
SaskTel has launched digital mobile service brand Lüm Mobile, a self-serve wireless offering appealing to customers that prefer to manage their own service online at a more affordable price. With no monthly plans or billing dates, customers buy a membership to get access to data and only pay for data, calls, and texts they actually use. Customers are required to bring their own mobile phone when they sign up for service. Lüm (pronounced loom) is pulled from the word illumination with SaskTel saying it’s here to shed light on change for mobile service and the environment.
The Broadcasting Accessibility Fund will award $371,000 to four new projects to advance accessibility to broadcasting content for Canadians with disabilities. This round is the fund’s seventh with a total commitment of approximately $4M to date. The projects approved include: advancing the current state of accessibility to CBC content by increasing the volume of sports content offered with American Sign Language; the VD-Qual project (English and French Described Video Writing Assistant – Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal), which aims to build a suite of diagnostic and correction tools for described video texts in order to improve their quality; an accessible Infrared Remote Control App from Komodo OpenLab that would allow users to add infrared remote control functions to an accessible interface controlled by touch, voice or assistive technologies like switch access or screen readers, allowing users with limited mobility to control media devices; and Seneca College’s proposed development of an online accessible podcast production micro-credential course, offering students who are deaf and hard of hearing the tools to produce their own podcast content, in partnership with the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association.
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Radio, Television, and Broadcast News students Meghan Cobb and Savannah Groot are the 2021 recipients of the Pattison Media Limited Prairie Equity Scholarships. Cobb is a second-year student, specializing in Broadcast News, who is already working as a weekend news anchor for 770 CHQR Calgary. Groot is specializing in Radio and has already voiced and produced two audio books and a national Crime Stoppers campaign, among other voiceover work. The Equity Scholarship was instituted in 2009 to address the shortage of broadcasters from four under-represented groups; Indigenous Peoples, Persons with Disabilities, Members of Visible Minorities, and Women.
BROADCAST TECH & ENGINEERING:
ADVERTORIAL: LiveU has published a new case study on Broadcast Dialogue.com highlighting how LiveU’s LU800 and LU600 field production units for portable video transmission have been instrumental in producing events like the Rockstar Energy Triple Crown, the largest Canadian professional race series (arenacross, motocross, supercross), and the Woodbine Queen’s Plate. Read more here.
Dejero has launched its new EnGo 265 mobile transmitter for news and live events. EnGo 265 replaces the EnGo 260, introducing new features targeting the broadcast and media market, including bolstered security and lower latency at just 0.5 seconds over bonded cellular connections. It also features a new ‘GateWay mode’ for wireless broadband internet connectivity and a modified backpack with a wired remote. GateWay mode provides wireless broadband internet connectivity in the field to enable mobile teams to securely and quickly transfer large files, access MAM and newsroom systems, and publish content to social media.
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) is forming an Education Working Group that will focus specifically on education and training to expand the pool of industry professionals prepared to design, build, and operate standards-based IP media technology and solutions. AIMS’ Education Working Group will build on the successful efforts of the alliance’s Technical Working Group and Marketing Working Group. Since AIMS formed six years ago, it says those groups have made significant strides in leading the industry towards an open, standards-based implementation for IP media solutions. Volunteers — and particularly integrators and end users — are welcome to join in the work.
