Media & Entertainment19 March - 2023CX O INSIGHTSAron Kennedy, Vice President, Game Day Production, San Francisco 49ersByA UNIQUE APPROACH TOWARD VIRTUAL BROADCASTINGAron Kennedy is the Vice President of Game Day Production & Broadcast Operations and is in his seventh season with the San Fransisco 49ers. Having nearly a two-decade-long experience in the production world, Kennedy has worked in all kinds of production gigs, including engineering, audiovisual, commercial, and extreme sports. He also assisted in revamping Levi's Stadium by developing a technologically advanced production department and a robust control room. Before joining the 49ers, he had served as the Director of Game Day Production for the Philadelphia Eagles for 11 seasons. In an interview with CIO Review magazine, he has shared his perspective on the latest technology trends in the audiovisual space, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a sudden but necessary coalescing of traditional broadcasting methodologies with virtual ones. Mention any of the challenges or trends you've seen in the audiovisual space recently?The audiovisual space faced several challenges due to the onset of the pandemic. For instance, it suddenly had to adapt to a new environment and reinvent itself to carry on with its objective of providing information to football fans. It had to reimagine and blend the traditional broadcasting methodologies with the virtual ones to build a hybrid architecture of audiovisual broadcasting. As a broadcaster, we needed to adapt ourselves to this abrupt shift to live streaming platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and so on, from traditional mediums. In simpler words, the pandemic has forced us to implement this otherwise yet-to-come hybrid model of audiovisual broadcasting in a minimal period. Tell us about the projects that you have been working on before the pandemic?Before the onset of COVID-19, we worked on a major project where we were trying to implement the 8K resolution cameras to map the American football field digitally. In American football, we use the data we capture to help our teams win games on the field. The videos we capture allow Aron Kennedy
< Page 9 | Page 11 >