New York Festivals Television & Film Awards will honor Ken Aagaard, executive VP, operations, engineering & production services, CBS Sports, with the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award. Aagaard will receive the award at the New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards gala on April 14, 2015 at the annual NAB Show. New York Festivals TV & Film Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes prominent industry leaders whose accomplishments and contributions have advanced their field and made a lasting impression on the industry.
“In the 45 years I have been fortunate enough to be working in the broadcast business, content has always been king and the show has always been the most important,” said Aagaard. “I have also been fortunate to achieve such a long career by surrounding myself with a lot of good people. I am honored to receive this award and share it with a lifetime of colleagues.”
With a media career spanning over four decades, Aagaard is one of sports television’s most respected broadcast executives. His resume includes high profile global sporting events for many networks including 18 Super Bowls, five World Series, a half dozen Wimbledon matches and French Opens, and three Olympic Games, including the 1988 Games in Seoul where he was VP Operations for NBC Olympics.
Aagaard introduced multiple critically acclaimed technical achievements including EyeVison, a new technology showing replays in a 3-D way introduced in January 2001 at Super Bowl XXXV, and Swing Vision, a super-slow motion breakdown for replaying golf swings.
Prior to joining CBS Sports in 1998, Aagaard was president of Creative Broadcast Techniques, a company which he established in 1988. While at CBT he worked as a consultant to CBS Sports, to NBC for the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Summer Games, to Fox Studios, Los Angeles, for 1995 NFL football, and HBO for Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour and Paul Simon Live in Central Park concert. He served as operations producer for events including World Figure Skating Championships (1992-95), Super Bowl Television in Los Angeles (1993), Atlanta (1994) and Miami (1995), World Cup Soccer (1994), the New York City Marathon (1994-95) and the NHL All-Star Game (1994).
The New York Festivals Awards 2015 ceremony will celebrate the World’s Best TV & Films, as well as present the Lifetime Achievement Award, Broadcaster of the Year, Production Company of the Year, and United Nations Department of Public Information Awards. The deadline to enter the 2015 Television & Film Awards competition is October 15, 2014.
Avid completes acquisition of Wolftech
Avid®, known for software solutions for professional media production, has completed the acquisition of Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a leader in cloud-based multiplatform news planning, production and publishing solutions.
The acquisition enables Avid to combine its digital-first, end-to-end media solution with Wolftech’s expertise in story-centric workflow management. News organizations will be able to increase efficiency and accelerate story delivery through enhanced remote collaboration and multiplatform amplification.
Avid CEO Wellford Dillard stated, “Wolftech is unquestionably on the leading edge of where the industry is going, and this acquisition demonstrates Avid’s commitment to transform news, sports, and live production workflows. We are delighted to welcome Wolftech into the Avid family.”
Wolftech CEO Arne Berven added, “We were focused on finding a partner that could accelerate the adoption of our platform globally. We explored a number of possibilities, but when we talked to Avid, we knew it was the right match.”
The closing of the acquisition follows Avid’s announcement on October 7 that the company had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolftech.
With this acquisition, Avid deepens the integration between the two toolsets while continuing to embrace an open approach in partnering with a wide range of media production tools and newsroom systems. Existing Wolftech customers will benefit from Avid’s global scale for customer support and professional services.
Ian Axton, head of production operations for ITV News, said, “As a customer of both Avid and Wolftech we’re excited about the benefits this acquisition will bring to our users and our business. Wolftech has transformed... Read More