Telestream®, a provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, has create a new senior leadership role within its organization. Chris Drake has been appointed to the new position, VP of business and corporate development. Drake reports directly to Telestream’s CEO Dan Castles.
Telestream has achieved its 17th consecutive year of profitable global growth: the company recognizes that it is entering a key stage in its evolution with the recent acquisitions of quality control (QC) specialist, Vidcheck, and IneoQuest, known for video quality monitoring and analytics solutions for content distribution across managed and unmanaged networks.
Many of the world’s most innovative technology companies are embracing the power of video as a tool both to bring their organizations closer together and to bring them closer to their customers. Telestream is strategically positioned to assist these organizations as they navigate the proliferation of devices and formats through which end-users opt to consume video. Drake will be instrumental in shaping Telestream’s strategy: he is tasked with identifying, nurturing and growing partnerships in both file-based operations and live streaming marketplaces.
Drake brings to Telestream more than 20 years of sales, business development, product and management experience in the high tech, media services and broadcast technology industries. He joins the company from Comcast Technology Solutions where he was VP, business development. Prior to that, he held various senior business development, marketing and strategic relations roles at thePlatform and RealNetworks.
Drake noted, “As consumers increasingly turn to streaming to access content across a wide range of devices, the video technology industry is evolving from a model where broadcast simply coexists with digital to a model where true convergence is king. Few companies are as well positioned as Telestream to help address and lead this convergence.”
Review: Director Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece”
A movie documentary that uses only Lego pieces might seem an unconventional choice. When that documentary is about renowned musician-producer Pharrell Williams, it's actually sort of on-brand.
"Piece by Piece" is a bright, clever song-filled biopic that pretends it's a behind-the-scenes documentary using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It is deep and surreal and often adorable. Is it high concept or low? Like Williams, it's a bit of both.
Director Morgan Neville — who has gotten more and more experimental exploring other celebrity lives like Fred Rogers in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?,""Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" and "Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces" — this time uses real interviews but masks them under little Lego figurines with animated faces. Call this one a documentary in a million pieces.
The filmmakers try to explain their device — "What if nothing is real? What if life is like a Lego set?" Williams says at the beginning — but it's very tenuous. Just submit and enjoy the ride of a poor kid from Virginia Beach, Virginia, who rose to dominate music and become a creative director at Louis Vuitton.
Williams, by his own admission, is a little detached, a little odd. Music triggers colors in his brain — he has synesthesia, beautifully portrayed here — and it's his forward-looking musical brain that will make him a star, first as part of the producing team The Neptunes and then as an in-demand solo producer and songwriter.
There are highs and lows and then highs again. A verse Williams wrote for "Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect when he was making a living selling beats would lead to superstars demanding to work with him and partner... Read More