TVN Webinar To Explore AR/VR State Of The Art

Leaders in the art of storytelling with augmented and virtual reality will gather for AR/VR State of the Art, a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar set for July 15 at 1 p.m. ET.

The webinar will feature executives from CNN, The Weather Channel, Brainstorm and Planar comparing notes on storytelling, production and technology strategies. They’ll share examples of their recent work and assess whether the platforms are keeping up with producers’ needs, along with successful strategies that talent are incorporating to bring AR into their everyday work.

The webinar will also update attendees on how broadcasters are advancing the use of virtual reality to create a new generation of news, sports and entertainment programming sets.

“More than a year of pandemic-induced remote production has done little to slow down advances in the use of augmented reality for news, weather and sports news storytelling, and it appears to have accelerated the use of virtual sets,” said TVNewsCheck Publisher and Co-Founder Kathy Haley. “TVNewsCheck’s July 15 webinar will provide a video-rich update on how pioneering companies are advancing the state the art for both technologies.”

Speakers:

Mike Chesterfield

Mike Chesterfield, senior director, weather presentation, The Weather Channel — As senior director of weather presentation at The Weather Channel, he oversees the network’s day-to-day portrayal of weather forecasts and its world-renowned storm coverage.

A multidimensional, Emmy award winning media leader, Chesterfield has more than 25 years of experience conceptualizing and producing differentiating weather content. His track record of success includes directing and managing all aspects of weather-related product and content development in a manner specifically designed to maximize audience impact.

Chesterfield leads the charge at the network in implementing Immersive Mixed Reality (IMR) technology into weather presentations. The Weather Channel uses IMR to take viewers inside of a storm in an all-out effort to educate and inform.  Using the power of advanced, real-time graphic renderings and visual effects powered by Unreal Engine, he spearheads the network’s efforts to pioneer new methods of broadcast presentation for real-time immersive storytelling.

Pallavi Reddy

Pallavi Reddy, senior director, new media, CNN — She leads a team of specialized producers, graphic artists and engineers across multiple bureaus. Her team creates touchscreen (known as the Magic Wall), virtual, augmented reality and data visualization content across CNN platforms.

Previously, Reddy was a Washington-based political producer for the 2016 presidential election, primarily covering the Clinton campaign and producing network interviews with then-candidate Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Prior to that, Reddy was a producer on the new media team where she worked as CNN Anchor and Chief National Correspondent John King’s Magic Wall producer. She started at CNN’s Washington bureau in 2011 as a production assistant for Reliable Sources and State of the Union with Candy Crowley.

Reddy received an Emmy for her work as King’s Magic Wall producer for CNN’s presidential election coverage, in addition to the inaugural Cronkite-Jackson award for presidential debate fact checking.

She graduated from UCLA, with a degree in political science and received her master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Ruben Ruiz

Ruben Ruiz, EVP sales, U.S. and Canada, Brainstorm — He leads the general management and operations of the Brainstorm team in the U.S. and Canada. His primary responsibility is growing Brainstorm’s core business in the traditional and digital media technology broadcast markets. Ruiz is also focused on the diversification and expansion of new business opportunities and Brainstorm products into market segments such as corporate, education, state and local government, house of worship, live events and social media professionals.

Before joining Brainstorm in October 2020, Ruiz was SVP of global sales and operations at NewTek where he was instrumental in establishing a world-class global direct and indirect sales organization, leading to an acquisition in 2019. Prior to that, he held several sales and marketing roles in the U.S. and Latin America at Avid Technology, where he was a major contributor to exponentially grow sales and expand marketing channels.

Ruiz has also served as an independent consultant and coach to many organizations and executives. One of his more rewarding endeavors, he loves helping corporate clients and individuals align organizational and personal missions and goals, leading to high productivity through fulfilling breakthroughs and outcomes.

Kathy Skinski

Kathy Skinski, general manager for broadcast, media and virtual production, Planar — She is a multiple Emmy-nominated executive with more than 20 years of television and digital experience that has been enriched by working with top media giants, including ABC, Time Warner and CNN.

During her extensive career, Skinski has been behind the scenes for many globally-televised broadcasts including Super Bowls, World Cup Soccer, presidential elections and inaugurations.

At Planar, she has leveraged her industry experiences and firsthand knowledge of the importance of reliability, customer focus and operating in the broadcast 24/7 environment in North America and across the globe. Skinski and her team have developed innovative and custom solutions to meet the most rigid requirements and continue to raise the bar and retain the worldwide market share leader for LED technology since 2017.

Glen Dickson, contributing editor, TVNewsCheck will moderate.

Click here to register.