Alfredo Blanco Paredes is VSN’s new Product Manager. In this interview, he shares his professional career in the Broadcast industry and his experience working with companies in the field, about the importance of Media Asset Management (MAM) in the audiovisual world and the future trends in this technology. In addition, he also offers his vision of the three Broadcast companies in Aspire’s vertical.
What can you tell us about your professional career?
Llevo en el sector de Broadcast desde el año 1990, cuando entré a trabajar en PESA Electrónica como técnico de instalaciones para Unidades Móviles. Desde entonces, he ido pasando por varias empresas y puestos hasta hoy. En resumen, he sido responsable de Mantenimiento del Sistema Integrado de Noticias y del Control Central en Atresmedia, en Key Account Manager y Project Manager en Dalet, Project Manager en Grass Valley y también he trabajo en Unitecnic en dos ocasiones, la primero como Project Manager, y la segunda como responsable del área de Sistemas Audiovisuales. Finalmente, en Telson ejercí en el área Servicios Audiovisuales como responsable Técnico del área de Canales Temáticos.
Presumably, with so many familiar names in the industry in your background, you were already familiar with VSN.
Of course, I knew VSN. I was a client of Unitecnic during my time at Telson after the implementation of VSNExplorer as the solution for the management of Turner Spain’s channels. Later, at Unitecnic, VSN was our MAM solutions provider. As a joint bid, we were awarded the Corporació Valenciana de Mitjans de Comunicació (CVMC) archive system.
Were you also aware about the other two companies in the Media & Broadcast vertical, Woody and M&I?
Yes, I knew both. With Woody I have had a much closer relationship because they were Unitecnic suppliers, and in my stage there we proposed their solutions in some tenders in which we participated. I knew M&I because I searched, also during my time at Unitecnic, for radio automation solutions to enter bids that required a radio system integrated with the MAM system.
It is always interesting to learn about the company’s image from the point of view of a partner, user or customer. From the outside, what was your perception of VSN?
I have always considered the company to be a very dynamic one, with a very capable group of people who were open to finding solutions when a problem arose. As a client, I have nothing but words of gratitude for all the help and dedication they gave me when implementing the MAM for Turner. Everyone who knows me has always heard me say that VSN was a company I would like to work for in the future. Happily, that future is now present and I am privileged to work here.
Let’s talk about it! What role will you play in the company? In what and with whom will you work?
My role will be Product Manager in Toni Vilalta’s team, current Product Development Director. The purpose is to bring my experience –both as an integrator and as a customer– to improve as much as possible both VSNExplorer and Woody’s IN2IT and to work on the integration of all the products of the Media & Broadcast vertical to offer customers a complete and relevant content management solution for the television industry, but also for the radio business, which is where we are connected with M&I.
You have been dealing with MAM (Media Asset Management) technology for many years, what would you highlight about it?
The MAM concept came at the time as something disruptive, something that came to solve the maelstrom that content management was in the audiovisual world (Excel sheets, tapes with barcodes, etc.) and has gradually become the cornerstone of all companies in the media world and even the corporate part of other companies outside the industry that have very powerful communication departments and also need to manage in an agile and centralized way all the multimedia resources of their company. From my point of view, nowadays MAM systems have become essential. It is a very useful way to provide a solution to all content needs for companies (corporate intranet, social media, public events, online training, etc.).
Where do you think media management systems and their technology are headed? What trends do you see coming up next?
As I mentioned before, I believe that they are going to become –if they are not already– the only possible way to efficiently manage the enormous amount of material that is generated daily in order to cover all the areas of information that a company needs. If we add to this the use of AI for the automatic generation of metadata associated with the media, the possibilities of these systems grow exponentially. Furthermore, I believe that we are heading towards a greater integration between the MAM and the rest of the systems (CRM, CMS, Traffic, Playout Automation, News Systems, Social Media) that will allow us to increase productivity in a simpler way.
Finally, and since we have already talked about the three companies that make up the vertical, what do you think it brings us to be together, with Valsoft as the link?
Among other things, the possibility of accessing its client portfolio, and being able to open new markets, the implementation of some internal processes that allow us to optimize resources, and a mentality that is different from ours, more North American. In addition, there is also the possibility, within the vertical, to continue acquiring companies that allow us to offer an even more complete solution to our customers.
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