CP Communications Selects New Vice President Of North American Sales

CP Communications has appointed 30-year broadcast industry veteran Ken Dillard as Vice President of North American Sales.

Leveraging his extensive recent experience in the cellular newsgathering space, Dillard's first strategic initiative will be building on the exclusive partnership between CP Communications and IP transport solution developer Mobile Viewpoint to establish the latter’s products in the U.S. market.

Dillard joins CP Communications from IP-based live video solutions provider TVU Networks, where he served nearly three years as Vice President of Sales, North America. Prior to that, he held senior sales management roles at Dejero, Statmon Technologies Group and Harris Corporation as well as Avid, where he gained insights into the unique needs of news production operations. Before turning his career focus towards sales, Dillard spent 14 years as Chief Engineer at multiple U.S. radio stations, helping him deeply understand the challenges customers face today from an engineering perspective.

"CP Communications has thrived for more than 30 years primarily based on word-of-mouth, growing our business through referrals based on the confidence our customers have in us," said Kurt Heitmann, CEO, CP Communications. "It's exciting to think how much further we can take our company with the addition of a sales leader of Ken's caliber, proactively bringing new problem-solving offerings to our customers while delivering the same level of service they expect from CP Communications. Ken's established industry relationships and background in bonded cellular, streaming and newsgathering make him the ideal person to build our Mobile Viewpoint business and help our customers bring IP-based media transport into their operations."

Headquartered in the Netherlands, Mobile Viewpoint is a leading developer of innovative, live IP contribution and transmission solutions. Mobile Viewpoint’s latest products combine H.265 (HEVC) video encoding with bonding technology to reliably transmit video over bonded IP connections at the highest possible quality while using the lowest bandwidth.

The partnership forged earlier this year gives Mobile Viewpoint its first North American sales and support presence, with CP Communications offering the entire portfolio of Mobile Viewpoint solutions. In addition to providing Mobile Viewpoint products on a standalone basis, CP Communications' Red House Streaming division will develop unique solutions and services powered by the Mobile Viewpoint products. While other vendors provide point products for IP-based transport, CP Communications is uniquely positioned to deliver full-service, turnkey production solutions and services combining Mobile Viewpoint's award-winning technologies with production expertise, on-site deployment services and supporting third-party tools.

"Our partnership with Mobile Viewpoint exponentially expands the ways in which we can help our customers overcome their challenges," said Dillard. "For example, we can combine RF and IP solutions to optimize acquisition workflows at large live sporting events, or we can leverage Mobile Viewpoint’s TerraLink-4C Multicam to enable IP-based, fully-remote production for smaller events where full truck service with traditional technology is cost-prohibitive. The Mobile Viewpoint product line offers customers IP-based media contribution, production and distribution options backed by the same great CP Communications service and support that top-tier customers trust with their livelihoods."

Mobile Viewpoint solutions will be the focus of CP Communications' exhibit at NAB Show New York, taking place October 17 and 18 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City. Dillard will be joined in booth N910 by Mobile Viewpoint CEO Michel Bais to discuss offerings including the aforementioned TerraLink-4C Multicam system plus:

Agile Airlink multi-camera H.265 encoder – the thinnest encoder with two discrete video channels and databonding
NEO single-camera H.265 encoder – Mobile Viewpoint’s smallest live streaming H.265 bonding device
IQ Sports Producer – all-in-one, automated sports production suite using AI to follow motion on the field or court
NewsPilot – automated, AI-driven studio production suite for broadcast news.