
SVG Sit-Down: Inside Signiant's Acquisition of Levels Beyond With Mike Flathers, Jon Finegold, Art Raymond The deal combines a top media-workflow-software provider and file-transfer-tech supplier By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 10:35 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
This month, Signiant acquired Levels Beyond, the company behind the Reach Engine media-workflow software. The blockbuster deal bolsters Signiant's plans to expand beyond the high-speed-file-transfer technology it is most known for into a full-fledged SaaS platform offering a variety of media workflows and modules.
SVG sat down with Signiant Chief Solutions Officer Mike Flathers, CMO Jon Finegold, and Levels Beyond founder Art Raymond (who will continue to oversee the Reach Engine team as part of Signiant) to discuss how the deal came about, what it means for the media/broadcasting sector, how it will impact Signiant and Reach Engine customers in the near and long term, and what the industry can expect from this newly unified entity in 2022 and beyond.
Mike Flathers: It is very rare to find two companies that have very similar visions but also so many synergies.
How did this deal come about, and why does it make sense for both companies?
Flathers: We've known the Levels team for a long time and have worked with them on quite a few industry events. We also have a large mutual customer base, and we believe Levels Beyond's technology can help take us to the next level. This move accelerates our evolution to Beyond file transfer, and, while file transfer will always be at the core of what we offer, we believe that, since we have access to that data in order to move it, there are also a variety of ways we can add value acting on data before or after it moves and even when it doesn't need to be moved. That opens up a lot of doors. And, certainly, the Levels team has a lot of experience integrating with third-party tools and applications. We had a lot of synergies with where we saw the market moving as well as holes in this market.
Finegold: We have a vision to expand our offerings, and the team and technology at Levels are a perfect fit. The foundation that we've laid is in file transfer, and that will continue. As files keep getting bigger, we transfer more and more data every day. But what we have built is a widely adopted SaaS platform that's the foundation for our file-transfer products. We envision being able to take a lot of expertise and technology from Reach Engine and offer them as productized modules within our SaaS platform in a way that is much more accessible to the market.
Instead of building these big custom systems, you can easily adopt a Signiant file-transfer product and plug in these various modules for different workflows. We are looking to simplify and create efficiencies for our customers, building on top of our existing SaaS foundation.
Raymond: [Levels Beyond was] doing a lot of work with mutual clients, and the world just kept evolving rapidly. We're seeing [clients] focus more on automation cycles and big-pipeline moves. We have a mutual client that literally is taking thousands of clips on weekends and moving them in pipelines out to organizational members and individuals while tracking individuals and moving the content in the pipeline back.
We were looking into the future, and we knew we needed to be part of a bigger home. We saw [that] Signiant saw the market with that same vision. In some areas, they were ahead of us, and there was a lot of common ground. It just made a lot of sense for everyone involved.
Art Raymond: I think, when [current Reach Engine users] see our future roadmap, they're going to be very excited.
What does this deal mean for current Reach Engine users?
Raymond: First and foremost, the team at Signiant has committed to support all existing clients as they are today. We're simply going to work towards the mutual vision of the next generation. And we're very conscious about working side-by-side. As new features and services come up, we're going to be very thoughtful about how that impacts the current Reach Engine clients and the current services that are in Reach. I think, when [current Reach Engine users] see our future roadmap, they're going to be very excited.
Flathers: We're taking a very calculated approach to this. While we plan on moving as fast as we can, we aren't going to leave any of the current users high and dry. We have this Signiant SaaS platform that is the basis for everything. But then, we also have these pieces of technology that we're working on internally as well as technology that Levels was working on. We see it as two sets of train tracks that are merging and eventually will be the same track. We're committed to providing a path for the current Reach users to stay on their track but also to merge onto this other track in a very easy fashion if they wish.
What does this deal mean for Signiant users who aren't familiar with Levels Beyond and Reach Engine?
Flathers: We will bring several core modules of the Reach Engine platform onto the Signiant platform. Earlier in the year, we acquired Lesspain Software and are bringing that technology to the Signiant SaaS platform. We have some exciting announcements coming in early 2022 on that front, and we will follow a similar path with Reach Engine technology, making capabilities available on the platform to customers who already leverage our file-transfer products.
We've taken the Lesspain technology and built it into the [Signiant] platform to parse metadata, generate proxies, and those kinds of things. Modules like this will be a core part of our SaaS platform moving forward. Key components of the Reach Engine platform will also show up in the Signiant platform as a platfo
More from Sports Video Group
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Cincinnati Reds Digital Team Celebrates One of...
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Fox Sports Game Director Matt Gangl Shares His...
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Fox Sports' Studio Crew Lowers Outfield Se...
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Major League Baseball's Brian O'Gara D...
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: MLB Network Is On Hand for Minor-League Game, ...
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Beverly Hills Aerials' Michael Izquierdo S...
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: The Game May Look Old, But It Sounds New By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, August 11, 2022 - 12:44 pm
Print This Story...
11/08/2022
Live From MLB at Field of Dreams: Fox Sports Returns to Iowa for Cinematic Feast...
10/08/2022
SVG On Demand: WWE's Rex Canning on the Buildout of the Wrestling Giant'...
10/08/2022
NASCAR Productions To Build State-of-the-Art 58,000-Sq.-Ft. Facility in Concord,...
10/08/2022
Tennis Channel Adds Pickleball to Its Roster of Racquet-and-Ball Productions PPA Summer Championship will air this weekend on CBS Sports By Ken Kerschbaumer, E...
09/08/2022
Barry Johnstone Memorial Service Available On Demand By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, July 25, 2022 - 9:55 am
Print This Story | Subscribe ...
09/08/2022
Wimbledon 2022: IMG and Wimbledon Uncovered By George Bevir
Tuesday, August 2, 2022 - 10:03
Print This Story
IMG-produced channel Wimbledon Uncovered
Hav...
09/08/2022
Best seat in the house: Innovation scores at the DFL Supercup 2022 By Michael Burns
Tuesday, August 2, 2022 - 22:00
Print This Story
FC Bayern M nchen, wi...
09/08/2022
SVG PLAY: How Marquee Sports Network Uses Real-Time Data to Power Its Graphics P...
09/08/2022
Birmingham 2022: Sunset Vine's Jeff Foulser on the importance of involving d...
09/08/2022
Birmingham 2022: BBC R&D achieves two firsts during 5G trial By Heather McLean, Editor
Friday, August 5, 2022 - 15:29
Print This Story
Crowds usually pre...
09/08/2022
Birmingham 2022: Sunset Vine hails success of Commonwealth Games training scheme...
09/08/2022
Supercup 2022: The DFL ups the big game with a glass-to-glass strategy By Michael Burns
Tuesday, August 9, 2022 - 09:58
Print This Story
How many passes h...
08/08/2022
SVG On Demand: FOX Sports' Dustin Myers on Readying Media Management Workflo...
05/08/2022
Twitter, Opendorse Expand NIL Partnership to Help Student-Athletes Monetize In-G...
04/08/2022
Behind The Mic: Linda Cohn Celebrates 30 Years at ESPN With New Contract, Play-B...
04/08/2022
CrossFit Games 2022: Networked Sound Is Everywhere It's Needed Live and broadcast audio, comms ride on a Dante network By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursda...
04/08/2022
SVG PLAY: Facilities Providers and Tech Vendors Sound Off on the Latest Live Pro...
04/08/2022
SVG On Demand: Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on the Value of Industry...
04/08/2022
NBC Sports' NASCAR Production, Ops Teams Look To Ride Momentum of Big Weeken...
04/08/2022
CrossFit Games 2022: Production Team Is Once Again Onsite in Full Force Six trucks, a crew of 250, 35+ cameras, and campus-wide fiber are deployed By Jason Dac...
03/08/2022
Ratings Roundup: ESPN's NBA Today Draws Most-Watched July in Five Years, NAS...
03/08/2022
Blue sky thinking: Sky Sports' Alex Judd on the challenges of using cloud in...
03/08/2022
Tennis Channel Looks To Define the Pickleball Sound Professional Pickleball Association gets regular digital and linear coverage By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
...
03/08/2022
Audio for Friday Night Baseball on Apple Is at Streaming's Leading Edge Apple Spatial Audio codec is being applied to the production's 5.1 surround sou...
03/08/2022
Vin Scully, Iconic Sportscaster and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, Dies at 9...
02/08/2022
SVG PLAY: From Announcers to Editors, Regional Sports Network Executives Discuss...
02/08/2022
SVG On Demand: NBA's Chris Halton Applauds the League's Storage, Archiva...
02/08/2022
Towering' Tribute: Major League Baseball Honors Jackie Robinson With Mixed-R...
02/08/2022
SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns In-Person on Oct. 18 in NYC The transmission-focused event is being chaired by ESPNs Adam Whitlock By SVG Staff
Tuesda...
02/08/2022
SVG Sit-Down: Pixellot's David Shapiro on How AI-Automated Production Tools ...
28/07/2022
SVG PLAY: Direct-to-Consumer and Authenticated In-Market Live Streaming of RSNs ...
28/07/2022
Commonwealth Games 2022: UK rights holder BBC Sport on bringing all regions of t...
28/07/2022
Birmingham 2022: Timeline TV on helping host broadcaster Sunset Vine create the ...
28/07/2022
Birmingham 2022: Inside the host broadcast set-up for the Commonwealth Games wit...
28/07/2022
SVG's Sports Content Management Forum Returns to In-Person Format in NYC Wit...
28/07/2022
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2022 Inductees to be celebrated in annual ceremony in New York City on December 13 By SVG Staff
Thursday,...
27/07/2022
New York Mets Enhance Game-Day Experience at Citi Field With Significant Tech Up...
27/07/2022
SVG PLAY: Go Behind-the-Scenes of In-Venue Video Entertainment at SoFi Stadium w...
26/07/2022
Goddess worship: Warner Bros. Discovery Sports brings together its key female ex...
26/07/2022
Chasing the maillot jaune: Bringing the inaugural Tour de France Femmes to life ...
26/07/2022
BBC returns to dock10 virtual studio for World Athletics Championships By Jo Ruddock
Tuesday, July 19, 2022 - 11:20
Print This Story
The BBC is broadcasti...
26/07/2022
A Giant Leap: How ITN Productions is improving gender parity on the host coverag...
26/07/2022
SVG PLAY: Regional Sports Networks Break Down Their Strategies for Betting, Gami...