SVG Sit-Down: Videon Central CEO Todd Erdley on Connecting Sports Fans Through Live Streamed Experiences Current strategy centers around an augmented and streamlined process By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor
Wednesday, March 3, 2021 - 12:45 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Since its founding, Videon Central has been supplying affordable live streaming and encoding solutions for a wide variety of production verticals. With EdgeCaster, VersaStreamer SDI, and VersaStreamer 4K leading the way, the company has made significant headway in supporting digital productions of some of sports' biggest events. SVG sat down with CEO Todd Erdley about how the company is virtually bringing fans together throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, overcoming technological challenges to provide this content, simplifying the user experience for better engagement, and where these at-home models of live streaming go after the pandemic ends.
Videon CEO Todd Erdley
How has the ongoing pandemic accelerated Videon's efforts in digital streaming?
Since people can't get to the venue, we're trying to come up with unique ways to bring content to the viewers by working with different sports leagues. We want fans to engage in an event in a meaningful way that feels like they're sitting next to each other but they're actually in two different households. Some of these examples include gamification, opportunities for micro betting, or a different camera angle. Since the start of the pandemic, another level of storytelling that's popped up is the larger idea of a second-screen experience. We want viewers to have the broadcast on the big screen, but also have people watch their favorite player on another screen.
What technological challenges is the company overcoming to produce a quality product?
Some leagues want a particular camera location to be streamed and delivered for remote operators to use. In addition, we might also blur some things that would otherwise be visible because we don't want full access to that type of video. We're really trying to produce elements in low latency video because that's extremely important for real-time engagement points. We're also talking about a rapid deployment of assets in a low-cost way to hook up video streaming and edge computing at every camera like a pylon cam and an in-car cam.
Aside from a production standpoint, how are you changing your behind-the-scenes workflow to better enhance the experience?
[The industry] hasn't put in the effort to create a quality product in live streaming that we have with broadcast. The typical video workflow has been encoding a video, pushing it up to the cloud, letting it re-encode in the cloud and break apart into pieces, and then send it to different destinations. That complex process takes time, requires money, and reduces reliability, so we've decided to simplify this workflow. We're now treating the supply chain of video in a way that we optimize it. For example, let's encode that video, put it in the right packaging, and deliver it directly to the CDN by bypassing the cloud. We want it to be correctly formatted so that it's going to play [efficiently ] on your phone, tablet, or computer. We also want to reduce costs and increase the number of opportunities that people have to deliver that video.
How do you see the streaming sector of the industry growing over the next 6 to 12 months? Will second-screen experiences have a lasting impact on viewing habits?
There are a couple of things that are going to happen. When fans go to a stadium and it's in between plays, they're going to be watching a specific angle of a replay or something that's personalized on a phone that's delivered in real-time. 5G in sporting venues will also be a perfect application of technology and will help with delivery. If they're not in the stadium, the experience will be able to include video, social media, and enhanced graphics.
Ultimately, we're not going to see a decrease in second screens, but actually an increase. The phrase second screen isn't going to be used within a year because it'll become a huge part of the primary screen. If you think about ad placement, there will be all sorts of different monetization opportunities for major sports leagues.
Lastly, the industry has controlled what we watch and what the pandemic has taught us is that live streaming is becoming democratized. Anybody can watch anything at any time. People want to watch corn hole or ax throwing league and they want to bet on sports like cricket. At the end of the day, we need to solve the steps that are within the supply chain. We want to automate complex elements like GOP structure and frame alignment to give an impressive user interface.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
SVG Sit-Down: Videon Central CEO Todd Erdley on Connecting Sports Fans Through Live Streamed Experiences Current strategy centers around an augmented and streamlined process By Kristian Hernandez, Associate Editor 
