New ChyronHego CEO Marco Lopez Sees Reason for Optimism in Boom in Content Creation Anticipating a software-driven future, the company is poised for explosive growth in broadcast By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, February 1, 2018 - 10:33 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
When Marco Lopez was named CEO of ChyronHego on Jan. 9, former CEO (and now Executive Chairman of the Board) Johan Apel made it clear that sports is a priority and that the company has made tremendous inroads in the market. Now it is up to Lopez to build on that success and also oversee a company whose tools will be at the forefront of a transition to IP, virtual machines, and even the use of artificial intelligence.
ChyronHego has a great heritage, says Lopez. I love being part of a company that has such brand recognition. Especially in our industry, the graphics operators are called Chyron operators even when it is not the function they are doing.
ChyronHego's Marco Lopez: The fundamentals of the [video-content-creation] ecosystem are still very sound and expanding.
In the announcement of his appointment, Lopez made mention of the industry's rapid shift from proprietary hardware to software-based workflows running in commodity IT-based environments. He said that, with strategic solutions like the CAMIO Universe, ChyronHego has anticipated the software-driven future and is poised for explosive growth, particularly in the broadcast segment.
From my perspective, when you look at the fundamentals of the [video-content-creation] ecosystem, they are still very sound and expanding, he says. There is an increasing number of viewers, and the ways they can view things is exploding. The exciting part to me is that things like Statcast and Pitchcast are a way to further engage with the viewers, at home or on a device inside the stadium.
Lopez joined ChyronHego from Grass Valley, where he was named president in 2012. While there, he watched, from the outside, growth of approaches like the use of virtualization for pop-up-studio operations and the use of graphics systems to create dynamic and cost-effective virtual sets with very little time and cost.
And now, he says, there are end-to-end workflows based on software-enabled tools that have video and audio switching, graphics, and playback of clips.
Prior to joining Grass Valley, Lopez was at Miranda Technologies and Matrox Electronics. Having graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a degree in computer engineering, he is more than familiar with the technology concepts that face the industry. The same can also be said for the business side.
It's clear that, today, the P&L structure and how a CFO of a large media company looks at things is being challenged by the move to opex and SaaS [software as a service] implementation, Lopez explains. I still believe that both models will make sense: there might be a data center where there will be a capex type of investment that is capitalized over five to seven years, but then, [on the software side], there would be the flexibility to buy the necessary licenses for a day or a week where an operating expense is put against an event.
He says the mix of capex vs. opex depends very much on the size of the organization, and each company will have its own strategy around the use of SaaS, cloud environments, and even security.
The fear that the technology will not be able to meet requirements because of bandwidth or quality of service is not an issue anymore, Lopez notes. Rather, it is how they want to treat and secure content and whether they are large enough to make an investment in and manage their own data centers or whether they are fine working with players like Amazon, Google, or a second-level managed service.
With respect to market opportunities, he says that ChyronHego is closely aligned to the creative side of the industry and the growth in technology like player tracking. That provides opportunity because content creators want to engage with customers.
Our customers want to use data and analytics and make them more easily viewable, he says, so that viewers can see the velocity of the ball or how it ran to the plate. On the venue side, Click Effects is helping venue [production teams] create memorable experiences so the fans want to come back.
Lopez's management style begins with a sense of trust among the team members across the organization.
That is an important first step, he says. Now I am going out and meeting the teams. I am a firm believer in the successes Toyota achieved with lean enterprises and going to the point of impact and figuring out where people are bringing the greatest value. It is important to understand the team's challenge, the work they do, and then structure an organization that benefits them for the long term.
The overall goal is to make sure the three key stakeholders in any organization - customers, employees, and investors and owners - are all working in unison.
Right now, I need to spend quite a bit of time learning how the organization has been structured via a lengthy tour to visit offices in the EMEA region - great customers in that region - and, between now and NAB, meet with the marketing teams, he explains. But I am real impressed with some of the stats - like that more than 80% of all mobile-production trucks in North America have ChyronHego as a graphics solution. That is a pretty telling piece of success, and you can't have that kind of market penetration if you are not doing what the customer is looking for.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
New ChyronHego CEO Marco Lopez Sees Reason for Optimism in Boom in Content Creation Anticipating a software-driven future, the company is poised for explosive growth in broadcast By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
