
As the new year begins, ACT Entertainment is marking two promotions and a retirement in the company's technical service department. CTO Mario Collazo retires from the firm while Ryan Kanarek has been promoted to Director of Technical Services and Dustin Barnes has been elevated to the role of Software Support Manager.
Mario Collazo retired after 29 years of service at ACT Entertainment; he joined ACT in 1996 and became CTO three years ago. One of the company's longest tenured employees, Collazo leaves in place a roster of experienced technical personnel who ensure that ACT's service and support will continue to be best in class.
The technical service and support at ACT Entertainment is not only critical to our customers but vital to our culture as a company, says ACT CEO Ben Saltzman. We have been lucky to have leadership like Mario's nurturing that culture of service, and luckier still to have people like Ryan and Dustin who have grown with ACT and will carry our mission forward.
After nearly 30 years of service with ACT, Mario's role has been unique and will be difficult to replicate, but personally and as a team we're up for the challenge, says Kanarek, who celebrates his own 10-year anniversary with the company in 2025. Kanarek joined ACT in software technical support and moved up to Software Support Manager in 2017; he is well known in the industry for his expertise with MA Lighting software platforms.
The stellar growth of grandMA3, new product offerings and the pandemic have brought us to a place of new challenges and opportunities. We're excited to provide fresh perspectives and potentially new solutions to our users and customers who hold our support to a very high standard, he says.
Barnes, who joined ACT in August 2021 to bolster the team's grandMA3 software support and has more recently become a zactrack product specialist, steps into the Software Support Manager post previously held by Kanarek. It's very exciting to lead a support team for an ever-expanding user base of professionals who are pushing the boundaries creatively and often technically as well, says Barnes. We have great manufacturer partners and a great crew here in North America, so this is an exciting new chapter for all of us.
Dustin has shown himself to have a great head for troubleshooting and technical detail and he'll do an excellent job leading the Software Support Team, notes Kanarek. It's a huge boost to know we'll have each other's backs as we step into these new roles together.
More from TV-Bay
24/04/2026
Recognition for incredible advances in broadcast and enterprise control...
24/04/2026
Media-aware agentic AI wins big for real-world efficiencies and time to value
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, to...
24/04/2026
Mediagenix wins for its Scheduling Optimization capabilities that help broadcasters and FAST operators move beyond traditional scheduling automation toward cont...
24/04/2026
Setplex today announced that it has taken home the NAB Show Project of the Year Award in the Distribution category for its innovative deployment with UVOtv. Dur...
24/04/2026
Media and post-production teams are invited to experience next-level resource planning, project management, and connected media workflows at Stand K59 in The Gr...
23/04/2026
Partnership between ARRI and SmallHD brings new Hi-5 license
Configurable monitor overlays adapt to individual working styles
Supported by SmallHD monitors ru...
23/04/2026
Lighting Master Cronenweth ASC brings a unique look to each grid world with the help of Astera
Jeff Cronenweth on the set of Disney's TRON: ARES. Photo by...
23/04/2026
DP Chloe Smolkin ( The Late Show, Kidz Bop ) joins director Danielle Beckmann and writer/actor Raji Ahsan behind the camera for the heartfelt short comedy Dr...
21/04/2026
London, 21 April 2026 IBC today announced the appointment of Tim Banham as its first Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), a newly created role that reflects the or...
21/04/2026
Cinema 4D brings professional 3D workflows to iPad. The return of Autograph now free for individual users. ZBrush expands to Windows on Arm. See it all at NAB...
21/04/2026
Software version 1.6 extends enterprise functionality to place Buttons at the heart of media operations at any scale
Bitfocus, the Norwegian software develope...
21/04/2026
Cobalt Digital Announces Launch of blueCORE at NAB Show 2026: Compact Powerhouse Signal Processors for SDI and ST 2110 Workflows
Compact, multi-function stan...
20/04/2026
CueScript and Lighting Design Group Expand Customer Opportunities
Through New Partnership
Find both companies at 2026 NAB Show in CueScript Booth # C 4720
...
20/04/2026
Layercake, the company behind the intelligent media orchestration platform Streamcake, today announced the formalisation of its integration with Bitmovin, a lea...
20/04/2026
Deployment spans FOX Sports' REMI infrastructure, IP production for a major global soccer event, and its Jewel Events production systems
Appear, a global l...
19/04/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced that AccuWeather , the most trusted source of wea...
19/04/2026
Calrec (Booth:C6907) and Grass Valley (Booth: C2408) are today announcing a long-term broadcast audio technology partnership at NAB Show 2026. The companies are...
19/04/2026
Ikegami announces a further expansion to its range of on-camera viewfinders. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegamis Central Hall booth C3819 at the April 19th -...
18/04/2026
Clear-Com announced FreeSpeak Cell , a cellular-based wireless intercom system that uses LTE and 5G infrastructure to support large-scale production communicat...
18/04/2026
New York, NY, April 17, 2026 -- TAG Video Systems has announced an integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elemental MediaConnect Router. The integration bri...
18/04/2026
Pro Sound Effects (PSE), the leading provider of professionally recorded sound effects for film, television, advertising, and technology today announced the lau...
18/04/2026
Fincons Group, a multinational IT business consulting and system integrator firm, announced today that it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Enterta...
17/04/2026
Cobalt Digital and SineSix Media Partner to Transform Accessibility Compliance into a More Engaging Viewer Experience at NAB Show 2026
Collaboration integrates...
17/04/2026
Strengthening Appear's North America team with a new Vice President of Business Development
Appear ASA (Appear, OSE: APR), a global leader in live producti...
17/04/2026
New framework helps broadcasters, streaming platforms, and sports organizations apply AI to live video for monetization, metadata, highlights, and downstream wo...
17/04/2026
New whitepaper gives broadcasters and OTT operators independent, codec-by-codec evidence that the VisualOn Optimizer transforms viewer quality of experience.
V...
17/04/2026
At NAB Show 2026, PTZOptics (Booth N1902) will showcase a live sports streaming demo created in collaboration with Moondream, offering a new look at how Visual ...
17/04/2026
The Eindhoven University of Technology is a research university in the Netherlands spanning 25 buildings, specialising in engineering, science and technology. D...
17/04/2026
Dubformer, the AI-powered dubbing platform, and Adapt, a global leader in AI-driven localization and dubbing solutions, have enabled Goalcast, the inspirational...
17/04/2026
At NAB 2026, Mavis will launch Mavis Studio, a new live production app for iPad that gives creators, broadcasters, and production teams a powerful new way to bu...
17/04/2026
Avid and Google Cloud today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to integrate generative and agentic AI into the media and entertainment industry's...
17/04/2026
At NAB Show, LucidLink will showcase how its platform brings content, people and workflows closer together than ever before, with newly available capabilities a...
16/04/2026
Telestream Cloud Services, including Vantage Cloud, UP, and SENTRY monitoring tools, are now optimized for OCI, powering flexible multi-cloud media orchestratio...
16/04/2026
Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA, FOX; FOX or the Company ) today announced a strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), naming AWS as its preferre...
16/04/2026
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, today announced an ISDB-Tb capabilit...
16/04/2026
Synamedia and SoFast announce strategic go-to-market partnership to accelerate FAST, pay-TV, and VOD
At the NAB Show 2026, Synamedia and SoFast are announcing ...
16/04/2026
Showcases New, Open-Standard IP Solutions Across Its Portfolio, From Production to Playout
Imagine Communications is marking a decade of leadership in ST 2110 ...
16/04/2026
Sportway Media Group, a world leading AI-automated sports production company and Broadcast Solutions, a leading system integrator and provider of innovative sol...
15/04/2026
Evergent introduces its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform, transforming how subscription businesses across direct-to-consumer streaming, pay-TV, telecommun...
15/04/2026
Harmonic's XOS Media Processor Delivers Exceptional Video Quality to More than Half of U.S. Public Media Viewership
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announce...
15/04/2026
LONGMONT, COLORADO, APRIL 15, 2026 DPA Microphones N Series Digital Wireless System users in North America can now take full advantage of the system's exc...
15/04/2026
Cobalt Iron, a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced the launch of Compass Tape Gateway (CTG), a transformative enhancemen...
15/04/2026
Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, is proud to announce its central role in the digital trans...
15/04/2026
VO Integrates Client-Side and Server-Side Ad Technologies with its Secure Video Player and Segmentation Tools, Leveraging Broadpeak's SSAI and BPK SmartLib ...
15/04/2026
TMT Insights, a leader in professional services and software development for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry, today announced the launch of TMT AI at...
15/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media, a global leader in managed broadcast and cloud-based media services, today announced an expanded partnership with Oracle Cloud Infrastr...
15/04/2026
Middleman Software, a leading provider of signaling and synchronization solutions for broadcast and streaming workflows, today announced it will unveil PhaseLoc...
15/04/2026
Deity Microphones today announced the PR-4, a compact six-track field recorder featuring four inputs, 32-bit float recording, advanced routing, and a workflow-f...
15/04/2026
Strategic Alignment With the Riedel Group for Innovation and Growth
Thomas Riedel, founder and owner of Riedel Communications and the Riedel Group, has acqui...
15/04/2026
SDVI, the leading platform provider for cloud-native media supply chains, today announced that the company's Rally platform has been deployed by Iyuno Media...