
SVG Sit-Down: New FOR-A America President Satoshi Kanemura on Company's Role in Sports Production He looks to build strong relationships with U.S. broadcasters By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - 8:52 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Earlier this month, FOR-A America appointed Satoshi Kanemura president of the company. In 35 years at Sony, Kanemura was a key part of the advance of technologies like 1080p, 4K/8K, and cloud-based production both within Sony and among its customer base. SVG's Ken Kerschbaumer caught up with Kanemura via Zoom to discuss his new role and FOR-A's position in the U.S. sports-production landscape.
FOR-A America's Satoshi Kanemura: Our current priority is providing [broadcasters] IP-based solutions for a step-by-step migration and even hybrid workflows.
What attracted you to the position?
Even during my Sony days, we cooperated a lot with FOR-A as the two companies complement each other well. FOR-A has unique technology and is very much a technology-oriented company. And FOR-A also has the same philosophy as Sony, which is to grow their business alongside their customers. By the way, FOR-A is a Japanese name for the company, but FOR-A is also a Chinese character that stands for grow a business together.
FOR-A is not simply a manufacturer that produces a product, gives it to the customer, and says, Please use it. At FOR-A, they listen to the customer directly and then try to understand their workflow. From there, they determine the customer's pain points so that the technology provides a true solution. Often, that pain point is cost reduction. As long as we can provide a solution that grows their business, they will come back to us. Also, by developing our relationships in this way, we receive candid opinions from our customers that enable us to produce a unique solution.
I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Interbee, the Japanese version of the NAB Show, the past couple of years. The FOR-A stand was very big, and the company has a strong reputation in Japan. Can you explain how that came to be?
FOR-A has a very good connection to Japanese broadcasters, such as NHK. NHK is a long-time customer of FOR-A's and has been an invaluable partner, providing feedback as we develop new technology and new market initiatives. They describe to us, in detail, the main challenges that exist for live broadcasters and for sports producers in particular. In my new role at FOR-A, my challenge is to translate this progressive technology born in Japan to meet the current and future needs of our American clientele and also to build strong relationships with U.S. customers as we've done with NHK in Japan.
FOR-A is also very forward thinking, getting involved with things like 8K and UHD. What do you see as the opportunities those formats can create for FOR-A?
We haven't yet defined where 8K technology will fit and contribute to our customers. We have the technology ready to go, but, currently, a bigger priority for us are things like IP, cloud APIs, and IP-based remote production. The SMPTE ST-2110 is a good standard, but there are still many other areas to be defined. And broadcasters need to be prepared for not only video and audio but need a working knowledge of networking, how to avoid hacking, and how to do things like software upgrades and patches. Our current priority is providing IP-based solutions for a step-by-step migration and even hybrid workflows.
How does the move to IP give you a chance to re-energize FOR-A here in the U.S.?
Major broadcasters like CBS, NBC, ABC, or Fox are starting to adopt IP. We're well-known for our frame synchronizers and the type of technology that can be used to convert IP signals. So that is a good opportunity for us to get involved with major broadcasters and support their productions by solving the issues they face in terms of whole conversion and synchronization, as a first step.
What are some of the key technologies that you think people should know about?
We have an unbelievable camera that I saw in Japan, which is a 4K 1,000-fps ultra-slow-motion camera. I need to bring it to the U.S. and start doing evaluations with several customers to verify the application and any necessary fine-tuning. It has tremendous potential for creating a new look for creators. Another is the FA-9600 multipurpose signal processor that can do all the conversions, color corrections, and formats, so it combines everything into one unit.
And for college or high school sports, our switcher lineup is very cost-effective and easy to use: the operator can have the control panel at home and connect via IP to the processor located elsewhere. The switchers are also available with a web-browser panel that is easy to access and use. We also have an instant-replay system, which will be a good gateway for social-media streaming directly into Facebook or Twitter.
More from Sports Video Group
27/06/2025
How smarter compression is creating a sustainable future By Michael Burns
Monday, June 23, 2025 - 14:13
Print This Story
Live sport is especially vulnerab...
27/06/2025
Behind the Mic: FOX Sports Ratchets Up UEFA Women's EURO 2025 With Top-Class...
27/06/2025
RTL Group To Acquire Sky Deutschland By George Bevir, Editorial Director, SVG Europe
Friday, June 27, 2025 - 8:00 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
27/06/2025
Frictionless, At Scale: The Current State of Live Video Streaming Techology Leaders from Bitmovin, Comcast Technology Solutions, Harmonic, IMAX, and Phenix brea...
27/06/2025
Marquee Sports Network's Nick Steger on Meeting the Moment of the Contending...
27/06/2025
NHL Draft 2025: The League Is Primed for First Decentralized Draft in Non-Pandem...
26/06/2025
10th-Annual SVG Regional Sports Production Summit Presents Useful Roadmap for th...
26/06/2025
The Big Cloud Debate: Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Tech leaders from CineSys, Diversified, and Net Insight breaks down all flavors of cloud By Jason Dachman, ...
26/06/2025
Program Productions' Jess Kowatch on Training the Next and Current Gener...
25/06/2025
SVG College Summit 2025: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Tackling the latest in college sports video: NIL, live production, virtual productio...
25/06/2025
ESPN Is Set To Bring AR Graphics to Wimbledon, Revamps Bunker and Studio 18 VO B...
24/06/2025
2025 NBA Draft: ABC/ESPN Prepares for Two-Day Draft at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By M...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: Google Cloud's Jane Day on the Impact of AI on ...
24/06/2025
Cloud Broadcast Tech Update: AWS's Dana LaGattuta on Data-Driven Innovation ...
24/06/2025
Lions live: Dublin opener sees Sky Sports take remote route By Fergal Ringrose ...
24/06/2025
Pumas maul Lions as S4C and TG4 deliver first-ever joint host in Dublin By Ferg...
24/06/2025
ABC/ESPN Prepares for 2025 NBA Draft, the First at Barclays Center Partners Game Creek Video, CP Communications, NEP Specialty Capture will be on hand By Mark ...
23/06/2025
Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...
23/06/2025
Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...
23/06/2025
Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington
Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38
Print This Story
The ball i...
23/06/2025
New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...
23/06/2025
ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...
20/06/2025
Feeling Unlimited, Part 1: Athletes Unlimited Softball League Deploys Remote Pro...
20/06/2025
A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...
20/06/2025
Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...
20/06/2025
ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...
19/06/2025
SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...
18/06/2025
Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36
Print This Story
For years, att...
18/06/2025
Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...
18/06/2025
SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...
18/06/2025
SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...
17/06/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...
17/06/2025
Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...
17/06/2025
From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...
17/06/2025
Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...
17/06/2025
Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...
17/06/2025
DAZN Brings Global Ambition to U.S. Soil With Production of 2025 FIFA Club World...
17/06/2025
Diversified's Christine Williamson on How UT's New State-of-the-Art Prod...
16/06/2025
Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New Productio...
16/06/2025
Behind The Broadcast Booth, Ep. 3: Golf. My Future. My Game. Founder and CEO Cra...
16/06/2025
The REMI Revolution Is Here: How Remote Production Technology in Esports Pioneer...
16/06/2025
From Super Bowl to Indy 500, New Orleans Artist Frenchy' Captures Energy of...
16/06/2025
NFL Films Enhances Post Studio With Dolby Atmos Audio Forty-three channels of audio enable the facility to migrate to immersive By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Mo...
16/06/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Storj's David Colantuoni on Expanding Cloud-Based...
16/06/2025
Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New OB Truck By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, June 16, 2025 - 2:33 pm
Pri...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Backblaze's Gleb Budman Talks Products, Partnerships, and the ...
13/06/2025
SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup ...
13/06/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Vecima Networks' Paul Strickland on How Improving QoE...
13/06/2025
Pitch Perspective: Where's Next for Specialty Cameras in Soccer? Leaders from Sky Austria and ACS discuss the possibilities of camera placement pitchside B...