Thoughts and Comments from Randy Hood
Following are some comments from Randy Hood on the video industry in general and storage area networking in particular. These can be used as the basis for a more extensive story on Hood and Pathlight. To view the original press release, click here.
The Pathlight Executive Team
The company needs all the skills and expertise that existed
before I got here. Hank (Watson) has been the driving force on
the financial and operational side for Pathlight and its
going to stay that way. Alex (Lieb) will continue to seek out new
business opportunities and relationships and Said (Rahmani-Khezri) will continue to lead on the technical side.
Im going to be involved in the sales and marketing
activities of the company and hopefully add some value in that
area.
Relationships with Customers
I want to understand how customers view us and how our
technology is working for them. One of the keys to the early
success of ImMIX was selling the VideoCube and TurboCube products
as complete systems with the computer and disk drives included.
This solved a big configuration issue. Over time, there were a
lot of forces in the company and the market to change that, but
in the beginning it was the right thing to do. I dont know
if there is a similar key for Pathlight, but well look for
it and do whats necessary to address whatever we find.
Building Bridges
When youre on the front edge of technology, there
arent necessarily standards to go by. Things are always
changing and theres a lot of misinformation. In order to
provide the most value, we want to be in the bridge position. Our
ImageAGENT product is a good example of this. It connects SCSI
and SSA devices and provides a way to deal with legacy products
while realizing the advantages of dealing with a real fast
network loop. We want to remain flexible so that other interfaces
can be addressed in the future.
Format Wars
We have to focus on a solution, not on a single interface.
Its like tape formats. If you have been in the video
industry for any length of time, you have experienced the on
going discussions about which VTR format is better and which one
will survive. The reason there are so many formats is because
different customer requirements can only effectively be met with
very specific VTR formats. There is a lot of networking
technology out there and it all has its place. One scenario may
use two or three of them and another may use a different solution
or set. What we are starting to develop as a company is a sense
that we want to focus on storage area networking solutions
without being limited to a single type of solution.
Product Distribution
If people want to create well thought out, technically robust
network solutions, then they will want to get to know Pathlight.
We are currently talking about how best to sell the products and
I have a hunch it will be a multi-faceted approach. There is an
OEM side to the business that is very important. Its one
avenue available to develop a technology and offer solutions that
are integrated into other products. That tends to take a company
beyond a single industry. If you look at traditional distribution
methods, youd love to plug into that, but they may not be
well suited to deal with larger, more complex, multi-seat network
environments. As you go to different market segments, you have to
go with the channels that are recognized in those environments.
You also have to look at which companies have both the video and
computer talent on staff to put these kinds of systems together.
The Global Viewpoint
We want to get the company oriented to providing
broader-based solutions, implementing them and getting it done in
a high quality way. When you do that, you want to look at our
presence in the market not just in the U.S., but into the
international markets that dont know about Pathlight today.
You can go anywhere in the world, to any TV station and they want
to talk to you about how to improve their operations. In a news
department, for example, they want to know how they can use the
new digital technologies to improve the speed and efficiency of
their operations. The News Director, General Manager and Chief
Engineer are having these discussions and trying to figure out
how to solve these problems.
A Stitch in Time
Ive moved one step beyond selling specific non-linear
editing workstations. Now that the systems are out there, people
need to find a way to connect them all together. When I was at
Scitex Digital Video, I started to develop some real strong
feelings about how creative people can start working differently
when you move to a really open digital environment. I realized
that a separate company from the non-linear manufacturers would
be better positioned to offer an industry-wide solution.
Thats what the customer wants and Pathlight is in the best
position to stitch it all together.
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