For Mother’s Day We’re Celebrating One of Our Own

April 24, 2014 BG&A Staff
We celebrate mothers for their amazing nurturing care. We are blessed to have this kind of special caring executive at Bob Gold & Associates, someone who always brings a smile, a word of...

Are You Ready for The Cable Show?

April 23, 2014 BG&A Staff
With the broadcasting industry’s NAB in our rearview mirror, up ahead, just around that curve, is the NCTA’s The Cable Show, and we couldn’t be more excited. Not only is the show being held in our very own Los Angeles Convention Center, but we expect our clients will make a real splash at the show.  If you are planning a trip to our City of Angels, plan ahead to get the most out of your Cable Show trip. Move over Disneyland, we think a must-see attraction at NCTA will be Amdocs. The world’s leading provider of customer experience solutions will be delivering presentations and demonstrations that provide new insight into some of the cable industry’s most prominent challenges and opportunities. Cable operators are excited at where they can build-out improved Wi-Fi experiences. Amdocs will reveal at Imagine Park, its newest study, examining viewers’ attitudes towards over-the-top video. Another attraction at the show will be Deluxe showcasing its solutions for 4K, multiscreen, metadata, cloud, and VOD. Deluxe OnDemand, the leading multiscreen-ready video catalog product, will be debuting its 4K strategy and solution, advances in processing and encoding to enable MSOs to offer more HD content without additional CapEx investment in QAM infrastructure, and enhanced service features to expand multiscreen VOD support. Penthera’s executive vice president, Melani Griffith will be speaking on two panels at the show including looking at emerging strategies for multi-screen advertising on Tuesday and at Imagine Park suggesting:  “TV: You’re in Charge,” on Wednesday. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the show, and in case you can’t make it, look for a recap in next month’s Gold Rush!

One World Sports Triumphs on Every Front

April 23, 2014 BG&A Staff
ONE World Sports is using NCTA: The Cable Show to trumpet the global sports network’s big progress on all fronts since last year’s trade show and Bob Gold & Associates is helping to shine a bright spotlight on those accomplishments. On the distribution front, ONE World Sports recently announced carriage agreements with Verizon FiOS and Hawaiian Telcom. The latter multiyear, multiplatform agreement introduces ONE World Sports to TV sports lovers in Oahu and together with the multiyear, multiplatform pact with Verizon extends the global sports network’s reach by millions of homes in more than two dozen U.S. markets. On the programming front, ONE World Sports has announced club channel arrangements with the English Premier League’s Chelsea FC and Arsenal FC soccer teams, Bundesliga’s FC Bayern Munich and Serie A’s A.C. Milan. It also has initiated exclusive coverage of the New York Cosmos and Europe’s Kontinental Hockey League. And most recently, it announced plans to carry all home international matches of England’s national cricket team. Production strides include its new high-definition broadcast center in Stamford, which is now the hub of all the network’s production, programming and traffic activity. The network’s strong on-air branding campaign was recently recognized as a winner at the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards for best network sports branding campaign, beating more established sports networks. An expanded roster of on-air American talent includes veteran announcer teams for KHL, Chinese Basketball Association and Yomiuri Giants telecasts and for match coverage of the North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos—the 2013 NASL Soccer Bowl champions. The network is in its second season carrying the teams’ home games. Also during the past year, the network has leveraged its multiplatform rights to launch its improved app, Watch ONE World Sports, which features a robust offering of its exclusive events and highlights.

What Happens in Vegas, Doesn’t Always Stay in Vegas: What You Missed at NAB

April 23, 2014 BG&A Staff
If you weren’t one of the 98,000 fortunate enough to attend NAB this year, you missed out on a highly informative time. Not only did we see innovative, ground-breaking broadcast technologies, but we managed to stay away from the gaming tables in Lost Wages! We were busy bees hovering over exhibiting clients, including Adder Technology, Deluxe Entertainment, EchoStar Satellite Services, Hughes Integration and Penthera. Adder Technology had a busy week in Vegas as BG&A secured interviews for them with media from key trade publications at the NAB show.  Adder briefed journalists on the importance of their high-performance KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) products in the broadcast industry.  Teaming up with Stagebox, developed in part by BBC Research and Development, Adder demonstrated full IP-based workflow across the broadcast chain while unveiling their 4K connectivity solutions. Our team was able to help Deluxe, a global post -production giant, brief journalists on its many products and services, as the Deluxe team demonstrated some of its latest products including the Deluxe OnDemand solution for HD content delivery.  Deluxe wowed attendees with its broadcast playout solution, Deluxe LeapCloud, and the company’s incredibly robust distributed workflow platform, Deluxe MediaRecall also inspired. Penthera, a mobile video delivery solutions provider was a big hit in SPROCKIT – the new cutting edge exhibit of radical new startups. SPROCKIT ensured dozens of decision-makers and influencers at leading media and entertainment companies came to get better acquainted with Penthera. Hughes Integration got to bust a button over its latest accomplishment – it built one of the broadcast industry’s newest mobile production trucks, “Silver,” in collaboration with Canada’s Dome Productions. The mobile studio features all the equipment necessary to produce video anywhere, including live sports and events in 3D. It’s big, light and absolutely state-of-the-art.

Who’s Playing High Stakes Video Poker?

April 23, 2014 BG&A Staff
A few billion here, $500 million there and soon, we’re talking about some serious money, right? These are the kind of dollars being bandied about in the pursuit of reshaping the video delivery business in a game of high stakes video poker.  Make no mistake – the outcomes will directly impact every American. Let me write from my high perch as one of the anointed in the Cable TV industry (well I have been inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers Hall of Fame!) So I think I’m about as good a prognosticator as anyone with the word “analyst” in their title. The high stakes poker game is going on where “traditional pay TV guys” (like Comcast and Time Warner Cable) will soon become “next gen OTT guys” (like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Apple) and leverage their captive audience of paying subscribers while expanding their footprint to non-subscribers virtually anywhere.  In this case – let’s call OTT “virtual” cable operators. So here are the cards that have recently been played: A merger between the two largest cable TV providers in the country Comcast and Time Warner Cable. Anyone think this will be stopped?  Doubtful. AT&T is not sitting idly on the side lines – it’s announced a new $500 million kitty to develop OTT content. Anyone want to place a bet that a DirecTV and DISH merger will follow? Will DISH be the first to launch a virtual cable system? Remember it negotiated exclusive rights from ABC/Disney to distribute programming over high-speed Internet to consumers. What constitutes a cable system? Are you as confused as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who recently asked why Aereo is not essentially a cable system? With stakes like these, companies as diverse as Charter, Verizon and others will be changing their business models quickly. What does this mean for consumers? Netflix’s announcement that it will raise monthly subscriptions by $2 a month – or nearly 25%, is one dominant player’s move; others will follow. Supermarkets are as good a guide to our future as any other tea leaves. We are spending more for smaller packages. Remember when it used to be about $8 for a bag of groceries? Today it costs about $15 a bag in Los Angeles.  Video providers will do the same – higher fees to consumers for smaller packages. Place your bets now. Care to join the conversation? I'd love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to share them with me at bob@bobgoldpr.com -Bob Gold, President & Founder

Verizon FiOS TV to Offer ONE World Sports

April 22, 2014 BG&A Staff
NEW YORK – April 22, 2014 –ONE World Sports has signed a multiyear, multiplatform agreement with Verizon, making more than 2,500 hours annually of exclusive world-class sporting events—including the club channel programming of Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and A.C. Milan, the New York Cosmos from the North American Soccer League, the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball, England’s national cricket team, the Asian Football Confederation Champions League, the J.League of Japan and the Kontinental Hockey League from Russia and Eastern Europe—available to FiOS TV subscribers on their TVs, computers, laptops, tablets and mobile handsets. ONE World Sports will be available later this spring on channel 309 to customers who subscribe to the FiOS TV Extreme and FiOS TV Ultimate packages. Those two packages are available in all Verizon FiOS TV markets, covering more than 25 cities including the major metropolitan markets of New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Recent research by Frank N. Magid Associates found that 56% of 18- to 34-year-olds and 63% of all males in the same age group are interested in watching ONE World Sports.  In addition, more than one-third of all pay-TV subscribers said they would be more likely to switch providers to gain access to ONE World Sports content. “Our launch on Verizon FiOS will significantly expand our U.S. footprint,” said Alexander “Sandy” Brown, president and CEO of ONE World Sports. “We’re very excited to announce this important milestone with one of the country’s most advanced video distribution companies.” Said Terry Denson, vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Verizon: “As we increase the number of channels that embrace the benefits related to driving viewership, we are pleased to add this additional global sports source for our customers and begin our partnership with ONE World Sports.” About ONE World Sports ONE World Sports is a multiplatform sports network featuring exclusive, live world-class sporting events from around the globe. The network showcases some of the world’s most competitive soccer, including Arsenal FC TV, Chelsea FC TV, FC Bayern Munich TV, AC Milan Channel and the New York Cosmos, along with top soccer from Asia and the Pacific Rim, including the AFC Champions League, Japan’s J.League and Australia’s A-League. The network also exclusively telecasts England’s national cricket teams’ International home matches, Japan’s legendary team, the Yomiuri Giants; Kontinental Hockey League; Chinese Basketball Association; OneAsia Golf Tour; and the world’s best-in-class competitions in table tennis and badminton. ONE World Sports is available via Cablevision’s Optimum TV, DISH Network, Google Fiber, Hawaiian Telcom and Mediacom Communications. ONE World Sports’ mobile app “Watch ONE World Sports” is available for download at the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store. ONE World Sports is owned and operated by ONE Media Corp., which also owns and operates ONE CONNXT, a global HD/SD broadcast video transport services provider; America ONE Television, a general entertainment and sports broadcast network; and America ONE Sports, a leading provider of live broadband sports. For more info, see www.oneworldsports.com

Adder Technology receives Queen’s Award for Enterprise

April 22, 2014 BG&A Staff
High performance KVM specialist honored in Innovation category  Cambridge, UK, 21 April 2014: Adder Technology, the high performance keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) specialist, has been presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. The honor was awarded for the company’s pioneering AdderLink Infinity solution, a hardware-based, digital KVM matrix used for controlling and distributing digital video signals. The AdderLink Infinity solution is used across multiple industries and applications – from pro AV, broadcasting and post production, to command and control, and industrial process automation.  It features a user-friendly interface and enables an unlimited number of users to connect to various computers, securely, allowing them to access content via a standard IP network. Users and machines can be separated by almost any distance, yet operators have real-time control of their computing resources, without loss of audio quality or video resolution, through keyboard, mouse, graphics tablet or other touch screen devices. “The team at Adder is delighted with winning the Queen’s Award. This recognition of our innovation-driven approach and resulting technology couldn’t have come at a better time as we celebrate our 30th anniversary,” says Adrian Dickens, founder and CEO, Adder Technology. “For Adder innovation is not a marketing term; it is a philosophy and a guiding principle of our company. It has taken us from humble beginnings in the early eighties, to delivering our solutions to global customers, from the new BBC facilities in London and Manchester, to the Opera House in Sydney.” The AdderLink Infinity has the distinction of being the first solution of its kind to allow multicasting across networks. In addition, it features intelligent video encoding and USB true emulation and enables users to build a flexible, future-proofed and scalable infrastructure that operates over a standard IP network. ### About Adder Technology Adder Technology is a leading developer and thought leader in connectivity solutions. Adder's media networks, extenders and keyboard, video and mouse switch solutions enable the control and distribution of IT systems around the world. The company distributes its products in more than 60 countries through a network of distributors, resellers and OEMs. Adder has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, China and Singapore.

RESIDENTS MEDICAL SELECTS BOB GOLD & ASSOCIATES TO LEAD ITS COMMUNICATIONS EFFORTS

April 15, 2014 BG&A Staff
Southern Californian Public Relations Agency Retained by North America’s Leading Graduate Medical Education Organization  Los Angeles – April 15, 2014 – Residents Medical, a pioneering graduate medical education accreditation organization, today announced it has selected Bob Gold & Associates, a full-service public relations agency, to lead its communications program. Residents Medical educates and guides international, foreign and U.S. medical school graduates toward the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to achieve accredited residency positions from Anesthesiology to Urology. The company’s highly customized programs and proprietary tools are created and managed by the most respected USMLE instructors in America, transforming graduating students into formidable residency candidates. Residents Medical also facilitates ACGME Accreditation for community-based hospitals. The company also has a fast-growing GME department dedicated to assisting foreign governments in advancing their health systems. Dr. Michael Everest, President and CEO of Residents Medical said, “Bob Gold & Associates is recognized as one of the top strategic PR agencies in the field. We’re confident that the agency will strengthen our communications campaign to help us connect us with our targeted audiences.“ “America is facing a national crisis in graduate medical education as there are thousands of foreign and international medical school graduates unable to secure a domestic residency position,“ said Bob Gold, president and owner of Bob Gold & Associates. “Dr. Michael Everest is attacking this problem head-on through Residents Medical’s unmatched hands-on instruction and guidance.“ About Residents Medical Residents Medical is a pioneering medical education institution that helps community-based American hospitals become ACGME accredited teaching institutions; strengthens foreign government medical care and ACGME compliance; and offers medical residency guidance and placement services to medical sudents. Residents Medical  offers the best in class one-on-one USMLE instruction with a team of teachers from the best American schools of medicine. For more information, please visit: www.residentsmedical.com. About Bob Gold & Associates Bob Gold & Associates has offices in New York City, Southern California and Chicago and provides strategic public relations and marketing services for the communications and high-tech industries. Bob Gold & Associates is a co-founder and North American affiliate in the Whiteoaks International Network (WIN), a global tech-focused public relations agency network with 17 offices in 37 countries across five continents. For more information, visit www.bobgoldpr.com. 

New Facebook Changes will Highlight Business Profiles

April 10, 2014 BG&A Staff
Committing to change can be a hard thing for businesses to do on social media. It requires time, effort and energy, all of which are already in short supply. Even simple Facebook profile adjustments can be rigorous, but these can also make the difference between increasing sales and remaining stagnant. Facebook has recognized these problems and says it wants to help. If your business social media skills are lacking, don’t worry because Facebook will be unveiling new design changes within the next few weeks that will help businesses get noticed. Here are a few of the changes and ways your business can prepare: Update your “About” section One of the most noticeable changes coming to Facebook will be the new and improved “About” section. New information will soon be displayed on the left-hand column where you would normally have to click the reveal information. The same column will also display reviews & comments about the business, a description of your business, your mission statement and links back to your site which can help drive traffic. It will be of the utmost importance that information displayed here is up to date. Monitor competing and similar businesses A fascinating new feature of Facebook’s redesign will let administrators “watch” pages of competitors and similar business to compare the performance of each page. Page “likes,” new page “likes,” number of posts this week and weekly engagement can all be compared. This is a great way to discover what works best for your business and what fuels the success of others. This can be good way to see how they engage with their fans and also be a great way to stay current on industry news. Don’t worry about daily reach For too long Facebook has flaunted engagement numbers in our faces making businesses worry about their daily reach. This will soon become a thing of the past. The new layout will include a “This Week” column that will provide information to admins about current ads running, “likes,” post reach and unread notifications or messages. This will ideally help businesses stop thinking about daily reach and focus more on weekly reach. As Facebook unveils these new business page designs, what aspect of it will help you the most?

Top TV Titles People Sling Week of Mar 31

April 8, 2014 BG&A Staff
In rankings for a seven-day period through Sunday, April 6, Fútbol UEFA Liga de Campeones was the sports programming viewers were most apt to Sling, topping the NCAA Tournament that held the top spot for two consecutive weeks. And maintaining a month-plus pattern, “The Walking Dead" again was ranked No. 1 in a similar weekly listing of the top entertainment programs that people Sling. See the complete lists here: http://blog.slingbox.com/ (Listings are on the right of the blog). Sling Media tracks the top-ranked sports and entertainment programs customers watch using Sling technology—via Slingbox or pay-TV providers—on a smartphone, tablet, PC, Mac or another TV. Results are posted each week on the Slingbox blog and social media.
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