MultiDyne Fiber Optic Solutions has appointed John Ferder as director of engineering, effective immediately. Reporting to MultiDyne president Frank Jachetta, Ferder will facilitate the engineering process for all product design initiatives, develop long-term product roadmaps, and liaise with MultiDyne’s production, marketing, and supply chain teams to increase accessibility to products and related information.
An industry veteran of more than three decades, Ferder’s career started on the supplier and systems integration side of the business. He held diverse engineering roles at Chyron Corporation, Roscor Corporation and Phillips/BTS over a 10-year period before moving onto CBS in New York City.
At CBS, he moved up the engineering ladder to become director of studio and post-production engineering – a position he held for more than 12 years. In this key role, John was responsible for the design, construction and support of all production and postproduction facilities in the CBS Broadcast Center, including renovations for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours. He also spearheaded the 2008 construction of a new control room for CBS Evening News, and a new studio for CBS This Morning.
Ferder returns to the supplier side of the business at a time of significant change to the broadcast and production workflow, most notably as facilities transition to IP and cloud systems. He sees a wealth of opportunity for fiber-optic product development within networked architectures, in addition to taking MultiDyne into new product areas.
“Fiber is used today to transport files over the internet for many broadcast and production applications,” said Ferder. “We see new opportunities to improve encryption and compression to transfer files and higher data payloads over a single fiber faster and more efficiently. This will grow in importance as more facilities migrate to IP, and the release of the SMPTE 2110 standards will help to accelerate these developments. We will bring new, IP-focused products to market that are more compact, more efficient, and aligned with businesses that build fixed and mobile production studios based on these standards.”
Ferder said that MultiDyne has always demonstrated a strong enthusiasm for new product development – a trait that attracted him to the director of engineering position. “There has always been a real openness to new ideas and innovation at MultiDyne, which translates to their outreach to customers and allied partners,” he said. “This offers a lot of freedom to drive new products and directions, including the IP side of the business.”
Ferder said that while he anticipates a busy future at MultiDyne, he will remain active elsewhere in the industry. Ferder was elevated to SMPTE Fellow in 2012, and has served on the Program Committee since 2015. He currently serves as secretary/treasurer for the SMPTE Society, and will chair three SMPTE Technical Paper sessions on OTT technology at the SMPTE 2018 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, taking place Oct. 22-25 at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.
“John brings a fresh engineering perspective to MultiDyne that will take the company to new heights of product innovation, yet also streamline ease of use for our customers worldwide,” said Jachetta. “This includes improved accessibility to product information with clear and concise language, which will accelerate the learning curve for end users across all skill levels. We’re privileged to welcome John to the team.”
