HAYWARD, Calif. — Oct. 20, 2009 — Wohler Technologies Inc. today announced that captioning expert Renaud Desportes has joined the company as technical director for EMEA, a role in which the renowned software and hardware developer and solutions architect will provide local support for Wohler's award-winning HDCC-200A caption encoder/decoder bridge for SD and HD broadcast and production applications. Desportes also will serve as Wohler's European channel manager, acting as a daily contact for the company's European distributors and dealers.
With more than two decades in the broadcast industry, Desportes has created teletext and captioning editing solutions, as well as live and conventional subtitling solutions, for leading European broadcasters. He also has built complete datacast systems for stock exchanges, banks, and news agencies. As the European demand for advanced captioning solutions continues to grow, Desportes is positioned to provide unique expertise in the sales, engineering, and support of flexible, cost-saving HDCC-200A implementations across Europe.
"Captioning is a highly specialized area within the broadcast market, and Renaud is recognized as an expert in this area," said Kim Templeman-Holmes, VP of global sales and marketing at Wohler. "Even broadcast veterans have trouble understanding captions and how to deal with them in the transition to digital and HD. As captioning standards including OP-47 and others emerge, Renaud offers the experience and expertise necessary to help implement smart, efficient, forward-looking captioning solutions based on these standards. We're very pleased to welcome him to the Wohler team."
Prior to joining Wohler, Desportes served as vice-CTO at IsoVision, an engineering services, systems, and solutions provider, and at Ninsight, a provider of conventional and live subtitling systems, broadcast-quality logo and dynamic character generators, and media asset management and channel automation systems. He earlier was a co-founder of Pling Technologies, a provider of embedded applications development services and a member of the "ARM Connected Community." Desportes' work in subtitling and datacast technology reaches back to 1990, when he began an 11-year tenure as a software and hardware R&D designer at ASHIV in Paris.
Desportes earned his baccalaureate in math and physics and has a diploma in industrial computer science. With fluency in both English and French, and both French and Canadian citizenship, he has the flexibility of language and mobility to meet the needs of customers across many different markets. Desportes will be based in Paris.
# # #
About Wohler Technologies Inc.
Wohler Technologies Inc. offers a comprehensive range of products that simplify analog and digital source monitoring in facilities of all sizes and complexity. Wohler Technologies was founded in 1987 and, through constant innovation, continues to be a world leader in providing in-rack audio, video, and data monitoring and captioning solutions for the broadcast, motion picture, and professional audio/visual markets. More information about the company and its technologies is available at www.wohler.com.
ENDS
