Jeff Rosica, former CEO of Avid announced today, June 10, as his last day with the company. Rosica first joined Avid in 2013 as SVP, Worldwide Field Operations and was appointed president in December 2016. He became CEO in February 2018.

Rosica announced his resignation from Avid in November after the company was acquired by STG for $1.4 billion. At the time, he said he would stay on for a period of time to assist in the transition to new leadership. Avid announced his successor, Wilfred Dilard earlier this year. 

In a noteworthy address to the HPA Tech Retreat in February, he warned of "disastrous times" for M&E, caused by "uncertain business models" fueled by tech advances, particularly AI. 

In a post on Linkedin, Rosica described his time at Avid as “an incredible journey.”

“I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to be a member of #TeamAvid for more than a decade of my career … especially my time as CEO. Being the CEO of such an iconic company and steward of an amazing brand has been an honor, a pleasure and has surely been the pinnacle of my career! I leave Avid with incredible gratitude and tremendous pride—and high expectations for a terrific future for the company.

While I’m officially retiring from Avid, I will forever “bleed purple” and will be rooting for the company and team quite loudly from the sidelines!”

Rosica also hinted that he’s just taking a “break.”

“[I] don’t think that I will sail into the sunset and completely disappear just yet,” he said.

BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid has announced that it has appointed Wellford Dillard as the organization’s CEO. Wellford succeeds Jeff Rosica, who is staying with the company in an advisory capacity to ensure a smooth and successful transition.

Wellford joins Avid after serving as the CEO of Marigold, a leading provider of omni-channel marketing SaaS solutions, used by businesses to manage and deepen customer engagement. Wellford has more than 20 years of experience in the software industry and, prior to Marigold, held CFO roles at vertical software leaders such as Opower and GetWellNetwork, among others.

“We are thrilled to appoint Wellford as the new CEO of Avid,” said William Chisholm, Managing Partner, and Patrick Fouhy, Principal, of STG. “He has an exceptional background leading software businesses and brings a wealth of valuable experience to Avid. His strong track record driving growth will be invaluable during this next phase of the company’s journey. In addition, we want to express our sincere gratitude to Jeff for his leadership and contributions to the company during his tenure as CEO and for his commitment in helping to ensure a successful transition prior to his retirement.”

“I am privileged to join such a terrific team and significant technology leader in the Media & Entertainment industry. It is a critical time for the industry, as well as an important time for Avid, and I am excited to be leading this iconic organization,” said Wellford Dillard. “The company’s continued focus on innovative technology that can help its preeminent customer base deliver on their creative and business objectives will remain at the center of Avid’s focus as we deliver on the company’s strategic goals and next phase of growth.”

“I’m excited about the future of Avid under Wellford’s leadership, and personally believe that he is the right individual at the right time to lead the company,” said Jeff Rosica. “It has been my honor to be the CEO of Avid over the past several years. I am confident that Wellford has what it takes to move the company forward and lead the team to even greater success in the years ahead.”  

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF.—Avid CEO Jeff Rosica has warned that the M&E industry is “at the edge of a disastrous time if we aren’t careful.” 

In his closing address at the HPA Tech Retreat last week, Rosica, who is retiring from Avid, said he "can’t think of an industry that’s had this kind of change or transformation going on, and all the pressures at the same time in one industry. It is unprecedented. In my 37-year career, I can’t think of a time where even a fraction of this (was going on)” said Rosica in beginning his 30-minute presentation: “’Unbreaking’ an Industry: Fixing an Industry-Wide Mess.”

“Our industry is facing significant headwinds coming from all directions, and all at the same time,” he declared. “A tremendous technology shift is coming on (and) it’s really reshaping everything that we do.” 

In enumerating the multiple challenges the industry is now facing, he cited uncertain business models, as well as evolving technologies and the way in which they’re being deployed. 

“We have an ecosystem that’s under pressure and we need to look it,” said Rosica. “We must rethink what we do. Technology shifts are changing the way people work. Where the industry gets its revenue is changing, and changing business models mean new ways of doing things.

“Fear, uncertainty, and doubt are creating industry-wide angst. This in itself is creating a lot of concern. We have to do everything faster than we’ve ever done it before. We have to adapt and find new ways of doing this. And to add icing on this, we had Covid, and Covid accelerated a lot of thinking around how people want to work. It’s changing nearly everything about how we work and who we work with.”

Adopting New Technologies and Embracing Them
Rosica termed the industry now in a period where “an exponentially high level of technology shifts are going on,” referring to the adoption of the cloud and its resources, as well as the recent wave of artificial intelligence developments and deployments.  

“Just moving to the cloud or virtualization, or whatever term you want to use—that’s fundamentally changing the way we do things as an industry. I think that’s a good thing, by the way. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think that working on a collaborative basis can be a big part of what saves this industry.

“AI is coming in and this is another thing that’s going to reshape our industry,” said Rosica. “And it needs to reshape our industry. 

He noted that there is now a lot of concern among M&E workers about artificial intelligence eliminating their jobs or otherwise affecting their employment.

“I say it has to,” said Rosica. “We have to get more efficient. We don’t have enough people to even keep up with current requirements. We have to find a way to get it done.

“I’m not afraid of (AI) taking anybody’s job away. We have to create better efficiencies so people can do more. Our industry has proven one thing—when you give it new technology it will find ways to use that technology to create more and better storytelling. I don’t think we should fear (AI); I think we should embrace it, because we need it.”

“Workflows are changing. All of this takes a lot of resources and a lot of investment, neither of which this industry has enough of. We have to talk about prioritization. We have talk about how to be reasonable about this. We’ve got to be careful about this.  I really think as an industry we’ve got to be more realistic and think about what it is you have to have today, tomorrow, or next week.”

No More Strikes, Period!
In reflecting on the 2023 strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, and the trickle-down effect work stoppages had on employees in the media and entertainment business, Rosica flatly declared that the industry could not tolerate any more such massive interruptions.

“I understand why labor and management get into difficult discussions,” he said. “But we’ve got to be careful—I’m talking about both sides of the street. 

“As business leaders and organizational leaders, we must find ways to avoid any more strikes. We have to. 

“I know that we need good outcomes for workers, and we need to find a way to get there without work stoppages again. That almost killed our industry, or at least the ecosystem in our industry. It’s still tearing a little bit because of it. We’ve got to be careful because it will damage this business and it will take a decade to rebuild what we spent decades building, if we can even get it done.

“We’ve got to be careful!”

Get Ready for Disintermediation
In looking at other areas of the M&E industry where he thought big changes might be coming, Rosica called out the very intense pressure to curb operating costs, stating this practice may very well inadvertently trigger another shift in an already battered business, that of “disintermediation,” or a reduction or elimination in the use of intermediaries in delivering goods or services between producers and consumers.

“There is an even more intense focus on costs, and that pressure is being applied to the ecosystem,” said Rosica. “Everyone is expected to do more for less. It’s always been that way, but the pressure is more intense today, on top of what’s going on economically for the ecosystem

“We’ve got to be careful!

“And then, we’re asking this same ecosystem to shift business models, change technologies, change operating practices. All of this is impacting us. And this is going to cause disintermediation.  

“Get ready for it!

“I’m not saying this may happen. I’ll take it to the bank. You can call me in five years and call me a liar if it doesn’t happen.

“This industry—because of technology shifts, the business shifts, and the operating shifts that we’re going through—we’re going to have disintermediation. You can count on it, and you need to prepare for it. It is already here to some degree. All players across the industry should be ready for this.”

“When you put it all together, I think we’re standing on the precipice of an industry disaster if we’re not careful.”

'Not Looking at the Big Picture' 
Rosica declared, however, that there was a way out of this current dilemma.   

“I do think there is a way forward,” he said. “I have faith in the people in this room. We have the talent, (but) as an industry, we’re not looking at the big picture. No matter what our role is, we’ve got to live together (and work to fix the problem). 

“We have to collaborate like never before. A lot of team work is needed. 

“We have to realize that change is inevitable, change is needed, and change is indeed good. Our industry is still too indifferent—we must find ways to do thing faster and cheaper. 

“The pandemic was only the beginning—if there’s new normal, we’re not there yet.”

Rosica observed that while new methodologies and practices were good in themselves, the M&E industry should not be two quick to adopt them. 

“Avoid bespoke thinking; we’re too small of an industry for that,” he said. “We need to preserve common workflows,” noting that while the M&E business needed to be open to possibilities that could come with AI and machine learning, it needed to exercise caution in the ways these emerging technologies are adopted. 

“I do think there is a way forward. We can build something better for the future,” he said. “Some things can be more valuable and stronger when they’re broken.

“We need to be brave. All will be fine and shake out favorably in the end. The consumer’s appetite for appealing content will not go away, and streaming is not a bad model. We need to embrace it as it may be the savior.”

Rosica said that the M&E business could learn lessons from other industries that have undergone similar quantum shifts and disruptions, citing in particular the disruption in the music industry caused by the adoption of iPods as media players and the subsequent change in the way in which consumers purchased recordings, shifting from CD albums to the purchase of songs on an à la carte basis.     

“The music industry took 22 years to recover,” said Rosica. “Let’s not make mistakes like this that will cause a 22-year-long falloff in revenues”. 

“We have got to be sure we get this right!”

In conclusion, Rosica reminded the audience of his impending retirement from Avid Technology after more than a decade with that company, and expressed gratitude to those who had been supportive of him in career track. 

“It’s been the absolute pinnacle of my career,” he said. “It’s been terrific. I want to thank a lot of people in this room who gave me input, who gave me advice, who gave me support. I thank you for that. It’s been an honor and I’m grateful.”

This year’s HPA Tech Retreat was held at the Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa here, and once again a “sell-out” event, attracting more than 800 television and motion picture industry players. 

Long time industry veteran Jeff Rosica, who has been part of the leadership of Avid for more than a decade and CEO for nearly six years, announced his retirement yesterday, days after the announcement that STG Symphony Technology Group closed its acquisition of the company, which it bought for $1.4 billion in August, taking the company private.

Rosica has a long history within the broadcast technology market, having led Grass Valley through numerous ownership transitions until moving to Avid in 2013. He was appointed president in 2016 and CEO in 2018, succeeding Louis Hernandez Jr. 

Rosica shared his news on Linkedin yesterday:

"I want to let my network in on something that I shared with the Avid team during our quarterly all-hands company meeting earlier today—and that is the news of my personal decision that I’m planning to take an early retirement from Avid in the first half of 2024.

"With all the transformational progress and good momentum that we’ve created together, I believe that now is clearly the optimal time for me to prepare for this move and transition at Avid. We’re innovating faster than ever, building on a strong market position, and poised for even greater growth and success under STG – Symphony Technology Group’s ownership. It’s an exciting place to be today with tremendous opportunities ahead, and I believe it’s the right time for a new CEO to lead the next phase of the company’s journey.

"I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have the experience of being part of one of the legendary brands in media technology—and being the CEO for almost 6 years now is an honor and clearly the pinnacle of my career. One of the best parts has been getting to work with the amazing people that make up Team Avid and who make it so special, not to mention the terrific customers and partners who give us so much opportunity to help them reimagine this industry.  A once in a lifetime privilege for sure!

"All that said, I’m not going anywhere too soon. I’ll be continuing as CEO for a few more months and helping to recruit my replacement in collaboration with STG, so we’ll have a smooth transition and stay right on course to help all our customers—and continue to execute Avid’s strategic plan. Until then, I hope to see many of you out on the road real soon!"

Avid President/CEO Jeff Rosica has confirmed that the company will exhibit at the IBC Show at the RAI in Amsterdam, Sept. 10-13. The announcement marks a change in policy after Avid said earlier this year that it would not exhibit at any major trade shows due to concerns over Covid. 

The news wasn’t exactly surprising as Avid had been listed as an exhibitor on the IBC Show website since early June. In an interview with Peter White of the IABM, Rosica characterized the change as “an evolution of our decision.”

“I think as we saw the market improve and the situation improved with Covid and countries started opening up, I think we started to realize that with the feedback from our customers that it's probably time to start getting back to some of the major trade shows,” he said.

Like many exhibitors at recent shows, Avid will be scaling back the size of its exhibit space, according to Rosica,

“We will have a smaller space—probably about half the size we've had before,” he said. “We've tested a bit on that and we're really using the floor show itself for only showing new software products and new releases and not bringing the entire catalog to the show floor so that requires a smaller footprint booth.

“But really what customers have told us is that they just want to be able to get to the show and see us on the show floor,” Rosica added. 

Several months prior to the industry’s first major trade show of the year, NAB, Rosica had announced that the company would be skipping in-person trade shows and focusing more on virtual and road shows. That philosophy hasn’t changed, he said and the company has reevaluated its marketing approach to deal with the issues posed by the pandemic of the past two and a half years, and now sees its customer outreach as a mix of virtual and in-person events. 

“[The pandemic] forever changed our marketing mix,” he said. “I think trade shows are an important part of what we're doing but we really learned the value of digital marketing content with many more virtual events because you can get to many more people around the world. So we've learned that that's served us well. But obviously, things evolve as the market comes back to whatever that ‘new normal’ is. So I guess it's going to be a mix going forward.”

When Rosica announced Avid’s trade show plans earlier he cautioned that trade events would have to change and evolve with the “new normal.” “I think NAB and IBC are wonderful organizations but I think they are going to have to change their mix, just as we have,” he said at the time.

That advice hasn’t changed, he said.

“The show in Amsterdam is very important—we need to reach customers all over the globe,” Rosica said. “But not all of them do come to Amsterdam and so one of the things we learned during the pandemic is that use of virtual events and digital marketing and content marketing to reach people all over the globe in all corners of the globe—no matter what country they're in—is pretty important to us."

Avid will be in Stand R101 in Hall 7.

BOSTON—The Boston Arts Academy Foundation has announced the election of Avid Technology CEO and president Jeff Rosica to board chairman. 

The BAA Foundation raises essential funds for Boston Arts Academy (BAA), the city's only public high school for the visual and performing arts. It also announced that longtime Foundation chair Lee Pelton will become chairman emeritus as well as president and CEO of The Boston Foundation.

"It is with great honor that I follow in the footsteps of Lee Pelton," said Rosica in a statement. "Boston Arts Academy Foundation engages private donors in funding programming and opportunities that allow young artists to find their voices, express themselves, and achieve their dreams. I am grateful to serve Boston Arts Academy's students and faculty during this critical time in our city and our school's history."

Under Pelton's leadership, the BAA Foundation hired Denella J. Clark as president, who built an exceptional team that helped bridge the annual multi-million funding gap between Boston Arts Academy's allocation from Boston Public Schools and the true cost of the school's arts-intensive and college preparatory education—equivalent to $5,000 per student each year.

The Foundation has also raised more than $12 million towards its $32 million comprehensive Building Our Future Campaign, which augments the school's budget and builds long-term financial sustainability. 

In 2022, Boston Arts Academy's new school building will open directly across from Fenway Park, immediately increasing the number of students from 480 to 500 and allowing future increases over the years. 

Rosica has served on the BAA Foundation Board since 2018 and has worked to raise awareness and support for the school from the media and entertainment industry. 

In 2018, Avid Technology licensed all Boston Arts Academy students to use its music and audio creation software, Pro Tools, and in late 2020, donated state-of-the-art equipment to help outfit BAA's new school building. 

Rosica also served as the chair of BAA Honors 2019, which raised a record-breaking $1.3 million. Avid has made more than $800,000 in technology and Building Our Future Campaign investments for the school.

Since 2013, my first NAB Show stop has been at Avid Connect. This year I was extremely intrigued to see how the event would differ from previous years, since Jeff Rosica had taken the helm of the company following the still-fresh ouster of the previous CEO — who originated the event — along with the Avid Customer Association. It didn’t take long to find out.

Avid Connect has always tended to be product-heavy from start to finish, but this one simply did not feel that way. There was plenty of discussion of Media Composer, Pro Tools and the Media Central Platform — Avid’s business is to make and sell products after all — but the overall event, and the breakout sessions in particular, were far more interesting and educational than prior years, covering a wide range of topics that were not specific to the company and its products.

TECH TRENDS

One session that was surprisingly engrossing, “Technology Trends Musicians Can Utilize for Tracking Royalties.” It covered, among other topics, the pros and cons of streaming.

Panelist Jordan “DJ Swivel” Young made the case that, for those who have a dedicated fan base, streaming can actually be a greater source of revenue than CD or song purchases because the artist gets paid every time the song is played, not just when a purchase is made.

A different technological solution to the issue was presented by Benji Rogers, CEO of Dot Blockchain Media, who claims that current audio file formats are antiquated — WAV is 27 years old; MP3 is 24; and FLAC is 17 — and are part of the problem because they don’t contain persistent metadata.

Rogers proposes a new format and wrapper with blockchain as part of the fundamental framework so that ownership can be tracked from inception through all iterations, sampling and reuse.

Whether or not you’re an artist trying to get paid, the ability to encode persistent, unmodifiable metadata will soon become an essential element of every single piece of media as the ability to replace original audio and video content with completely believable digital substitutes becomes even more mainstream than it already is.

There were several sessions on immersive content and VR, both key elements of Next Gen Audio, and these sessions were far more informative than any I attended at NAB.

The panel of “Creating Spectacular Experiences With Dolby Atmos” included re-recording engineers Doug Hemphill, Ron Bartlett, and Tim Hoogenakker. During the discussion on mixing immersive content, Hemphill pointed out that as sound density increases, imaging and intelligibility decrease, so films with busier soundscapes are more difficult to mix and it becomes harder to make individual sounds stand out. In fact, he sometimes pulls back the density of the sound mix when there are really intense visuals to give people’s brains a break.

When asked what it was like to be able to place sound in so many locations, Bartlett said that they went a little overboard with the overhead speakers at first, but realized that this actually made the film sound more mono and less immersive, so more judicious use of the overheads is now employed.

[Read: 2018 Audio Prognostication—What Lies Ahead?]

Everyone felt that the soundscape in Atmos is more akin to listening in the natural world than standard surround mixes, though every so often the choices made in the surround mix are the right ones compared to the Atmos mix.

While they do verify downmixes as they mix, Hoogenakker said that he specifically checks television downmixes on a soundbar since more people than ever are listening on them at home.

Something that helps keep costs down while speeding up workflow is being able to work in 7.1.4 in smaller rooms to prepare audio for the Atmos mix room. Hemphill brought us all back to reality by reminding us that even though the ability to create amazing immersive soundscapes is now in everyone’s grasp, dialog remains king. Always.

CHALLENGES OF AUDIO IN VR

In the first session on audio for VR, “Techniques for Mixing Audio in VR Content,” the panelists covered aspects of VR production I had not even contemplated. Benedict Green of Ecco VR stressed the importance of preproduction and the fact that, when shooting content, the crew, recording equipment, cables and anything else that might take people out of the experience must be concealed, which is a tad difficult when shooting live actors while trying to capture and playback audio.

Avid Connect has always tended to be product-heavy from start to finish, but this one simply did not feel that way.

Green and Varuna Nair of Facebook both noted that ambisonics is the preferred format for VR audio and there are different tools for working with different order ambisonics.

They also discussed some of the challenges of working with audio for VR, including never being able to use a boom mic on set; and the difficulty of using ambisonics microphones because they cannot move without changing the soundfield. Managing loudness, and keeping audio from clipping is a huge challenge, as can working with nonaudio people who may reorder or mangle the ambisonics tracks. According to Nair, when thinking about VR, audio engineers should “think of it as another tool in the toolbox.”

In the session “Creating a Compelling Immersive Mix for VR Content,” Scott Gershin made the case that realism is not always the best approach, since the purpose of sound is to help tell the story in whatever way necessary.

Like Green and Nair, he also mentioned things I had not really considered. For instance, if you move a sound in the soundscape, people will pay attention to it, so don’t move it if you don’t want it noticed. Gershin does not move backgrounds, but he does group and move all sounds for given characters together to the same place in the soundscape because that is where the character exists at that moment.

Since we don’t really hear things behind us he feels that a 270-degree soundfield is wide enough. As for where this is all heading, Gershin thinks that VR will be commonplace in five years and boring in 10, but augmented reality is really where we’re heading anyway.

Jay Yeary is a television engineer who specializes in audio. He is a member of AES, SBE, SMPTE and TAB. He can be contacted through TV Technology magazine or attransientaudiolabs.com.

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BURLINGTON, MASS.—Avid Technology has appointed Jeff Rosica as chief executive officer of Avid, effective immediately. The company’s Board of Directors has terminated the employment of Louis Hernandez, Jr., former chief executive officer, effective immediately, due to violations of company policies related to workplace conduct. Mr. Hernandez has also resigned from his position on the Avid Board of Directors and Nancy Hawthorne has been elected Chairman of the Board.

Rosica, who joined Avid in early 2013, is a well-known industry veteran with more than 30 years’ experience in broadcast, media and entertainment. Prior to his role as president, he served as senior vice president, chief sales and marketing officer for the company.

Nancy Hawthorne, Chairman of the Avid Board of Directors, said, “Jeff’s deep experience as an industry expert coupled with his impressive knowledge of Avid’s business and strategy make him the natural choice to lead the Company.”

Rosica, president and CEO of Avid, said, “I am honored and excited for this opportunity to lead Avid through this important moment in the company’s history. The outlook for Avid is strong and I look forward to working with the leadership team, the Board and our incredibly talented employees as we execute on our strategic priorities and continue our journey to be a best-in-class company and leader in our industry.”

With the assistance of independent external legal counsel, a Special Committee comprising independent members of the Board of Directors conducted a thorough investigation into allegations of improper non-financially related workplace conduct by Mr. Hernandez. After reviewing the findings of the Special Committee’s investigation, the Board of Directors unanimously concluded that the findings warranted immediate termination of Mr. Hernandez’s employment.

Ms. Hawthorne continued, “The Board is committed to the company’s core values and to upholding an environment of the utmost respect and integrity. We remain confident in the strategy and the long-term business plan of the company.”