Toronto-based secure digital media distribution company Yangaroo has a new CEO, with word that Scott Wambolt will join the company as Chief Executive Officer and as an appointee to the Board of Directors.
Current CEO John Heaven will continue as President, Director and will also assume the role of Chief Financial Officer.
Wambolt most recently served as the Senior Vice President, Channel Strategies and Revenues at Bell Mobility. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President, Sales at Yellow Pages Group. Wambolt received his MBA from the University of Toronto's Rotman School on Management and his BA in Law from Carleton University.
"I see this as a tremendous value creation opportunity," said Wambolt in a release. "Yangaroo has developed world class technology and intellectual property, established relationships with powerful and influential partners, and has a dedicated, solid team. I am excited to help take the company to the next level and significantly increase shareholder value."
New of the hire comes as Yangaroo enjoys a number of recent accomplishments, including being selected by MTV to manage an online review and voting process for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), presented in Los Angeles and telecast in some 160 countries.
The VMAs used the company's patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) to distribute nominated music videos submitted for VMA consideration to the voting members throughout the U.S. The VMAs then used the system to securely distribute the nominated music videos to voting members, allowing them to stream the videos online for review, and vote electronically.
In conversation with Mediacaster Magazine, Yangaroo's John Heaven noted the process was very similar to one provided recently for the Grammys, the annual awards presentation from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, in which some 12,000 judges received secure online access to nominated musical works.
From its origins as a new music start-up company, providing services on behalf of artist and artist reps, Yangaroo now provides full content delivery servicers to broadcasters, record labels and production houses around the world.
"We're very proud of these accomplishments," he said. "And very proud that Canada led the world in switching over from the delivery of promotional CDs to reviewers to a secure digital delivery system such as our DMDS."
"MTV is a good example; it is far more than just one music station. Of course, there's MTV 1 and 2, there's VH 1 and 2; they have hundreds of channels," Heaven describes. "Up to now, all their content came in on tape! And when that tape came in, they had to make dubs or copies for review in programming, in standards and practices, in the archives and, of course, for broadcast ops. Digital delivery eliminates all that, speeding up the process, adding efficiencies and economies of scale for any such broadcast workflow."
Yangaroo also recently announced a working partnership with digital encoding company Telestream, one that integrates Yangaroo's delivery servicer with the multi-platform transcoding that Telestream already provides for many broadcaster and media outlets
DMDS is a Web-based delivery system that replaces the physical distribution of audio and video content for music, music videos, and advertising to television, radio, media, retailers, award shows and other authorized recipients with more accountable, effective, and far less costly digital delivery of broadcast quality media via the Internet.
It brings a green advantage, as well, with the elimination of physical media and transportation infrastructure previously required to deliver content.
Heaven noted the wide range of digital media formats the he and his clients must accommodate, saying that the service provides high quality 50 megabit delivery for actual broadcast content, a scaled down 25 Mbit and a lightweight 8 Mbit service for proxy editing and viewing purposes.
Yangaroo also provides integration with internal systems for tracking, archiving, and other content uses through metadata files included in the secure delivery.
In addition to password protection, Heaven explained, biometrics are used to ensure only the proper senders and proper receivers have access to the delivery system and its content.
Commenting on the new CEO, Heaven later noted in a release that "The addition of Scott to our team is a great stride forward. In our business plan we had set a goal of bringing in senior executive talent with superior sales and marketing expertise to drive revenue growth and enterprise value. With Scott, we believe we over-achieved that goal."
Yangaroo has offices in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and London, U.K.