San Francisco 49ers

Aron Kennedy is in his seventh season with the 49ers and his first season as vice president of game day production & broadcast operations. He previously served as the director of game-day production & broadcast operations.

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In an interview with CIO Review magazine, he has focused on the latest audiovisual space technology trends and how the digital social world collidescollides with earlier broadcasting

Please walk me through your career path, including your current job and responsibilities?

Currently, I'm assigned as a VP of Game Day Production and Broadcast Operations at San Francisco 49ers. It's my seventh season with them and my first season as a VP. I consider myself fortunate enough to be associated with them as they brought me to Levi's Stadium-one of the world's most technologically advanced stadiums. I assisted them in building a production department and a control room for the stadium, which is fairly a robust control room and video that display on the video board. We have 200-foot wide video boards and the best cameras. My team and I work hard to produce seamless transitions between the action on the field and entertainment aspects, such as Gold Rush cheerleaders, Niner Noise, Hype Team, Sourdough Sam, and the Flag Team. Before moving to the 49ers, I worked as the Director of Game Day Production for the Philadelphia Eagles for 11 seasons. In a nutshell, that's what I've done for the past 18 years. I grew up in the production world worked for production houses. Prior to joining the NFL, I worked as a broadcast and audio engineer for several years. I had spent my whole life working in production, whether it was engineering, actual production, audiovisual production, commercials, or any extreme sports production.

Mention any of the challenges or trends you've seen in the audiovisual space recently?

Many challenges occur in audiovisual space during a pandemic. For example, how does the production adapt to the new environment, and how the football fans will get information? And if you are a broadcaster or in the audio space, how you broadcast to viewers, or how would you combine traditional broadcasting with virtual broadcasting? So, the words such as re-imagining, virtual world, and hybrid productions bring these elements together. Moving forward, I would say that the hybrid model is here to stay. Now broadcasters had to think about adapting to this digitally social world. It's time to change traditional broadcasting to live streaming via short format clip-based platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. It's been a decade preparing for this, but the pandemic forced us to execute in this hybrid space.

How are these latest trends assisting you in achieving success in your projects?

Most certainly, before COVID, we were working on a major project, and the company wants us to dive into 8K resolution cameras and digitally mapping of the American football field. So, it's just data that we capture. In American football, we use that data to help the team win games on the field. Honestly, it creates a unique scenario on the field where one can challenge a referee's decision and potentially overturn those decisions. Our end goal is to support teams on the field with the right decision. By adding 8K cameras to "digitally map the field," it gives enough information to zoom in close on the action without losing any clarity and broadcast a 1080p feed to the stadium's 200x48 foot video boards. It captures 120 frames per second, allowing for slow-motion video and freeze-frame stills. So, having a technology like this can be a game-changer on clarity and the future of broadcast. It went from standard definition to HD and then HD to 4k. And now, when it's shifting to 8K resolution, that is the impact industry is looking for. It's almost better than reality.

 Our end goal is to support teams on the field with the right decision 

Any projects that we took doesn't stop at the camera or the video. But, also come up with sort of challenges in workflow and the game preparation. We focused on using 8K footage properly during the game and using that data after the game and post-production video. we're looking forward to being at the forefront of that exciting journey.

What challenges did you face during this project, and how did you lead your team in a way that helped your company move forward?

We were overall, having a team that not only supports but encourages testing new technology makes being at Levi's Stadium a fun place for employees. As a leader, implementing an 8K project was a dream come true because a camera's expense was not in the budget. We connected with an industrial internet partner, Foxconn, who shared our vision, and we were fortunate enough to partner on this larger project together.

As a result, completing a project like this required a significant amount of time and effort. Our leaders, investors, suppliers, and the team have put in their best efforts to complete the project. They are not a choice for me, but this project would have been doomed without them. The 49ers have trained us all as a team, thanks to their leadership. It's a team effort that helps the company thrive.

What kind of distinction would you make between your personality traits, hobbies, and how they affect your leadership strategy?

Well, I use to call it hereditary as my dad was an aerospace engineer, and my mom was a director of fine arts for a university. My brain works in both ways, like 51% engineering and 49% production. We need both sides to be able to work together. And so, I love technology and production both. Also, in my past life, I played a lot of music, and I felt that my hobbies had given me the chills to think about how engineering meets art and production meets science.

How you push the boundaries of technology while keeping the viewer in mind in the future?

The audience matters, and so the way you catch their attention is also important. Things are evolving rapidly. Earlier, when I started in the NFL-that time, the web and the internet were full of articles written on the team and their doing people, and people use to read these things. Now, we can get enough video content via different platforms. Generally, it's 30sec video, and here comes your creativity to presents the whole story in that 30 seconds. These short-format videos are challenging to engage people. That's how the digital social world collides with the broadcast. However, with my overall experience, I would say that the next 50 years will be more interesting. Our capabilities have constantly been increasing by pushing the envelope of technology. The best example is we are watching images and flying drones on Mars. To be honest, the right use of technology is very necessary for the coming generation.