David Williams, Director of Live Technical Management @ Netflix

Speaker A: Hello and uh, welcome to the Media Careers Podcast, the Return. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out to us. We're. We announced that the podcast was going to close about a month ago. We are so delighted to say that we are back thanks to our, uh, Buy me a Coffee campaign. We would love you to help keep the podcast going through buying us a coffee. The links to do this are in our show notes. Now onto our guest. There is no doubt that David Williams has had a fascinating career. From joining a Theatre Royal Bath technology group as a young person and enjoying performing arts through to where we find him today in his role as Director of Live Technical Management at Netflix. I first met David when he was a student at Ravensbourne University, quite a long time ago now, but it's been really wonderful to see his career progress and we dig further into his story today. I hope you enjoy this one. David. Welcome to the Media Careers Podcast.

Speaker B: Thanks very much. It's great to be here and to be able to talk to you.

Speaker A: Yeah. Do you know, it's funny, isn't it, David, because we've known each other for a little while. We first met when you were at Ravensbourne University, so we will cover that, I'm sure. But gonna be really lovely chatting to you in a bit more detail about how you got into the industry and your education and things like that.

Speaker B: So, um, yeah, definitely. And I can't believe how many years have passed since that time at Ravensville.

Speaker A: I know, let's not count those years. So we always rewind on this podcast, David, and start right at the very beginning. So can you tell us a little bit about what you were like as a young person and did you have any, like, traits or hobbies or interests? Yeah. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker B: Um, so I grew up in Bristol, was always kind of quite a quiet student, I'd say. Like, I lived right across from the school, kind of popped home for lunches rather than hanging out with people. Liked my own space. Um, but I was always very interested in technology and I guess going back even further to like, when I was a young child, like primary school days, um, at the time, and I think this is all part of sort of my journey. I was really interested in, like, becoming the TV presenter. That was like the aim as a kid. And I remember with friends at the time, like, after school and stuff, I would go around to someone's house and put on a show and all this sort of stuff for our parents.

Speaker A: Um, and were you doing the tech then or you, you were doing the presenting front of the camera at that point.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly like this. I think we're probably talking, I don't know, at the age of like five, six, very young, before I'd even know what the text slide was. Although I do remember buying some lights and a smoke machine.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: Uh, I love that. So, yeah, that was kind of, I guess the start of the interest in like, entertainment. Uh, and then when I went to secondary school, um, they were actually really good with the shows that they put on. Um, like Les Mis was probably the biggest one at the time and like others like Greece and all the usual sort of school shows. But like, they would actually put good funding into it in terms of like sets and be able to get technology, like all the lighting and so on.

Speaker A: So what was your role? Were you performing still?

Speaker B: No. Um, no, I don't think I ever performed in anything at school.

Speaker A: I was gonna say, was there a videotape somewhere of you doing Les Mirrors?

Speaker B: Completely forgot Sachi. Probably about the age of 10 or so. So maybe before secondary school I, ah, actually joined the Bristol Vic, uh, theater school. Um, so that was acting classes. And then I did audition for a couple of kind of local am, um, Dram productions as well. But then like, they were big ones. Like they were in the Theater Royal Bath, which was like a thousand seat venue.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's massive.

Speaker B: Um, so I was in two shows there. Uh, so who were. I think the first one was Oliver, one of Fagan's gang.

Speaker A: Yeah, nice.

Speaker B: And then, uh, the second one was King and I as, um, a prince, I believe.

Speaker A: Yeah, amazing. So it was a budding performer in you, David.

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Before, before the Voice dropped probably. But yeah, it was good, good fun. And like, I just remember my parents having to take me to all the rehearsals and stuff week in, week out alongside the Bristol Vic stuff.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: But it's great, great experience. And um, yeah, again, all part of the journey, I think.

Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. So in those school shows, what were you doing? Were you behind? Were you doing tech stuff there then? Yeah.

Speaker B: So, um, essentially like we had weekly drama classes. Like, I think in the first few years of secondary school it was compulsory. And during all of those I thought it was like, oh, I want to do the tech, I want to do the lighting. And like, lighting was my big interest. And around the same time I then actually joined theatre or Bass Young People's Theater. Uh, and the reason I joined that was because they actually had a specific tech group. Uh, I think there's probably about 15 people who'd meet on A weekly basis. And it would all be training on how to use a lighting desk, what the different type of lights are, whether it's fresnels or profiles. Um, lighting was a bit more primitive then. Didn't have all the fancy LED text.

Speaker A: It's changed a bit now, isn't it?

Speaker B: Yeah. But, yeah, you did learn about DMX and some of these protocols for controlling lighting and even like pyrotechnics as well. And I remember doing a pyro training course once and we're in this small little studio theater and like, I feel like they're actually using overpowered pyros for the space because, like, the reverberation kind of hit my ear. And then in the years since, every now and again I get like a, um, ringing noise. Come back from that.

Speaker A: Do you think? Oh, wow.

Speaker B: I think so, yeah. Because I remember at the time being,

Speaker A: ouch, that's really painful. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker B: Again, like, it all sparked really big interest in that tech side. And then essentially at school, uh, I spoke to the drama teacher and said, oh, I'm part of this young people sphere to TEC group. Um, got all this knowledge, like, what can I do to, to help? And like, they loved it. So, um, essentially they asked if I could run like a weekly training session for other students. Um, so ran these technical training classes and put together like a whole curriculum almost.

Speaker A: Did you? Oh, my God, David, that's incredible.

Speaker B: Yeah, loads of documentation and stuff and. And then kind of recommended different equipment they should upgrade to. So, like the lighting desk, I think it was a strand, but it was um, very basic with like maybe 20 faders just to do some simple lights up, lights down.

Speaker A: Hm.

Speaker B: I was kind of like, oh, no, you need this. I think it was a strand palette at the time, um, which is all computerized and you could then start bringing in moving lights and, um, get more impressive effects. So the drama teacher kind of noted all these requests down and tried to get really good pricing from local providers. Providers. Um, and then she essentially went to, um, the head teacher and tried to get sign off to invest in a lot of this stuff.

Speaker A: Love that, um, all that expertise that you already had at that age and people were.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And it ultimately. So when we got a bit further in, so like my last two years, that's, uh, the subhandlot school in Bristol, they actually asked if I'd be interested in working part time because I think they realized how much time and effort I was putting in and being unrewarded financially, I guess.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So they Wanted to try and do something to um, to make that official. So I was contracted for like 10 hours a week. So every day 3:15 till 5:15 I'd go and run the training and do maintenance and David, that's incredible.

Speaker A: That really is. There aren't many school kids that would have been doing that and like yeah, uh, spending more time at school. Most people would be wanting to get away but that's, that really is amazing.

Speaker B: Yeah. And off the back of it as well, like I was kind of trying to figure out what was next and like the teacher said to me like have you ever thought about a gap year and would you fancy becoming our creative and media technician?

Speaker A: So this was this after A levels then?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So drum A level years was the part time and then as soon as I finished, yeah I did move to a full time role as their creative media technician. So that's kind of when I branched out more into also kind of like the video side having to kind of look after the cameras and different editing equipment and so on.

Speaker A: Did you think about going to university at that point or was it because they'd offered you a job? Actually it seemed to make sense and you were enjoying what you were doing. Had it kind of.

Speaker B: Um, so I was definitely, yeah, planning on going to university. The only thing is when I was kind of discussing options with my parents they weren't convinced that there was a genuine career in kind of creative areas.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, so my other, when I was at school I was also really into it. So I did it, um, GmbH and then a computer science A level as well. So like half of what I was doing during um, post 16 was it related?

Speaker A: Right. Okay.

Speaker B: Um, so I was kind of like oh okay, computer science, like that's probably where the money is essentially.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And my parents were very much like, yeah, that's definitely what you should do. So I applied for a number of different places and it was a mix of it, um, or computer science and also like lighting design. Uh, some London based university which had a lighting design course.

Speaker A: Yeah. So you still snuck some in there.

Speaker B: Yeah. But then when I got the offers through kind of discussing my parents and they were like oh it looks great like these computer science ones either I think Exeter or University of Bath. And so I thought okay, I'll stay local. And I chose um, the computer science with business at uh, the University of Bath. Ah. Um, but then when I started the course like I tried to put my all into it but I was finding I just really wasn't enjoying it. Um Kind of sat in front of a computer trying to code all these different applications.

Speaker A: Um, you'd had such a practical year out as well. Like you'd that gap year that you had where you were like hands on with technology and moving things and in the theater. Like that's quite. I know things have changed now with technology but it's quite a physical job. Right. So that's quite different in terms of

Speaker B: what you were doing up and down ladders and scaffolding towers and kind of enjoyed that whole setting up of, of the equipment, um, rigging as well as

Speaker A: the operation to then be just like a computer continuously. Yeah.

Speaker B: But what was great at University of Bath they've got a uh, brilliant uh, society called Backstage Services. So I was very quick to join that. And like they've got such a huge calendar of events which take them throughout the year. Like everything from theater performances. They had like an on campus theater uh, through to like the Freshers Ball where you get all these big bands and acts coming to perform for the thousands of students. Like this was all handled internally via this. Um, so I joined that and got really well with everybody else in that group and basically found that ah, that was like a full time job in itself.

Speaker A: Yeah, I bet. Yeah.

Speaker B: So very quickly my attention was all on that, uh, which I was having a great time, um, not doing so much studying.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And the other side as well also joined campus um, tv. So another society. And quite quickly there's an opportunity to become station manager. So I put myself forward for that. Yeah. Essentially I was elected to be the station manager. So again I had these two quite fun on roles. Yeah, yeah. I think it was probably by the end of the first semester I'd pretty much given up with the course and I was doing like the bare minimum but I was having a great time with everything else. So at that point I was like I need to have a look at sort of where I go next education wise.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, and there's actually an old friend from Sir Bernard Lovell School, um, who hadn't stayed on for post 16. He'd gone to think Bath College, uh, and done a media course. And he was like, oh, have you heard of this place called Ravensbourne? Like absolutely no idea. Never heard of it. Looked it up on the computer and see it's a small little place on at the time it was in Kent on the outskirts of London. But I saw they had a good number of TV related course, uh, from engineering to operations and what really attracted me to it versus kind of other Generic kind of media degrees I'd seen was it was clear there was lots of industry links like the website talked about. We get students into the BBC and ITV and all these different placement opportunities. And I thought being in London and close to where so much of the industry was at that time was a fantastic opportunity to really hopefully get stuck in, uh, with actual broadcasters.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So I applied for that and then

Speaker A: did you start that following September?

Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I went, went down, met Mike Davidson, um, who was the course leader at the time, and had an interview and filled out a questionnaire and what's kind of like I was very interested in the operations side. So I think at the time my head was kind of in kind of being a director or vision mixer. And, um, essentially the. The test they did was more kind of engineering based. And, um, came back and said, oh, wow, like you've like passed this with flying colors. Like you should definitely do the engineering course. Um, I was like, like, that's not

Speaker A: where I want to be. Yeah.

Speaker B: So I did give it a think and then I was like, no, like I want to be doing the fun stuff. Um, yeah. As it was in my head at the time.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So, yeah, started that course the next September. Brilliant bunch of students there, uh, as well. Been sort of lifelong friends off the back of it. M. And your year was.

Speaker A: And this is where we met was when you were at Ravenspawn.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And I think you're right that your year was so dynamic. You had a really great group of people that were. And especially, you know, clever, dedicated, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah. Especially given the course could be a mix of kind of studio side, but also like on location, like director of photography and shooting documentaries and dramas and all that sort of thing. But again, I guess just going back to those earlier days, I talked about and wanted to be a presenter when I was really young, the sort of shows I loved was like, live and kicking SMTV even, I guess in later years, things like Saturday night takeaway. Like, I was always a huge, handsome deck, um, fan.

Speaker A: Yeah. I mean that show is mammoth, isn't it? They've always been innovative, you know.

Speaker B: Yeah. And just love sort of entertainment and even CBBC presenters and like the games they play in between shows, which I don't know if they're really doing that kind of thing these days. And they, at one point they kind of moved away to more kind of voiceover and animation and so on. Um, yeah.

Speaker A: So when you were at Ravensbourne, did you then have like a clear idea of the trajectory that you wanted to go on by the time you left because you did get amazing opportunities. But did you have, like that, Ah, oh, okay, this is where I'm going to. This is where I want my career.

Speaker B: So pretty much every project, um, I would either direct or produce, and it was particularly the direct inside. I enjoyed, like, calling the camera shots and directing the whole studio crew. But then I also enjoyed vision mixing as well. But that is quite a thing in the industry. Like, we have directors who vision mix, so it was all very useful. So it goes hand in hand. The producing side probably wasn't quite so favorable on, um, but, like, I enjoyed the putting the productions together, which is obviously a big part of the producing. And what I found is a lot of other people on the course weren't really interested in that. They just needed a couple of people to be like, right, okay, we're gonna, like, I remember gonna do this Halloween special show and this Christmas special show and sort of planning it all and allocating crew roles. Who do we want on camera? Who do we want to be a floor manager? So, yeah, that was definitely the direction I was going in. But at the same time, with that, uh, sort of tech background, I was always enjoying the configuration of the equipment, like actually programming the vision mixer, uh, setting up the graphics, making sure the intercom was all set up to talk to whoever you needed to talk to. I guess it was quite nice that, uh, given I'd passed up on the engineering opportunity, I felt like I was still across that to quite an extent. And I guess, like, leaving Ravenspawn, I found more opportunities in that kind of technical. I've never had an engineer job title, but the jobs I've had have been more along the lines of technical manager, which is generally hand in hand with the engineers and overseeing a lot, a lot of that planning and execution.

Speaker A: So that deep kind of knowledge, that kind of cross knowledge is really useful, isn't it?

Speaker B: But even so, like, whilst I was at Ravensbourne, um, like during the first year, I think it was only about three months into the course, I spotted an opportunity to do a work placement with the BBC on Blue Peter. I spoke to course leader at the time and said, like, this would be like a month out from studies. Like, is it okay to apply for it? And he was really supportive and say, oh, yeah, you can catch up on all the other stuff around it. Uh, don't worry, go for it. So that was quite a fun experience. I mean, they've demolished it now, but next to BBC Television center, there used to be a Big tower, which had a lot of the children's TV and there's like a floor for CBB's, a floor for CBBC, a floor for Blue Pet, Thoughtful news round, etc. So I, uh, was getting such a buzz from just being in that environment. Like a lot of the shows that I'd watched uh, growing up and um, remember even like I was kind of sat on a runner's desk essentially. But like I was right next to the presenters so they probably, Peter, like they'd come in and plan the show before filming in the studio. So I remember sort of discussing things with like Helen, who's one of the presenters at the time. And she was really great with giving career advice as well and even gave a contact was, oh, if you ever need a presenter for one of your projects in the future, you're like, yes, please. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, given that was only a few months in, that really kickstarted it. And then at the end of the first year, because Ravensbourne moved from Chislehurst, uh, to uh, North Greenwich next to. So it meant we had like a five month summer break, I think term ended.

Speaker A: Yeah, you're right, it did.

Speaker B: So in that five months, did a six week placement with QVC as like a studio technical operator. So doing a mix of studio cameras, robotic cameras, sound operation, lighting controls, like a real mix. And you'd kind of rotate through all of those in like an hourly basis. And then I, I also took part in an international program at uh, Walt Disney World in Florida.

Speaker A: Oh, amazing.

Speaker B: So that. Oh yeah, because I did it two years. So uh, the first year was um, I was working on a show called Lights, Motors Action Extreme car stunt show with jet skis and all sorts of stuff. But it was less on the tech side. It was more of like a stage manager type role that you're kind of opening gates for these vehicles to go through at the right time and making sure there's no crowd who could get injured in.

Speaker A: But still amazing to be. Yeah, it's amazing to be in that environment.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Loved it. Because there was about, I'd say about 30 other students from the UK selected to do different roles at Disney World. So There were like three different start dates, but on I think the 2nd of June I started and like we all met up at Heathrow essentially and all boarded the plane together. And then Disney have um, student accommodation as well for these programs. Four big campuses, nice apartments with Paul and all this sort of stuff.

Speaker A: So I wonder if they still do this, David, because there's people Listening to this, going, simon me up.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, they 100% do. And if anyone is interested, I think it's Yummy Jobs, um, are still the company who look after recruitment for it.

Speaker A: Okay, Yummy Jobs, everybody. I'm signing up, I want to go to Walt Disney.

Speaker B: They even have programs for like, Universal Studios and others. So it's an amazing opportunity to do entertainment work in the U.S. uh, yeah, amazing. So, yeah, I even during that, like, I was always a workaholic. And like, I picked up these extra shifts on a show called Fantasmic, which is like a big nighttime fireworks and water projection show. So that's my only kind of little regret, like, at the end of the program, like, everyone else had been having so much fun around it. Uh, and like, I was always kind of, oh, I'm picking up this extra shift tonight after doing the normal one. So. So off the back of that I was like, I'm going to apply again for next year. So I did go back in 2010 and did the studio backlot tour. So it's a little tram ride which goes round and supposedly shows you, like, hair, makeup, uh, different studios that they shoot in. Although it was a little bit sort of set up really for the experience of the theme park at, uh, Hollywood Studios. Um, but did you enjoy yourself much

Speaker A: more the second time?

Speaker B: Um, yeah, I did. And, uh, I made sure to get that kind of balance of spending more time with people. Uh, and there were a couple of other people who returned as well, so it's nice to spend time with them again. And also some friends kind of came out to visit whilst I was there. Um, but with that, ah, second time around, what was quite funny is I got thrown into basically present in this studio backlot.

Speaker A: I did you. The presenting skills come out?

Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And like, it's not something I volunteered for or I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but it's kind of like you just got allocated something and you just had to run with it. So I had to learn this big spiel. And, um, before you get on the tram, they had what they called Harbour Attack, um, special effects show. So it's a big water. Water tank with a ship in the middle, um, a little console below the buttons. Essentially, I'd have to select people from the audience. This audience rotates through, like every 20 minutes. Um, and then dress them up in these waterproof suits, bring them out onto this water, um, tank platform, and then take them through this whole Harbor Attack style movie. Show all these cameras around. And when you're pressing the buttons. It's capturing certain shots at certain times with all these big water jets and explosions and things going off around you.

Speaker A: Brilliant.

Speaker B: So, like, again, like, that was perfect because it was that mix of like, special effects and technology combined with sort of having a bit of fun with the audience.

Speaker A: Yeah, amazing. What a great experience.

Speaker B: Yeah. And then, so the first, first year around, anyway, when I was doing the other shows, um, so yeah, I did qvc, managed to do, I think it was three months at uh, Disney World. And then I came back and did another six weeks at itv. Um, two. Two weeks on cameras, two weeks on sound, two weeks on lighting. And that was like Graham Norton's show, Jonathan Ross, qi, Paul o' Grady show.

Speaker A: You've got so much experience just in that, like, first year. That's incredible. Just like how much you were able to cram in.

Speaker B: And even I remember QVC were kind of speaking to me and saying, um, like, would you be interested in leaving Ravensbourne to take the role? And like, I did give it serious consideration because I did enjoy it. But, uh, looking back, I'm so glad I stayed the path and kind of went on to other things and like sports and entertainment.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it could have gone in a really different way.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So what was your first job when you left Ravenspawn then?

Speaker B: So off the back of the first year in qvc, like, they. When I turned down the full time opportunity, they asked if I wanted to start freelancing. So when I could, I was kind of down there doing either an early shift or a late shift. Um, so that was kind of on an ongoing basis throughout the second and third year. Um, then also an opportunity came up, Channel four for, um, what's called the Box, a load of music channels. So there was four music smash hits, Karang Q Magic, um, a couple of others. So that was a transmission operator experience. This was something completely new to me, but essentially managing a playlist of all the different music tracks, the commercials, the bumpers, in and out breaks, and it would even have like the triggers to bring up graphics and, uh, um, if I'm honest, the programming of a lot of this was quite hit and miss. And like my role as well as being the operator was almost kind of qc, like quality control. So like you're the final step before work goes out to somebody's house for them to watch. So you really having to look through this playlist and spot all of these errors and be things like, I think of common rules. You have to have a bumper, um, to separate the ad breaks from the actual program content. And sometimes those would be missing, sometimes you'd have like a top 10 countdown and the tracks weren't actually in the right order, uh, for like ten to one. Um, so you'd be juggling all this media around, um, making sure there's not a typo in the um, graphics and all this sort of thing. Um, so does that see you through?

Speaker A: David? Does that see you through?

Speaker B: Yeah, it is like they were 12 hour shifts, either like 8pm to 8am M or 8am M to 8pm So I took a lot of night shifts and that was where essentially I would write all of my coursework and dissertation and everything. So dissertation probably wasn't the best that it could have been, but it was, it got you through, considering I was probably working about 40 hours a week across these. And then because in the final year as well, I started freelancing for Bloomberg too. Um, initially in what they called Feeds, which was bringing all the, the live feeds of like guests and reporters in, um, using things like Live View and different uh, technology for the circuits. Um, and then you'd be like setting up their earpieces like the comms, so making sure that they could hear the studio out wherever they were in the world. Um, so it was quite nice. That was a real mix of things I was doing. And certainly by that final year at Ravensborne, um, and then Bloomberg actually offered me full time job and they were like, you can start as soon as you graduate. So I accepted that, uh, although I did delay it a little bit to do the London Olympics.

Speaker A: Yeah, that was gonna say you just had like the best few years, didn't you? Like the Olympics. You know, being in London as well, that was a brilliant experience for students.

Speaker B: We're going back now to like when I started Ravens was 2009 and really feel like things haven't slowed down at all since.

Speaker A: No, I don't think they have. Your career has just been skyrocketing, hasn't it? You've just. Yeah, um, but so, yeah. So you did the Olympics. What were you doing on the Olympics? Just quickly, just the Olympics was uh,

Speaker B: what do they call it? It was a, uh, utility which was essentially assisting the technical managers. So I guess this was what opened the door to what is my career path now. Yeah, so the venue. Technical managers hired by Obs Olympic Broadcast Services. So they, they get bought on like a month or so before the games to kind of execute the plans that have been created for each venue. Um, so it's overseeing the broadcast Installation with the outside broadcast company, making sure all the power's in, making um, sure everything's a safe environment. Working with specialty providers like speciality cameras and so on. So technically I was supposed to be attached to table tennis and there was a different tech manager for each of these, but then there was one tech manager who was overseeing the whole place. Um, so he kind of pulled me into his world and although it's supposed to be attached to table tennis, ended up kind of across the whole place and um, constantly driving around on the golf carts.

Speaker A: It was fun though to be part of something so significant in kind of

Speaker B: our, yeah, history Paralympics. I then got an offer to join the, the Olympic News Channel, um, where they would actually be going out from venue to venue and just shooting kind of behind behind the scenes content to turn into news pieces. So that was quite good fun as well.

Speaker A: So you, but you end up in Bloomberg and um, how long did you end up in Blue Bag for? What were you and what were you doing now?

Speaker B: So, yeah, probably at that point already freelanced for them for about a year. And then I think I was there uh, for maybe like another year and a half. The role initially was managing those income and outcome feeds and comms. And that turned into an MCR or master control room role. And then sort of from there I was kind of like, actually I really enjoy the production control room side and I'd love if there's any opportunities to get in there. And so a different person ran that team, uh, pj. But Abdul, who ran mcart, like he was really supportive. He's like, you've got to do what you enjoy and find the right path. And PJ was great with being like, yeah, okay, let's train you up to be a vision mixer, uh, or a tech director as they would call it. So actually I had quite a bit of training. I, uh, was kind of almost chucked into it. But, uh, good opportunity because they had what they called the wall TD or tech Director Vision Mixer. Uh, and that was responsible for feeding content into all the screens around the studio. So they had like an LED floor, an LED wall, they had like a touch screen. Um, so you'd be controlling what content went into all of these. And they'd have quite complex opening sequences at the top of each show. It was really fast paced. And you were also rolling in a lot of the videotape packages as well off of a Playout server. And someone who kind of really taught me the ropes on the vision mixer side was Jordy Alfaro. Yeah, um, I kind of mentioned him just because it's kind of ironic is the last production I've just done, um, with Netflix last week, which is back in the uk was with Jordi who's now directing.

Speaker A: It's funny, isn't it, how it all ends up connecting again.

Speaker B: Yeah. He does all these huge boxing and football and all sorts of stuff.

Speaker A: Stuff.

Speaker B: But it's always been great to sort of reunite with him at different stages along the career.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, and other people from there as well, like Jan Genesis. He's gone to direct loads of huge things as well. So it's great just seeing everybody's individual journeys.

Speaker A: Yeah. All developed together. So you, when you leave Bloomberg, what did you have an idea of like where you wanted to go next and were you thinking about like your career as a whole or was it just following where opportunities?

Speaker B: Yeah, well. So even whilst I was at. I was never one to just have one job. So um, I was picking up all sorts of shifts um, in other kind of transmission areas. So I did a contract at uh, Encompass Digital Media. Um, that was when they were moving from one facility to another and I think they just won the Disney channels as well. So I kind of looked after a project there, um, to test a lot of the Disney Channel rollout and make sure it's smooth transition for when it cut across to them. And then also Redby Media took over the old channel four box music channels. Um, so they reached out saying if any freelancers from there were interested in going across to Redby Media. So I took that opportunity and it m meant as well as doing those music channels, I also had the opportunity to do like BBC Worldwide and some other channels as well.

Speaker A: I'm wondering whether there's a place you haven't worked, David, or in a role that you've not done.

Speaker B: Even doing that transmission role in the music channel was like they asked if I wanted to produce the Breakfast Fix, which was like a three hour show where as well as the music videos you kind of had entertainment packages and um, graphics with like the day's headlines. So I got stuck into that and like on the way in, like in the taxi you'd be like flicking through the newspaper trying to pull out all these entertainment headlines and putting this into the graphics system. Um, but it was all quite light hearted as nasty. Could have fun with it.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Nice.

Speaker B: Yeah. So, um, so yeah, I guess off the back of Bloomberg, my next move was like in terms of full time roles was to move across to Sky. Um, and that really opened the door to a lot more of that kind of studio side.

Speaker A: So what was that role, David? What were you doing at Sky?

Speaker B: I think technical director was what it was originally hired as and then they kind of had a round of redundancies and change roles and stuff and it became technical medical supervisor at one point. Um, but essentially a lot of the same responsibilities. Um, so my role was specifically hired for um, Sky Sports news bulletins. Um, so they were um, little sort of five minute sports updates which would go into the main sky news show, but from over in the sky sports news facility and building. But what I did find is after, uh, maybe six months or so, I was starting to get itchy feet and just doing the same thing day in, day out. It's like I want a new opportunity

Speaker A: to say, you definitely sound like someone, David, that needs kind of lots of balls in the air. Like you need to be kind of like moving.

Speaker B: Yeah, I would like to be pushing myself and learning kind of thing. I think if that's not the case then I'm kind of like, right, what's next? But luckily sky were really supportive in terms of. They were like, oh yeah, that's get you across all these other programs as well.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: Um, so I started doing Sky News both at Osterley, the main campus, and over at Millbank in central London as well. Um, then I started in the main sky sports news channel too. So again like these are much bigger teams and operations. So yeah, it was really good fun. Um, amazing.

Speaker A: And how long did you end up at sky for?

Speaker B: Uh, a couple of years again? Yeah, um, yeah, I think just over two years probably. And then I had the, I guess that the thing that then made me want to explore of opportunities was touching it before. But like my main love had always been entertainment and that's kind of like Sky's great, but, uh, it's a lot of sports and news, um, don't really have much in the studio space on the live, uh, entertainment side. So. And if I'm honest, ITV has always been sort of the broadcaster, like, whose shows I most enjoyed watching. Whether it's like I'm a celebrity, Britain's Got Talent, like all those big shiny floor shows. Um, so an opportunity was posted online for a, I think they called it a Playout Operator. Uh, um, was how it was advertised. So it was for Good Morning Britain and the role was supposed to be playing out the video packages, um, under the direction of the director and also looking after the weather graphics system. But when I was interviewed and they kind of saw that I was already working at that technical director oversight role and kind of like. Well, we don't have anything like that at the moment, but we could turn this play out operator role into a tech operator and be a bit broader. And also like a lot of the technology they're using, it dated all the way back from like the GMTV days. Like it hadn't really been changed when it all became Daybreak and then Good Morning Britain. So it's all a load of bulky TVs, there's monitors and quite old school comms, uh, panels.

Speaker A: And it all needed changing.

Speaker B: Yeah. So it was very much like treading carefully because like ITV already had its technical team and head of technology and all this sort of stuff. So my role primarily was as an operator, uh, for the execution of Good Morning Britain. But the team there were very supportive of me, sort of looking into new technologies to kind of roll out. So bought in a new sort of replay system because as we were covering so much breaking news, we didn't really have an easy way to quickly clip up things and scroll back in time. Let's say if something. It's bad to say, but there's always things like terrorist attacks and all this sort of thing. And it's like you're on a commercial break and suddenly something's happened.

Speaker A: Yeah. And you need to clip it out quickly.

Speaker B: Yeah. So I found a system, um, it was called Abacus at the time that's been acquired by Ross Video. So I suggested that, got them in to give us a demo and a trial and then kind of got the VORT in from the buy in from the head of technology. And then also we went through quite a significant weather system refresh. So when I started, it was essentially like a PowerPoint slideshow. You're just getting next, next, next through these stills. So there's this system called Visual Cortex, which I think is made in New Zealand, um, which takes real time data and visualizes it. So you get all of like the wind flow and all these animations of the rain passing over. Ah. Um, and this really, really clever bit of kit where you can do really powerful storytelling. So like the weather presenter was really excited by it.

Speaker A: It's so amazing, David. Like, there's so much detail that goes into broadcast. I was having this conversation with somebody the other day.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And that nobody understands the complexity of the technology that sits behind it or the fact that you were even looking at that. And then that system was brought in. Like, it is amazing, isn't it? Just the how much goes into getting content Distributed whatever platform it ends up going.

Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. I can't take all the credit for that one because ITV were already looking at that solution to kind of roll out generally across all the regions and national and everything. So my role there was kind of making sure it was implemented smoothly.

Speaker A: So just like the fact, just the innovation that continuously happens is quite extraordinary in this sector.

Speaker B: Yeah. There's even things like my particular position, like I had really limited monitoring and I was like, I'd love to have like a multi viewer and be able to see this, that and the other. So like, okay, yeah, find a solution and if it doesn't cost too much, then we'll let you sort of set that up. Amazing. Um, kind of like improve the facilities in the long term.

Speaker A: I was gonna say Good Morning Britain was your home for a while, then it was.

Speaker B: Yeah. Um, and despite the early, a lot like the. The alarm clock was going off at like 3 o' clock in the morning. I mean, that's brutal at, uh, 3:30 or 4, something like that. So you'd have all the prep and rehearsals and stuff before going on air at, uh, six, I think. Um, and then obviously you're on air through at the time it was until 8:30. But occasionally with breaking news and stuff, we'd go over by an extra hour into the next show, what was quite funny. Like one of my worst moments. I wish that sort of Gran would open up and swallow me.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah, go and share it with us.

Speaker B: Yeah. So Lorraine only worked Monday to Thursday. Um, and so she had a weekday show. It was on five days a week, but we'd always record the Thursday show. Uh, sorry, the Friday show on a Thursday.

Speaker A: Right. M. Okay.

Speaker B: And my role in the Good Morning Britain Gary would be to actually play out that show on the Friday morning after Good Morning Britain had finished. Um, and each part would come through separately with these like, codes and so on. And this was back when we were still using the old playout system before that new one I mentioned, which was quite clunky. Um, so one day I dragged the parts across into a playlist to play them, but I hadn't spotted. I put them in the wrong order. So essentially the show gets started. Uh, pop one's fine. Go to commercial break. But then what should have been part two was the final part, like part four. I'd loaded in, but because we'd finished the main Good Morning Britain on a Friday, everyone's kind of looking forward to a weekend and chatting. The control room's really noisy. Um, we weren't Sort of hugely paying attention to the content going out. Yeah. So it was only.

Speaker A: No, go on, carry on.

Speaker B: Well, it was right at the end of what should have been the second part. It was like, oh, that's been a great, great day. Like, have m a great weekend, everybody, and we'll see you next week. M so. And, um, also it meant the timings are off, so it took us by surprise that we'd gone to break earlier than the scheduled time. Easy, um, done, though.

Speaker A: Easy done.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So, like, at that point I was like, oh, my God, Like, I'm gonna be fine. This was only a couple of weeks into starting that job with ITV as well. So I was like, this isn't good.

Speaker A: But I'm sure they were fine, though.

Speaker B: Yeah, luckily they were fine. And actually the good morning wrestler weather presenter Laura Tobin kind of got me out of trouble. She quite often stuck around after the show and we needed, because of these timings now being wrong, um, as well as it being confusing for, like, I remember viewers on Twitter and everything. I mean, like, what's wrong with Lorraine? Like, why is she.

Speaker A: That's so funny.

Speaker B: But, yeah, so basically, Laura filled the last couple of minutes, um, at the very end to do, like, a special weather report. But she loved, like, any opportunity to talk about the weather.

Speaker A: She's there.

Speaker B: Um, so, yeah, m amazing in touch today.

Speaker A: It's always nice when people save your bacon.

Speaker B: Yeah. But, yeah, so sorry. So moving on, um, so itv, uh, ended up moving to BBC TV Center. So I really enjoyed that opportunity where I was asked to kind of take a lead on the studio technology in terms of making sure we had modern systems going into TV Center. Um, so it meant I came off of shift for a good couple of months in the build up to that move and was kind of looking after. It was System Integrator doing a lot of the install and I was having to do, like, snagging lists for things which weren't quite right. Um, and all the testing and so on before we went live. And then that, again, has kind of been quite a common theme in the years since. But, like, I've really enjoyed those kind of opportunities to develop systems and roll out and moves to new facilities and all that sort of thing.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But then when. When ITV moved, they kind of merged all the daytime roles, so.

Speaker A: Right, okay.

Speaker B: No longer separate team for Good Morning Britain. So it meant I was then working across this Morning Lorraine and Loose Women as well.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, so it's quite nice to then have that variety because, again, based on what I Said about getting itchy feet. Yeah.

Speaker A: And also, if you're listening to this and if you're kind of working on the same content, it's. It does get boring. I remember I was in. In my gap year between A levels and university. I worked in the Shaftesbury Theatre. It was the Carousel, the musical was on. So I was watching it every night and, oh, my God, it was an amazing show. But, like, by the end of the first month, I was like, this is gonna. You know, this is hard when you just hear. And it's the same with content, right?

Speaker B: It's the same kind of keeping your mind active.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker B: Yeah. And like, this morning, because I'd worked on that drawn work experience whilst I was at Ravensbourne, it was just great to be sort of reunited with a lot of that team. And also, that was a show I loved in terms of the variety. Like, you'd have performances on there. You'd have, like, really big celebrities doing interviews.

Speaker A: This morning covers everything.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And even, like, outside broadcasts with some shows and different elements like that. So you'd always have, like, the day before a meeting to plan the next day's show. And it was always like, right, okay, we're going to do this. And we had to figure out how to make it happen.

Speaker A: Yeah. Amazing. When you were there, David, because ITV and those kind of live entertainment shows were where you wanted to go. Did you think, actually, I've made it and I'm quite happy now.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I was really happy there. And, um, I guess the next opportunity that came along was Amazon Prime Video.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And, um, like, I wasn't looking for a move at all. Uh, I think I was called by a recruiter, uh, or an agent asking for people to come and join as a contractor. So I thought, okay, like, I've kind of hit a steady flow. Like, we've moved into TV Center. I'd been across all those shows for a while. Um, so it's like, do I remember doing, like, a pros and cons list as well? Because it's like, do I want to leave behind this job I really love? Um, or do I want to take a new opportunity? And I guess, looking back as well, I've never really said no to an opportunity.

Speaker A: No, not by the sounds of it. As you said earlier. You've just kept going. You haven't kind of.

Speaker B: Yes, that's kind of. I feel like if you say no to something, you may later regret it. Less likely to kind of say yes to something, look back and say, I wish I said no. Um, but I guess that's just my philosophy.

Speaker A: No, I know. Yeah, no, I think, I think that's probably the same.

Speaker B: And so with Prime Video, again it was something completely different and I was out of my comfort zone. So, um, because of it being live streaming and it was in the build up to that they just won the rights to the English Premier League football, which was going to be the biggest live stream event of all time, um, certainly in the uk, but I think even wiser than that. Um, so it's quite a lot of pressure on and Amazon had been doing live out of Seattle for a little while. Um, so there were teams there, um, who were kind of getting across this initiative, but there was no kind of set standard operating procedure or SOPs as we call them. So when I came in as my role was, um, live Operations Manager. So I was a contractor, but I had I think a team of eight people under me. There were six called associates, basically operators, and then two support engineers per team. Um, and then me as like the lead for that team. So it was just one team to begin with because we were only looking at Premier League. But then it was quickly like, oh, we're also going to start doing ATP Tennis and WTA tennis and PGA Golf and uh, yeah, I think there's some MLB and like a whole range of events. And because the aim essentially was for Seattle to not have to work 247 and to be able to follow the sun. Um, um, so we had lots of meetings with the Seattle team to kind of establish like, what is it we need to do, how do we operate these. But the tooling was quite primitive at the time. It was all these individual webpage dashboards and we had like tons of monitors with computers plugged into the back of them to view all of these. Um, but what was really great about my time there, so started as a contractor, ultimately went full time and then by the end of my time there, like I was running the whole like European operation of the live event.

Speaker A: Uh, which is huge.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's about 45 people and like working like the shifts were between 6:00am to 11:00pm and then even outside of that, uh, the US team were going. So it's just like I think I was getting about 2,000 emails a day.

Speaker A: Oh my God. Yeah, that makes me feel a bit sick.

Speaker B: Yeah. And I was like managing all the schedules and you had to do all of the one to ones with direct reports and also one to ones with the skip levels. So basically pretty much the whole 45 people I was readily having a touch base with.

Speaker A: How do you manage all of that, David, what is the kind of how do you, yeah. Keep saying when you're dealing with 2,000 emails and multiple people.

Speaker B: Well, this was I guess my first time as a people manager as well. Um, like everything before that had been like tech manager essentially managing technology, not people.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, so like when, when I had done the previous like the placements with Disney that was classed as a leadership role. Um, what skipped over is I'd worked for Disney Cruise Line as well so it was particularly that which was um, leadership. So like I'd had leadership training and I found that really beneficial. Like it's really great curriculum and made you think about how you are as a person, how you deal with others and just understanding that everybody's different as well and works differently. So that was really useful for when I then got into Prime Video who also like, they like Amazon are very big on what they call the leadership principles which is about 13 different things. Everything from frugality through to bias for action and learn and be curious and a whole load of things. So like that as much as it's kind of corporate, like a lot of it did resonate with me. Um, and there are some people who, when you're probably at Amazon you kind of drop those in to what you're saying. But like for me it was more just to keep that in the back of your mind kind of thing with how you are doing.

Speaker A: Well it helps create the culture that everybody works within. Right. That provides that framework that everybody ultimately signs up to when you join the company.

Speaker B: Yeah. But so what I found though is over my course of time there, what I was finding is my role had gone from when I started being really hands on and even helping build the, we call the Avox Amazon Video operation centers. Um, it ended up being much more just people management because like trying to keep on top of making sure you had everything staffed, uh, making sure everybody is happy in their one to ones and had their own progression paths and all of this sort of thing and there's even you have this churn as well within the staff and like particularly as we had a lot of contractors so you could offer a nine month um, contract and another nine months. So that was then the limit. So at that point you'd need to find replacement contractors. So I was trying to find ways around that and we did manage to kind of improve that over time by changing how those roles were categorized.

Speaker A: Uh, it's a really different thing, isn't it? When you start managing people, people management is complex and takes time and energy. Well actually that. Just time and energy, actually. Mostly just kind of making sure, as you say, if you don't have a happy team or something's wrong, then it. Then the ripple effect is huge.

Speaker B: And I did, I really enjoyed the responsibility of it, like looking back, that there's a few things I would have done differently in my approach as well. But, um, like it was a great time and a great team and everyone kind of banded together and if someone was off, they'd fill the shift and like, I would step in from time, like sort of keeping across the day to day as well. So didn't want to become too far removed. Um, but then I've kind of got a reach out from Erin Gordon who used to direct Good Morning Britain. Um, so we'd always stayed in touch and, um, when I was at Good Morning Britain, Piers Morgan was one of the presenters until we kind of famously walked out.

Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say until he stormed off. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: So I think actually when I started at Goodmorn Britain, it was the day that he started as well. And then things, I left around the same time as he walked off. Um, so Aaron reached out and he was like, been contacted by News uk. Um, Piers Morgan is getting his own show and they're kind of spinning up a whole channel around it. Uh, and it's like a really big opportunity, um, to kind of build something from scratch and should be like, great project. And also Piers himself really wanted a lot of his old team around him. These are all the people I loved working with at uh, itv and they were all essentially jumping ship to News uk. Everyone from vision mixers, sound floor managers, um, it was all a big reunion essentially. Um, so at first I passed on it because I'd only just stepped up to that sort of really senior management role at uh, Prime Video. But I kind of kept an eye on it over the first few months and the person who'd taken the role that I passed on kind um, of decided to move on. So at that point the opportunity came around again and I thought, I'd always thought again, like Amazon, job for life. You've now entered kind of big streaming, global tech and all these kind of opportunities there. But essentially, as I ultimately is now just a people management role and I miss that kind of being hands on and making tv.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Particularly on the production side. So the offer from the Use uk, like they were able to kind of match the whole package and everything, um, whilst also offering me Something closer to my. What I love. Um, like I had still been getting a little bit of that around it because I think Amazon had let me have a sabbatical to do probably in Olympics, um, in Tokyo, I believe that one was. And also they've been quite good with letting me carry on doing some other bits as well. So, like, I used to, uh, tech manage Saturday Night Takeaway and again, I know earlier on I mentioned how much I love that show as a kid. So, yeah, like a career highlight and doing the final out in Universal Studios and all this sort of stuff.

Speaker A: Yeah, I know that must have been a big decision because you obviously did have then that flexibility to go and do that other stuff as well. So. But, yeah, uh, but News UK obviously was if you're being matched and it's something different and it's new, only, uh,

Speaker B: only a 15 minute train ride as well from where I lived in London.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, that stuff makes a difference, right? It does.

Speaker B: Uh, it does, it does. And like nice hours and nice team and everything. So. So yeah, I really, really enjoyed the fact that I did take that opportunity. It proved to be, to be a good move again and it kind of got me closer to sort of the path I diverted off of M. Yeah.

Speaker A: So how, how long were you@news uk for? And then what were the steps to where you are now?

Speaker B: Probably about a year and a half on, um, that one. So not too long. But again, uh, actually when I did end up leaving, that was just before they ultimately shuttered the channel Talk tv. Like they kind of turned it back to being a visual radio, uh, studio. Um, and Piers Morgan took his show Independent and started doing it.

Speaker A: It all changed anyway. Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah, so I kind of exited just a good time before there were kind of layoffs. Yeah.

Speaker A: So what was the route from there to, uh, Netflix, David?

Speaker B: Um, good question. So in, in between there and Netflix, I joined Whisper. So that was the next move. So it was actually like Laura, my partner who also works in tv, um, she spotted this opportunity, I think on a Facebook group and she was, oh, look, this looks interesting. I think they advertised a technical project manager. Ah. And wasn't really clear on what they wanted from the role. But like new Whisper were doing like all the big sports events you can think of. Yeah, everything for like Formula E. Formula one.

Speaker A: I mean, they've really come up, haven't they? Whisper however many years.

Speaker B: Yeah, Yes. A load of football, rugby, uh, cricket, uh, and then even outside of sports, they even didn't like game shows. So, uh, I think, yeah, Like Wheel of Fortune with Graham Norton, for example, Jeopardy with Stephen Fry, and then documentaries and even branded content for like Red Bull and others. So, so, yeah, applied for that and like the interviews were really kind of casual and felt this great connection again with uh, Bethan, who ultimately was kind of my manager. And I started there as like, she was, I think, director of production, she's now managing director. So when I joined there, the great attraction as well was they wanted to build a remote production facility in Cardiff. So it was for the Paralympics, the recent kind of Paris ones, and um, essentially Channel 4 and a lot of broadcasters in the UK, I'm sure, you know, like, they've always been very keen on diversifying out of London and creating opportunities in the nations and regions and so on. So Channel four, like we, we want to produce this out of one of the nations and want to open up new opportunities and particularly kind of open the doors for um, disabled people. So Whisper kind of jumped at that and like, okay, we'll, we'll build a remote production facility in Cardiff. We've already got an office there. There's space to kind of build this facility out. Um, we managed to get some funding from like, I think the Welsh government, different bodies there, uh, to help make it actually happen. So I was like, from pretty much, I think it's my second day at Whisper. Uh, I was on a train to Cardiff and going to check out this site which like, they were just starting to knock down walls and stuff and then.

Speaker A: What was your role to help put that infrastructure in place?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I was hired as senior Technical manager in the end. So they kind of changed the role based on my background and experience, but also still wanted me to very much be project manager for any infrastructure needs like that. So, um, we worked with Timeline TV as the integrator. Um, they were kind of hands on, on the ground and buying the equipment on our behalf and installing it. But it was very much like I was kind of overseeing it and being like, oh, actually probably need this, which we haven't planned. And um, can we slightly adjust this space to make it bigger, smaller to fit this in, like working with the, the wider Whisper team, um, and keep keeping across the budget and just making sure it's all delivered. It's very, very tight project. Um, can't remember exactly how long, but I feel like it was probably four or five months from when I started to like when the Paralympics was going to be.

Speaker A: Oh, wow, that is tight.

Speaker B: Um, and yeah, you're looking at space just with everything being Knocked down and like. Right, okay. There's then got to be walls put up and equipment and cable.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's full on.

Speaker B: Um, so, yeah, back and forth to Cardiff quite a lot and enjoyed my time there. Kind of spending a few weeks there doing all the testing as well. But then we hired somebody to come in and manage that facility. Something I could take a step away. Um, and then that kind of meant I was much more hands on with the day to day productions. Like I spent a month on cricket, West Indies, traveling around like Antigua.

Speaker A: Oh my God.

Speaker B: Amazing.

Speaker A: David, that sounds really tough.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. All inclusive hotels. It's difficult.

Speaker A: It's a very difficult life.

Speaker B: Yeah. So get like, uh, I said about career highlights, but again, like that was definitely up.

Speaker A: Yeah, sure, yeah.

Speaker B: Um, and even like we, we launched a channel for the football club Ronaldo plays for, so Al Nassir, um, in Saudi Arabia. So that was somewhere I'd never been and different culture and stuff.

Speaker A: Um, extraordinary.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Wow, you've had some amazing, great highlights. But then Netflix come calling.

Speaker B: Yeah, so, yeah, Netflix, Um, so joined about nine months ago, um, as director of Live technical management. Um, and again, I think what they were attracted by was the mix of entertainment and, um, and sports as well.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Even other genres like news and reality.

Speaker A: You've managed to like navigate that really well, haven't you? That kind of blend of those genres is quite extraordinary. Out of your interests, I suppose, but kind of just the way, because you

Speaker B: do typically find like sports a very different world to entertainment.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: People, one or the other. And even within the US it's kind of like sport is more kind of out of New York, entertainment's more out of L. A, for example. Um, so. So yeah, when I spoke to Netflix, they were kind of really interested in the background there and I was really interested just in general by the huge scale that they were doing things.

Speaker A: Um, they've got big ambitions, right?

Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. And it was a long process because obviously I'm now living out in Los Angeles.

Speaker A: Yeah, I know. The other side of the world. Yeah. Relocation, which is a big, big again, another big decision. Like you've definitely not shied away from those big decisions in your career. Definitely.

Speaker B: Even like big time commitment, just going through like whole visa process. There's so much evidence you have to gather to prove that, um, you should be considered for a visa. Ah, versus kind of a US citizen for the role. Um, so it's a good, probably five months of paperwork and sourcing all of the visa stuff out and also planning the whole move across The Atlantic.

Speaker A: Yeah. Huge.

Speaker B: Uh, but really excited by it all. And, and since I've joined, I've done so many fantastic projects. So, like, we're doing a lot of boxing, so.

Speaker A: Yeah, you were here last weekend, weren't you?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back. Back in the UK for Tyson Fury match at Spurs. Um, so. And Whisper produced that as well for us. So it was nice, really nice thing with the team there. And like I mentioned Jordy directing it, who goes back to the Bloomberg days.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, so, yeah, boxing, we're doing like NFL Christmas game day. So two, two big games with big halftime show. Uh, this year it was Snoop Dogg and then he then had, um, people from like, K Pop, Demon Hunters and a whole load of other people collaborating.

Speaker A: All of that again. Right. Blending this.

Speaker B: Yeah. The whole entertainment. Um, then we've just done a show called Star Search, um, which is a bit like a Got Talent style show, so variety competition. So that was, again, going back to what I really love. Um, we've even done like cooking shows. We're doing MLB now, so we've just done our first MLB event. We've got another two to go this year and same again the next few years.

Speaker A: A real breadth of content that you're working on. It's definitely going to keep you on your toes, David.

Speaker B: Yeah. And even now, so, like, we're branching out a lot lot internationally. Um, so whereas my first few months I was traveling a lot within the US it very quickly became right, okay, now we're doing that boxing in uk, doing World Baseball Classic in Tokyo, doing a BTS concert, uh, for their big reunion after not being together for the last four years out of South Korea. So, yeah, now it's been, been a lot of long haul journeys sort of between Asia and Europe and back to the U.S. yeah, I know you, I

Speaker A: know you're loving this new role.

Speaker B: Are you settling into it? Yeah.

Speaker A: Great.

Speaker B: And again, like, fantastic team and fantastic to be somewhere where there is this huge ramp ahead of us in terms of what, what we could potentially do next. Um, we're doing like a whole breadth of things that even on the smaller scale that have been pulled, pulled in across doing live podcasts. Um, we've got a show called Bill Simmons Weekly show and a couple of others coming. So it's nice getting a whole variety of content and lots more. Lots more to come.

Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, my goodness, David, what an incredible career you've had. Like, obviously I've kind of, you know, kept half an eye on it while after you left Ravensbourne, but it is really lovely to hear it. And how brilliantly you've done. Huge congratulations on your.

Speaker B: It means a lot.

Speaker A: You've done brilliantly. Uh, and as I say, like you've worked with every single broadcaster it seems like, and now it's. Yeah, phenomenal. So David, I've just got to ask like, what keeps you working in this industry? Why does it, why does it keep you so dedicated to the course?

Speaker B: Yeah, certainly a lot of it's about the people and just the, the variety as well. Um, like working with people who put their all into producing these huge shows. Like it's a big commitment on everyone's behalf. Um, and I guess I really enjoy the travel side as well, that the opportunity to explore new places as you're working around the world.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's a real big bonus, isn't it? You've managed to do that and obviously seen some phenomenal places as you've gone.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's nice having an opportunity as well just to kind of have a regular day to day side as well. So it's nice at the moment we're kind of thinking about the longer term and um, doing a lot of planning as well. So the office side's nice as well as.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Being out on the road.

Speaker A: Yeah. And just one final question for you David. If there's anyone listening to this who might be a student or somebody looking to get into this space and um, is listening to what you do, what advice would you give them if they're kind of looking to get specifically into kind of the space that you're in in the tech side?

Speaker B: I guess a big one would be what I said earlier about just saying yes to things like if there's an opportunity, like throw your name in the hat. Um, like I know some people who are kind of. I'm not sure if I'd be selected for that or the deadline's tomorrow. I don't know if I want to stay up late and um, put in an application if I may not, um, get the opportunity. Um, I think it's always just when you see an opportunity, really consider it and it doesn't hurt to go for it. You can always kind of say no if it's not the right thing or later kind of change course.

Speaker A: Yeah, well you've done that. Obviously you've kind of gone from different, different businesses and kind of different roles and navigated your way around it brilliantly. Well David, look, thank you so much for joining us all the way from LA as well. Uh, huge, as I say, huge. Congratulations and good luck. With everything that you do going forwards. And, um. Uh, I will see you. I will see. I will see you at some point in the future.

Speaker B: No doubt. And Industries trade shirts.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Thank you so much, David.

Speaker B: Thank you.