Title: Senior VP, AT&T Digital Media Centers (DMC) based in Denver. Mr. Traver oversees the creation, operation and management of distributed content to DMC’s customers. DMC operates facilities in Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong.
Background: Mr. Traver joined DMC three years ago after running network operations for PrimeStar for most of the ’90s. DMC serves as a content aggregator for the media industry and primarily provides channel origination for cable networks along with production, post-production and distribution services.
A new world order: “We look at the fact that everything turning digital is creating the digital media industry,” he said. “We are assuming this industry is in the early stages of formation [and] that this will all change from being film-based to being electronic-based. All media is being turned into digital electronic media. In time, movies will be transmitted electronically to a server at a movie theater. The fact that everything is turned into a digital format and that there is a wide variety of tools will foster a change of a large magnitude and foster a new industry.”
From the sky to the earth: DMC completed an upgrade this spring so that it can distribute content terrestrially via fiber; it has historically distributed its content via satellite. The center’s four facilities have been linked loosely through a satellite connection and are now joined terrestrially through a sophisticated fiber connection that allows them to operate as one facility, Mr. Traver said. DMC has built this fiber network on top of AT&T’s existing fiber network that allows connections with most cities around the world. The yearlong project was completed in May.
New avenues: DMC has launched a high-definition initiative and began carriage of Discovery’s HD channel in June. DMC has also introduced a streaming media platform and now re-encodes and streams the video from Trinity Broadcasting’s TBN and Church Channel.
Just the facts: DMC provides origination services for 198 networks, 97 video services (such as VOD or PPV) and 101 digital audio channels. It also retransmits 4,500 college and professional games for out-of-market TV broadcasts and cable/DBS sports packages. DMC’s HITS service transmits 138 digital video and 46 digital audio channels and provides digital programming to more than 7 million cable households served by 3,000 cable systems.