Worldwide Studio Operations
October 18, 2011
Brad Collar Named Senior Vice President And General Manager, Global Digital Media Exchange (GDMX), Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.
(October 18, 2011 – Burbank, CA) – Brad Collar has been appointed to Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Digital Media eXchange (GDMX), Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., it was announced today by Darcy Antonellis, President, Warner Bros. Technical Operations.
In his new position, Collar will have overall responsibility for Global Digital Media eXchange, a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros., and will report to Brian McKay, Executive Vice President, Production Operations. GDMX is a recognized global leader in supply chain operations and content distribution services providing world-class services in broadcast origination, syndicated program distribution, Video On Demand encoding and distribution, and DVD and Blu-ray compression and authoring.
“Brad is a talented technologist with terrific sensibilities around the commercial aspects of our business. He brings enormous talent and energy to GDMX which continues to redefine its products and services to meet the needs of media and entertainment clients worldwide,” said Antonellis. “Under Brad’s leadership, with Alex Rudinger leading distribution and Bob Doyle leading encoding operations, we are excited that together they’ll make an outstanding team.”
Collar joins GDMX from his previous position as Vice President, Technology, Warner Bros. Technical Operations, where he was engaged in new media technology development and strategy. Collar’s primary areas of focus included Blu-ray application development, IP delivery systems, file based workflows, audio/video compression, digital distribution technologies and 3D content distribution to the home entertainment environment. Collar served as the technical lead in Warner Bros.’s catalog 2D-to-3D conversion strategy. In addition, he served as the research and development lead for the Studio’s Digital End-To-End (DETE) system, leading the testing, technology selection and creation of the Studio’s high definition eMaster format.
Previously, he served as Director, Digital Distribution Technology at Warner Bros. from 2002 to 2007 where he participated in Warner Bros.’s high definition packaged media strategy, culminating in the launch of the Blu-ray Disc format and was involved with the DVD Forum and Blu-ray Disc Association’s development of their respective specifications. On the digital distribution side, he helped engineer the first internal prototype of what would eventually be known as “Digital Copy,” which is currently offered in conjunction with many of Warner Home Video’s DVD and Blu-ray products.
This is Collar’s second time working for GDMX, as he held several positions within the company, then known as the California Video Center, from 1996 to 2002. As the first DVD author hired by Warner Bros. in 1996, Collar supervised the compression and authoring of over 1000 DVD projects for the Studio. He also supervised the then-nascent VOD department at GDMX and acted as a technical advisor to other major Hollywood studios.
Collar is a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the Screen Actors Guild. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA, an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and currently has ten patents pending in the United States.
About Global Digital Media eXchange:
GDMX, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is the world leader in digital video compression services. Located in Los Angeles, CA, GDMX has authored and encoded more motion pictures for DVD and Video On Demand (VOD) than any other facility in the world. GDMX delivers a vast array of digital services while continuing to set the pace in the ever-changing technological landscape. GDMX's four divisions provide world-class services for Warner Bros. and other clients in broadcast origination, syndicated program distribution, advertising distribution, digital B2B distribution, Video On Demand encoding and distribution, and SD DVD and Blu-ray compression and authoring.###