Orad Hi-Tec Systems (Neuer Markt: OHT-news) today announced that Mark Jeffers, former Vice President of International Sales, NBC Super Sports, will be joining Orad Inc. in New York as Senior Vice President, Sports Sales & Development.
Mr. Jeffers’ held several key positions at NBC over the last 20 years. Most recently, as Vice President of International Sales, Mr. Jeffers was responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of NBC Sports events worldwide, successfully promoting sports programming, which resulted in an astounding 75% increase in sales in 1998. He also held the positions of Director of Sports Sales and Operations and Sales Operations Administrator, with responsibilities for sales and marketing for NBC Enterprises, domestic and international servicing and international program distribution.
Mr. Jeffers’ qualifications will promote Orad’s strategic short and long term goals for its sports broadcast tools. Orad plans to put major emphasis on the Sydney Olympics next year following its agreement with the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organization to supply both virtual studios and sports broadcast tools for the international broadcasting center, providing systems and services to rights holding broadcasters. Orad will leverage its relationship with ISL, the world’s largest sports sponsorship organization and a major shareholder, in its long term plans for applying its virtual advertising technology to upcoming major sports league opportunities such as the ATP 2000.
Another announcement stemming from Orad’s continuous expansion, is the opening of its Mid-West Regional Office in Arlington, Texas. The new location will provide sales and technical support to Orad’s growing customer base in the Mid-West. This is Orad’s third U.S. office -with Orad U.S. headquarters in New York City and West Coast bureau in La Jolla, California.
Heading up the new office is 30-year broadcast veteran Keith Beard. Before joining Orad, Mr. Beard was Regional Sales Representative at the Grass Valley Group and a broadcast engineer at Texas-based NBC affiliate KCBD-TV.
‘The Mid-West is, for us, a very strategic and important market’ said Matthew Straeb, President, Orad USA. ‘Given Keith’s impressive track record in that territory, we are confident our clients will appreciate the new level of support, technical acumen and expertise that Keith will provide.’
About ORAD
Founded in 1993, Israel-based Orad is a world leader in virtual set technologies, virtual advertising and sports broadcasting tools. Orad specializes in the development and manufacture of video and real-time image processing technologies for the TV broadcast and post production markets. Its virtual studio sets, based on the fusion of pattern recognition, tracking and electro-optic technologies, have been used at more than 100 sites spread across five continents, with a market share greater than all its competitors combined. Orad also develops systems for virtual advertising and sports broadcasting, which have achieved worldwide recognition and success at a wide range of events and venues, as well as broadcast tools for the Internet.
Contact: Ms. Lori Lichtblau
Orad Hi-Tec Systems Ltd, PO Box 2177
Kfar Saba 44425, Israel
Tel: +972 9 767 6862 ext. 525 Fax: +972 9 767 6861
E-Mail: lori@orad.co.il
www.orad.co.il