PlayBox names technology chief

Sunny Petkov

Playout specialist PlayBox Technology has named Stanislav ‘Sunny’ Petkov as chief technical officer to oversee ongoing development of its TV Automation solutions.

PlayBox has also named Pierre Kande to its board as CloudAir chief architect with special responsibility for developing the company’s new software product range.

Petkov joined PlayBox Technology in 2006 from a technical operations role at Bulgarian broadcast Planeta TV. He has headed the PlayBox development team, latterly as chief research and development officer.

Kande joined PlayBox Technology from Cisco Systems in December 2014. As system architect, he has led the CloudAir project, supervising the development of virtualised products that PlayBox Technology is developing alongside the established TV Automation range.

The two new board appointments follow the recently announced promotion of Don Ash to president, Pavlin Rahnev to CEO, Phillip Neighbour to chief operating officer, Ananth Sam to director of solution sales and customer care, and Ben Gunkel to chief commercial officer.

“Sunny and Pierre are two of the most talented engineers in the entire broadcast business.They are efficient and dependable colleagues with excellent leadership and communication skills,” said Ash.

“Sunny has contributed strongly to the development of PlayBox products family which is now the world’s most widely deployed broadcast playout and channel branding system. His role also includes ensuring that 24/7 support remains an effective cornerstone of our business operation. Pierre’s work on CloudAir has been outstanding both for its precision and breadth of vision. These guys are a real pleasure to work with and very welcome additions to the PlayBox Technology management team.”