Appear names Andy Rayner CTO

Andy Rayner

Technology firm Appear has appointed Andy Rayner as chief technology officer.

In this role, Rayner will spearhead the company’s technological strategy.

The chief joins from Norwegian communications equipment company, Nevion, where he spent 13 years and became chief technologist, receiving a technical Emmy for his JPEG 2000 standardisation work.

Prior to joining Nevion, Rayner served a 22-years stint at UK telco BT, as head of broadcast solutions at the company’s innovate and design division. He is behind the UK’s Digital Terrestrial TV network, for which he was awarded the Martlesham Gold Medal, BT’s highest accolade for technical achievement.

Rayner is also a SMPTE fellow, a director of VSF and part of the steering board at AMWA. He played a pivotal role in helping shape the SMPTE 2110 group of standards, aiming to revolutionise the industry’s evolution to IP-based production.

Commenting on his appointment, Rayner said: “I admire the way that Appear’s vision and passion is enabling it to support many of the world’s leading broadcasters, operators and content providers with high quality, low latency media transport. Right now, Appear is incredibly successful in winning contracts for premium live sports contribution from the world’s biggest brands, so it’s my job to ensure that this ‘winning team’ has the technology vision to stay ahead of the pack, as the industry increasingly evolves to a software-based hybrid-cloud future.”

“I’m delighted that Andy has joined us and look forward to working with him on Appear’s future technology strategy and product roadmap,” added Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, CEO at Appear. “His 35 years of industry experience and active involvement in crucial industry standard bodies, makes Andy the ideal person to ensure we continue to provide market-leading solutions that make a real difference to our customers.”