GatesAir, a Thomson Broadcast subsidiary dedicated to wireless content delivery, has bolstered its international sales team with the hiring of Carlos Lira Valdez, an experienced RF sales and engineering professional with extensive knowledge of the CALA broadcast market. Reporting to David Hopson, Senior Regional Director for CALA, Lira will lead GatesAir’s sales and business development efforts in the northern CALA region, which represents all territory north of Brazil through Mexico and east into the Caribbean.
Lira has spent nearly his entire 25-year career in the media and entertainment industry, with several positions firmly entrenched in the RF space. His experience is well-rounded, having worked on the manufacturing side and with broadcasters over the years, including at TV Azteca where he launched his broadcast industry career. Lira first worked as a support engineer, becoming familiar with the entire media infrastructure and workflow as a systems installer and repair technician. That led to a position with Harris Corporation in 2011 as a regional pre-sales engineer, working closely with CALA regional customers to prepare sales proposals and provide technical support for Harris transmitters.
Harris Corporation divested its broadcast division that year, and the Harris transmission business was reborn as GatesAir. While Lira left upon GatesAir’s formation, he is now reunited with the business he grew to love over his four years of hands-on work with the technology. In between, he worked his way through the RF chain, spending several years with Rymsa RF and Jampro Antennas while gaining valuable sales management and business development experience.
He returns to GatesAir with a comprehensive understanding of high-efficiency RF technologies, analog and digital broadcast standards, and the dynamics – and opportunities – of the CALA broadcast business across each border. He has also spent years building strong business relationships throughout the region, including with many of GatesAir’s regional channel partners.
“GatesAir provides me with two very valuable keys to success – exceptional products and knowledgeable in-country partners that offer local support to our customers,” said Lira. “There is strong opportunity in CALA to help TV and FM broadcasters refresh existing transmission infrastructure, and transition analog broadcasters to digital television systems. CALA is an interesting region given the mix of digital standards being adopted, and GatesAir makes high-efficiency, high-performance transmitters to support them all.”
Looking further down the road, Lira sees an opportunity to make in-roads for GatesAir’s Intraplex business unit, noting that Audio over IP adoption in CALA remains in the early stages.
“We’re excited to welcome Carlos into the GatesAir family once again at a time when the transmission business is igniting throughout the region,” said Hopson. “His experience working with major broadcasters in Mexico and other countries is valuable to GatesAir, our partners and our end customers as he understands the transition timelines, government regulations, and business cultures that often differ between countries. His experience working with antennas, filters and auxiliary RF systems allows him to provide a holistic view of the RF chain to customers that are preparing to transition to digital or simply need to update their analog infrastructure. We look forward to his contributions.”