GatesAir, a Thomson Broadcast subsidiary, has appointed Carlos Lira Valdez to its international sales team.
Lira, an experienced RF sales and engineering professional, will cover the CALA broadcast market, meaning the Caribbean and Latin America. He will report to David Hopson, senior regional director for GatesAir’s CALA sales.
According to a company press release, Lira has spent 25 years in the media and entertainment industry, with several positions 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,” said GatesAir.
Lira worked as a support engineer before accepting a position with Harris Corp. in 2011 as a regional pre-sales engineer, working with CALA regional customers to prepare sales proposals and provide technical support for Harris transmitters.
Harris divested its broadcast division that year, and the Harris transmission business was renamed 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,” said GatesAir in the release. “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. ”
Upon his return to GatesAir, Lira said: “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.”
GatesAir said 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.
