Cobalt Digital, a manufacturer of award-winning 3G/HD/SD-SDI conversion gear, has added Darren Fordham to the team in the newly created position of director of sports development and southeast sales manager. Bob McAlpine, vp of North America sales, announced Fordham’s appointment today from headquarters in Urbana, IL. Reporting to McAlpine, Fordham will concentrate on Cobalt’s current sports-oriented customer-base while continuing to build that business segment through targeted products, including its award-winning card-based solution for MADI embedding/de-embedding and signal distribution. His responsibilities also include managing sales operations in the southeastern region; a territory encompassing nine states. Fordham joins Cobalt with three decades of broadcast experience, predominantly in the sports arena. He most recently served as director of sports business development and southeast area account manager for Telecast Fiber where he managed product development for the sports-based market, as well as sales functions in the southeast region. Fordham’s career in broadcasting began behind the scenes at WBRC-TV as senior director and technical director of the news division. He subsequently served in specialist positions at industry leading companies such as Sony, Tektronix/Grass Valley Group, and QuStream (formerly PESA switching systems), and spent several years at Cross Creek Television Productions where he built and operated mobile television trucks, and engineered live sporting events for all the major networks. “We just couldn’t ask for a more appropriate professional to drive our activities in this growing industry segment,” exclaimed McAlpine. “Engineering quality sporting events, from all aspects, has been at the core of Darren’s entire career. I’ve personally worked with Darren for many years and know what a tremendous customer resource he is. The entire Cobalt staff is delighted to welcome him“ “Chris Shaw, evp of sales and marketing, echoed McAlpine’s enthusiasm, “The importance of sports in broadcasting is a thriving and growing segment of the industry. We’re proud of our leadership position in that marketplace. We’ve been very successfully reacting to our customers’ requests with targeted products, and are happy to strengthen our support further by committing Darren as a resource.” Fordham is a member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and the Sports Video Group (SVG). Based in Huntsville, Alabama, he can be reached at 205.907.2865 or [email protected]