Sports In The Making

Marc Rowley - CEO OwnYourStream.com, Inventor of PylonCam & Former Coordinating Producer, ESPN

Episode Summary

Marc Rowley was Coordinating Producer at ESPN and made his mark integrating technology into the network's broadcasts. He is an inventor with credits such as SportsCenter's rundown and the PylonCam and has won multiple Emmys for his innovations. Marc is now CEO of Live CGI and OwnYourStream.com, a service that helps content creators mint their content and earn income. This is a fascinating look behind the scenes on how he's made an impact on sports. This episode has visuals so visit the Sports In The Making YouTube page to see what we discuss.

Episode Notes

LOG:

00:00 - Introduction

01:39 - How a camera falling on Marc’s head got him into television
3:44 - How ESPN Coordinating Producer Chris Farrow (SITM Guest #4) hired Marc offered him a job
5:04 - What Marc’s early career jobs were including editing, pulling cable, etc.
6:35 - What the process of getting a job at ESPN was like when Marc went to work there which included 3 primary things
8:36 - Marc’s thoughts on taking initiative and following up
9:00 - How he got into the CERN super collider in Switzerland
9:35 - What Marc produced at ESPN early in his producing career
11:34 - A partial list of Marc’s accolades while at ESPN
12:25 - How he started down the technology path
13:20 - Marc’s real mission with technology was to try to solve problems
15:10 - What one of the biggest lessons Marc learned when trying to make things happen in the technology space
16:38 - What he does when pitching new ideas to supervisors and to people in general
18:30 - How Marc and Don met and how the SportsCenter “Rundown” graphic came about
23:15 - What goes into building projects involving technology and the process of getting teams together
25:25 - How he became known as the Get “Stuff” Done guy at ESPN
26:15 - How playing video games has helped Marc in his career and how they are beneficial for the mind
28:30 - What some of the innovations Marc had prior to inventing the PylonCam and how it had nothing to do with technology
30:35 - What the role of graphics producer was before Marc and a coworker created that role
31:40 - Marc was the first e-sports producer at ESPN
33:10 - His thoughts on e-sports now
33:50 - Launching ESPN’s drone racing coverage as its first producer
34:40 - Continuing his accolades with first live 360 virtual reality use in Monday Night Football
35:50 - How the Emmy nominated PylonCam started
45:05 - Marc believes in giving up an idea to help create something bigger and how Pride can negatively affect a project
46:15 - How Legos are an important part of Marc’s life and being creative
50:35 - What the value of a Lego is for someone, even if they don’t work at ESPN
52:00 - How many inventions Marc has and how many things he touched at ESPN
54:30 - Marc holds a patent for minting Video in blockchain
56:30 - What NFT’s are, what minting video is and how it can benefit creators
1:03:45 - What the future is for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), MojoVision
1:06:15 - What Marc things the future of the Metaverse is
1:07:40 - Why Mempoverse is the technology to watch
1:11:10 - What the future of this technology is for sports
1:13:05 - How AR can affect wagering
1:14:25 - How data can be beneficial for storytelling
1:16:40 - How long the brain can read a graphic on screen
1:17:50 - What the coolest memorabilia Marc has
1:19:30 - What the importance is on inviting people to eat lunch