Someone You Should Know : Raymond Robinson

Raymond Robinson is Director of Strategic Accounts (Next Gen Broadcasting) for Crown Castle International. He got involved with ATSC 3.0 when he was promoted to the role in early April 2021. Robinson was tasked with developing and driving strategy in the NextGen TV Segment. Crown Castle International became a Gold Sponsor of ATSC in 2021. Robinson was appointed to be international sector lead for ATSC for the Jamaica Digital Switchover (DSO), which is the project to transition the island’s broadcast system from analog to ATSC 3.0.

Robinson is a part of several groups within ATSC 3.0, including ATSC Presentations Speakers Bureau, Planning Team 4 – Future Broadcast Ecosystem Technologies, Planning Team 5 – Automotive Applications, and Planning Team 6 – Global Recognition of ATSC 3.0, to name a few. Robinson says he is honored and most proud of the opportunity to lead the Jamaica DSO engagement with ATSC and to work alongside Madeleine Noland and Amy Lodes. “They are two amazingly bright and talented ladies with a passion for serving. The work we do in Jamaica is going to be instructive in many ways.” Robinson says other achievements he’s proud of include:

1.  Jamaica could be the world’s first nation to deploy ATSC 3.0 across the entire country, reaching 100% of the population with services.
2.  Densification of the ATSC 3.0 signals across a challenging terrain (mountains, cliffs, valleys etc.) will be tested in Jamaica in real time
3.  The Advanced Public Alerting and Distance Education use cases will be two primary use cases tested initially in Jamaica. These are two items of critical importance to the Jamaican regulators and broadcasters.
4.  The availability of inexpensive and easy to use set-top boxes and Next Gen TVs will be tested in Jamaica. Per Capita GDP in Jamaica is sub $5,000 USD/year. Set top boxes need to cost way under $100 USD in order for consumers to be able to afford them.
5.  Content Creation and Monetization of Spectrum: Jamaica will need to create content that will drive consumers to want to watch and advertisers to spend money. This will also be a testbed for demonstrating various revenue streams that can be derived from ATSC 3.0 Spectrum.

Robinson says that ATSC 3.0 is transformative and a technology that has the power to impact the lives of people for generations.
“It democratizes access to information regardless of economic or social status. It has the potential to create positive economic and social change. Some of the use cases that we hope will materialize are sports betting, cloud content storage, automotive and mobility, digital signage as a service, campus alerting, incident management/active shooter/emergency alerting, culture and arts, news and electoral information, healthcare, farming, education/distance learning, hospitality, government information sharing, work force training and skills development and fund-raising.”

When it comes to the most impressive features of ATSC 3.0, Robinson says, in his opinion, he thinks that technology works best when it improves the quality of life for people.
“If the technology can improve the financial well-being of families for generations to come by democratizing access to education, then that is a significant achievement. I also think that if the technology can help save even just one life, because of its ability to provide first responders with advanced intelligence when responding to an emergency, then that is also significant. Public safety can also aid economic development.”

This year marks Robinson’s 29th year in the telecommunications industry. He started his career with Motorala and Ministry of National Security and Justice while in Jamaica. He migrated to the USA in 1993, living in Chicago between 1993 and 2005. Robinson held a number of enterprise sales, business development and sales leadership roles throughout his career. His work has mainly been focused on leading teams, understanding business challenges, and gaining an intimate knowledge of his customers’ businesses, always with the goal of solving complex business problems with technology solutions. He says he was able to accomplish this while growing revenues, upskilling his sales and engineering teams, and exceeding sales targets. Robinson’s clients have mainly been Fortune 500 and Global 1,000 enterprise corporations with an international footprint, with all of his engagements being at the Senior IT Leadership or C-Level.

“I have been fortunate to have traveled throughout North America, Asia, India, Middle East, Europe and Australia, supporting global technology projects for customers.”
Robinson has an MBA in Marketing and International Business from DePaul University’s Kelstadt Graduate School of Business in Chicago, an Executive Diploma in Telecommunications Management from Thunderbird University in Phoenix, AZ, a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Management from the University of The West Indies Jamaica and various certificates in Solution Selling, Strategic Selling, Challenger Sales and Sales Leadership.
Outside of work, Robinson says he plays soccer competitively, three to four times each week. He enjoys long runs and bike rides and loves a great story, and so riveting books and movies get his attention.

“Like most Caribbean people music is my superpower – all genres. Gardening and cooking are things I enjoy as well. I am passionate about art. I paint and have an online fine art gallery (oils, acrylics, mixed media, encaustic, cold wax, charcoal and resin paintings). These are mostly abstract, but I dabble and experiment a lot. I was a student of the Edna Manley School of the Visual Arts in Jamaica. I enjoy visiting new places and getting lost in massive galleries, enjoying the artwork.”