Backblaze Executive to Moderate SMPTE Panel on Future of Live Sports Broadcasting

Laquie T.N. Campbell will lead discussion on evolving workflows and fan experiences at NAB Show 2026

Mar. 27, 2026 at 2:36am

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Backblaze, Inc. announced that Laquie T.N. Campbell, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Media & Entertainment, will moderate a SMPTE panel session at the NAB Show 2026 titled "From Build to Broadcast to Fan Experience in Live Sports Systems." The panel will explore how live sports broadcasting is evolving to support multiple experiences, platforms, and audiences from a shared infrastructure foundation.

Why it matters

As media companies look to deliver more interactive and differentiated sports experiences, the panel will highlight the importance of flexible infrastructure that can scale reliably at broadcast level while enabling experimentation beyond the traditional screen. This represents a significant industry shift as live sports workflows must now balance reliability, extensibility, and richer fan experiences.

The details

The panel, presented as part of the SMPTE Visual Innovation and Brilliant Engineering Conference, will feature speakers Zandra Clarke of SMPTE, Frank LaSpina of Cosm, and ErinRose Widner, a media and technology strategist. Together, they will discuss the architectural decisions, tradeoffs, and operational lessons involved in building live sports systems that preserve signal integrity, synchronization, and metadata while remaining flexible enough to support immersive, venue-scale, and fan-specific experiences.

  • The panel will take place on Saturday, April 18, 2026 from 3:00 to 3:55 p.m. at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The players

Laquie T.N. Campbell

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Media & Entertainment at Backblaze.

Zandra Clarke

Membership Director at SMPTE.

Frank LaSpina

Head of Production Operations at Cosm.

ErinRose Widner

Media & Technology Strategist.

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What they’re saying

“This panel represents an important industry shift: live sports workflows are no longer just about getting a signal from point A to point B. They are becoming flexible systems that must support reliability, extensibility, and richer fan experiences at the same time.”

— Laquie T.N. Campbell, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Media & Entertainment at Backblaze

What’s next

The NAB Show 2026 takes place April 18-22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with the event spotlighting trends including sports innovation, AI, streaming, and cloud-based workflows.

The takeaway

As fan expectations continue to expand across platforms and environments, media companies must prioritize building flexible, scalable live sports infrastructure that can deliver reliable, high-quality experiences while also enabling new levels of interactivity and personalization.