Andrew Starks

Andrew Starks is a media technology leader whose work connects community media, digital signage, broadcast automation, and open standards for IP-based production. He is currently Director of Product Management at Macnica Americas, where his work focuses on live media workflows and standards-based video-over-IP technology. Earlier in his career, Starks co-founded Tightrope Media Systems with JJ Parker in 1996, helping create web-centric broadcast automation and digital signage tools used by schools, local television stations, governments, and community media organizations.

Tightrope's Cablecast platform became especially important to PEG access and local media operations, helping stations manage scheduling, playback, video servers, streaming, and bulletin board systems through a more modern digital workflow. His career reflects the technical infrastructure side of community media: the systems that helped local channels stay on the air, organize programming, and move from tape-based operations into networked digital distribution.