da Vinci Systems has made visual effects supervisor and DI expert Dean Lyon director of marketing. Lyon has more than 20 years of experience in film and commercial production, and will be a key member of the da Vinci management team led by general manager Bill Robertson. Lyon's duties include brand and product management and direction, advertising and marketing and internal and external communications.
"Dean's knowledge encompasses every aspect of the conceptual, production, and post-production processes, and this along with his extensive experience with color grading really makes him a great match for da Vinci," said Robertson.
Lyon spent the last seven years in New Zealand, where he founded several companies, including Studio of the Future and CineGlue, both of which were involved in contributing technological developments to VFX and DI processes. Prior to that, Lyon was head of Oktobor, a New Zealand-based VFX and animation studio. While at Oktobor, Lyon designed and implemented the company's VFX, technology development and image enhancement and color-grading division. He also worked on many ad campaigns and feature films, including THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. In previous roles at Boss Film Studio, Industrial Light & Magic, and Computer Film Co., Lyon helped pioneer the use of computer graphics for film and television.
"da Vinci is the name in color grading, image enhancement and DI work," said Lyon. "Nobody does it better. Ultimately, what our industry does is tell stories that are visually exciting and believable. I am thrilled to be joining a company where creativity and technology intersect, and that's da Vinci."
da Vinci Systems, a JDSU company, is a leading provider of color enhancement and image restoration products used in post-production facilities worldwide. Incorporating the company's Emmy Award-winning technology, da Vinci's products support SDTV, HDTV, data and digital film. The company is headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, France, Germany and Singapore.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
