[embedded content] In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Gary Hunsberger, general manager of U.S. operations at NPAW (Nice People At Work), outlines the company’s approach to end-to-end quality monitoring, actionable data, and monetization support. Hunsberger, who joined NPAW seven weeks before NAB 2025, shares how the company differentiates itself in a crowded analytics market, […]
In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Gary Hunsberger, general manager of U.S. operations at NPAW (Nice People At Work), outlines the company’s approach to end-to-end quality monitoring, actionable data, and monetization support. Hunsberger, who joined NPAW seven weeks before NAB 2025, shares how the company differentiates itself in a crowded analytics market, discusses future AI integration plans, and previews growth initiatives in the U.S. and Canada.
With a presence spanning small houses of worship to global media platforms, NPAW delivers streaming analytics from the network probe level through to the end-user session, all within a single, customizable interface. Hunsberger explains how the platform helps customers retain subscribers, optimize CDN usage, anticipate churn, and make sense of overwhelming amounts of quality-related data—all while laying the groundwork for a greater North American footprint.
Below is a lightly edited version of the conversation.
From Bitmovin to NPAW
Jan Ozer: I’m sitting in the Nice People at Work booth with Gary Hunsberger, who’s going to talk about the products and services offered by NPAW. Thanks for joining me, Gary.
Gary Hunsberger: Nice to be here, Jan.
Jan Ozer: So, give us a few seconds on what you’ve been doing. Where’d you come from?
Gary Hunsberger: About seven weeks ago, I joined NPAW—formerly from Bitmovin—and I’m now the general manager for the U.S. and Canada.
Target customers and differentiation
Jan Ozer: We’re in your booth at NAB. What’s the big message here? Who are the companies you’re trying to reach, and how do you differentiate your products and services for those targets?
Gary Hunsberger: It’s any customer delivering streams to end users who wants to ensure a good customer experience. That could be anyone from small churches to the large organizations we all deal with.
Jan Ozer: Small churches? Is that really a market you serve?
Gary Hunsberger: We have customers that serve that market.
Jan Ozer: It’s a crowded market with several solutions. What’s different about NPAW?
Gary Hunsberger: What we’re doing from a network probe and network monitoring perspective—very early in the content lifecycle all the way out to the individual user session—is monitoring the stream throughout that entire process. Bringing that into a single window, or a single pane if you will, is something we’re doing that’s very unique.
Making data actionable
Jan Ozer:Maintaining quality is pretty complicated. There’s the merger of QoS and QoE. Describe your solution; what happens if I have a problem? How do you solve it before I even know it’s there?
Gary Hunsberger:That’s really where it’s at: making sure the data is there, but also that it’s actionable. Your teams need to get to that data quickly, understand the root cause of what caused an alarm or what’s going on with a CDN, and be able to act quickly.
We allow you to tailor the events that get triggered in a very granular way to suit your organization’s needs—and make that an easy process. We support customers with training and modeling, and in dashboard setup. The dashboards are highly customizable, and it’s important to have a simplified view when you need it. If you’re a network operator who just needs a simple view, customization is key—and we do that.
Live event support and root cause resolution
Jan Ozer:If I’m a live event producer, what am I watching during the show from a quality perspective?
Gary Hunsberger:It starts with your internal network. Then it’s the health of the CDN. When something goes wrong, how do you crack that open and figure out the root cause?
Issues usually show up on the player, and it’s guilty until proven innocent. It’s imperative that you can understand if it’s a DRM license server that’s not working correctly, or if you’ve got CDN caching issues. You must be able to quickly open that up and troubleshoot it.
Customer success stories and expansion strategy
Jan Ozer:What are your big plans for NPAW in the U.S.? I assume you’re here to increase presence, revenue, and profitability.
Gary Hunsberger:It’s an underserved market for us. We’ve got some very big names—lighthouse customers—but overall, it’s pretty underserved. I’m looking forward to perhaps putting out a U.S. office in New York, being closer to our customers, supporting them better, understanding their unique needs in this market, and growing the business that way.
Filtering the noise
Jan Ozer:One of the biggest problems in this business is that there’s almost too much information. You get so much data that you don’t know what to do with it. What’s NPAW’s solution?
Gary Hunsberger:That definitely happens. You can set a large number of filters and get a lot of errors. What we’re doing is putting an AI intelligence agent across the entire workflow—that’s going to help customers more quickly understand what’s causing those errors. We call itSentinel.
Sentinel will make recommendations and allow customers, through a process of elimination and more training, to get to the root causes more quickly.
Jan Ozer:Who does the training?
Gary Hunsberger:We take care of that. We’re very strong in professional services—handholding customers, helping them set up dashboards. This is something that’s very new to a lot of customers, so we’ll be heavily involved in assisting them.
AI now and later
Jan Ozer:Where else are you seeing AI touch your products in the next 12 to 24 months?
Gary Hunsberger:This is a lot of work. I think we’re just going to get really good at this for now—and then we’ll see where it goes.
Helping customers monetise
Jan Ozer:We’ve been hearing “monetization” over and over. How does your product help customers monetise?
Gary Hunsberger:It’s about retention. Churn is an ongoing challenge for many of our customers. That gets to the heart of making sure the end user is having a good experience with their subscription or with the stream they’re watching.
We’re enabling customers to use the data we’re gathering to ensure that quality of experience is a good one. When it’s not, we help customers understand why and allow them to be more proactive.
For example, I had a meeting here with our friends over atCleeng. They’re involved in subscription management. They can tell you how many customers churned last month—but they can’t tell you why.
When you couple a solution like Cleeng with what we gather, we can tell customers, “Everyone who churned last month was on Android.” That gives you actionable data. Let’s go take a look at our Android implementation and find out why that might be. Then we can be more proactive.
Jan Ozer:I want to prevent churn. How do you help me do that?
Gary Hunsberger:As you’re monitoring and tracking these issues, you can anticipate future problems. If you know you’ve had an issue with a DRM license server, that allows you to get ahead of it.
Maybe you reach out to those remaining Android customers, give them a free month, or just let them know you’re working on it. That proactive outreach can help keep them from churning.
Optimising multi-CDN delivery
Jan Ozer:What aboutmulti-CDN? It’s something we hear about a lot. How are you helping customers implement that?
Gary Hunsberger:That’s really important. It speaks to cost. We all know there’s significant cost in distributing content.
Sometimes customerschoose a CDN based on performancebut don’t understand that there might be a more cost-effective CDN they could be using at any given time. Being able to monitor the performance of those CDNs—and switch actively, even mid-stream—is going to be a huge benefit.
Adoption rates and competitive differentiation
Jan Ozer:Looking at publishers in particular, how many of them currently have a QoS solution in place? Is it 100%? 50%?
Gary Hunsberger:What I’m seeing is that it’s about 100% in all cases. But when they take a look at the portfolio we’ve got and the holistic view we can give them, the lights go on.
Jan Ozer:What are the table-stakes features that differentiate you from other providers?
Gary Hunsberger:It’s that holistic view. There are a lot of siloed implementations out there. It’s important to be able to share and view data across the entire workflow.
If you’ve got data in one silo and data in another, you can’t share that. Organizations need to be able to share information amongst themselves.
Zype, an all-in-one video management and distribution platform, and NPAW, a leading provider of AI-driven video analytics solutions, have partnered to offer streaming businesses an all-in-one solution for optimizing content delivery, increasing user engagement, measuring quality of experience (QoE) and ultimately, driving revenue and customer satisfaction.
Naperville North girls water polo captures ninth sectional title after beating Naperville Central
What seems to be a yearly occurrence, Naperville North competes in the IHSA Girls Water Polo Sectional Final, as they take on Naperville Central. North is in search of the program’s ninth sectional plaque, and seventh in a row. Today marks the final home game for Hall of Fame Head Coach Andy McWhirter, who looks […]
What seems to be a yearly occurrence, Naperville North competes in the IHSA Girls Water Polo Sectional Final, as they take on Naperville Central. North is in search of the program’s ninth sectional plaque, and seventh in a row. Today marks the final home game for Hall of Fame Head Coach Andy McWhirter, who looks to go out with a bang against a Naperville Central squad that’s looking for its first sectional title since 2017. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Huskies get right to work and open with a commanding lead
Huskies waste no time! Ria Vaid lobs a pass over to Ava Podkasik and fires in the first goal of the game.
One goal is nice, but two are even better. Natalie Brown chases the loose ball, dribbles, and wins the one-on-one battle.
Later on, Brown dry passes to Payton Schrier, and she skips it in. North leads 5-0.
The Redhawks need an answer, but Rugi Stackevicius jumps out of the net for a save and swims the rock out of harm’s way.
The Huskies get back to the scoring. Podkasik sidearms a shot into the right corner as North continues to open the floodgates.
Into the second quarter, and Cate Czochara finds Ria Vaid as she throws a laser right into your living room.
Naperville North adds another IHSA girls water polo sectional title to the trophy case
It’s all blue and orange since the first whistle, with Molly Depies tallying up the goals. Caire Plackett scores the lone goal for the Redhawks, but it’s Naperville North that emerges victorious, 12-1, culminating in the program’s ninth sectional title.
New Naperville North AD Jon Periero jumps in the water to celebrate with the team as the Huskies move on to the state series! They’ll face Fremd in the IHSA Girls Water Polo State Quarterfinals at 5:45 p.m. at Stevenson High School on Thursday, May 22.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page.
Josh Heupel Ties Deion Sanders, Lane Kiffin in ESPN's Top College Coaches Poll
Tennessee HC Josh Heupel. Photo via Tennessee Athletics. It’s the middle of the college football dead season right now, but that isn’t stopping people from figuring out ways to talk about the sport. Whether it’s conference power rankings, depth chart projections, or recruiting lines, there’s still plenty of opinions to give and react to for […]
Tennessee HC Josh Heupel. Photo via Tennessee Athletics.
It’s the middle of the college football dead season right now, but that isn’t stopping people from figuring out ways to talk about the sport.
Whether it’s conference power rankings, depth chart projections, or recruiting lines, there’s still plenty of opinions to give and react to for college football fans and analysts.
On Friday, ESPN released its list of the Top 10 coaches across the college football landscape. These rankings were compiled from several ESPN reporters making individual lists, with the coaches receiving points for where they are ranked in each list. For example, the No. 1 coach would get 10 points while the No. 10 coach would receive one point.
Entering his fifth season on Rocky Top, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel did not make the list from voters. Georgia’s Kirby Smart led the way with 119 points, followed by Ohio State’s Ryan Day with 97 and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney with 87.
The points go way down as you go down the list. Iowa State’s Matt Campbell is ranked at No. 10 and only has 15 points.
Josh Heupel was one of the 13 coaches who received at least one point, though. Heupel received three points, which is the same as Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin, Colorado’s Deion Sanders, and SMU’s Rhett Lashlee. Only Kansas State’s Chris Klieman and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz have lower spots with one point each.
Heupel does have wins over four of the coaches on the list while at Tennessee, including Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, LSU’s Brian Kelly, and Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.
In four years in Knoxville, Heupel has achieved a 37-15 record in 52 games with wins in the Orange Bowl and Citrus Bowl, a loss in the Music City Bowl in his debut year, and a loss to Ohio State in the College Football Playoffs this past season. He enters his fifth season with a solid roster but major quarterback questions after the Vols’ dramatic divorce with Nico Iamaleava in the spring.
Heupel, a former National Championship-winning quarterback at Oklahoma, will oversee a quarterback battle between incoming transfer Joey Aguilar, rising redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger, and true freshman George MacIntyre. Aguilar feels like the early favorite because of his prior experience, but we’ll have to wait and see how things unfold during training camp this spring.
The winds of change are clearly blowing through the New York Mets organization, particularly when it comes to pitching development. Since the arrival of David Stearns, the Mets have seemingly unlocked a new level of pitching transformation at the major league level. This newfound prowess isn’t confined to Queens, however. Across the various minor league […]
The winds of change are clearly blowing through the New York Mets organization, particularly when it comes to pitching development. Since the arrival of David Stearns, the Mets have seemingly unlocked a new level of pitching transformation at the major league level. This newfound prowess isn’t confined to Queens, however. Across the various minor league circuits and Mets affiliates, a palpable improvement in pitching staffs, especially their ability to generate swings and misses, has become increasingly evident this season.
According to Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Mets currently rank second in Major League Baseball in the sheer number of minor league pitchers boasting a strikeout rate of 30% or higher. This impressive statistic underscores that the Mets’ pitching infrastructure is evolving into a significant advantage not only at the MLB level but is also beginning to bear fruit within the farm system – a crucial area where the Mets have yearned for consistent success for quite some time.
Strikeout surge throughout Mets system
The Mets are now showcasing a wealth of promising pitching talent across all levels of their minor league affiliates. While the organization might not possess the same echelon of top-tier prospect pedigree it did in the previous decade, the potential within their bullpen ranks is undeniable. Many of the pitchers highlighted by Sammon in his recent post on X are demonstrating an exceptional ability to rack up strikeouts.
A compelling case in point is Raimon Gomez, whose electric velocity has garnered attention. He currently sports an impressive 36.4% strikeout rate while simultaneously inducing near-elite levels of weak contact, allowing a mere 12% hard-hit ball rate. Similarly, Jack Wenninger, a Double-A Mets pitcher, appears to be on a trajectory to contribute at the major league level sooner rather than later. His stellar strikeout-to-walk ratio highlights not only his ability to miss bats but also his commendable command.
Perhaps the most captivating pitching prospect within the Mets’ system since last season is Jonah Tong. This young left-hander, currently dominating hitters at the Double-A level, has put up staggering numbers.
According to Fangraphs, Tong boasts an absurd 44.7% strikeout rate, holding opposing hitters to a paltry .162 batting average, all while maintaining an ERA around 2.50 supported by an equally impressive Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP). Tong is joined on this list of high-strikeout arms by Blade Tidwell, who has already experienced his MLB debut, albeit in a less-than-efficient outing. However, Tidwell has consistently demonstrated a strong ability to limit damage during his time in the minor leagues.
The data clearly indicates a system-wide boost in pitching prowess. Among all eligible pitchers within their organization, the Mets boast at least 43 hurlers who are striking out batters at a rate of at least one per inning. This figure surpasses even the Boston Red Sox, the team cited by Sammon as leading the league in the percentage of minor league pitchers with a 30% or higher strikeout rate.
The burgeoning strikeout numbers throughout the Mets’ minor league system offer a compelling glimpse into a brighter future for the organization’s pitching depth. This wave of arms, capable of consistently missing bats, signals a significant step forward in the Mets’ long-term strategy and provides a much-needed foundation of talent that could pay dividends in the years to come.
Sammi Thiele Joining Emory For 5th Year After Undergraduate Career With Austin College
Sammi Thiele will join Emory for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year to use her COVID-19 fifth year of eligibility. Thiele spent her undergraduate career at Austin College and spent the last year finishing her masters degree at Austin College while teaching at the local high school as the head swim coach. In addition to swimming […]
Sammi Thiele will join Emory for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year to use her COVID-19 fifth year of eligibility. Thiele spent her undergraduate career at Austin College and spent the last year finishing her masters degree at Austin College while teaching at the local high school as the head swim coach. In addition to swimming at Austin College, she also played water polo for four years.
“So incredibly excited to announce my commitment to swim at 5th year at Emory University while pursuing a master’s in business management”
As a junior, Thiele qualified for the 2023 NCAA Championships finishing 23rd in the 100 backstroke in a 56.73. That was just off her lifetime best at the time of a 56.23 that she swam at the 2023 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships.
She made huge strides as a senior, dropping about a second and a half in the 100 backstroke to finish 3rd at 2024 NCAAs touching in a 54.73. She also was 7th in the 200 back in a 2:02.55 but swam a 1:59.67 in prelims. She finished 4th in the 200 IM in a lifetime best of a 2:01.86.
Thiele’s SCY best times are:
100 back: 54.73
200 back: 1:59.67
200 IM: 2:01.86
The Emory women finished 6th at the 2024 NCAA Championships, the last meet Thiele swam at, and moved up to 5th this past season with 337 points. Denison was 4th with 370.5 points.
Thiele’s time from 2024 NCAAs in the 100 back would have finished 4th this year. Emory notably did not have any ‘A’ finalists in the event but had two ‘B’ finalists. Her 200 back best time would have been 7th at 2025 NCAAs, adding points to another event the team had no ‘A’ finalists in. Emory also had zero ‘A’ finalists in the 200 IM, an event she would have been 5th in.
Bissoondial, Men’s 4×100 Meter Relay Nab Spots in NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
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Indianapolis, IN — WPI graduate student Avinash Bissoondial (Millbury, MA) and the Engineers 4x100m relay squad of Sam Manteria (Wilbraham, MA), Ethan Schnyer (Nashua, NH), Alex Cole (Weymouth, MA), and Tristan Andrew (Newtown, CT) have earned spots in next weekend’s NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The three-day […]
Indianapolis, IN — WPI graduate student Avinash Bissoondial (Millbury, MA) and the Engineers 4x100m relay squad of Sam Manteria (Wilbraham, MA), Ethan Schnyer (Nashua, NH), Alex Cole (Weymouth, MA), and Tristan Andrew (Newtown, CT) have earned spots in next weekend’s NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The three-day event will begin on Thursday, May 22 at the SPIRE Institute’s Outdoor Track and Field and hosted by the North Coast Athletic Conference.
The 4×100 meter relay will make its debut Thursday at 5:15pm in the preliminaries. The foursome secured a spot in field on the final day of competition on Thursday, May 15th by smashing their own school record in a time of 40.66 at the UMass Amherst Final Qualifier. The Crimson and Gray shared the 12th best time nationwide with Roanoke and WPI was the only New England in either of the two men’s relay event’s 16-team fields. If the Engineers are qualify for the finals, they would race again on Saturday, May 24th at 1:05pm.
Bissoondial will be making his first appearance at an NCAA Track and Field Championships but is no stranger to NCAA competition as the graduate student appeared in three Cross Country championships, including this past fall, and was an alternate for a fourth championship. Bissoondial will race in the 5,000 meters and secured his spot in Ohio by winning last weekend’s Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza (FIRE) Meet at Williams. The graduate student shattered his own school record by 25 seconds by registering a time of 14:09.22, the 13th quickest in the 22-person field. The 5,000 meter is the penultimate track event on Saturday and slated for a 5pm start.
About 45 minutes prior to the start of the May 17 game between the Iowa Cubs and St. Paul Saints, pitcher Kenta Maeda walked to the outfield, shuffling past some fans who had been on the field for a pre-game catch.The moment offered a quick reminder that Maeda, who was getting ready to warm up […]
About 45 minutes prior to the start of the May 17 game between the Iowa Cubs and St. Paul Saints, pitcher Kenta Maeda walked to the outfield, shuffling past some fans who had been on the field for a pre-game catch.The moment offered a quick reminder that Maeda, who was getting ready to warm up for his start with Iowa, was once again back in the minor leagues and once again trying to prove he could pitch in the majors.The former star showed there’s still some convincing to do after he was roughed up in his organizational debut, surrendering four runs in just two innings of work for the Iowa Cubs at Principal Park.“We haven’t really done much since it’s only been a couple of days since joining the team,” Maeda said through a translator following the game. “So today’s outing wasn’t the best, obviously. But starting tomorrow is when we’ll dig deep into what the problem is and how I can fix myself and establish myself as a pitcher.”Maeda, who was released by the Detroit Tigers on May 7, stayed in shape ever since by throwing daily and getting in bullpen sessions at a university in town. While he was going through the wavier process, Maeda said his agent heard from several teams that were interested in him.
One of them was the Chicago Cubs. Maeda was intrigued by the club and figured they could help him following some recent struggles that included him tallying a 7.88 ERA in seven games out of the bullpen with the Tigers this season. So Maeda signed a minor league deal with the Cubs on May 16.
“I think this is a great organization for them to fix my problems and get me back on track. And I really want to be at the big-league level again,” Maeda said. “So I feel like this is a good spot and a good organization to be.”Maeda didn’t waste any time. One day after signing with the club, Maeda was tossed into Iowa’s starting rotation and made his debut with the Triple-A club. It didn’t last long, though.
Maeda lasted just two innings, giving up four runs (all earned) on four hits and two walks and one hit by pitch. St. Paul, the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, sent nine hitters to the plate in the first off Maeda.
Maeda gave up an RBI double to Jose Miranda and then a sacrifice fly to Jeferson Morales to put the Saints ahead 2-0. St. Paul’s Jair Camargo then ripped a two-run double off Maeda to give the Saints a 4-0 lead.
The second inning went much better for Maeda who worked around a two-out double without allowing a run. Maeda threw 56 total pitches including 31 for strikes. He topped out at 89.9 mph.
There was likely some rust to shake off for Maeda who hadn’t pitched in an official game since April 29 with the Tigers. Still, there are hopes that the right-hander, once one of the best pitchers in baseball, could help the Cubs.
“I think it shows that the Cubs have belief in me to get myself back on track and that goes with coaching and just looking over analysis and all of that,” he said. “So I’ll do my best on my part to respond to their expectations.”
The 37-year-old has pitched parts of nine seasons in the big leagues with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins and most recently, the Tigers.
He’s won 68 games over the course of his career, even finishing second in the Cy Young Award voting in 2020. Now, he’s back in the minors trying to show he’s still got plenty left to offer.
“I think it’s a very fun environment,” Maeda said. “It keeps everything fun with the fan engagement as well as at the same time, this is a highly competitive environment and it’ll get me going with talking with the coaches and talking with the data analysts. I’ll just do everything I can to get back on track.”
Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468
About 45 minutes prior to the start of the May 17 game between the Iowa Cubs and St. Paul Saints, pitcher Kenta Maeda walked to the outfield, shuffling past some fans who had been on the field for a pre-game catch.The moment offered a quick reminder that Maeda, who was getting ready to warm up for his start with Iowa, was once again back in the minor leagues and once again trying to prove he could pitch in the majors.The former star showed there’s still some convincing to do after he was roughed up in his organizational debut, surrendering four runs in just two innings of work for the Iowa Cubs at Principal Park.
“We haven’t really done much since it’s only been a couple of days since joining the team,” Maeda said through a translator following the game. “So today’s outing wasn’t the best, obviously. But starting tomorrow is when we’ll dig deep into what the problem is and how I can fix myself and establish myself as a pitcher.”Maeda, who was released by the Detroit Tigers on May 7, stayed in shape ever since by throwing daily and getting in bullpen sessions at a university in town. While he was going through the wavier process, Maeda said his agent heard from several teams that were interested in him.
