NBCU Opens Tech Center & Media Labs

NEW YORK: NBCUniversal has launched a state-of-the-art technology center in New Jersey, which will be the home of the new Media Labs operation.

The 63,000-square-foot Technology Center cost around $17 million. It features a Technology Show Lab fully equipped with the latest mobile, virtualization, big data platforms and industry-leading emerging technologies such as Comcast’s Xfinity platform, which gives employees, start-ups, and industry technology partners an environment to experiment with the latest technologies and business models in the content ecosystem.

“The NBCUniversal Technology Center is the perfect home for our technology team,” commented John Wallace, the president of operations and technical services at NBCUniversal. “It’s been designed to foster real creativity and collaboration, and we think it will quickly become a key center for innovation at NBCUniversal.”

Sanjay Macwan has been appointed to the post of senior VP and chief technology officer for Media Labs. In this role Macwan will lead Media Labs, a newly formed organization within NBCUniversal that will be dedicated to working with academic research groups, start-up companies, and the global venture capital community to accelerate technology innovations and to help develop new business models for the company’s content delivery businesses.

Media Labs will be staffed with top technology professionals from the worlds of application strategy, mobile development, virtualization, video and consumer-experience technologies. Macwan will be based at the NBCUniversal Technology Center, and will report to Andrew Jordan, the senior VP of international operations and technology at NBCUniversal.



“Sanjay brings to this new role an entrepreneurial approach to the business, and a proven track record of successfully spotting and harnessing emerging trends in technology in a wide range of areas,” commented Wallace. “That combination makes him a perfect fit for Media Labs, which will serve as an in-house incubator for new technology concepts relating to our core businesses. I look forward to working closely with him as we partner with the company’s various divisions to both anticipate technology-driven disruptions to the business, and identify technologies that can help drive business growth.”