Title: VP of Video Applications
Company: Audinate
Location: New York City
Overtime: While he loves the museums and live music New York City has to offer, Johnson and his wife are adventurers who have a love of travel. He also is a car-driving enthusiast.
Why You Need to Know Him: Johnson founded Iris, a cloud-native platform for professional camera control. Since Audinate acquired the company, he now leads the Iris business unit and helps shape video product strategy across the Dante platform.
Noah Johnson has had quite a ride up the Pro AV ladder in a short time. From his earliest business venture with LiveControl to Iris and to its eventual acquisition by Audinate, Johnson has been helping to build cloud-native software that is revolutionizing camera control in remote and live production.
From a young age, Johnson was always an entrepreneur. He started companies as soon as he was able, with a little company in high school and then creating a SaaS business in college that aggregated events for campuses.
He transitioned into the Pro AV world with LiveControl, which still operates today. LiveControl installed PTZ cameras into different venues like live music, education, and worship environments; instead of bringing a full crew in each time, a remote operator and Johnson's LiveControl team would handle full camera control, as well as live switching and production.
Which led to Iris. Johnson was just 29 when he started Iris, which he said was enabling a consumer-facing version of camera control that was rebuilt from the ground up. “It’s essentially an operating system for cameras," said Johnson. "Think about getting into a car with CarPlay, it takes over the screen and lets you use apps like Spotify or Apple Maps in a really intuitive way. Iris works the same way for cameras.”
Johnson first met with Audinate at IBC, shortly after his honeymoon began (which he joked did not go over well with his new bride at the time). “At first we were talking about how we might integrate,” Johnson said. “It turned out there were a few areas where our products fit together quite naturally. It wasn’t something I expected, but the partnership evolved organically from there.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Well, perhaps not yet, but with Iris and Audinate as one, the AV world is getting a taste of what the two are capable of doing together. Now, Johnson has transitioned from CEO to VP of video applications. His day-to-day has changed a bit, but he keeps him very busy.
"On one side, I think about products holistically across various different verticals that we're working on at Audinate," Johnson explained. "But my main day-to-day is GM of the Iris business unit. So, I'm thinking about a lot of the same things that I was before: How do we drive OEM growth? How do we drive revenue? How do we improve the product and our strategy? But it's different in that I have access to resources and knowledge and deep insights into the industry that I simply did not have before."
It didn't take long for Johnson to experience what many aspire to call an entire career. That is not lost on him, and he imparts this wisdom to the future of Pro AV.
"Start by solving the first problem," Johnson advised. "It's just about starting. I think that's really important. I also wouldn't be afraid to be different. If you have an idea—that usually stems from some type of problem or insight that you have, and that means more people have it. Pull on that thread, voice your opinion, and follow that, because being different is actually good."
