Disruptors Podcast By RBC Thought Leadership John Stackhouse cover art

Disruptors

Disruptors

By: RBC Thought Leadership John Stackhouse
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Disruptors, now in its 10th season, has become your front-row seat to Canada’s innovation story—200+ episodes exploring the people, ideas, and technologies reshaping Canada’s future. Each episode, hosted by John Stackhouse, SVP, Office of the CEO at Royal Bank of Canada—and former Editor-in-Chief of The Globe and Mail—cuts through the hype and focuses on what you need to know. This season, we’re leaning into urgency: the global economy is shifting, geopolitics are noisy, and Canada needs to respond. You’ll hear from founders, investors, scientists, operators, and policy leaders at the forefront. Listen for a clearer understanding of the tech and innovation shaping Canada and the world—and practical insights to help you make sense of what’s coming next.All rights reserved Economics Leadership Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • From MLB to Metallica: The Canadian Company redefining live events
    May 12 2026

    In this episode, John Stackhouse visits Ross on the outskirts of Ottawa to talk with CEO David Ross about how the company grew from a small Canadian manufacturer into a global live-production infrastructure player. They discuss why the economics of live events changed so dramatically, how cheaper and more powerful screens transformed stadiums and concerts into multimedia platforms, and how Ross helps turn live data into visual storytelling through graphics, overlays, motion systems and production control.

    Ross Video is one of Canada’s most consequential technology companies, even if most audiences have never heard of its name. They work across more than 100 countries. Their technology now sits inside countless modern live-event and broadcast experience: On field graphics, robotic camera systems, data-rich stadium presentation, newsroom and broadcast automation and the production systems behind concerts, major sports, studios and major event coverage for clients like MLB, NFL, PGA, NHL, Premier League, Metallica, Taylor Switft, Coldplay the list goes on and on and on.

    The conversation also surfaces a bigger business story. Ross describes its work as brand amplification technology, helping sports teams, venues, concerts and companies use screens, graphics, motion systems and production tools to deepen audience experience and strengthen commercial value. David lays out the company’s operating logic clearly: expand into adjacencies, acquire expertise when needed, keep founders and technical talent engaged, and never fall behind in technology. That approach shows up in Ross’s reinvestment model too: roughly one-third of the company is in R&D.

    This episode is about sports broadcast innovation, stadium technology, robotic cameras, concert production, real-time graphics, data storytelling, and the broader live-entertainment economy.

    Ross sits inside a much larger market shift: a world where live sports, concerts, venue systems, and production technology are becoming more immersive, more data-driven and more economically important.

    For more ideas and insights on Canada’s economy, innovation, and competitiveness, visit

    RBC Thought Leadership

    Primary keywords: Ross Video; David Ross; John Stackhouse; Disruptors podcast; Ottawa technology company; Canadian tech company; live production technology; sports broadcast technology; stadium technology; robotic cameras; spidercam; sports graphics; NFL first down line; MLB All-Star Game; Olympic broadcast technology; concert production technology; newsroom automation; data visualization in sports; live event infrastructure; sports media innovation


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    35 mins
  • Street Smarts: The Waterloo company tackling global gridlock
    Apr 28 2026

    Congestion isn’t just annoying, it's an economic drag. In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse speaks with Kurtis McBride, co-founder of Miovision, about how a Waterloo-built company turned intersection data into a real-time operating layer for cities and how that platform is scaling globally.

    McBride explains how Miovision began with a simple insight from manual traffic counts, then evolved into a digital twin approach that helps cities reduce congestion, improve safety, support transit performance, and shorten emergency response times. He also shares how Miovision is applying AI including a conversational interface that lets traffic teams ask plain-English questions about their network and get actionable recommendations.

    The conversation expands into a founder playbook for selling into cities, navigating cross-border requirements like Build America, Buy America, and building the connected intersection infrastructure that can make vehicle-to-everything (V2X) services and eventually autonomous mobility safer and more affordable.

    For more ideas and insights on Canada’s economy, innovation, and competitiveness, visit RBC Thought Leadership


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    26 mins
  • AI's power, pitfalls, and potential
    Apr 14 2026

    We’re all using AI more, but how many of us actually trust it?

    AI is now used by more than a billion people worldwide, but trust in these systems is far from settled. In this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse speaks with Yoshua Bengio, Turing Award winner, founder of Mila, and Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero, about whether AI is getting safer or more dangerous as it becomes more powerful, more agentic, and more embedded in work, public systems, and everyday life. They explore LawZero’s mission to build non-agentic, trustworthy AI, including Scientist AI, and why Bengio believes the next generation of artificial intelligence should be designed to reason, evaluate, and supervise rather than independently pursue goals. John is also joined by Jaxson Khan, Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, to discuss AI sovereignty, the risks of dependence on foreign cloud and compute infrastructure, and what Canada should be thinking about as it prepares its next national AI strategy. This is a conversation about AI safety, Canadian AI sovereignty, trustworthy AI, and who should shape the systems that are increasingly shaping us. Yoshua Bengio’s work through LawZero offers one of the clearest Canadian answers yet.

    Show notes links
    Episode guests and organizations
    Yoshua Bengio
    LawZero
    Jaxson Khan
    Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

    Referenced reading
    RBC Thought Leadership
    RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn
    Sovereign by Design: Strategic Options for Canadian AI Sovereignty
    Bridging the Imagination Gap: How Canadian companies can become global leaders in AI adoption


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    34 mins
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