The 2011 Streaming Media Dream Team
Ben Kittow, CEO
Previous Job Titles
• Commercial Director, Scarlettec
• CEO, Press Red Ltd.
Proudest Achievements
• My team who calmly deal with the pressures of live events and are great ambassadors for the company.
• Groundbreaking low-latency streams for the gambling and financial sectors.
• Innovative live streams and downloads to BlackBerry devices as well as iOS and Android devices.
Next Big Thing
• Wringing the most out of streaming to smartphones. The actual use of rich media on phones for B2B purposes has just started.
Biggest Trend
• The increasing requirement for content delivery to an ever-expanding range of devices in the home, business, and mobile.
Greatest Challenge
• Getting video created and distributed to all those devices so that the viewer experience is optimised. All too often content is thrown onto devices without thinking of optimising the experience.
Alec Main, Vice President Software Security
Previous Job Titles
• CTO of Cloakware, which was acquired by Irdeto in 2007.
Proudest Achievements
• Sailing around the world in a catamaran with my wife.
• Helping to pioneer an innovative technology we coined “white-box cryptography.”
Next Big Thing
• Transforming broadcast service providers into the winners of OTT video delivery.
Biggest Trend
• Finally there is a requirement for real security due to truly premium content, enough bandwidth to stream it, and services beginning to make money.
Greatest Challenge
• Multidevice support is the dream, but not easy to do securely, cost-effectively, and with a consistent user experience. It is still very early for connected TVs, and the valley of despair lies before any mass adoption.
Eric Matsgård, CEO
Previous Job Experience
• My digital experience comes from other areas, which I find to be an asset. I’ve worked for Accenture’s Media & Entertainment segment, and as sales and marketing VP in the internet gaming software industry for U.S. company GTECH.
Proudest Achievements
• The fact that Qbrick has over the last 2 years acquired two companies, doubled our revenues, and produced profit margins close to 20%.
Next Big Thing
• Our European expansion—Barcelona, central Europe, and more.
Greatest Challenge
• That we cannot help drive enough value for our customers. There are many technology innovations out there, but very few customer-oriented companies. We too often focus on formats, protocols, and technology. In a country such as Spain, where unemployment is at 20% and the economy is in free fall, unless you can show increased revenue or cost savings, you won’t sell a single OVP solution.
Ralph Pélamourgues, Founder and CEO
Previous Job Titles
• Founder and CEO, MEDIAVOX
• Professional musician
Proudest Achievements
• Professionally, having been able to chase all my goals while combining creativity and technology.
• Personally, I am proud to have some friends who are still with me after decades.
Next Big Thing
• I believe we are already working to provide a gold standard online video editing experience to our industry. The next big thing would be to surpass ourselves!
Biggest Trend
• Better video search, increasing relevance for content creation, and of course, OTT and HTML5.
Greatest Challenge
• Monetising online video and related services. We as an industry need to find viable business models, thinking beyond ads.
• Bringing the entire chain (from production to publishing) to the cloud.
Sarah Platt, U.K. Director
Previous Job Titles
• Consultant, web video, Tate Media
• Freelance Producer, Makeni/Twofour Digital
• Project Manager, public-i
• Sales & Marketing Director, Groovy Gecko
Proudest Achievements
• Making Kinura successful whilst keeping my life relatively stress-free, and having great relationships with my clients an co-workers.
• Streaming the artist Ai Weiwei from the Tate Modern.
• Working with Amnesty International to stream live reports via videophones from Kabul.
Next Big Thing
• It’s a secret—and it might be something very analogue!
Biggest Trend
• Lots more interaction and user control over content. It’s a new time of “power to the people,” and we can’t even imagine how apps and devices will change how we live.
Greatest Challenge
• When everyone’s a video producer, it’s harder to find a niche. Quality and expert knowledge are going to be more essential than ever.
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