The 2011 Streaming Media Dream Team
Nigel Regan, CEO
Randicoot Online Billing Solutions
www.randicoot.com
Previous Job Titles
• Head of EMEA, KIT digital
• Ran $20 million P&L across Europe and the Middle East, market cap was $240 million when I left—considered market leader in revenue in IP video space. Proudest Achievements
• My team and I just built a CDN and video portal in West Africa, enabling the largest IP network provider there to support video.
Next Big Thing
• Providing a self-service workflow for film rightsholders to transcode, set business rules, deliver, and charge for content online—end-to-end from tape to a video player.
Biggest Trend
• Multiplatform delivery and the monetisation thereof. Been talked about for years, but it's really becoming a necessity.
Greatest Challenge
• It’s still piracy. In the U.K., there’s only one retailer left for physical DVDs (HMV), and its fortunes aren’t looking good. If HMV collapses, the entire DVD business in the U.K. will be threatened. Everyone is rapidly moving toward online, but there's not a simple payment mechanism for collecting revenues yet.
Eddie Robins, Technical Director
Previous Job Experience
• Founding member of Groovy Gecko since 1999
Proudest Achievements
• Becoming the preferred webcast provider for Britain’s largest company.
• Building and maintaining long-term, ongoing relationships with the cream of the industry for the last 11 years.
Next Big Thing
• Webcast Plus, the next edition of our award-winning platform.
Greatest Challenge
• Adding value and driving change in the ecosystem by focusing on strategic rather than technical solutions.
Frank Thorup, CEO and Founder
Proudest Achievements
• Being able to take an active role in forming the streaming media business through Xstream A/S, which I founded in 1999.
• Being father to three wonderful kids and married to my wonderful wife!
Next Big Thing
• Helping our clients to establish compelling and attractive content distribution platforms within the Connected TV environment.
Biggest Trend
• As more connected devices enter the stage, there is a rising demand to personalise services in order to combine the value of services on all platforms. Any service should not only be reachable on all platforms but should also be personalised in order to offer full added value for the users.
Greatest Challenge
• Adapting to the distribution and technology roles within each platform and device in order to enable content owners to gain a competitive edge on all platforms and devices.
Michael Westphal, CEO and Co-founder
Proudest Achievements
• First live wireless encoding in 1999 at Frankfurt Stock exchange for the IPO of Intershop.
• Invention of the network-based personal video recorder (netPVR) in 2004. Users control recordings of TV programmes via online EPG over the web on their personal video recorder hosted in the cloud.
Next Big Thing
• miniCASTER—the first true mobile live H.264 pocket-sized encoder with LAN, Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G connectivity.
Biggest Trend
• More and more technology is becoming a commodity. I see a big trend for real-time communication, and what people now do with text on Twitter they will do with video—live.
Greatest Challenge While the customers’ demands are rising, margins are under pressure. Customers expect higher service levels than before. The key is automation of all relevant processes. This leads to higher expenses, and recruiting (in Germany and maybe elsewhere in Europe) is getting tougher. Even the number of viewers are growing, and mobile usage is helping a lot, but its still a long way to reach classic TVs revenues. But once we are there, you will remember what classic TV really was.
Jeroen “JW” Wijering, Chief Digital Architect
Proudest Achievements
• Without a doubt the JW Player. The player continues to be a tremendous success, thanks to easy setup and a clean interface. I’m proud we’ve been able to maintain those characteristics, despite the player’s ever-expanding feature set and platform support.
Next Big Thing
• A hosted version of the JW Player, which will dramatically lower the threshold for publishers to push video live. I think that, over time, more and more publishers will prefer this hosted version to the download. Setup is even easier and upgrades are built-in.
Biggest Trend
• Online video advertising has finally arrived, while the costs of hosting and delivery continue to drop. A growing number of videos can be monetised, especially among mid-size and small sites.
Greatest Challenge
• I think it’s time we crack the code to conquering the living room. Boxee, Hulu, and the like are still niche and techy, and miss the level of linear/preselected programming that makes broadcasting so laid back.
Related Articles
It's time once again to celebrate the people who made our industry great in the past year and continue to drive innovation. Presenting the 12 new inductees to the Streaming Media Dream Team!
04 Jun 2012
Since last year's Streaming Media Dream Team marked our first attempt to honour the leading lights in the world of online video and audio, we cast our net both wide and deep. So it was no surprise, really, that many of the names on the list were, well, no surprise.
01 May 2010
Our picks for the most influential, innovative, and important people in the European online video space.
16 Apr 2009
Companies and Suppliers Mentioned