COVID-19 | Transforming the TV Industry: Staycations and CE Devices with Futuresouce

About the speaker

Richard is responsible for the DTG’s growth and development. WIth over 20 years of TV industry experience, Richard drives the DTG’s unique collaborative culture.

Richard joined the DTG in 2004 as Director of Public Affairs. He was appointed Director General in 2006 before transferring to Freesat as Commercial Development Director.

Following Freesat’s launch, Richard returned as DTG DG in 2008. In 2012, Richard was named as one of the 50 most influential digital media leaders by Digital TV Europe. Before the DTG, Richard spent 15 years in the TV industry with roles at Sony, Toshiba and Pace.

About the speaker

With twenty years of research and consulting experience, Jack leads Futuresource Consulting’s Home Consumer Electronics team. Throughout his time at Futuresource, Jack has always been closely involved in the tracking and forecasting of the global market for Home A/V products.

He currently drives Futuresource Consulting’s continuous reporting on TV, A/V, and smart home. He keeps a close eye on the impact of the migration from physical to digital content and the growing relationship between A/V and smart home devices.

About the speaker

In the role of Head of Delivery, Ranjeet manages the infrastructure and technical integrity of testing and development operations, including the qualification and training of staff. She ensures that the Test Centre maintains its ISO 17025 accreditation, delivering a conformance regime for various TV platforms including the Freeview UK, Freesat, HbbTV, Freeview NZ and Ghana Digital Thumb platforms. She assures the fitness-for-purpose of all technical activities undertaken and ensures delivery of projects to specification, deadline and budget.

Ranjeet started her career as a Software Engineer in HCL Technologies in 2004, contributing to the development of a platform-independent GUI toolkit, used for creating GUI applications for smart phones, printers, cameras and STBs. Having since moved to the UK, she has worked with Hitachi and Access Devices in iDTV/STB development, managing their UK & Europe conformance certifications.

She moved to DTG Testing in 2009 as Senior Engineer and became Head of Product Testing in April 2010. She has worked on the launch of three major platforms – Freesat, Freeview HD and Freeview Play. Ranjeet implemented and managed the conformance regime for the at800 logo to support the roll-out of 4G (LTE) services in the UK. She introduced a number of new testing services including training programs for the industry which has been helping manufacturers to demonstrate conformance to Freeview Play.

About the speaker

Howard has been in the  electrical industry for over 40 years. Starting out initially with Thorn EMI, Howard moved to Sony UK in 1984 where he was to stay for the next 28 years. During his time at Sony UK he held many different roles, most notably as National Sales Manager Independents and Head of Sales and Property for the Sony Centre channel. The Sony Centre estate at its peak had in excess of 140 outlets . In 2012 Howard moved to Retra as Business Development Executive and became the CEO in 2016. Howard is a past chairman of the industry charity “TRIC” and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by IER magazine in 2018.