FutureTech Week | Day Two: Will 5G and 6G become the favoured distribution channels for media and entertainment?

About the speaker

Alex Buchan is the Strategic Technologist for Spectrum and Security at Digital TV Group (DTG), the industry collaboration centre for broadcast and digital media. His main responsibilities involve working with industry groups and international collaborations to explore spectrum compatibility and coexistence and developing technical standards for a range of broadcast technologies. He coordinates and manages activities for several DTG working groups and provides technical direction and strategy for the business with regards to future delivery of TV services.

He also runs DTG’s wireless testing facilities and Notified Body services (achieving UKAS accreditation for all the services it offers) and provides certification for products being sold in the EU market.

Alex has worked in the telecommunications and RF industry since leaving university where he joined the Ericsson graduate scheme spending 4 years as a 3G Systems Engineer on a variety of projects throughout the UK and Europe.

He then moved into the public sector and worked for the Metropolitan Police until 2012 managing their communication systems.

About the speaker

Matt has over 25 years’ experience in mobile media and entertainment and Sport. He was voted in the top 50 most influential people in online TV for four years running and he was also awarded the TV Connect People’s Choice award for the ‘Person who made the biggest impact on the connected entertainment industry’.

Within BT Sport he is responsible for developing the broadcaster’s mobile capabilities and long-term mobile strategy recently leading the team that delivered the award-winning worlds 1st remotely produced live sporting over 5G. He is also currently developing the strategy and roadmap for Augmented and Mixed Reality.

As part of the wider BT Group Matt is also developing the technology strategy for the Broadcast, Media & Entertainment over 4/5G. This encompasses an end to end approach incorporating both contribution and distribution of media.

Matt is also a member of UK5G Advisory Board representing Sport and the Creative Industries. UK5Gis the national innovation network dedicated to the promotion of research, collaboration and the commercial application of 5G in the UK.

About the speaker

Alan Carlton is Vice President, InterDigital Wireless Labs Organisation in Europe. Alan is responsible for R&D activities in the areas of 5G and IoT. Alan has led his organisation to over twenty major collaborative project and testbed wins in these areas. He founded and led the UK oneTRANSPORT initiative, one of the largest Smart City projects in the UK to full commercial launch. In 5G, Alan’s research and standardisation interests include radio access network, next generation internet and advanced applications of NFV/SDN and Edge technologies.

Alan has over 25 years wireless industry experience spanning every generation of wireless. Prior to InterDigital, he held senior positions at Nortel, Siemens and several wireless startups both in Europe and United States. Alan is an EEE graduate of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and also holds a MSc. in Communications & Signal Processing from Imperial College, London.

About the speaker

Natalia has worked for the past 8 years in the creative industry for different artists of Sony Music and Universal Music Colombia and brands like Harley Davidson; creating, developing and following up on communication and PR strategies.

Natalia holds a Bachelor in Marketing and communications and MSc Project Management. She is Head of Marketing and Communications at Sceenic, the first company to develop the Watch Together software solution allowing fans to #BeInTheMoment inside their favourite video platforms.

About the speaker

David is able to discuss O2’s position on 5G and the wide-ranging trials that are taking place, giving an insight to the cutting-edge technology opportunity that 5G enables.