TV Transformer Showcase – Part One

About the speaker

Yvonne Thomas graduated in Television Technologies and Electronic Media Engineering from University of Applied Science Wiesbaden (HSRM), Germany, in Oct. 2010. She received a prominent award of the ARD/ZDF Academy for her thesis in September 2011 at the IFA in Berlin.

Following these studies, she started beginning of 2011 to work at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in the Technology & Innovation Department as Project Manager. She was responsible for projects and strategic programs on 3D and Future Television technologies, such as UHDTV or LED studio lighting and highly involved in its standardization.

In September 2015 Yvonne joined Arvato Systems’ Broadcast Solution division. As a Product Manager, she was responsible for the journalistic frontend “MediaPortal” of the Video Production Management Suite and included trends like AI and machine learning.

At NAB 2017 Yvonne was presented with the annual Technology Women to Watch Award from TVNews Check.

Since September 2019, Yvonne has been the DTG’s Strategic Technologist overlooking the IPTV and UHDTV workstreams. She is active in various industry bodies (e.g. as former SMPTE  Education Director and current Governor EMEA & Latin America) and works together with DTG members to explore the best viewing experience and strategies to move to an All-IP world.

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

Chris is a passionate and experienced media technology architect and evangelist whose career began when the worlds of IT and video were yet to merge. Over the years he’s played a pivotal role in the early adoption of ABR technologies to drive OTT delivery worldwide through senior roles at organisations such as ITV, Inlet Technologies, Cisco Systems and Ericsson.

With the design, development and production of over 30 large scale enterprise video platforms under his belt, he has worked with some of the biggest brands in the industry to drive multi-platform content distribution on a global scale. Spicy Mango is an expert media technology consulting and software delivery organisation, working with clients such as Vodafone, Discovery, Akamai, Brightcove, Cisco and NBC.

About the speaker

Andy has spent over 20 years working in digital media. He started as a programmer working up to CTO roles, working in TV, and worked with the likes of BBC, ITV, Sky, HBO and more.  Andy started his first digital agency in 2008, focus around TV, and product development, aligning it with creative. Since then the agency has grown and acquired various companies to grow into what is now Nice Group (SW) Ltd. Andy came up with the initial idea of Filmily, and tinkered with it for a year or so, before bringing in Ian Kenny who helped make it a commercial proposition, and kicked it off properly.  Andy now acts as the founder/CTO of Filmily.

About the speaker

Xavier is Fastly’s AVP Sales, UK & Central Europe. He has expertise in building and transforming sales organisations to deliver success, from start-ups to global companies.

About the speaker

Charles Dawes leads Xperi’s international marketing team across APAC, EMEA and Latin America. With over 20 years’ experience in the digital entertainment sector he is responsible for evangelising how Xperi’s brands: DTS, HD Radio, IMAX Enhanced, Invensas and TiVo invent, develop, and deliver technologies to
enable extraordinary experiences, driving increased value for partners, customers and consumers around the globe.

Charles began his career at Cable and Wireless, where he was responsible for electronic programme guide development. Charles also held the position of product management director at UPC/Chellomedia, where he spent a decade overseeing UPC’s digital television product development across their European footprint.

Prior to Xperi, Charles was at Rovi and TiVo where he held positions in product management across Europe and Latin America, Global Account management and International Marketing.

Charles holds a bachelor’s degree in South-East Asian Studies and Languages from the University of Hull.

About the speaker

Catriona Tate is the Business Development Director, Simplestream Ltd, a leading provider of next-Gen TV software services for broadcast, sport and media brands.

She has worked in Broadcast Marketing, Strategy and Tech for over 15 years and loves being at the forefront of TV innovation and changing consumption and viewing habits.

She is proud to have worked with some of the world’s best Media Brands as clients of Simplestream and Red Bee Media.

About the speaker

Rose is the founder and CEO of ScreenHits TV, the streaming video aggregator app that lets consumers place everything they want to watch in one place. Before founding the B2B side of ScreenHits in 2012, Rose was responsible for all music licensing deals, partnerships and bespoke music proposals for Audio Network North America. She joined Audio Network in 2010 from NBCUniversal where she was Director of Studio Partnerships. She held senior roles at the Sundance Institute and The Hollywood Reporter before that.

It is her unyielding drive as an African-American-British woman living in London that has made her a start-up force and example in the global marketplace. Rose has taken her experiences in business development, strategy, marketing and production and crafted a start-up focusing on programming distribution for worldwide content creators as well as a unique platform that allows consumers to integrate all their existing streaming services into one place. It is a game changer and the first of its kind to truly curate the online viewing experience across all different streaming devices.

Rose resides in London with her husband, two daughters and dog. She loves the weather (even though she is from Santa Monica, CA), enjoys her time travelling the English countryside and is a vivacious risk-taker.

About the speaker

Paul is a serial entrepreneur who started Skipworth, his first internet business back in 1998, a legal digital online music streaming service, SayYeah in 2013 that pivoted to Sceenic in 2016. He’s spent over 11 years at AOL and MTV / Viacom heading up digital. Sceenic invented Watch Together in 2013 and Paul never swims with the tide but creates it.