Biography

Vincent Grivet is an independent consultant advising broadcast and technology players in Europe and the USA, focusing on strategic and technology alliances, business development and industrial affairs.

Since 2018, he serves as Chairman of the HbbTV Association (Geneva) a global initiative dedicated to providing open standards for advanced interactive TV services through broadcast and broadband networks to connected TV sets and set-top boxes.

He is a non-executive director at the Board of Netgem (ALNTG.PA), an independent innovator in digital TV, media and gaming services.

Prior to this, he held various international marketing, M&A, business development and general management positions at Orange Group and at TDF Group. During its time at TDF, Vincent has been an active DVB contributor and Board Member and a recognised broadcast innovator, initiating specification work and industrial deployment in important forward-looking topics such as addressable TV advertising and mobile broadcasting.

Vincent graduated from the prestigious Paris Ecole Polytechnique and Paris Tech Telecom engineering schools and is also an IFA certified company director.

Biography

Jon Piesing played a major role facilitating the convergence of the original French and German initiatives which together become HbbTV. He is Vice-Chair of the HbbTV Association and Chair of the Specification Group. He is Chair of the Technical Module of the DVB project and a member of the Steering Board there.

He is a member of the Steering Committee of the CTA Web Application Video Ecosystem (WAVE) project and acting as project manager of their device testing developments. He has been a leading figure in the development of specifications for integration of TV and interactivity for more than twenty years. This has included being the chairman of groups in DVB, the Open IPTV Forum and the UK DTG.

Jon is now Director, Standardisation for TP Vision (who manufacture Philips TVs for Europe and a number of other territories). He has previously held senior positions related to standardisation in several different units of Philips.

Biography

Eoghan O’Sullivan is a communications consultant and facilitator, working with the DVB Project, the European Broadcasting Union, the HbbTV Association and others. For more than 25 years, he has been creating content, producing events and engaging stakeholders across diverse communities, mostly in the media domain.

His professional focus in recent years has been on transforming conferences and events to make them more interactive, encouraging and supporting his clients to adopt highly participatory approaches like the unconference. He facilitated the HbbTV Symposium’s first unconference day in 2023 and repeats that role in 2024, when he will also moderate the conference day. Originally from Ireland (which is the origin of his name, pronounced like “Owen”), he has lived in Switzerland since 2004.

Biography

Paul Gray leads the home devices research, spanning television sets, smart home, consumer electronics, and domestic appliances. His main research area is TV sets, focusing on the European region, broadcast technology, smart TV, and new TV features. Paul is also heavily engaged in researching the development of the Ultra HD ecosystem.

He joined Omdia, formerly IHS Markit, more than 10 years ago. With more than 30 years’ experience in the TV set supply chain working for NXP and Philips in semiconductors and displays, Paul continues to research the TV set business. He has also worked on wearable and media devices and has tracked and forecast the smart TV business from its very beginning. Paul has been cited by, among others, the Financial Times, Korea Times, Korea Daily, Nikkei, and Le Monde. He has also offered expert viewpoints in online, radio, and television programming. Paul holds a degree in electrical engineering and a diploma in industrial studies.

Biography

Jonathan Thompson is Chief Executive of Everyone TV, a joint venture owned and supported by BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 that runs free television in the UK.

Jonathan oversaw the development and launch of the UK’s newest streaming service, Freely, which brings together live and on demand content from the UK’s biggest broadcasters, all in one place, for free. Built into new smart TVs and delivered over WiFi, Freely will play a crucial role in securing the ongoing success of free TV.

Led by Jonathan, the Everyone TV team is also responsible for overseeing the UK’s two other free TV platforms, Freeview and Freesat, which together serve over 15 million homes.

A former Director of Strategy for both Ofcom and Channel 4, Jonathan has extensive experience working in the broadcasting sector and the regulatory environment.

Biography

Chris Poole leads a media streaming and connected TV research team at BBC R&D. He represents the BBC in several HbbTV groups and has been one of the main contributors to the latest HbbTV Operator Application specification.

Biography

Deep Halder leads the development of Everyone TV’s commercial and partnership strategy for the UK’s leading free TV platforms: Freeview, Freesat. and the new streaming service Freely, which launched in 2024.

This includes engagement with consumer electronics and operating systems partners as well as retail and content providers. Partnerships are an important part of Everyone TV’s business model – between Freeview, Freesat and Freely, the organisation works with more than 50 companies across content, devices and retail.

Before joining Everyone TV, Deep held a number of roles at Samsung Electronics, in the UK and South Korea – spanning strategy, business development, commercial, sales and marketing, and general management.

Prior to this, he worked at a life-sciences and materials-sciences company in the Netherlands and at a web start-up in the US.

Biography

Paul Kane is the Director of Technology, Content Supply & Distribution at ITV, where he is responsible for the content supply chains delivering ITV content across broadcast and streaming products.

Paul has led strategic programmes at ITV focused on the transformation of traditional linear TV viewing to new IP-driven platforms. He has been delivering television and mobile products for the last 25 years, including senior technical roles at Sky where he led research into UHD, voice recognition as well as helping to deliver Sky Q, and at UPC where he helped to launch the first version of UPC Digital.

Biography

Alexis has spent her career advancing up the digital television software stack. She started her career working on MPEG-2 encoders, moving on to digital video recorders, and interactive TV. She joined YouView from Cisco in 2013, assisting with the transition from Flash and progressive download video streaming to HTML5 and DASH. She has spent the last two years as Principal Engineer for Media Delivery, which has included working on the Freely project. Her slightly misleading claim to fame is to have a Wi-Fi standard named after her, as she was the vice-chair and technical editor of the IEEE 802.11aa video over Wi-Fi standard. When not working she enjoys nice safe hobbies such as scuba diving, climbing and skiing.

Biography

Motoshi Bito joined Vestel in 2009, and going to finish 15 years in November this year.

He belongs to TV Product Management team as Business Development Manager, managing TV operator business globally.

He structured the process of operator approvals across multiple OS (Operating system) platform projects by establishing the partnership with broadcasters and TV operators.

The current focus is on developing the marketability of Smart TV with new functionalities such as HbbTV OpApp, HbbTV TA, DVB-I and CI+2.0.

Biography

Arne Redl is a Senior Engineer and has been with SES/HD+ for more than 10 years. He has worked on various HbbTV projects and, since 2019, on the specification, launch and development of the HD+ operator application on various platforms.

Biography

Dr William Cooper has worked with many media and technology companies, from start-up operations to major corporations. A respected thought leader, he has also published several industry reports and chaired and presented at numerous international conferences, including IBC, NAB, DVB and SMPTE.

He is editor of the Multiscreen Index and the weekly informitv Connected Vision newsletter, which has thousands of subscribers worldwide. He has written millions of words on the field and helped to deliver many millions of pounds in value to clients. He is also a regular judge of industry awards.

William is also Chief Executive of the Service List Registry, a federated online directory of audiovisual media services, based on open standards.

With over two decades of consultancy engagements in broadcast and broadband convergence, William has a wealth of valuable expertise in the sector, based on practical experience of delivering high-profile services, ground-breaking innovation, and an appreciation of how users engage with media services. He is accomplished in the delivery of complex software systems and projects.

William was previously Head of New Media Operations and Head of Interactive Operations at the BBC. He was operationally responsible for online publishing and interactive television, launching services across multiple channels and platforms.

William has a PhD in Communications from the University of Leeds.

Biography

Ophélie Boucaud joined Dataxis at the Berlin office in 2020 and is now in charge of research and data analysis related to TV, Telecommunications and OTT industries across EMEA markets. She regularly publishes strategic insights and participates in industry discussions on streaming markets, advanced advertising and telecom technologies.

Biography

Nicole Agudo Berbel acts as Managing Director of Joyn and Chief Distribution Officer of Seven.One Entertainment Group. She is responsible for the distribution business, including negotiations and distribution of Joyn and the entire linear free TV and pay TV portfolio of the TV broadcaster with all distribution platforms in the German-speaking market. Nicole Agudo Berbel is also responsible for Distribution partnerships on Joyn as aggregator platform and for the pay TV channels ProSieben FUN, SAT.1 emotions and Kabel Eins CLASSICS.

Previously, the manager held various positions at ProSiebenSat.1, where she built up and expanded the distribution business into a high-revenue and high-margin pillar of the Group and was responsible for the Group’s digital content business as EVP Digital Publishing.

Before joining the ProSiebenSat.1 Group in 2013, she was Director Affiliate Sales and Business Development of Discovery Communications in DACH, responsible amongst others for the platform sales strategy. Until 2007, she was Director Regulatory Affairs and Project Manager New Business at SES/APS Astra Platform Services. After studying law in Cologne, Nicole Agudo Berbel started her professional career at VPRT (as of today Vaunet e.V.) in 1999, where she last was Deputy Managing Director until 2005.

Biography

Peter Neumann is Chief Technology Officer at Addressable TV Initiative GmbH (ATVI), a joint venture, founded in November 2022 by the German broadcasters RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat.1, through its subsidiary Seven.One Entertainment Group. The tech company’s mission is to establish existing technologies for addressable TV (ATV) in general and for dynamic ad substitution (DAS) in particular that are based on open standards, such as HbbTV, in the European market.

Previously, Peter gained expertise in the field of program distribution with a focus on targeted advertising working at CBC Cologne Broadcasting Center GmbH and was also developing automotive software as a Product Owner at Cariad SE.

Peter studied Electrical Engineering and received the Dipl.-Ing. degree as well as the Dr.-Ing. degree from Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany).

Biography

Leticia has been fully involved in the broadcast engineering industry for the past 16 years. She joined the Philips company in 2011, now TP Vision, since then, she has been coordinating and leading R&D engineers teams in the overall testing activities in the certification team, mainly of hybrid TV and OTT apps at European level for the Philips TV brand.

With her role, Leticia has extensive multicultural corporate exposure within global environments such as working with broadcasters like BBC, RTVE, ARD, RTL, certification labs, TV SW provider partners and operators. She leads the validation and testing of significant projects like Freeview Play UK, Freeview AU/NZ, Loves TV for Spain, LaTivu for Italy, ARD test, involved in overall regime certifications and fully involved in Targeted Advertising projects. Due to her expertise in the area she contributes in technical activities of Philips products.

Leticia is an active member of the HbbTV Improving Interoperability Task Force, HbbTV Testing Group, DVB groups and lately DVB-I.

Leticia graduated from the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico with a major in telecommunication and electronics, she also holds a master in artificial intelligence. After her graduation she was assigned to work at Alcatel EU in international Telecom projects where she was software developer of intelligent networks, project lead, and programme manager of Latin America.

Biography

As Co-founder and Managing Director of Nowtilus, Leander Carell oversees Product & Marketing of the company’s Server-Side Ad-Insertion platform SERVERSIDE.AI. With offices in Berlin and Halle/Saale and an international partner network, Leander drives the business development and solution integration with service operators, streaming platforms and broadcasters.

Leander has been an entrepreneur and established player in the media industry for 24 years. With his former movie production company, he was an OSCAR nominee for the Best Foreign Feature “IN DARKNESS” in 2012. He sold Nowtilus to Equativ in 2024 driving SERVERSIDE.AI to the next level of ad-monetisation and personalisation.

Leander holds a degree as media merchant and postgraduate of EAVE for International Film Production and Marketing.

Biography

Philipp is a successful television and media entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the media and entertainment sector. Working extensively in the pay-TV marketplace, he has worked with the key platforms in Europe.

Philipp launched a number of broadcast channels and video-on-demand services. He also successfully participated in two IPOs before launching wedotv in 2018. As CEO & Co-founder of wedotv he played a key role in the service becoming one of the biggest independent free OTT sports and entertainment streaming networks in Europe.

Biography

John Bartlett is the founder and CTO of BCi Digital, a leading consultancy specialising in the design, implementation, and support of broadcast, media and advertising technology solutions. With over 30 years of experience in the media industry, John has been at the forefront of technological innovation, driving forward the adoption of cutting-edge solutions that enhance the delivery of content across multiple platforms.

Under John’s leadership, BCi Digital has become a trusted partner for major broadcasters, operators, and service providers, helping them navigate the complexities of digital transformation.

John is renowned for his expertise in addressable advertising, making him a sought-after speaker at industry conferences and events. His insights into the future of broadcasting, media and advertising technology continue to influence and shape the industry’s direction.

Biography

Olivier Cortambert is Head of Solution Architecture at Yospace, the dynamic ad insertion company. He has helped broadcasters monetise some of the biggest live events across the globe, including a summer of sport which saw Yospace stitch over 12bn one-to-one addressable ads across the duration of Euro 2024 and the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.

Before joining Yospace, Olivier was an Architect on VIZRT’s Streaming and Media Asset Management team, where he worked with the likes of Al Jazeera, BBC Scotland, CNN, Sky, and Turner.

Biography

Aylen Alonso Montero is a highly accomplished professional with a diverse background in the fields of digital marketing, e-commerce, education, and technology administration. Currently serving as the Global Account Director at TVekstra, Aylen specializes in Addressable TV Interactive Ads and Gamification. In her role, she seeks to forge impactful partnerships with broadcasters and operators worldwide. With an understanding of the digital advertising landscape, Aylen is dedicated to helping broadcasters, brands, and media agencies carve their path to success in the dynamic world of Addressable TV advertising.

Before her role at TVekstra, Aylen served as the Digital Marketing and E-commerce Director at Momentum Cuba for the IslaPlus brand. She sharpened her skills in digital marketing strategies, e-commerce optimization, and brand promotion, contributing significantly to the company’s growth and online presence.

Aylen also served as a Spanish Language. Her passion for education and language proficiency allowed her to create engaging learning experiences for her students, fostering a positive and inclusive classroom environment.

Additionally, Aylen has a strong foundation in information and communication technology, having worked as an ICT Administrative Officer at the University of Havana. In this role, she gained valuable insights into technology administration and data management, further enriching her skill set.

With her multifaceted background and expertise, Aylen Alonso Montero continues to make significant contributions to the fields of digital advertising, shaping innovative solutions and empowering businesses.

Biography

Julian Clover is a Media and Technology Journalist based in Cambridge, UK. He is the editor of Broadband TV News, an online business-to-business publication and is a presenter on Cambridge 105 Radio. An accomplished conference moderator, Julian is a regular chairman at Cable Congress, ANGA COM and the Broadband TV News Business Breakfasts. He has also chaired election hustings for the 2017 and 2019 General Elections and the 2019 European Election. On radio, Julian presents Cambridge Breakfast on Cambridge 105 Radio (with Lucy Milazzo) as well as anchoring the station’s coverage of local and national elections, the Cambridge Folk Festival, Remembrance Sunday and Midnight Mass.

Biography

Maria is a strategic innovator with 20+ years’ expertise as a CTO, specialising in video streaming and using Artificial Intelligence to make and save money – ethically.

As a board advisor, Maria has positioned AI media start-ups, including iSIZE – which can save 25% of streaming costs – sold to Sony Interactive Entertainment. She has consulted internationally for over a decade, using her “Six Steps to Success” to innovate streaming solutions and private equity technical due diligence across EMEA, including into emerging or unusual markets.

She previously led Global Solution Engineering and Bids & Proposals for Synamedia, the largest global video solution vendor for service providers and content owners.

As the former CTO for Disney/Sony JV, FilmFlex Movies, Maria delivered some of the most successful on-demand movie services in Europe from launch, including for Virgin Media cable and broadcaster Channel 4. FilmFlex was profitable from year one.

Combining Computer Science and Art, Maria started her career at IBM and Ocean Software, helping invent the beginning of audio, video and games on personal computers.

Maria is also a global public speaker, BAFTA film and TV judge, and is doing an MSc in Artificial Intelligence.

Biography

Marco spent more than 44 years at Mediaset, developing the broadcast industry. In the 90’s, he operated in EU research programmes to gain competences in content distribution over ATM and IP network technologies. In 2003, he co-founded the DGTVi and in 2006 he entered HD Forum Italia where he coordinates the publishing of the UHD Books Collection.

In 2004 Marco has been awarded “Cable and Satellite Europe’s Euro 50”. In 2007 he designed “M-TUBE”: the nationwide hi-speed optical fiber network interconnecting 12 regional branches and football stadiums to Mediaset headquarters.

In the last decade Marco contributed to the design and deployment of many OTT services, based upon the HbbTV 2.0.x standard. He represents Mediaset in the DVB Project Steering Board. In the past three years, he has been active in the technical evaluation and promotion of the DVB-I standard technology for the development of linear services on IP broadband networks and devices.

Biography

Paolo Ferrara joined Fincons in 2006 and has since then gained a long experience in project and programme management and in the design and delivery of solutions for top clients in the global media market.

In his current role Paolo is responsible for Fincons’ offering in the advertising space (both linear and digital) and in the recent years he has also taken responsibility for all the initiatives aimed at developing applications based on open interactive standards for connected TVs (HbbTV in Europe and ATSC 3.0 in the US), helping clients both in Europe and in the US with the first major commercial implementations.

Biography

Ranjeet is a seasoned expert in digital television technology, with extensive experience across broadcast and IP distribution networks, TV platforms, and device ecosystems. As Programme Director for the Digital TV Group (DTG) she has led significant projects for Ofcom, Everyone TV, Sky, Roku, Amazon, Google, and all major consumer electronics manufacturers, addressing topics from traditional broadcasting to streaming and targeted advertising.

Ranjeet oversees all development and testing operations for DTG Testing and facilitates key national DTG working groups dedicated to UK DTT Hybrid platforms and UHD. Her leadership has played a vital role in the successful launch of major UK TV platforms. Additionally, she managed the at800 logo conformance regime for 4G (LTE) services rollout in the UK. Ranjeet and her team continually work to bring new products and services to the UK TV market, including, most recently, Freely testing services and the DTG DVB-I Test Suite.

Biography

Gordon Maynard has many years experience of working with new information technologies including digital broadcasting, multi-screen publishing, app development and streaming. He now combines all that experience by specialising in DVB-I: OnScreen Publishing has developed an end to end platform for DVB-I which has been used in several high profile trials and is now preparing to be used for live services.

Biography

Romualdo Federico is a Technical Manager in Media Entertainment at Kineton, a leading provider of broadcast and media solutions. He has over 7 years of experience in the media division and is responsible for a variety of projects.

As the Head of the Validation Lab for the Media IT & Telco industry, he manages device certification for the Italian market and is involved in the new DVB-I certification process. Additionally, he has overseen the release of numerous HbbTV applications in production, ensuring the quality and compliance of these cutting-edge technologies.

Romualdo is an active participant in the DVB industry, involved in the latest standards for DVB-I and the UHD Book. His main focus is the management of audio and video streams in various formats and the protection of content with DRM, with particular attention to the SL3000.

Biography

Paul Higgs works with Strategy and Industry Development at Huawei Technologies where his focus is on technologies and applications related to media and immersive experiences. Paul has an extensive background working with technologies used in the production and delivery of multimedia over IP networks and his activities now include the development of multimedia technologies, systems, and standards as well as their application in product and service offerings.

Paul has held, and currently holds multiple leadership and contribution roles in standards and industry development activities including service as a board member, former President and technical work lead for the VR Industry Forum, a founder and board member of the Metaverse Standards Forum and chairman of the DVB Technical Module subgroup on IP related service discovery, well known as DVB-I.

Biography

Olivier Tougeron is the Head of Maintenance and Managed Services at Wiztivi. Starting his career as QA Lead, Olivier evolved through roles including Project Manager and testing expert. He has been instrumental in the success of numerous HbbTV projects since 2010, working with clients such as NRJ, Gulli, France Télévision, Fransat, and Eutelsat.

Biography

Jean-Luc Deroudilhe is the General Manager of Fransat SA and SVP Advanced TV Services at Eutelsat. With extensive experience in the satellite TV industry, he has led the growth of Fransat into a major player in the French market, providing free-to-air digital TV services across France. His strategic leadership has been pivotal in expanding Eutelsat’s offerings.

Biography

Robert Seeliger is a seasoned Video and Media Technology professional with over 15 years of experience in international projects, specialising in video solutions, streaming media, and Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). As a Senior Project Manager, he excels in managing complex technical projects and teams, working with broadcasters, operators, and media technology companies.

Robert leads the technical product management and development of Fraunhofer FOKUS’ DAI and SSAI solutions for MPEG DASH and HLS, and oversees the SmartTV and Future Applications and Media Lab. In his role as Video Sustainability Lead, he initiated the Green Streaming project, promoting sustainable video and media technology.

Robert has published over 30 technical papers on topics such as Server-Side Ad Insertion, IPTV, interactive content, Smart and Hybrid-TV services, Energy-aware Encoding, Green Streaming, HbbTV, and streaming ad-technology.

Biography

Nguyen Thi Thanh Van is the Head of DTV Standardization & Innovation at Samsung R&D Poland.

Van has over 17 years of experience in the Digital TV industry, where she has been in charge of both TV software project management and cooperation with regulators and standard bodies on Digital TV standardization.

Van led a team that developed Samsung implementations of HbbTV, ATSC 3.0 Interactive Content, and, recently, HbbTV Targeted Advertising.

In her current role, Van is responsible for new technology projects and post-standardisation activities at HbbTV and ATSC.

Van has been HbbTV Testing Group Chair since 2018. She was awarded twice for the Best Individual Contribution to the HbbTV Association in 2017 and 2021.

Biography

Dr Bob Campbell is Head of Technology, Strategy and Partnerships, Global Conformance and Interoperability, at Resillion. Bob has been involved with the development of Conformance and Interoperability programs for over 12 years including hybrid broadcast and broadband TV platforms in many countries, including TDT Híbrida in Spain, Freeview Play in the UK, tivù in Italy/HbbTV in Europe and NEXTGEN TV in the U.S..

On behalf of Resillion, Bob has held roles at Steering Board level in HbbTV, CTA WAVE and currently chairs HbbTV’s Improving Interoperability Task Force, and ATSC’s Implementation Team on ATSC 3.0 Conformance.