Annual Digital Convergence Summit
24th November 2010, The Courthouse Hotel London
"ENABLING THE TV AND INTERNET CONVERGENCE:
OPPORTUNITY OR THREAT?"
Sebastian Moeritz is an internationally recognised figure in the field of digital television, video compression and its various applications. With an extensive network of contacts across the technology, media and telecommunications sectors, he combines business acumen and corporate experience with technical knowledge providing a practical perspective and strategic commercial approach. Sebastian has many years of corporate experience with both large and small companies in various sectors and he is actively involved in facilitating the switchover from analogue to digital television and the deployment of high-definition services in Russia. He previously worked in property and investment, with a specific focus on Russia, after studying social sciences and economics. He speaks English, German and Russian.
Members of Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) share a vision of an interoperable network of personal computers, consumer electronics, mobile devices and service providers in and beyond the home, enabling a seamless environment for sharing and growing new digital media and content services. Founded in 2003, the group established and maintains a platform of interoperability based on open and established industry standards that, when used by manufacturers will support the sharing of media through wired or wireless networks. Currently, more than 7,500 device models are DLNA Certified and more than 200 multi-industry companies from around the world have joined DLNA. Additional information about the Alliance, its participating companies and membership benefits is available at www.dlna.org.
ATVOD is the independent co-regulator for the editorial content of UK video on demand services that fall within the new statutory definition of On Demand Programme Services. Its duties and powers derive from the Communications Act 2003, as amended by the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2009 and the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2010 which came into force on 19 December 2009 and 18 March 2010 respectively. The Act confers functions on the Office of Communications (Ofcom) for the regulation of On Demand Programme Services, and gives Ofcom power to delegate certain functions to an appropriate regulatory authority.The Association for Television on Demand (ATVOD) which has been confirmed by Ofcom to co-regulate, along with it, the VOD sector, says running costs for December 2009 to March 2011 are £426,388, and that the VOD providers themselves should pay fees totalling £375,000 between them to finance the operation for the 2010/11 fiscal year (the rest is public money).
ADB provides a diverse range of products to the worldwide digital television industry. We supply digital set-top boxes across all television transmission platforms including cable, IPTV, satellite and terrestrial. With over 15 million digital set-top boxes sold worldwide, our experience and proven ability to develop and deliver products ahead of the competition have confirmed ADB as one of the most advanced and trustworthy partners of choice for new technology.
The internet has fused with the television in the living room, with a range of next-generation services delivering TV content from the web. The key to unlocking the internet over TV is to strike a balance between the viewing differences between the television and the computer. The PC functions as an immersive, often solo and typically information-based pursuit, whereas TV entertainment is still best enjoyed on a large screen watched from a distance of 10 feet in the company of friends and family. These fundamentals haven't changed. What has changed is that consumers are much more familiar with interactivity across all media.
Traditional television content producers and distributors indicate that some of its deep client base is in peril. The audiences for this content are rapidly moving to the Web. It is reported that too many broadcasters are obsessing about cannibalizing their content instead of using the efficiency and convenience of interactivity to expand their local power base. While increasing numbers of TV stations are going online with real-time and on-demand local news, sports and other live events, they do not have the interactive online advertising in place to fully monetize their content
With voice, video and data technologies starting to blend, it is clear that operators can gain efficiencies by not only merging the physical networks together, but also bringing together previously separate professional resources within a consumer-focused organisational structure to deliver converged services. However, convergence also brings a range of challenges and opportunities for other players within the value chain.
Moderator: Andrew Bradford, VP Client Consulting Media EMEA, NIELSEN
Neale Dennett, Head of Video on Demand, ITV
Andrea Raman, Director of Distribution EMEA, CNBC
Troy, Head of Content Release, BBC
Tom Eslinger, Digital Creative Director, SAATCHI & SAATCHI WORLDWIDE
This part of the Summit will showcase a company that addresses some of the technology and business challenges in the industry, bringing its innovation to the fore and delivering products and services to enhance "so-called" consumer's experience. Part of the showcase will be a video presentation at the in-house cinema, featuring some of their current clients, their future strategies and how they are able to help broadcasters and service providers in finding answers in this digital transformation in the most cost-effective way.
Simon Fell is currently Technology Consultant to Freeview working on the launch of Freeview HD, Connected TV, VOD services, and liaison with CE manufacturers. He also has an active involvement with many other clients as a consultant in the new media and broadcast technology space. Simon is chairman of the Content Working Group for the IBC 2010 Conference. He was until very recently the Director of Future Technologies for ITV. He was with ITV since 1991. Having been involved since before the merger of Carlton and Granada, Simon saw much change and development as Digital Television and the Internet have transformed the media landscape.
Throughout that time he was deeply involved in operations and engineering and in latter years established and ran ITV's Future Technologies unit that helped pilot and rollout new platforms for ITV in mobile, HDTV and online.
In his time as Director of Technology for ITV Consumer he led the technology team behind the rollout of itv.com, ITV player and new mobile initiatives. He championed HDTV leading the successful HDTV trial on DTT in the London area and later ITV-HD on Freesat. He has been involved in the DTG since its inception and has served as a member of the DTG Council and is chairman of the High Definition Forum. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and has until recently represented UK Broadcasters on the EBU Technical Committee. He has had thirty years' experience as an Engineer in the Television Industry; previous jobs include Director of Engineering for Rushes, Chief Engineer of 625 and Electronic Engineering at Channel Four. He has also worked in America with Rank Cintel USA and in Leeds with Yorkshire Television
Bill Scott is one of the founders of easeltv and its Chief Operating and Commercial Officer. The company's vision is to enable brands to build high quality TV experiences using low-cost web components, fast. easeltv will help its clients to exploit broadband connected TVs and in doing so will help to shape the future of television. Bill created and led the IBM Digital Media Consulting & Systems Integration practice, which delivered a variety of interactive TV, IPTV and Digital Media projects over 9 years. Bill personally managed end-to-end business-driven projects that often started with strategy and moved through execution to operation. In this role, Bill conceived the original idea behind Project Canvas for the BBC. Bill left IBM in June 2009 to focus on easeltv.
Bill has 25 years experience of managing IT projects to deliver business value.
Television inherently has been a social experience for decades, dominating water cooler conversations worldwide. But as social networking enters the living room via embedded Twitter and Facebook streams and more, some observers see it changing the live experience, which has largely remained passive. This potentially could shake up the millions of dollars spent on TV advertising, while ushering in new ways to reach both women and men.To date, however, social networking has largely remained a two-foot experience. We engage using our PCs or, increasingly, via mobile devices. This, as a result, means that social networking has largely siphoned time and attention away from other online media, while leaving TV relatively unscathed. That's all about to change.
A race is underway to turn social networking into an engaging 10-foot experience--one that we interact with via TVs. The technology has been in place for years. However, the price of Internet-connected sees social networking immediately adding value to the traditional viewing experience--with women leading the way. It is believed that now is the time to act, with a flood of applications and widgets that connect directly to the Web from TVs. that social TV, more so than the Web. Just as social networking reshaped the online landscape the same may be in store for television--all while making it more social. This is one trend that could unfold rapidly depending on consumer uptake. However, the early signs so far show that 2010 is the year that social networking becomes a more ubiquitous experience that spans across all three screens. Whether it will reshape the TV attention flows the way it did with online media remains to be seen.The convergence of TV, internet and social media is an awesome model; what is delaying adoption is 1) the technology and price and most importantly 2) the consumer.
Moderator: Nigel Walley, Managing director, DECIPHER CONSULTANCY
Michael Comish, CEO, BLINKBOX
Richard Kastelein, CEO, AGORA MEDIA GROUP
Clodagh Murphy, Director, ECLIPSE INTERNET
Christopher Moser, Managing Director, MY SPACE
NOTICE: Technosummits reserves the right to change elements of the programme with respect to time, speakers, subjects and format as it deems necessary.
2nd Annual Digital Convergence Summit 2010
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