Biography

Vincent Grivet, is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique (Paris France) and Paris Tech Telecom. He worked for eighteen years for the international activities of the Orange Group, including a time as Chief Executive Officer of Wanadoo, Orange’s internet services unit in Belgium. In 2006, he was a co-founder of Maxtel, an entrepreneurial Wireless Broadband start-up which obtained significant spectrum rights in a competitive bid. He currently works for the TDF Group, where he is in charge of Broadcast Development and Innovation.

Biography

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

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

Martin Faehnrich graduated in 1985 in telecommunication electronics (‘Nachrichtentechnik’). He started his career in CCTV business, developing video processing real-time systems for professional large-scale CCTV systems.

He joined Panasonic in 1999 and became quickly leader of the TV video signal processing team, working very closely with Japan. In 2002 he was appointed to set-up a section for standardisation at the European TV-development centre in Germany (PLDC).

Since 2008 he is manager standardisation. He and his team are in charge of Panasonic’s AV related standardisation activities in Europe. He is also member of several top-level activities at various industry associations, including HbbTV Steering Group.

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

Dr Louay Bassbouss is a researcher and Senior Project Manager R&D in the Future Applications and Media (FAME) business unit at the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS). He works on future web applications, multimedia technologies and standards, media streaming over 5G, and technologies that enable Metaverse experiences across different devices and platforms.

Louay actively participates in various standardisation groups in W3C, HbbTV and CTA. He is the co-chair of the W3C Second Screen Working and Community Groups and actively contributes to various testing activities in HbbTV and CTA WAVE. Louay is also a lecturer at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) in the field of open distributed systems and advanced web technologies.

Biography

Daniel Silhavy is a scientist and project manager at the business unit Future Applications and Media (FAME) of the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS). He is the lead developer of the dash.js project and the development coordinator for the 5G-MAG Reference Tools.

His main area of expertise includes Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) Streaming focusing on MPEG-DASH, Digital Rights Management (DRM), 5G Media Streaming and video-encoding.

Daniel is actively contributing to standardization work done in DASH-IF and CTA-WAVE. Moreover, Daniel is giving lectures at the Technical University of Berlin and is supervising Bachelor and Master theses. Daniel has published various technical papers covering topics around ABR media delivery, 5G Broadcast, 5G Media Streaming and streaming analytics.

Biography

Passionate about the alchemy of people, products and technology, and always looking out for the next big thing in digital television, Richard has sustained a track record of UK world-firsts in flat-panel, widescreen, and digital TV.

A design engineer by profession and an executive leader with 30 years of board experience, both in large corporations and scale-ups, he is perfectly placed to drive the DTG’s unique collaborative culture, placing it firmly at the centre of UK television.

He is passionate about this sector and creating long-term shareholder and stakeholder value through genuine innovation and collaboration. His breadth and depth of experience in senior roles spans technology, product design, marketing, commercial, strategy and Governance at Sony, Toshiba, Pace, Freesat, NMITE, SafeShark and the DTG.

And, both he and the DTG have been recognised by many international institutions for their work during his tenure – including winning a coveted Emmy and again being named one of the top 50 most influential people in the sector for 2023.

Biography

Ranjeet is a digital television technology professional with a breadth of experience across broadcast and IP distribution networks, TV platforms and device systems. She has led significant DTG projects for Ofcom, Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Roku, Amazon, Google and all major consumer electronics manufacturers on subjects ranging from traditional broadcasting to streaming and targeted advertising. She also facilitates the DTG’s key Working Groups.

As Programme Director at the DTG, Ranjeet manages the infrastructure and technical integrity of development and testing operations, ensuring delivery to specification, deadline, and budget. She has worked on the launch of three major UK platforms – Freesat, Freeview HD and Freeview Play including management of the at800 logo conformance regime to support the roll-out of 4G (LTE) services in the UK.

She ensures that the Test Centre maintains its ISO 17025 accreditation, delivering a conformance regime for TV platforms, supports manufacturers in demonstrating that conformance, and oversees all development and testing activities. She has introduced a number of new products and testing services, including training programs for the UK TV industry and the most recent addition, the DTG DVB-I Test Suite. Ranjeet holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Applications from Devi Ahilya University, India.

Biography

Rainer Biehn has been employed at bmt since 1995 and has been Technical Manager and Deputy Managing Director since 1999, responsible for the coordination and implementation of technical projects and products. After completing his studies in electrical engineering with a focus on communications engineering, he initially worked at the Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) on the simulation of error protection mechanisms for digital radio DAB. In addition to project coordination, he is also regularly involved in the implementation of our products and has carried out the design and construction of the bmt’s DVB playout.

Biography

Iva Dohnálková works as Business Development Manager HbbTV at TV Nova. Iva deals with the development of HbbTV from the point of view of product, marketing and business (sales). In 2022, she won two HbbTV Awards. Iva also has experience in television research and online marketing.

Biography

Rafael Bermúdez Guijo is Product Owner at the R&D team of public Catalonian broadcaster CCMA. He has a degree in telecommunications from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) as well as a master’s degree both in cybersecurity and in open source from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

Rafael has developed his entire professional career at CCMA, starting as an interactive TV application developer. He had the opportunity to be part of the team that developed some of the first applications on the Spanish market, gaining strong experience in constrained devices during that time.

Some years later, Rafael became the tech leader at the connected TV applications development team. With the aim of reducing development costs in a highly fragmented market, the team built a delivery system that allowed it to reach a variety of devices from a single code base.

This achievement provided Rafael with the opportunity to become the tech leader and scrum master of the internet delivery platform team. He spent five years at this department, learning how to improve team performance and the quality of outcomes until 2022, when he transitioned to the role of Product Owner at the R&D team.

Biography

Pedro Valiente Echezarreta is International Business Development Manager at Kineton, responsible for driving the growth of Kineton’s media entertainment business in the EMEA region.

Prior to this, he managed device testing and certification for the Italian conformance regime and has supported TV and set-top box manufacturers in their product development process in order to comply with Italian specifications, including HbbTV.

Pedro was also involved in the migration from MHP to HbbTV in Italy. His education includes an M.A. in engineering and executive course in project management.

Pedro is currently vice president of the “UHD FORUM Italia” board and active member of the HbbTV MEWG and other HbbTV and DVB groups. He has been member of the HbbTV Steering Board for four years.

Biography

Cristiano Benzi is SVP Global – Video Product Development at Eutelsat, one of the world’s leading satellite operators, based in Paris.

An expert in TV production and broadcasting technologies, over his 24 years spent working at Eutelsat, Cristiano has been responsible for a broad spectrum of activities including procurement, operations, marketing and product development, sales and sales support.

Within the industry, Cristiano represents Eutelsat at the DVB Steering Board. He is also Administrator of the French FAVN (Forum Audiovisuel Numérique) and has served as the Chairman of the Italian HD Forum during a 3-year mandate.

Biography

Leticia has been fully involved in the broadcast engineering industry for the past 15 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

Alberto is working at RTI-Mediaset as Deputy Director of Corporate Strategic Marketing. He supports different company business lines in defining, monitoring and reaching their strategic goals and objectives. Alberto specifically focuses on the TV, digital and radio business with the additional general objective of introducing and developing across the different business areas a customer centric and data driven integrated approach for business and marketing activities. He is also part of the Auditel Technical Committee.

Previously, Alberto worked as Head of Product Innovation and Head of Marketing within the Mediaset Premium pay-TV business. In the early years of his career at Mediaset, he worked in the team responsible for the design and implementation of the DTT project from the start to the final deployment and launch of free-to-air national digital terrestrial channels and services.

Biography

Romualdo Federico is Technical Manager, 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.

He manages device certification for the Italian market and he is involved in the new DVB-I certification process. In addition, he has overseen the release of many HbbTV applications in production.

Romualdo is an active member of the DVB industry and contributes to the definition of the latest standards for DVB-I and UHD Book. His main focus is the management of audio and video streams in various formats and the protection of content with DRM with a focus on SL3000.

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

Jason Patton joins us representing Verance headquartered in San Diego, California. He is the
Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Verance and in his role he represents his
company in partnerships with television broadcasters and television manufacturers. He is also a member of the DVB Steering Board. Jason joined Verance in 2017 following business
development leadership roles at Immersion, In Demand and AT&T.

Verance is bringing to life the Application Discovery Over Broadband Phase 2 (ADB2)
watermarking solution to solve the set-top box problem for two-way interactive experiences in
regions across Europe including Germany and France. For both interactive experiences as well
as Targeted Advertising, ADB2 extends the reach of HbbTV services to 100% of televisions.

Biography

Veit Olischläger has been Head of Technology, Media Management and Public Relations at the Bavarian regulatory authority for new media (BLM) since the beginning of 2020. His area of responsibility includes the technical development of radio and TV services in Bavaria as well as research, financial topics and support for local stations.

Communicating broadcasting innovations to the press, experts and consumers was a focus of his previous business activities. In addition, he advised nationally and internationally on issues relating to the introduction and communication of new broadcasting technologies.

From April 2015 to September 2017, Veit Olischläger headed the DVB-T2 HD Germany project office on behalf of ARD, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, Vaunet and ZDF. The key task was the coordination and communicative support of the switch from DVB-T to DVB-T2 in Germany.

Biography

Dan is the Sales Director for MainStreaming and is responsible for strategic business development and management across Europe. With over 16 years of Sales experience in the IT industry, Dan is currently working with some of the biggest telcos and broadcasters across Europe to handle the increasing demand for the best video streaming.

MainStreaming EDGE-CDN was built specifically with video streaming in mind, offering global, private, hybrid CDN solutions and supporting HbbTV apps. They are raising the standards by giving the customers what they want, focusing on QoE, QoS, custom feature development, Opex & Capex models. MainStreaming has a solution to fit every customer’s needs.

Biography

Andrea leads the Advertising Technical Operations, Product Development and Data Science units at Publitalia ’80, Mediaset Group’s sales house.

With a degree in Media Engineering from Politecnico in Turin, Andrea started his professional career in tech consultancy and then moved into advertising, joining the Yahoo Advertising Technology team in Paris. While acting as a Sales Engineer on Yahoo Advertising offering, he gained a strong experience on several markets and in Yahoo Global Projects such as the ad server, analytics platforms and big data.

In 2017 Andrea joined the AdTech Department of Publitalia ’80 developing the technical stack of the first Connected TV advertising offering in Italy. He is in charge of the launch and growth of products and services enabling addressable advertising and targeting solutions on OTT, CTV, Digital Audio and Digital Out of Home.

Biography

Francesco Moretti began to experience the entrepreneurial reality of the family business during his university studies in Management Engineering, participating – alongside his father Michele Moretti – in the growth and expansion of the group.

After a professional experience at Essroc (Italcementi Group) in Pennsylvania, USA, Francesco returned to Italy in 2007 and decided to devote his skills to Fincons Group where he took on various roles over the years, until becoming Deputy CEO in 2013. In this role, he worked alongside the CEO in defining the strategic direction of the company, with a particular focus on aspects related to internationalisation, personally following the group’s international expansion and coordinating business development.

Biography

Peter Neumann is Chief Technology Officer at Addressable TV Initiative GmbH, a technology joint venture founded in November 2022 by German broadcasters RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat.1 (through its subsidiary Seven.One Entertainment Group) with the goal of establishing existing technologies for addressable TV (ATV) that are based on open standards in the European market. To achieve this, the company will develop the tools needed and cooperate with leading TV vendors to verify TV models’ ATV capabilities, so that broadcasters can benefit from a harmonised technical reach when operating ATV services.

Previously, Peter gained expertise in the field of programme 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

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 specialises 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 optimisation, and brand promotion, contributing significantly to the company’s growth and online presence.

Aylen also served as a Spanish language teacher. 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

Sezin Dünya is the Data Office Manager at the Data Solution Department of Doğuş
Technology. She has been crucial in defining data strategies for businesses, producing data products, and directing project teams on data oriented projects in this role. She specialises in translating data strategies into actionable business-oriented data solutions and data products, as well as managing data projects and product roadmaps.

Before this role, she worked as the Data Product Owner & Analyst at ML&AI Team within Doğuş
Technology. She was pivotal in developing analytical models using machine learning methods, defining technological roadmaps for data-driven strategies, and leading process improvement projects. She was also involved in R&D projects and activities, demonstrating her commitment to innovation and advancement in the field of data science.

Biography

Giorgio Greppi has been working at Agcom, the Italian national Communications Regulatory Authority since 2000. Currently he holds the position of Director of the Audiovisual media services directorate.

During his years in Agcom, he has contributed to the drafting of the main national regulations in the field of the intellectual property enforcement and the audiovisual media services; in this same area, he has also carried out extensive research activity as well as benchmarking and comparative analysis aimed at identifying current trends and possible evolutions of the market for the purpose of elaborating adequate regulatory policies.

He has been a lecturer at the Master course of Information Technologies Law And Competition Policy at “LUISS Guido Carli” University in Rome and at the University of Milan. He is author of several articles and publications in the field of audiovisual regulation and copyright.

Biography

Dr Bob Campbell is Director of Engineering at Resillion, the leading digital media and device testing specialist. Bob has been involved with the deployment of hybrid broadcast and broadband platforms in many countries and represents Resillion in several organisations, including HbbTV, ATSC, CTA and other groups.

At Resillion, Bob is responsible for the team that delivers receiver conformance test harness and test suite products Ligada iSuite for HbbTV, CI Plus and for ATSC 3.0 NEXTGEN TV.

Biography

Vince is a tech visionary who thrives on technological advancement. His approach is often guided by a mantra: understand first, then adopt, rethink, and finally initiate innovation. This philosophy has enabled him to conquer digital markets through win-win collaborations.

Together with his co-founder Jukka, Vince realised a decade ago that gaming on smart TVs can bring families and friends together for shared entertainment on the biggest social screen. They saw that the technology had potential far beyond mere streaming. This insight led to the creation of Couchplay, which is now Europe’s largest TV gaming platform.

Couchplay was conceptualised and developed into the fastest-growing instant gaming service, catering to all who desire to enjoy their favorite games on a large scale within moments.

Biography

Thierry Thévoz is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). He joined Nagravision in 2005 and has held various positions related to the integration and certification of the NAGRA CAS/DRM into pay-TV operator and retail devices.

In his current position as Principal Architect at Nagravision, Thierry is driving the roadmap of NAGRA CAS/DRM client including related security frameworks in collaboration with Pay TV operators, OTT service providers, chipset vendors and OEMs.

He has experience working on standardised platforms such as HbbTV, Android TV, RDK, Netflix Hailstorm etc.