64 INDUSTRY INVENTORY 2019 Wrap-Up
ROB BLACK COO, ESL UK
WE HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO CREATE REAL CHANGE FOR EVERYONE AND BUILD AN INCLUSIVE FUTURE WHEREWE ALL BENEFIT
Top achievement of the year? When ESL One Birmingham sold out in record time. Your most humbling moment? Successfully launching the first Weavr beta product to widespread acclaim. Best thing you watched? Seeing Li “VKLiooon” Xiaomeng become the first female world champion in an open field esport event.
OLIE BAUMANN Head of innovation, MediaKind
SCOTT DAVIES CEO, Never.no
Top achievement of the year? Winning the NAB Technology Innovation Award for our joint project with Deutsche Telekom and partners. Being recognised with such a prestigious award was amazing! Your most humbling moment? What’s been incredibly humbling for me personally is seeing the huge development in live streaming quality and immersive experiences over the past year. I’m excited to see the potential of niche sports, especially esports, come to the fore and drive innovation across our industry.
Top achievement of the year? The implementation of our cloud-based graphics rendering, Real-Time Graphics. We were excited when Viacom saw the potential and used it for its world premiere of Madonna’s Medellín video. Your most humblingmoment? My family life is challenged by the dreaded ‘C’ word. It keeps you grounded when you see the people you love going through harsh treatments on a regular basis. It was both a proud and humbling moment that Never.no was involved with Breast Cancer Now’s Wear it Pink campaign. If you could change one thing in the media tech industry, what would it be? The attitude to new tools needs to change – especially for new engagement concepts and strategies. We’re still seeing senior industry peers pushing back on technology that enhances audience engagement, because they don’t understand the technology or are happy with the status quo. the robot story being told from a different perspective and it made me question: will a robot ever have the rights of a human? It was fascinating to see compassion and soul put into robots and I’m already looking forward to Westworld 3 . Your battle cry for 2020? Access will play a key part in enabling new exciting experiences for car users and new revenue opportunities for OEMs and other third parties as we enter a new world of connected experiences on the go. If you could change one thing in the media tech industry, what would it be? The industry is evolving rapidly, and the big issues are the increasing need to protect data, especially personal data, and the dominance of certain tech platforms.
Your battle cry for 2020? Embrace and manage change.
If you could change one thing in the media tech industry, what would it be? The lack of agility.
CHARLOTTE WHEELER Event director, Media Production & Technology Show
Top achievement of the year? Selling out MPTS, increasing our visitors by 35% and securing the assets of BVE. Your most humbling moment? Seeing the happiness and fulfilment of my team after working so hard to deliver our show. They deserve all of the success we can give them. If you could change one thing in the media tech industry, what would it be? Attracting more women to the tech industry. It’s a tough call and one that won’t be changed overnight, but with the work from many organisations such as Rise, things are changing slowly. . I’D LIKE TO SEE MORE COLLABORATION BETWEEN SUPPLIERS IN THEMEDIA TECH BUSINESS
Best thing you watched? Egan Bernal win the Tour de France!
Your battle cry for 2020? Adapt and innovate!
If you could change one thing in the media tech industry, what would it be? I would definitely like to see Multicast ABR enable low latency.
DR NEALE FOSTER CEO, Access Europe
Top achievement of the year? Access’ acquisition of NetRange MMH GmbH and the announcement of its partnership with Viacom. Your most humblingmoment? Visiting Shenzhen in China and seeing the scale of modernisation and social improvements of public transport. It was impressive to see the number of electric vehicles and the positive environmental impact they’re having on the city. Best thing you watched? Even though this was released in 2018, it has to be Westworld 2 . I liked watching
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