Streaming Video Technology Alliance Welcomes 2023 Honorees to the SVTA Fellow Program

The Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA), a global technical association developing solutions to address critical technical challenges in delivering a high-quality video experience at scale, will welcome its second cohort of experts to the SVTA Fellow Program at its upcoming inaugural SEGMENTS conference in New Orleans. The SVTA 2023 Industry Fellows include Ali Begen of Comcast, Anthony Rose of SeedLegals, and Jean-Baptiste Kempf of VideoLAN. The 2023 Technical Fellow is Christopher Kulbakas of CBC.

“SVTA’s Fellow Program acknowledges the achievements and groundbreaking innovations of distinguished leaders within the streaming video industry who have contributed significantly to its ongoing advancement and evolution,” said Jason Thibeault, Executive Director at the Streaming Video Technology Alliance. “This year, we are thrilled to welcome new fellows Ali Begen, Anthony Rose, Jean-Baptiste Kempf, and Christopher Kulbakas, whose distinct and noteworthy contributions have positively impacted the streaming video industry or the work of the SVTA.”

SVTA Honors 2023 Fellows at SEGMENTS:2023

The Streaming Video Technology Alliance’s Fellow Program is a lifetime recognition of streaming video leaders who have made significant contributions to the streaming industry and SVTA efforts. Fellow nominees are considered by SVTA’s Fellow Nominations Committee, and those the committee recommends are then passed to the board for further review. Starting this year, Fellows will be honored on stage at the SEGMENTS:2023 conference.

Industry Fellows are named on the basis of their contributions to the streaming video industry, including career milestones such as developing critical technology, pioneering change in traditional broadcast, contributing to the industry's knowledge, and more. This year’s Industry Fellows join 2021 honoree Roger Pantos of Apple.

Technical Fellows are current or former active members of the Streaming Video Technology Alliance who have made continued and significant contributions to working group projects and furthering SVTA’s primary mission and objectives. This year’s Technical Fellow joins Sanjay Mishra of Verizon and Brian Stevenson, Founder of OpenVU and Streaming Video Technology Alliance Subject Matter Expert.

Ali Begen is a technical consultant in Comcast's Advanced Technology and Standards Group and a former research and development engineer at Cisco. He holds over 30 U.S. patents and was named one of the world’s most influential scientists in networking and telecommunications in 2020 and 2021. To date, he has made significant contributions in MPEG, DASH Industry Forum, IETF and CTA WAVE, developing standards, guidelines, and RFCs. At the same time, he is a tenured professor at Özyeğin University in Turkey, teaching multimedia and networking courses, advising grad students, and training new engineers for the streaming industry.

Anthony Rose was the co-founder of the BBC iPlayer. He has a long career in the broadcast and streaming space, evidenced by 14 technical patents across a broad range of broadcast television and streaming technologies. The BBC iPlayer has long been touted as a watershed moment for the broadcaster turned digital streaming operator. Rose was instrumental in building the player, which redefined the BBC. The iPlayer continues to be a powerful example in the streaming industry. To read more about Rose:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Rose_(entrepreneur)

Jean-Baptiste Kempf has contributed a significant amount of his professional career to open-source software within the streaming media industry. He is one of the original developers of FFmpeg (the open-source encoding/transcoding software that is used extensively by professionals in the industry) and continues to provide his expertise and guidance to FFmpeg as a member of the community committee. Kempf is also a significant contributor to VLC, the open-source streaming media player that is part of the non-profit VideoLAN organization (which he founded). As part of his work there, he was awarded the Chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite, a very prestigious honor from the French president, in November 2018.

Christopher Kulbakas is Project Lead, Senior Systems Designer, Technology and Infrastructure (T&I) at CBC/Radio-Canada and has dedicated his career to defining and building streaming workflows & analytics.

To learn more about the SVTA Fellow Program, visit https://fellows.svta.org/.

SEGMENTS:2023 Conference

The Streaming Video Technology Alliance will hold its first SEGMENTS:2023 event on May 16, 2023, from 8am to 6:30pm ET in New Orleans. This one-day public conference provides a walk-through of the streaming video workflow, starting with content ingestion/preparation and concluding with analytics.

At SEGMENTS:2023 attendees will learn about current SVTA working group projects via 10-minute “lightning talks,” which will offer a unique opportunity to hone their industry knowledge. In addition, the event offers built-in networking sessions, providing attendees a chance to connect with other individuals driving innovations across the streaming video landscape. To register for the event: https://segments2023.svta.org/

Upcoming SVTA Member Meeting: May 17-18, 2023

The SVTA’s Q2 Member Meeting will be held in New Orleans the two days following SEGMENTS, May 17-18. For more information: https://www.svta.org/meeting/q2-2023-new-orleans-la-may-17-and-18/

Members of the SVTA include companies from across the streaming video ecosystem such as network operators, technology providers, service providers, and content owners. Current members are: Adobe, AERQ, Agile Content, allt, Amazon, America's Boating Channel, ARK Multicasting, ATEME, Bitmovin, Blockcast, Brightcove, Broadpeak, Cadami, CBC, CDN77, Charter Communications, Cisco Systems, Comcast, CommScope, Compira Labs, Conviva, Datazoom, Deutsche Telekom, DidjaTV, Disney Streaming, Dolby, Edgio, Eluvio, Ericsson, Fastly, Friend MTS, Globo, Google, Harmonic, Hughes Satellite Systems, IdeaNova Technologies, Infuse Video, INKA Entworks, Intelsat, InterDigital, Interra Systems, Irdeto, ITV, Liberty Global, Lumen Technologies, Mainstreaming, Microsoft, Mux, Nagra, NCTA, Netskrt, Nice People at Work, NTT East, Optus, Orange, Panasonic Avionics, Paramount, picoNETS, Qualabs, Qwilt, Siden, SiriusXM Radio, Sky, SSIMWAVE, ST Engineering iDirect, Stackpath, Streaming Global, Synamedia, swXtch.io, Telefonica, Telestream, Thales, The Football Association Premier League, THEO, Touchstream, Unified Streaming, Varnish Software, Vecima Networks, Velocix, Verizon, Viasat Inc., Vionlabs, WarnerMedia, Western Digital Corp., and Wowza.

The SVTA also sees participation from other brands owned by, or associated with, member companies which include Globecast, Hulu, NBCSports, Peacock, PlutoTV, Prime Video, Twitch, Verizon Media, Viaccess-Orca, and Virgin Media.

For more information on the SVTA, the Technical Groups, or to inquire about becoming a member, visit https://www.svta.org.

About the Streaming Video Technology Alliance

The Streaming Video Technology Alliance is a global technical association addressing critical challenges in streaming video. By educating the industry on the technical nature of the issues, providing a neutral forum for collaboration across the video ecosystem, and publishing documentation that defines technical solutions, the Alliance is helping to improve the streaming video experience at scale. Over 90 companies including network operators, content rights holders, OTT platforms, service providers, and technology vendors – representing some of the biggest names in global streaming – participate in bi-weekly working group activities and quarterly face-to-face meetings. For more information, please visit www.svta.org.

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