Friday, January 9 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Session A: DH15: Interactive TV/DTV Middleware Enabling Solutions: from Interactive Guides to Interfaces As consumer offerings via the set-top, from broadband, interactive TV and DTV emerge, the choices in "middleware," that solutions that make the content useful and dynamic for the TV viewer become more vital. Whether it is called DTV, ETV, TVs with Interactive Programming, on-demand TV viewing, or customized or Personalized TV, there are a group of companies who have set the stage for this next TV generation, and we are pleased to have them represented at this session. Eric Miller, Chief Technology Officer, Vidiom James Ackerman, Chief Executive Officer, OpenTV Dalen Harrison, President, CEO and Director, Ensequence Scott Newnam, CEO, Goldpocket Lynne Elander, General Manager, Marketing, Microsoft TV Division, Microsoft Corporation Ed Forman, Senior Vice President, Marketing, ICTV Bill Niemeyer, founder, Centrimedia, Moderator Dalen Harrison, President, CEO and Director, Ensequence: Over the past two years as President and CEO of Ensequence, Dalen Harrison has been responsible for the development of the world's first truly cross-platform, interactive television development environment known as on-Q Studio. The on-Q Solution Suite, of which on-Q Studio is key component, allows content production teams to author enhanced television applications with unprecedented efficiency and distribute them to any digital television platform. Prior to Ensequence, Mr. Harrison completed a 10-year tenure at Intel Corporation where he held a variety of key positions. While Director of Worldwide Market Development for Intel's Home Products Group, Mr. Harrison oversaw Intel's digital television marketing strategy and sales teams. In 1995, as a Director of Business Development, Mr. Harrison started a series of content deals that served as the impetus behind the formation of Intel's Content Group. During this time, Mr. Harrison completed over 50 content and technology deals in support of Intel's Broadcast Products Group. These efforts were key in launching Intel's Intercast® Technology which was the industry's first broadly available interactive television product for the PC supported by 12 national cable and broadcast networks including NBC, CNN, MTV, and QVC. In 1998, Dalen oversaw the formation of the Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF), which brought together 12 key industry players including Microsoft, DIRECTV, The Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros., CNN Interactive, Tribune, and others. Today the ATVEF industry group has over 100 member companies and is a major force in setting specifications for interactive television. While at Intel, Dalen was also a financial controller, engineering manager, product manger, for a variety of Intel products. Mr. Harrison has a master's degree in international management and finance, a BA in math/economics, and a BS in computer science. Lynne Elander is general manager, marketing, for the Microsoft TV Division at Microsoft Corporation. In this capacity, Elander guides Microsoft TV product planning, product management, marketing communications and marketing programs worldwide. As a key member of the Microsoft TV management team, Elander helps drive Microsoft’s initiative to provide network operators, content owners, application developers, hardware manufacturers and other partners with software that enables digital TV services. Elander has 15 years of cable industry experience, most recently serving as the vice president of video product development at Cox Communications. At Cox, Elander was responsible for the strategy and development for new video products, including VOD, PVR, HDTV and interactive TV. Prior to this position, she was the vice president of video product management, overseeing the marketing and product management for all video services. Elander also held several corporate and system-level positions during her career with Cox. As director of product development, she managed the pricing, packaging and promotional strategies behind the successful launch and company-wide rollout of Cox Digital Cable. She also has served as product manager and assistant marketing manager at Cox. A frequent speaker at cable industry events, Elander has received numerous industry leadership awards, including CTAM’s Tami and the NCTA’s Vanguard Award for Young Leadership in 2003. Elander holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University and a master’s of business administration from the University of Virginia. James Ackerman was appointed chief executive officer of Open TV in April 2001. He joined the company in September 2000 as president and chief operating officer with extensive interactive and entertainment experience in new media industries. Ackerman helped solidify Open TV's position as a leader in iTV platforms and media solutions. Prior to joining Open TV, Ackerman served as chief executive of British Interactive Broadcasting where he was responsible for the successful launch of the company's new interactive platform and for building the business in the United Kingdom and abroad, as well as across all broadcast platforms. Prior to BIB, Ackerman was the managing director of Sky Ventures Ltd., where he was responsible for BSkyB's joint venture channels, including Nickelodeon, Paramount, The History Channel, National Geographic Channel, Granada Sky Broadcasting Channels, QVC and Sky News Australia. OpenTV's family of brands includes OpenTV, PlayJam, Spyglass Integration and Wink. OpenTV is a Liberty Media organization. Eric Miller, Vice President, Engineering/CTO, Vidiom: Eric Miller is responsible for creating Vidiom's technology strategies, managing Vidiom's engineering division, and working with MSO's and other strategic partners to define technology strategies. Eric was part of the OCAP specification team which produced the OCAP 1.0 specification and continues to play an architectural role in developing Vidiom’s OCAP software platform, as well as the OCAP-related toolset being developed by Vidiom. Before joining Vidiom Systems, Eric was the Chief Scientist for Set Top Technology at Canal+ US Technologies. In that role, he focused on standardization of set-top interfaces as well as building a U.S. presence for Canal+. Eric spent 13 years at Microware Systems Corporation as an Engineer, Manager, and VP of New Media R&D. Eric was instrumental in developing the CD-RTOS operating system environment for the CD-i industry, and the DAVID operating system environment for the ITV industry. Both were licensed to over 20 set-top box manufacturers and were involved in world wide technology deployments. Eric has played a leadership role in the RTOS, multimedia, and ITV industry for 19 years. His work history includes Canal+ US Technologies, Cyber Forest Software, and Microware Systems Corporation. Scott Newnam, President and CEO, GoldPocket: As President and CEO of GoldPocket Interactive, Scott Newnam drives the company’s strategy and overall vision. He is a recognized expert in building efficient and strategic organizations and the economics and development of nascent industries, specifically iTV. Newnam has a proven track record of identifying and implementing technology trends in emerging industries. Under his direction, GoldPocket has attained 75% market share and produced more than 6,000 hours of iTV programming for shows including CSI, Friends, Greed, and Survivor. Before founding GoldPocket, Newnam was Treasurer at IAC, a billion-dollar, publicly traded company based in Southern California. Prior to serving as Treasurer, he ran the company’s Corporate Finance and Strategic Planning group and was responsible for design and implementation of its information technology strategy. Newnam has also founded and managed a private hedge fund that consistently outperformed the market. Before that he worked in the Corporate Finance Group at Merrill Lynch in New York, covering private equity and technology companies. Newnam is the Chairman of the Board of GoldPocket Interactive and has been on the board of several privately held companies. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CNNfn, MSNBC, and other technology news programs. He regularly speaks at major media and technology events and conferences. Newnam has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Davidson College. Ed Forman, Senior Vice President, Marketing, ICTV: Before moving to ICTV, Ed was president and CEO of RealContax, Inc. Prior to that, he held senior-level marketing and business and product development positions at several Silicon Valley firms, including a three year stint as senior vice president of product development and marketing with Elemental Software, Inc., an interactive production tools company acquired by Macromedia. A graduate of Harvard College, Ed holds an MBA from Stanford University’s School of Business. Bill Niemeyer is the founder of Centrimedia (www.centrimedia.com), an information and analysis resource for the new TV technologies including ITV, ETV, VOD and PVR. Centrimedia's mission is to provide ITV / ETV market participants with high-value information, analysis and insights to assist them in making critical tactical and strategic decisions in this fast-changing market. The emphasis is how business models will evolve and emerge to respond to the new technology and content potentials. It provides this via the Niemeyer Review free weekly email newsletter and other services. Bill was formerly Director of Strategic Development for Spiderdance, a leading provider of infrastructure and technology to broadcast and cable networks for creating, running and managing interactive TV programming. Spiderdance developed and deployed five groundbreaking and award winning ITV series for TV networks during Bill's time there including "Weakest Link" for NBC and "webRIOT" for MTV. Bill has been in the interactive industry since 1991, working in areas including corporate web and multimedia development, CD-ROM games and 3D virtual world technologies. His clients have included Apple, Sears, NTT, IBM, HP, Mondo Media and blaxxun. Bill is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and a member of the ATAS Editorial Committee, which is responsible for oversight of the academy web site and Emmy magazine.