10:45 AM - Noon
Session B:
Home Entertainment Servers: Set-Top vs. PC-Centric Solutions
The home entertainment server is about one basic idea - to deliver more and varied media-rich content to the consumer - giving consumers what they want, when they want it. But the battle for this consumer sector is about to assert itself as a competition of technologies, once again placing the power of the PC versus a new target, the set-top box. For the PC industry, it is a formidable task. As the next generation DTV/Set-Top grows, it has the substantial advantage of being at the core of the home entertainment experience. On the other hand, the PC server will come into the battle delivering Internet, music, games, movies, plus innovative two-way communications and telephony services that the set-top provider is only beginning to deliver. This battle for the home will be a tremendous winner for both the consumer as well as for the content industry. It presents the simple proposition that offering the consumer more and richer services in a competitive environment is the perfect formula for success.
Keith Laepple, Director, Technical Evangelism, Microsoft Windows eHome
Alex Vasilevsky, Chief Technology Officer, Ucentric Systems
Pallavi Shah, Market Development Manager, Streaming and Video Infrastructure, Sun Microsystems
Andy Wolfe, former, Chief Technology Officer, SonicBlue
Jeremy Toeman, Associate Vice President, Products & Services, Mediabolic
Vallal Jothilingam, co-founder & Director of Product Marketing, Metabyte
Wilson Rothman, Journalist, New York Times, Moderator
Keith Laepple, Director, Technical Evangelism, Windows eHome Division, Microsoft Corporation: Keith Laepple leads a team responsible for technical industry relationships with the Windows eHome Division, a new product group extending the Microsoft® Windows® platform for distributed entertainment, communications and control in the home. Laepple is an experienced spokesman in the field of consumer PCs, devices and home networking. An originator of the Universal Plug and Play initiative, Laepple loves to discuss Microsoft’s consumer vision and commitment to technologies that enrich and simplify home experiences. He brings more than a decade of Microsoft experience to his PC and consumer electronics industry relationships. Before joining the Windows eHome Division, Laepple was a technical evangelist for Windows Platforms, responsible for PC design guidelines and consumer hardware initiatives. Before that, he was a program manager in the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 operating system development teams, with responsibilities including graphics, communications and power management. Laepple holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. He is an experienced speaker at industry events, with recent presentations at the January 2002 CES Digital Hollywood conference, Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, and Embedded Microprocessor Forum. Laepple’s areas of expertise include the following: Consumer PC and device strategies; Home networking technologies; Audio/video device interoperability; Universal Plug and Play; Microsoft .NET Platform; Residential service platforms
Pallavi Shah, Market Segment Manager, Digital Video Infrastructure, Sun, Microsystems: Pallavi Shah is responsible for recruiting and managing strategic partners for Sun in the streaming and rich media infrastructure market. Since joining Sun in 1995, she has been involved in bringing key components of Sun's advanced digital media technology to market. She chaired ISO's MPEG4-Java standards group and formed multi-company alliances to promote Java and protect Sun's strategic interests. Prior to Sun, Ms Shah was with the Sarnoff Corporation (RCA research lab). She represented the HDTV Grand Alliance during the development of HDTV and pioneered the world's first E-Commerce application of interactive HDTV at NAB-95. She has served as a panelist/speaker at several industry conferences, published papers and has several pending patents. She hold M.S. from Utah State University.
Dr. Andy Wolfe is the former chief technical officer at SONICblue. Wolfe has served as a director for several private companies and as an advisory board member for many others in the digital content, wireless networking, media processor, and consumer electronics spaces. An expert on digital rights issues, Wolfe has been oft quoted by Reuters, The Associated Press, ABC News, BBC News, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and numerous other well-known and widely circulated news sources. Wolfe has spoken often on the future of digital media, Internet entertainment services, and emerging consumer technologies including invited presentations at CES, COMDEX, Intel Developers Forum, Microsoft's WINHEC, SIGGRAPH, National Association of Broadcasters, Microprocessor Forum, Harvard, Stanford and elsewhere. Wolfe has also participated in several key industry panels concerning digital rights, most recently including "An Inside Look at Digital Audio Products and Digital Rights Management" panel at CES 2002 and the "Empowered Consumer" panel at the Digital Media Summit 2002. Wolfe was an assistant professor at Princeton University where he taught electrical engineering for six years, before joining SONICblue. Wolfe is currently a consulting professor at Stanford University and has been the recipient of numerous industry awards. Wolfe has received four patents, has been published in over twelve journals, and has presented over 40 conference papers. Wolfe holds a B.S.E.E. from The Johns Hopkins University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Vallal Jothilingam, co-founder, Director Product Management and Marketing, Metabyte Networks: Mr. Jothilingam is one of the co-founders and Director of Product Management and Marketing of Metabyte Networks. In his role he is responsible for Product Management and Marketing of Metabyte's suite of personal television and PVR products and services. Prior to that, he consulted for CatchTV, a venture-backed PC-TV-Internet convergence company in Silicon Valley, that was later acquired by ACTV (NASDAQ: IATV). His consulting engagements have also included assignments for the Miller Freeman group in analyzing strategic trends in the global PC Gaming and Video Gaming industry. His professional background includes over 10 years of key marketing and business development positions in India and the US at several high tech and consumer electronics companies including HCL, one of India's largest information technology companies. During his tenure at HCL, in the mid-90's he successfully launched India's first consumer home PCs and took this product to retail in the Indian market. Mr. Jothilingam holds a BSEE from India and an MBA in Marketing Management and International Business from Santa Clara University, California. He has served on the board of the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Marketing Association during 2000-2001 and his member affiliations include the Software Forum, Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) and the Silicon Valley Association of Software Entrepreneurs (SVASE).
Alex Vasilevsky, Chief Technology Officer, Ucentric: As the Chief Technical Officer at Ucentric Systems, Alex Vasilevsky is responsible for defining the next generation of the Ucentric software platform. Alex brings 18 years of software design and development and technical management experience to Ucentric from leading technology companies such as Data General, Thinking Machines and Avid Technology, where he held Technical Lead and Senior Architect roles. He has numerous awards, patents and product-firsts to his credit, including the world's first digital video camera. Alex has deep knowledge and extensive experience in operating systems, including Linux and NT, in programming languages, including C++ and Java, and in other technologies, including distributed processing, video, streaming server and networking languages. Alex earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University.
Manu Mehta, founder, President and CEO, Metabyte: Mr. Mehta founded Metabyte, Inc. in 1993 as an entertainment and information technology firm. He grew the company's licensing and consulting business into a profitable enterprise.He invested company profits to incubate the development of the MbTV technology. MbTV was spun out as a separate company called Metabyte Networks, Inc. in 1999. Before founding Metabyte, Inc., Mr. Mehta was with Texas Instruments from 1984 to 1993 in various marketing, business development and management positions. Prior to Texas Instruments, he was a design engineer with Micro-Link Corporation, an industrial control company. Mr. Mehta holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and an MS degree in Computer Engineering from Ohio State University.
Jeremy Toeman, Associate Vice President, Products & Services, Mediabolic: Jeremy Toeman graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in industrial management and economics. While in school, he founded Focus Consulting, a Web development group that focused on user interaction and real-time publishing engines. He grew Focus Consulting from a solo operation to having 12 employees and a roster of clients that included Fortune 500 companies. After selling the Company, he created Palmtastik, the first-ever resource for PalmPilot users to incorporate business travel information and a true user community experience. Jeremy was involved in several other ventures, acting as a technical and strategic consultant as well as in full-time roles before co-founding Mediabolic. Jeremy also happens to be the biggest hockey fan in the state of California. Go Habs!