Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Media Summit 2010 Bloomberg BusinessWeek Wednesday, March 10 Workshop II Technologies of Innovation 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM Session B: The NexGen Entertainment Home Experience - From the Smart & Connected TV to the Set-Top, Consoles & PC Experience The home entertainment experience 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, more complicated than the older battle of the home PC vs. the TV. This is a world containing a new generation of TV sets, HD and games devices, wirelessly connected homes with connected PCs as well as a host of set-top box and DVR options. The next generation of home entertainment hardware, software and services will come into battle delivering HDTV, Internet, music, games, movies, plus innovative two-way communication and telephony services. This battle for the home will be a tremendous victory for both the consumer, the technology industries as well as for the entertainment industry. It presents the simple proposition that offering the consumer more and richer services in a competitive environment is the perfect formula for success. Russ Schafer, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Yahoo! Connected TV Dean Carignan, Director, Advertising Business Strategy, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation Mitch Weinraub, Executive Director, Business Development, Comcast Media Center Todd Narwid, VP of New Media, NDS Americas Rob Aksman, EVP Client Management and Experience Design, Brightline iTV Jim Funk, VP of Business Development, Roku Alex Limberis, COO, Syabas Technology, inc. Rick Doherty, co-founder and Director, The Envisioneering Group, Moderator Russ Schafer, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Connected TV, Yahoo! Inc.: Russ Schafer brings twenty years experience in product and corporate marketing to his role as Senior Director of Product Marketing for Yahoo! Connected TV. Russ has global product marketing responsibility including consumer insights, segmentation, concept development, branding, pricing, positioning and compelling “out of the box” consumer experiences. Yahoo! Connected TV is at the leading edge of the Web’s intersection with the “10-foot experience” of television viewing. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Russ held positions as Director of Marketing, Director of Technology Management, Director of Business Development and Operations, and Regional Sales Manager for Intel, Sybase, and IBM. He has marketed a broad range of hardware, software, and Internet products and services to consumers and businesses. His responsibilities spanned the entire product lifecycle, including research, design, development, branding, pricing, manufacturing, inventory management, distribution and intellectual property. Russ’ experience as an entrepreneur included time as Director of Product and Business Management for an Intel-funded startup that developed a mobile wireless and e-commerce software platform and service. He was responsible for market development and business management including market research, pricing, user interface design, e-commerce transactions, e-coupon advertising, and a multi-million dollar P&L. Russ holds an MBA in international business from Duke University and a BBA in Management from Texas A&M University. Todd Narwid, VP of New Media, NDS: As VP of New Media for NDS, Todd Narwid is responsible for developing new media opportunities that leverage the extensive NDS solutions portfolio and systems integration expertise. Prior to NDS, Todd led Narrowstep, which enabled new media content owners to move, manage and monetize video content online. Prior to this role, Todd directed the RCN Business Solutions Division. Rob Aksman, EVP Client Management and Experience Design, Brightline iTV: A co-founder of BrightLine, Mr. Aksman is a senior executive and manager of the company’s client relationships. He also oversees the design and implementation of all digital television ad initiatives for Brightline. He has helped spearhead more than forty first-ever interactive and on-demand television ad experiences for clients including Unilever, Reebok, Pepsi and Ameritrade. Mr. Aksman was previously Director of Operations at digital media consultancy Filter Media. His analysis and commentary on digital television advertising appears regularly in major advertising and media trade publications, and he is also a regular speaker at major trade events. Mitch Weinraub is Executive Director, Business Development for the Comcast Media Center, a business unit of Comcast Cable. In this role, he oversees development and implementation of the company’s content creation, management and distribution services. The Denver-based CMC’s products and services encompass production and postproduction facilities, a national VOD platform, web streaming, store and forward delivery and video over IP, including IP multicasting via satellite and delivering video to PCs and portable media devices. Weinraub has over 18 years of experience designing facilities, systems and processes for the purpose of managing technology. Before assuming his current assignment at the CMC, he served for two years as Executive Director, Products and Services and six years as Senior Director, New Media Initiatives and Implementation. During this time, he led the team that launched the CMC’s national VOD platform, which currently manages and delivers over 9,000 assets from more than 275 content services providers each month to more than 35 million VOD-enabled households across the US. The CMC’s VOD services also include a “C3 VOD” service, to support measurement of time-shifted viewing, “VOD In a Box,” a managed video on demand service jointly offered with ARRIS Group, and “Express Lane,” a new service for video on demand (VOD) content providers featuring automated workflows and remote management capabilities, allowing VOD content providers to direct the delivery of individual VOD assets to specific cable system headends. Weinraub’s team also worked on developing the mosaic packages used for the CMC/GuideWorks’ video-rich navigation (VRN) service, and creates and delivers standard definition and HDTV content for VOD and PC video players, including highlights of professional and international sporting events. Most recently, he has supervised the development and distribution of mobile video content for the Sprint JV, and cross-platform advertising and marketing promotions using advanced interactive video technology. Before joining The CMC in 2000, he held roles at PRIMESTAR, DIRECTV, National College Television and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Weinraub has a B.A. in broadcast journalism from The American University, and an M.A. in broadcasting, telecommunications, and mass media from Temple University. A frequent presenter at industry conferences, Weinraub has delivered technology papers on advanced video interactive services, disaster recovery and media management at NCTA, NAB and SCTE, among others. He also co-authored “Universal Access to On-line Services: An Examination of the Issue,” published as Chapter 6 in The Digital Divide: Facing a Crisis or Creating a Myth by MIT Press, August 2001. Dean Carignan, Director, Advertising Business Strategy, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation: Dean Carignan currently develops long-range strategic plans for E&D’s investments in streaming video advertising, mobile marketing and game-based advertising. Dean also spent several years with Microsoft’s adCenter group, where he drove product strategy for Paid Search, Display Ads and Contextual Advertising. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dean was a charter member of McKinsey & Company’s e-Business Strategy Practice. He holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD. Jim Funk, VP of Business Development, Roku: Jim leads partnership and content relationship efforts for Roku. Jim was previously the VP of Business Development for Internet TV at Netflix. Prior to Netflix, Jim was VP Marketing & Co-Founder at Akimbo Systems. Previously Jim has held executive management positions at Macromedia and marketing positions at Apple. Jim has both a MBA and a bachelor's degree from Stanford University. Alex Limberis, COO, Syabas Technology, inc: Syabas is a leading provider of IP set top connected entertainment platforms. Syabas’s provides a rich software platform for the connected home entertainment environment and is best known as the maker of the award winning Popcorn Hourtm Networked Media Tank connected set top box. Other products that Syabas provides include the Syabas Media Services Portal and Saya TV live streaming P2P streaming technology platform. Mr. Limberis is a 20+ year veteran in data communications and media technologies. Prior to joining Syabas he was the Director of Wireless, Broadband and Consumer Electronics in Microsoft’s Digital Media Division where he drove Microsoft’s success in the ubiquitous adoption of Windows Media into the consumer electronics, wireless and broadband ecosystems including, Mobile, IPTV, MP3 players and music and video services such as Verizon, Tivo, Amazon and Netflix. He drove Microsoft to join the DVD Forum and then served on the DVD Forum steering committee which resulted in the adoption of Windows Media into the HD-DVD and Blu-ray standards. Mr. Limberis also served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Dolby Labs where he defined Dolby’s strategy to enter the networked entertainment ecosystems. Previously he was a VP at PMI (acquired by Microsoft), VP of Strategic Marketing at Aureal Semiconductor (acquired by Creative Labs), VP and GM at Korg (Yamaha), and a founder of Ensoniq (acquired by Creative Labs). Mr. Limberis holds several patents in the DSP and media fields. He was a BSEE major at Drexel University and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University. Rick Doherty, co-founder and Director, The Envisioneering Group: a two-decade old Seaford, NY Technology Assessment and Market Research Corporation. Before that, for thirteen years, Doherty was the Senior Technology Writer for Electronic Engineering Times, where he remains a guest columnist. Doherty is an electro-physicist who has garnered more than a dozen U.S. patents in computing, communications, medical electronics, high performance tooling and consumer electronics industry sectors along with dozens of international patents. During Doherty's 32 year career he has been Director of the Urban Vehicle Design Group at Pratt Institute, an engineer for Data General Corp., Chief Engineer of Lourdes Industries, Inc., founder and President of Optronic Labs and since 1983, co-founder and Director of The Envisioneering Group. There, he directs laboratory testing of technologies, products and services, oversees publication of the Envisioneering Newsletter, market research reports and provides senior executive counsel on market development and intellectual property protection, portfolio management and licensing opportunities. Doherty's prime focus is on researching and articulating the impact of advanced digital technologies, services, products, industry initiatives and standards efforts on consumers, industry and society. Doherty is a 31 year member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is active with its Biomedical Engineering, Solid State Circuits Society , Consumer Electronics Society, Broadcast Engineering, Magnetic Technology Society, Technology & Social Policy and other I.E.E.E. societies. This is his eleventh year as a planning director for the International Conference on Consumer Electronics. Doherty is also a member of the Society for Information Display, Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers and many other technology & professional business industry associations. In addition, Doherty has been a co-chair of, and presently sits on several cross industry standards associations and technical working groups, spanning consumer digital electronics, communications, digital media and computing architecture definition groups. He is called upon by the industry to organize and chair panels at trade conferences and technical symposia more than a dozen times each year. Amongst his many industry awards, Doherty has been cited by the International Television Association for his many years of technology coverage of digital video design and engineering trends, and is the writer most cited by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment for detailed features on the evolution of America's Digital TV system. Doherty also assisted Dr. Richard Feynman, NASA and Congressional researchers in the Shuttle Challenger accident investigation at the Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center and many NASA contractor sites. In 2003, Doherty was nominated to and accepted a multi-year position on the Presidential Medal of Technology Award Selection Committee, reporting to the White House and Department of Commerce. Acting as an independent resource on the impact of digital and internet technologies on the consumer, society and business, Doherty is quoted frequently for his opinions on new technologies by CNN, CNBC, Fox News and by numerous American and international industry trade and daily business publications, including the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Newsday and the San Jose Mercury News. Doherty is married and resides in Seaford, NY with his wife and two daughters.