Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Digital Hollywood, May 2-5, 2011 Ritz Carlton Hotel, Marina del Rey, California Wednesday, May 4th Connected TV Hollywood Alliance Briefing 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM - The Plaza Room Hosted by: VTM "The importance of consortia in fostering digital ecosystem interoperability" Scott Smyers, President, Sunrise Digital Strategies, LLC, Moderator Nicole Gray, President, VTM, Inc. Brad Hunt, President, Digital Media Directions, LLC Ariel Sobelman, Vice President, Corporate Alliances, Valens Semiconductor Pat Griffis, Senior Director, Technology Strategy, Office of CTO, Dolby Laboratories Dean Marks, Senior Vice President, Intellectual Property, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Don Leake, Program Director, Copy Protection Business Development, IBM Research Division Patrick Griffis, Senior Director, Technology Strategy, Office of the CTO, Dolby Laboratories, Inc.: As Senior Director, Technology Strategy at Dolby Laboratories, Patrick Griffis is charged with helping define future technology strategy for the company. Prior to joining Dolby, Pat spent 10 years at Microsoft leading global digital media standards strategy, including adoption of the Digital Living Network Alliance as a baseline media sharing standard in Windows 7 and standardization of Windows Media Video technology as an international SMPTE standard. Prior to Microsoft, Pat spent 15 years at Panasonic in senior management positions, including Vice President of Strategic Product Development at Panasonic Broadcast, where he helped launch DVCPRO and drive US strategy for HDTV. Pat started his career at RCA, earning eight patents in TV product design. Pat has been an ATSC board member and Vice Chairman of the Board of the Digital Living Network Alliance. He served two terms as President of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society. Pat is currently a member of the IBC Council, an industry executive advisory group, and of the Academy of Digital TV Pioneers. A SMPTE Fellow, he serves on the SMPTE executive committee. Pat holds a BSEE degree from Tufts University and an MSEE from Purdue University. Nicole Gray, President, VTM Inc.: As President and member of the VTM Executive Leadership Council, Nicole directs new business development, evaluating new markets and consulting with emerging industry initiatives. During her tenure with VTM, she has taken organizations from start-up to de facto standardization by delivering intimate knowledge and best practices in the areas of board governance, membership management, technology marketing, and corporate communications. Nicole has been vital for shaping policy and direction for the majority of clients that have been incorporated or transitioned to VTM. She has been elected and served as Executive Director for MultiMediaCard Association and UHAPI Forum. Prior to VTM, Nicole got her start in public relations and event management, honing marketing best practices she still applies today. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with an emphasis in both Marketing and Management from Portland State University. She is a long standing member of both the American Society of Association Executives and The Center for Association Leadership and the National Association of Professional Women. Donald E. Leake, Program Director for Copy Protection Business Development, IBM Research Division: Don Leake brings over 35 years of IBM experience in the IT industry to his current position of program director for copy protection business development, IBM Research Division. Leake is responsible for promoting the use of IBM's extensive portfolio of content protection technologies in IBM's products and industry initiatives as the use of rich digital media becomes pervasive in entertainment and IT applications. IBM's content protection technologies include encryption, watermarking, fingerprinting and software tamper resistance. Leake also works closely with the Media and Entertainment Industry, in its transition to digital, through his participation in standards organizations, consortia, alliances and multi-company working relationships. As such, Leake is currently the lead IBM representative to the 4C group, AACS, the Copy Protection Technical Working Group, Digital Living Network Alliance, the DVD Forum and the Pro-MPEG Forum. Previously, Leake managed the marketing, sales and customer support functions for the group in IBM Microelectronics Division that develops MPEG and set top box chips. In this role, Leake was responsible for establishing IBM leadership in the digital media chip business. Prior to that, Mr. Leake held a number of marketing and product planning management positions in IBM's high-end and mid-range systems development organizations, including managing product planning for IBM's largest commercial servers. Mr. Leake started his IBM career as a customer support rep in the field sales organization. Mr. Leake holds a Batchelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Masters of Science degree in Statistics, both from Penn State University. Ariel Sobelman, Vice President Corporate Alliances, Valens Semiconductor: With 12 years of high level business development, industry standardization and strategic research experience, Ariel Sobelman serves as Valens Semiconductor's Vice President of Corporate Alliances. Ariel leads the standardization process for HDBaseT technology. Before joining Valens, Ariel was with SanDisk, where he was general manager of the corporate liaison office to Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., managing the relationship (executive, political, technical) work taking place between the two companies. Prior to SanDisk's acquisition of M-Systems, Sobelman was vice president in the CTO's office, where he was responsible for all industry standards activities. He also held responsibility for standardization of embedded cryptographic modules in mobile phones while part of the research group at Discretix Technologies, Israel. Ariel is a founding chair of IEEE 1667 Transient Storage Device Authentication working group. Brad Hunt, President, Digital Media Directions, LLC: a digital media technology consulting firm. Mr. Hunt works closely with clients in the fields of 3D home video, digital rights management, digital content distribution, high-definition DVD managed copying, content fingerprinting & watermarking, and video metadata. He represents Samsung in CEA 3D standards activities. Previous to forming his consulting company, Mr. Hunt was the Chief Technology Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America for nearly eight years. At the MPAA, he worked closely with the six major studios on content protection technology initiatives, standards setting, and policymaking. His positions prior to joining the MPAA included President & CEO of Cintel Inc., a manufacturer of digital film scanners and post-production products, Sr. Vice President of Technology for All Post Inc., a Los Angeles video and audio post-production facility, and a long career at the Eastman Kodak Company where he held jobs in research & development, marketing, international sales, and strategic planning. Mr. Hunt has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. degree from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester. He is a member of the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Scott Smyers, President, Sunrise Digital Strategies: During his illustrious career which took him from AMD to Apple and then to Sony, Scott has served in numerous, high profile positions in important industry initiatives aimed at networking traditional consumer electronics devices, and leading the charge to get commercial content to flow across the resulting home network. Scott's leadership work included chairing a discussion group in 1997/98 that resulted in the pivotal "DTCP" link protection technology, supported by 5 major CE companies at the time and now utilized in protecting commercial content from all the major studios as this content flows across an increasing number of consumer home networks. Since then, Scott played a crucial role in forming and launching the Digital Living Network Alliance in 2003, then serving as its President and Chairman of its Board of Directors for 7 years thereafter. Other industry initiatives where Scott has served as director or chairman include the Marlin Developer Community, and the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem. For the last 15 years Scott worked at Sony, achieving the title of Senior Vice President of the Network and Systems Architecture Division. During this period, in parallel with his impressive work in the standards arena, Scott led a research lab whose achievements included groundbreaking work on silicon and software solutions for PC I/O, for storing AV content onto hard disks, and in defining recording formats for capturing streaming AV data. On the product side, in addition to participation in internal CE product planning discussions at Sony, Scott developed several generations of leading-edge silicon and drivers for adding 1394 “Firewire” to Sony's VAIO line of personal computers. Scott holds a BA degree from Cornell University where he double majored in Physics and Philosophy.