4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Session IV:
Set-Top Box as Entertainment Super Appliance: PVR, ISP, PPV, MP3 Receiver and More, Part I
The emergence of fully featured digital television is not a single or simply understood idea like the arrival of color TV because it represents a number of technologies that will come together in the home, and they may arrive in stages. DTV is not only a TV set with enhanced television picture and audio quality, DTV may arrive in the form of a new set-top box that will have new interactive capabilities, with the functionality of a computer that will bring, among other things, the Internet and MP3 players into play. And just like that, a PVR Personal Video Recorder may appear as part of the box. Maybe we should rename DTV, the Entertainment Super Appliance, because it will be about ten things more than a TV. In this session we bring together the companies and players who are at the heart of the set-top transformation. What will be the likely scenarios of implementation and change? This is the place to find out.
Tim Bucher, Vice President of Consumer Products, UltimateTV, Microsoft Corp.
Bob McIntyre, CTO, Scientific-Atlanta
Mark DePietro, V.P. Marketing and Systems Engineering, DigiCable, Motorola, Broadband Communications Sector
Patrick Custer, Chairman/CEO, uniView Technologies Corporation
David Novak, Director of Marketing, Pace Micro Technology, Americas
Jay Jaisimha, Director Consumer Appliances, RealNetworks
Christopher Solomon, VP, Business Development & Marketing, ZapMedia
Ken Rutkowski, founder, Ken Radio, Moderator
Mark DePietro, V.P. Marketing and Systems Engineering, DigiCable, Motorola, Broad
band Communications Sector: Mark DePietro joined General Instrument in 1994, and was initially responsible for building the System Engineering organization and creating the system design for GI’s first digital video system. He now serves as VP of Marketing & Systems Engineering at Motorola’s Digital Network Systems business unit. Prior to joining GI, Mr. DePietro founded Creative Engineering, a firm that successfully developed and deployed the world’s first interactive video entertainment systems for commercial aviation. CEU products are now widely deployed on International flights. The most recognizable product is called AERIS, a system that shows passengers flight progress against a background map. Prior to founding CEU, Mr. DePietro was employed at Sierra Cybernetics, a small firm in Southern California. At Sierra, Mark successfully diversified their business base, lessening their dependence on a single large military contract. Before Sierra, Mr. DePietro served as a Systems Engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company, where he did design work in the areas of radar signal processing , spread spectrum communications, and video processing systems used in high-performance aircraft testing. He was awarded a Howard Hughes fellowship. Mr. DePietro began his career at the Rome Air Development Center, where he contributed to the development of computer systems that were used to automatically analyze multi-spectral aerial reconnaissance imagery. Mr. DePietro holds a BSEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MSEE and EEE from the University of Southern California, and an MBA from Villanova University. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Beta Gamma Sigma.Patrick A. Custer is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of uniView Technologies, parent company of uniView Softgen and Curtis Mathes. Mr. Custer has positioned uniView Technologies as the industry leader in MPEG4 and MPEG2 application of video on demand deployment, primarily focusing on DSL applications in the U.S., and other formats for international applications. uniView Products are now installed in over 14 countries, available in multiple languages, and with multiple functionalities. In the convergence and advanced media applications to the consumer, no other company has the complete open architecture concept to provide integration of content, services, connectivity and customer service in one user-friendly platform. During his tenure, he has also directed the resurgence of the Curtis Mathes brand by aggressive licensing with major retail companies. Before uniView, Mr. Custer gained valuable background experience as President of Donny Osmond Entertainment, President of Curtis Mathes, a television technology and manufacturing company, and President of Southwest Memory, a proprietary computer chip distribution company. His diverse background has been invaluable in creating the vision of uniView Technologies. Mr. Custer's extensive knowledge in finance and the stock market comes from his tenure with E.F. Hutton, where he specialized in international exchange and foreign monetary policies. In this capacity, he introduced public companies in the U.S. to Asian manufacturers, investors, and financial institutions. Mr. Custer also served on the Chinese Economic Development Council, which was designed to assist government-controlled companies to privatize and enter foreign exchange public markets. More recently, he was appointed to the Computer and Telecommunications Panel for the People's Republic of China, which held its first session in September 2000. Mr. Custer's technical experience includes engineering and management positions with Texas Instruments and Honeywell. He also served four years in the U.S. Army as a special weapons leader in Vietnam and received numerous citations and awards for his service. Mr. Custer received a degree in engineering and management studies at Texas Tech University with additional studies in the Master's finance program.
David Novak, Director of Marketing, Pace Micro Technology, Americas: David Novak joined Pace Micro Technology in September 1999, as director of marketing.
Based in Boca Raton, Fla., Novak is responsible for marketing Pace’s hardware/software products and services in the cable, satellite, wireless, and telephony markets throughout North and South America. Pace is a leading developer of digital set-top box technology worldwide. Prior to joining Pace, he served as senior system account executive at Metrocall Wireless Communications in Hollywood, Florida for two years, where he was responsible for marketing information technology and system product and services. Prior to that he was president of DLN Promotions, Inc., a promotion and marketing firm he founded in 1994, to plan and conduct event marketing and promotion campaigns at Major League Baseball stadiums. Novak earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Maryland. He lives with his wife in Boynton Beach, Florida.Tim Bucher, Vice President of Consumer Products, UltimateTV, Microsoft Corp.: An expert at developing revolutionary products for a variety of low-cost consumer platforms, Tim Bucher is responsible for the client technology that underpins UltimateTV’s interactive products. He oversees all product development activities with UltimateTV licensees and has been responsible for the shipment more than 27 designs during the last 5 years in the U.S. and Asia. An original employee of the company, Bucher came to UltimateTV from interactive gaming systems pioneer, 3DO. Holding a variety of engineering management slots, he was instrumental in the development of the 3DO gaming console, as well as in the company’s innovative merging of full-motion video and computer graphics. Prior to 3DO, Bucher was an engineering manager at NeXT Computer where he led the design and manufacturing of NeXT’s award-winning NeXTstation products along with other cutting edge computer systems. Before NeXT, Bucher was lead engineer on several early-generation workstations at Sun Microsystems including the first desktop SPARC workstation. Bucher, who holds several patents in computer design, interactive TV, and multimedia technologies, graduated from University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, and from Stanford with a Master’s degree in computer architecture.