Graham Wallington - Graham Wallington was an early pioneer in Internet TV in South Africa when he founded Africam.com and later WildEarth. He has a passion for LIVE broadcasting and has engineered broadcasts from north of the Arctic circle, inside beavers lodges, the recent Royal Wedding, safari vehicles in Africa and many more. Although he has produced documentaries for National Geographic, Animal Planet and LIVE series for the BBC, today he focuses most on distribution of WildEarth's 3DTV channel as well as building and distributing various new LIVE channels in new content genres like celebrity, auctions, city-observation and many others. Graham is also working with Internet streaming heavyweights like YouTube, Ustream, Justin.tv and DailyMotion to distribute premium LIVE content to the largest collective online audience possible.
Dumisa Ngwenya - Dumisa Ngwenya is the General Manager: Engineering & Technology at ICASA. He has more than 15 years experience in telecommunications in both technical and commercial aspects as well as academic and industry. He has written several papers and presented on evolution and convergence of networks, communication service architectures and business models, internet congestion control, and spectrum management. He has been involved in design and dimension of networks and development business cases and business plans in ICT. Dumisa Ngwenya hold a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Physics, Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering and Master of Science in Engineering.
Anthony Smith-Chaigneau - Anthony Smith-Chaigneau Managing Director & Senior Vice President of Business Development Alticast EMEA (2007 – Present Day) has been involved in emerging digital technologies since entering the British Royal Air Force as a telecommunications engineer in 1976. He moved into the digital television domain in 1999 with senior posts at the DVB Project Office (1999 -2002) and Set Top Box Provider Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB) (2002 – 2007) who were 1st to market with an MHP Receiver in 2002. He internally created, launched and managed the middleware provider “Osmosys” which further led to a successful ADB Group IPO in 2006. In an M&A role he led the identification of and acquisition-due-diligence of Vidiom Systems post IPO, and successfully integrated them into the ADB middleware group. A leading evangelist for Open Standard Middleware he is presently Chairman of the DVB-GEM Commercial Module (MHP), in which he has been recognized as a major contributor to the world’s interactive TV business. Anthony is a keen Artist and Author – Published: Interactive Television Standards a Guide to MHP, OCAP and JavaTV - ISBN: 9780240806662 | 0240806662 in April 2005.
Joss Armitage - Joss Armitage has been involved in the broadcast industry in a variety of roles for approaching two decades and has been involved with IMPALA since its launch in 2006. He began his career as a journalist leading to his editorship of Cable and Satellite Comms International and associated newsletters and website. From 2000 to 2000 he worked as a freelance public relations consultant. From 2002 until 2008 he was an account director at Manor Marketing working with broadcast equipment vendors and trade associations in a variety of public relations roles. In 2008 he set up Jump PR with Kate Ford, which works with its clients to expand their presence across the industry. Joss has written numerous conference papers and has hosted and presented a variety seminar sessions, including at IBC 2010. He has an in-depth knowledge of the middleware market and connected TV issues.
Johannes von Weyssenhoff – Johannes von Weyssenhoff is currently employed as Marketing & Business Development Manager at B&I Engineering, South Africa and also serves as Chairman of The Southern African DRM Platform. Prior to B&I Engineering Johannes was a Principal Technology Consultant for SIEMENS Ltd South Africa at the SABC where he was working on the DTT Project, Digital Library, and the SABC Sports Centre, as well as Radio Portfolio Manager. Johannes is also Managing Director of STARWAVES GmbH, Hanover, Germany and Baar, Switzerland.
Peter Griffiths – Peter is trained in journalism with a specialisation in new media. He has worked for Combined Artists as Interactive Editor on Carte Blanche for over four years, and last year involved viewers directly in the running of a live broadcast by successfully combining social media in what was a world first for the genre. In his spare time he helps businesses get online and writes for several international publications. Prior to this, he worked in the African political economy space.
Torsten Hoffmann - Torsten Hoffmann, 35, gained his management experience at one of Europe’s largest cable TV operators, where he successfully launched a digital pay-TV platform and developed strategies for marketing and sales. Currently he is Managing Partner at Global Media Consult (GMC) where he represents 35 international pay TV or Free-to-Air channels and content owners and helps them in their global distribution efforts. He coordinates GMC's worldwide network of independent experts, consultants and agents with more than twenty international offices. Torsten has a very large international network in the media, TV and Internet industries and is a regular speaker at conferences. He has an MBA from the University of Oxford (2010) and has lived and worked in Germany, the U.S. and Asia.
Steve Christian – Steve Christian, VP of Marketing, is a seasoned marketing executive with a wealth of experience in the digital media and Internet technology spaces. Prior to joining Verimatrix Mr. Christian was VP, Marketing at Nine Systems, Inc - a world class provider of streaming media services. He has also run his own technology marketing consultancy, contributing "virtual VP" expertise to a variety of software, wireless and security organizations that successfully sharpened their marketing strategy, positioning and go to market programs. He lead the marketing team at Wind River Services (initially Doctor Design, Inc.) where he helped shape a premium value strategy and the growth of the professional services organization to a peak of $40m annually. His extensive marketing experience also includes driving technology development and international product management at ST Microelectronics, Raytheon and Scicon in the UK. Mr. Christian has a 1st class degree in Physics from the University of Bristol and an MBA from the Open University in the UK.
Mr Adoulkarim Soumaila - Security General, African Telecommunications Union, ATU. Since January, 2011, he has been elected at an Ordinary Session of ATU plenipotentiary Conference held in Brazzaville, Congo, in September, 2010. He is leading the Continental body entrusted with building consensus within African countries and coordinating African Common Proposals in international fora.
Born in 1965, Mr. Soumaila holds a master of science in Operational Telecommunications from the University of Coventry, England and Telecommunications Application Diploma from National Institute of Posts and Telecommunication in Rabat, Morocco. He started his high school preparatory years at Tahoua High School in Niger and did his Baccalaureate Series C in Mathematics and Physics. He is a national of Niger. Since then, he has grown through the ranks in both private and public sector where he has acquired a wide experience in managing the intricacies of decision making processes both locally and internationally and most importantly built useful relationships with many telecommunications institutions, companies and administrations all over the world.
Prior to being elected the Secretary General of ATU, he was the Director of Posts, Telecommunications and New Technologies then Director of Information Technologies at the Ministry of Communication, New Information Technologies and Culture in Niger from 2007 to 2010. In 2002 - 2007, he was the Head of Policy and Administrative Supervision of Operators Department at the Ministry of Communication In 1996 - 2000, he was Head Telecommunication (Department of Posts and Telecommunications Regulation at the ministry of Communication) In 1995 - 1996, he was in charge of the frequencies management board: In 1994 - 1995, he was in Study and Planning Department(SPD).
Chris Oberholzer - Strategy and Business Development, MultiChoice. Chris has been with MultiChoice since 2007 and currently holds the position of Business Development Manager in the strategy department. A self confessed travel addict Chris has worked both locally an internationally in the Banking, IT Services, Media and Telecoms sectors.
Chris holds a bachelor degree in Accounting Sciences and a MBA from the University of Pretoria. He also has international certificate courses from the London Securities Exchange and Insead.
When he is not glued to the TV watching movies and sports, his current specific focus is in converged multimedia and the specific relevance and usability of differing content and media on differing platforms and devices. He is passionate about SA and its potential and loves working for a group that brings joy and entertainment to the African continent.
Alan Sullivan - CTO, UEC Technologies. Alan has over 30 years experience in the telecommunication industry including solutions development in broadcast and secure transaction-processing systems. He has pioneered a number of innovative projects at SABC, Multichoice and the Altech Group.
Alan is Chief Technology officer at Altech UEC responsible for technology and innovation strategy and offers a wealth of knowledge in converged broadcast and broadband consumer electronics. Alan is a participating member of several workgroups at the South Africa Bureau of Standards and is focused on driving ICT sector growth through technology innovation in the converged Digital TV market.
Serena Davis - Chief Commercial Officer, Wananchi. Wananchi launched ZUKU, the first cable triple play product in Africa in late 2010. Prior to that she held positions at UPC Orange and BT ignite, primarily in product development and corporate development. Her experience started in the venture capital field and returned to that working for Olympia holding just prior to moving to Nairobi.
She has lived and worked in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Greece, with further projects in Kosovo, South Africa and Senegal.
Serena prides herself at being involved at the forefront of deployments in new or emerging markets where user adoption is at the crux of the business development. She has a passion for understanding human behaviour in exploiting new technolgies in new markets to the economic benefit of the user and the service provider.
Henning Viljoen - Regional SPX Opportunity Development Technical Expert, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). He is involved in UNIDO's role in Competitive Supplier Development in a Government Big Spend Programme as in the Digital Migration Programme. His area of expertise is Programme Management in Sustainable Business Development. Henning has a B.Ed Degree and a M.Ed in Media in Environmental Education.
Bridget Linzie - Communications Regulators' Association of Southern Africa, CRASA.
Johan Schalkwyk - Managing Director, BCX CDN.
Simon Drinkwater - Head of Strategic Alliances EMEA, Limelight Networks.
Alan Quayle - Owner, Alan Quayle Business and Service Development. Alan has 21 years of experience in the telecommunication industry, focused on developing profitable new businesses in service providers, suppliers and start-ups. He consults extensively around the world with operators such as AT&T, BT, Charter, Etisalat, M1, O2, Rogers, Swisscom, T-Mobile, Telstra, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and Vodafone; and suppliers such as Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Espial, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Oracle. He works extensively with the developer community and is on the board of developers such as GotoCamera and hSenid Mobile, as well as suppliers such as Sigma Systems. For more information check out his weblog www.alanquayle.com/blog for his thought leadership on the evolution of TV delivery.
Erling Paulsen - CEO, Aspiro TV. Erling Paulsen holds a MSc in Industrial Economy and Technology Management from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has an extensive consultant and management background from companies like The Boston Consulting Group and Elkem. He joined the Aspiro group January 2009 and became CEO in Aspiro TV December the same year.
Megan Firth - Commercial Consultant for SABC.
Marek Dziembowski - Development Director, Antfarm. He is the co-founder of Antfarm and has pioneered live streaming within South Africa. Has extensive software development experience of Internet broadcast technology & DRM and has played a pivotal role in the adoption of streaming services within the South Africa market. Holds position of Development Director at Antfarm and is responsible for software and new product development.
Jacek Dziembowski - Operations Director, Antfarm. Has a MSc Engineering (Elect) and past experience includes research, software development and systems architecture (NGOSS) within the South African and international Telecoms industry. Holds position of Operations Director at Antfarm and is responsible for delivery/support of existing webcasting & content delivery services, the adoption of new technology and developed products.
William Yell - Executive Head Vodacom Internet Services, Vodacom.
