Frans de Jong

Senior Engineer at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)

Frans de Jong (1974) holds a master’s degree in information theory from Delft Technical University in The Netherlands. He has worked in the media industry all his life, both in hands-on (radio engineer, video editor, broadcast engineer) and in development roles (system architect, technical consultant). Since 2003 de Jong has worked at the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) as a senior engineer in the Technology and Innovation department. His focus is on production technology topics, such as (U)HDTV, system integration, subtitling, quality control, and loudness. de Jong has served as coordinator of the EBU Loudness group (PLOUD), which created the highly successful EBU R 128 Loudness Recommendation. de Jong is currently the coordinator of the EBU Strategic Programme on Video Systems.

Luke Fay

Senior Manager Technical of Standards at Sony Electronics US Technology Standards Office

Luke Fay is currently involved with the development of the next-generation of broadcast television in a variety of standards organizations and their efforts to educate members of the new possibilities available with ATSC 3.0. He has more than 20 years of experience in digital communications systems engineering and receiver design, starting with cable modem demodulators in 1996. 8VSB demodulators quickly became a demand, and he was part of the small design teams making all the “small” silicon chips. Fay received BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Arizona and the National Technological University, respectively. He has been granted 13 patents with 10 more pending in the area of Digital Signal Processing. Fay is currently serving as vice-chair of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) Technology Group 3 (TG3), as chair of ATSC TG3 Specialist Group on Physical Layer and as vice-chair of ATSC TG3 Specialist Group on Interactive Environment for ATSC 3.0. He is also the recipient of the 2015 Bernard J. Lechner Award for technical and leadership contributions to the ATSC.

John Fletcher

Lead R&D Engineer at the British Broadcasting Corp., Research and Development

John Fletcher joined the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) Research and Development department more than 30 years ago. He has worked in a variety of fields including acoustics, audio/video coding, closed captioning, and the use of information technology systems for production. Fletcher led the team that developed and introduced the first tapeless studio multicamera production system used in the BBC. He is an active member in the SMPTE Standards Community (SC) and has made significant contributions to the ST 2059 and ST 2110 groups of standards. Fletcher is a graduate of Cambridge University and a chartered member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Joe Inzerillo

Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Disney Streaming Services

Joe Inzerillo oversees all aspects of technology at Disney Streaming Services, including streaming, commerce, platform development, and globalization for The Walt Disney Company’s direct-to-consumer video streaming businesses. Inzerillo joined The Walt Disney Company in 2017 with the acquisition of BAMTECH, where he served as engineering vice president and chief technology officer (CTO). Previously, Inzerillo was CTO for Major League Baseball, including its flagship media companies MLB Advanced Media and MLB Network. In that capacity, he helped shape MLB’s vision for its digital business, which eventually led to the spinoff of BAMTECH Media, and was responsible for the development of several emerging technologies that would go on to disrupt the sports media ecosystem worldwide. During his tenure with baseball, Inzerillo launched MLB.tv, the first over-the-top sports offering, “instant replay,” a system that allows reviews of umpires’ calls through video footage, and Statcast, a revolutionary player tracking system that uses big data to measure every play on the field through a combination of radar technology and cameras. Inzerillo studied electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology and currently serves on the boards of Qwilt and the Streaming Video Alliance, and on the technology committee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Science.

Renard Jenkins

Vice President, Operations, Engineering & Distribution at PBS Technology and Operations

Renard Jenkins has more than 30 years of experience in the television and film industry. In addition to his current responsibilities for the strategic direction, operational and engineering management of PBS’ entire media-supply chain, he also leads PBS’ Advanced Format Center. This is a collaborative venture between PBS, member stations, vendors and manufacturers. The mission of the AFC is to explore and develop procedures for the creation, processing and worldwide distribution of 4K/UltraHD, High Dynamic Range content with Immersive Audio through traditional as well as new and exciting digital distribution platforms.

Prior to joining PBS in 2010, Jenkins helped design, build and then lead TV One’s Production Facility which services their marketing, programming, production management, graphics and post production departments. From 2006-2009, he refreshed, updated and managed Discovery Communications’ Technical Center, where he managed five departments and supervised more than 100 employees. While at Discovery, he also served as the operational lead for the implementation of what was then the largest file based Avid Editing/Interplay/ISIS system installation in the U.S.

Jenkins joined Discovery after more than 16 years with CNN. During his tenure, he received two National Emmy Awards, two National Headliner Awards, a Peabody, a DuPont, and a Bronze Broadcast Design Award, as well as many other industry accolades. Jenkins was responsible for helping move CNN into the file based editing/delivery/archive environment through his R&D/Training work with industry leaders such as Apple, Autodesk, Avid, Adobe, Leitch, Pinnacle, and Sony. His volunteer work with local youth in his beloved Bay Area also earned him a Healthy Image Award from the Local Teamsters Union.

Today, Jenkins serves as the Eastern Regional Governor of the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers and Co-Chair, of the UltraHD Forums’ Interoperability Working Group. He is active within the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) and the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA). He is also on the Board of Directors for the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) and he is the advisor to the PBS Equity and Inclusion committee.

Simon T. Jones

TV Architect at BT Technology

Simon Jones has worked in the field of interactive television and video on demand for more than 25 years with companies in the UK such as BT, Open Interactive and BSkyB. Jones has architectural responsibility for BT Technology’s consumer Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service; BT TV, and the company’s media and broadcast business products. His current interests include next-generation television presentation and distribution standard. He has contributed to the launch of many of BT TV services including BT Sport Ultra HD. In 2017, Jones was part of the BT Sport team that collected the IBC Innovation Award for Content Everywhere. He is actively involved in TV standardization and represents BT at the Digital TV Group (DTG) and at Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) where he recently led their study mission “Beyond the Transport Stream.” He has also contributed to IPTV standardization in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solution (ATIS) and was vice-chair of the International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunications Sector (ITU-T’s) Focus Group on IPTV. Jones holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bath and a doctorate in electronic systems engineering from the University of Essex.

David Lyon

Managing director at Celtic Video Ltd.

David Lyon joined the BBC in 1976, in the days of four tube color cameras and analog transmission. Having developed an interest in the early 1-inch videotape recorders, he worked for Brighton University before moving to jointly start the Technical Training Department at Sony Broadcast. He later joined the infant Snell & Wilcox as its first full-time engineer. The company grew rapidly, and Lyon managed several significant

projects; the first down-converter to be used by the BBC at Wimbledon and the first Alchemist standards converter, of which he designed the Fourier Transform processor. Lyon has received more than one Emmy Technical Award and Royal Television Society (RTS) Technical Award shared with David Lambert, with whom he developed Celtic Audio Ltd. He holds several patents in the fields of film, video, and audio processing. He continues to be involved with and inspired by the technical side of the industry and has recently been working on audio over IP systems.

James E. O’Neal

Industry Writer and Technical Consultant

James O’Neal has been involved in broadcast technology for most of his life, beginning a full-time broadcast engineering career after graduating from the University of Arkansas in 1969. He spent 37 years in that field before retiring in 2005 and launching a second career as an industry writer and editor at TV Technology magazine. More than 30 years of O’Neal’s career was spent with U.S. Government television operations, including the United States Information Agency’s Television and Film Service, WORLDNET Television, and VOA-TV. In addition to reporting on current television-related technologies and events, he enjoys researching and writing about broadcasting history and the persons who have made significant contributions in that field. His writings frequently appear in TV Technology, Radio World, and other publications, and he contributed a chapter section on high-frequency radio propagation to the latest edition of the NAB Engineering Handbook. He is a SMPTE Life Member, as well as Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He serves on the SMPTE Board of Editors and is an Associate Editor of the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal. In addition, he is Editor-In-Chief of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Broadcast Technology Society’s (BTS’s) quarterly publication and serves on that organization’s Panel of Editors. He is Washington, D.C., SMPTE Section Manager, and has served as a board member of the National Capital Museum of Radio and Television and the Early Television Foundation.

Prinyar Saungsomboon

Prin began his career producing live programs while at university in 1981, using valve television cameras. From there he has worked with every wave of technology from composite analogue through to modern digital component UHD IP systems. As a hardware development engineer at Abekas Video System, RE Technology, and Snell & Wilcox, Prin worked on the design of several generations of studio equipment as well as processors for early LED video walls and Projectors.  More recently he has been involved in the development of high dynamic range video, and next-generation immersive audio live production systems.  He has worked on the colorimetry for digital cinema and, while at Dolby, on the standards for DVB HDR video and next-generation audio.  Prin is a member of SMPTE, the IEEE, and the AES - is a past chair of AES UK, and is a papers assessor for the IBC technical conference.  He has been awarded several patents and is a frequent participant in industry events.  He is responsible for the market analysis and road map development for the full portfolio of PHABRIX Test & Measurement products with a focus on live HDR production and the new SMPTE ST 2110 formats.

John F. Snow

Senior FPGA Architect at Cobalt Digital

John F. Snow began his career at Evans & Sutherland (E&S) Computer Corporation designing computer graphics systems for flight simulators. During his 19 years at E&S, he held various positions including principal engineer and director of engineering. In 2001, he joined Xilinx as a video architect. At Xilinx, his work implementing SDI interfaces in programmable logic devices contributed to lowering the cost of serial digital interfaces for the broadcast industry. Since 2015, he has been employed by Cobalt Digital as a senior FPGA architect, where he designs broadcast equipment from his home in Mapleton, Utah. He earned a BS degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University and is a senior member of the IEEE. He holds two patents in the area of high-speed serial interfaces. Snow has been an active member of the SMPTE standards community for more than a decade. He has previously chaired the TC-32NF committee and the TC-33TS-20 Synchronization Working Group and currently chairs the 10E Essence technology committee and the TC-32NF-80 Time Label & Synchronization Working Group. He also currently serves as a SMPTE standards director.

Wesley D. Simpson

President at Telecom Product Consulting

Wesley D. Simpson has always been interested in delivering media signals over networks. After starting his career in mobile telephony and then moving into fiber optics, he has focused on high-performance video transport for the past 25 years. Simpson has developed and delivered well-received training seminars covering IP video and media networking technology for a wide range of private clients and organizations such as the Video Services Forum (VSF) the IEEE BTS, and SMPTE. He is a contributing editor for TV Technology and frequently speaks at events including VidTrans, SMPTE, NAB, and IBC. He has written two books, which have both been released as second editions: “IPTV and Internet Video” and “Video Over IP.” Simpson was a founder of the VSF and was made an honorary member. He is currently Secretary/Treasurer of the Connecticut Subsection of SMPTE and serves on the SMPTE 32NF subcommittee that created SMPTE ST 2110 as well as on the SMPTE Board of Editors for SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal. He is also a voting member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards Committee. Simpson earned a BSEE degree from Clarkson University and an MBA from the University of Rochester.

Nigel Seth-Smith

Nigel Seth-Smith recently retired from his position as strategic technology manager at Semtech, with responsibility for video product definition and standards support. After graduating from Southampton University with a degree in Electronic Engineering, he joined the IBA in the U.K., where he first digitized a video signal, as part of his design for equipment used in EBU and SMPTE tests to determine the sampling rate for CCIR (later ITU-R) 601.  Since then he has been working with pictures, and the numbers which represent them, in Canada and the U.K., leading engineering departments at Scientific Atlanta, Digital Processing Systems and Snell & Wilcox before joining Semtech. He has four patents, and has presented at IBC, Montreux, NAB, CES, ICCE, and the SMPTE Annual Technical Conference. Seth-Smith has recently started a consultancy, NCI Consultants, and is active in SMPTE and ITU-R standards work concerning UHDTV transport and network based genlock timing. Now that he is retired, much of his time is spent enjoying his three, soon to be four, grandchildren, and sailing in the nearby waters of the Solent.

Christopher Witham

Director, Emerging Technology at Walt Disney Studios

With more than 30 years of experience in media distribution, Chris Witham is responsible for analyzing and developing emerging content distribution workflows at Walt Disney Studios. Prior to that, he launched mastering operations at Technicolor Digital Cinema and the digital cinema department at Ascent Media before joining Deluxe Digital Cinema in 2010. Witham started his career at Technicolor Video Services, ultimately serving as chief engineer, before moving on to Vidfilm International Digital where he helped operationalize their digital media processing services. Witham is an active member of SMPTE, currently serving as co-chair of the 21DC technology committee, and an active contributor to the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) effort.

Michael Zink

Vice President Technology at Warner Bros.

As Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros. (WB), Michael Zink is responsible for exploring emerging technologies to enhance WB’s capabilities for production, post-production, and distribution. This includes assessing new technologies and assisting with the setup and integration of digital workflows. Zink also participates in standards associations such as Blu-Ray Disc Association (BDA), Consumer Technology Association (CTA), DCI, SMPTE, among others. He also serves as chair of the UHD Alliance. Before joining WB in 2014, Zink worked at Technicolor for more than ten years, most recently as Vice President of Technology Strategy, where he was responsible for launching the production efforts around various new optical disc formats. Additionally, Zink was responsible for the promotion and adoption of Technicolor technology solutions within industry groups. Earlier in his career, he worked for several media production facilities in Germany.