MPEG Industry Forum

Prof. Dr. h. c. Sebastian Moeritz is an internationally recognised figure in the field of digital television, video compression and its various applications. With an extensive network of contacts across the technology, media and telecommunications sectors, he combines business acumen and corporate experience with technical knowledge providing a practical perspective and strategic commercial approach.

He is chief executive of dicas, a company which specialises in developing MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 real-time video coding software and hardware systems. As President of the MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF), he leads the world’s largest not-for-profit organisation promoting the adoption of open MPEG standards, including MPEG-4, MPEG 7 and MPEG 21, representing around 30 international institutions and member companies.

Under Sebastian’s leadership, MPEGIF plays a significant role in facilitating the widespread adoption and deployment of MPEG 4 AVC/H.264, the Emmy Award winning video compression technology, as the industry video compression standard, powering next generation television, such as HDTV, and most mainstream video content delivery services as well as multimedia consumption applications including packaged media.

Sebastian is a regular chairman, speaker and panellist at industry events and conferences across Europe, North America and Asia and a frequent contributor to industry publications. He is co-author, with Professor Klaus Diepold, of “Understanding MPEG-4—Technology and Business Insights”, published by Focal Press and he is listed in Cable and Satellite Europe's “Euro 50 2004" as well as Digital TV Europe’s “Euro 50 2009”, featuring leaders in Broadband and Pay-TV. He is also included in Streaming Media’s Dream Team 2009 presenting the most influential, innovative, and important people in the European online video space.

Sebastian has many years of corporate experience with both large and small companies in various sectors and is actively involved in the digital television industry in Russia. Following studies in social sciences and economics, he engaged in real estate and investment activities with a specific focus on Russia. He speaks English, German and Russian.

David Price (Vice President)
Vice President, Business Development, Harmonic, Inc.
email: David . Price (at) mpegif . org

David Price is currently Vice President, Business Development at Harmonic Inc., based in Sunnyvale, California where he is responsible for pioneering Harmonic's leading position in digital video broadcast, distribution and IP based delivery technologies.

David was previously Vice-President with TV/COM International, in San Diego (formerly Oak Communications), where he was responsible for the Sales Account and Operations management functions. TV/COM produced the world's first MPEG-2 DVB video encoding systems. Originally from the UK, David came to the US as Vice President of M/A-COM Linkabit, now Hughes Network Systems.

David has over 19 years experience in the telecommunication industry during which he has successfully carried out executive management responsibilities in sales, engineering and operations and general management functions for satellite and terrestrial based communications technology providers. David has written many articles for trade publications and journals around the world and has also appeared on a number of business television and radio programs in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

David has lectured at UCSD and is a frequent guest speaker at many of the worlds leading symposiums on advance communications technology. Originally, an electronics engineer on the design team of the worlds first CAT scan system, he graduated from CIT with a Fellowship MBA and has an Honors Bachelors degree in Cybernetics, Instrument Physics and Mathematics.

Rich Mavrogeanes
Founder - VBrick
email: rmavro at discovervideo.com

Rich Mavrogeanes has been in the communications industry for more than 30 years. Prior to founding VBrick in 1997, he was a founding executive at several other successful technology companies. His background includes senior technical, marketing and management positions at Avidia, SNT, Dataproducts Corporation and GDC. He received the "Innovator Of The Year" award from Business New Haven, was named one of 17 industry executives to Federal Computer Week's "Federal 100" list for making a difference in Federal Information Technology, was named a "A List" executive by Telecom Magazine, received the Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year Finalist Award, and received ComputerWorld's Hero's Award. He also serves on the board of directors of the Connecticut Technology Coucil. Most recently, he was named one of the top most influential people in the streaming media industry by Streaming Magazine and he has authored many articles on the subject of Streaming Media which have appeared in the top industry journals.

Sean McCarthy
Fellow of the Technical Staff, Motorola
email: smccarthy(at)motorola.com

Dr. Sean McCarthy, Fellow of the Technical Staff, brings a unique convergence of expertise in video compression, signal processing and the neurobiology of human vision to content distribution at Motorola. Dr. McCarthy’s duties include leading advancements in state-of-the-art of video processing, compression and practical vision science. He held similar responsibilities previously as Chief Scientist at both Modulus Video, which is now part of Motorola, as well as at ViaSense, a UC Berkeley spin-off that developed commercial applications based on expert knowledge of the human visual system. The author of several papers on retinal processing, Dr. McCarthy holds several patents on image and signal processing and resides on the board of the MPEG Industry Forum. He earned a B.S. in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic, and earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering jointly at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.