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.

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. MPEGIF also produces full day conferences at NAB, IBC and CES and has recently launched a new working group dedicated to 3DTV. Under his 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 3DTV, HDTV, and most mainstream video content delivery services as well as multimedia consumption applications including packaged media. He is also CEO of dicas, a company which specialises in developing MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 real-time video coding software and hardware systems.

For his contribution to the progress of Digital Television and to the introduction of next generation video compression technologies he received an honorary doctorate of the St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television, which is Russia’s oldest academic institution (founded in 1918) in the field of photography, cinematography and television with around 7,000 students. He is also an honorary Professor of St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television in the Faculty of Audiovisual Technology, which is one of the largest faculties in terms of student numbers and comprises six departments representing the fields of television and video technology, electrical and electronic engineering, audio technology, acoustics.

He 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 Prof. 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.

Moeritz 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.

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.

Yuval Fisher
CTO, RGB Networks
email: yfisher(at)rgbnetworks

Yuval Fisher was deeply involved with MPEG-4 standardization, introducing a number of key technologies into the standard and serving as one of the Lead Editors of the MPEG-4 Systems specification. Dr. Fisher chaired several MPEG subgroups and served as Chair of the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA). In 2000, he co-founded Envivio, serving as its Chief Scientist, and in that role, conceiving, advocating and planning major research and development activities focused on IP video delivery, mobile video, HTTP streaming technology, VOD encoding, and catch-up TV.
Dr. Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and a Masters in Computer Science from Cornell University and is currently CTO of RGB Networks.