With ubiquitous broadband and the proliferation of connected devices, the era of video content anytime and anywhere has finally arrived. HDTV sets are now in the vast majority of living rooms, while tablets, smartphones and laptops are flying off the shelves. In this multi-screen, hyper connected world, convenient and instantaneous access to enormous content libraries is the new norm. While there are still over 100 million television homes in America that subscribe to a cable, DBS or telco video provider, an epic battle is shaping up between traditional content distribution and an “over the top” Internet future. Services such as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube are growing in popularity. At the same time, leading service providers are proactively offering TV Everywhere to multi-screens in the home. Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-Verse and other major distributors offer the popular HBO GO to their subscribers. And the recent landmark Comcast/Disney deal allows Comcast to offer 70 different Disney services on a linear, on demand and TV Everywhere basis for the next 10 years, a strong indication that a la carte linear programming is not on the horizon.To what extent will these content delivery methodologies co-exist? Will cord-cutting ever get into high gear and if so, when? Is “over the top” Internet TV an add-on or a replacement to the traditional subscription model? Will content providers risk bypassing traditional windows and distribution channels in their quest to go directly to consumers? How will consumers quickly find the content they want in an infinite supply environment, and how will they move content around to their multiple viewing devices?

This exciting Digital Media SIG event will address these questions and more. Come hear about Technicolor’s bleeding edge M-GO platform, along with DreamWorks’ perspective as a leading content creator.  This is an event not to be missed!

Lincoln Wallen is Head of Technology for DreamWorks Animation SKG, where he is responsible for the strategic vision, creation and maintenance of DreamWorks CG production platform, software tools, computing infrastructure and corporate IT.In 1999, Lincoln was appointed as CTO and Executive Director for a public software company called MathEngine plc, that created one of the first physics simulation middleware products, targeting games, engineering and visual simulation markets.  After acquisition of MathEngine in 2002 by Criterion Software, a subsidiary of Canon, he served as Vice President for what became the most successful middleware company serving the videogame market, which at its peak supplied middleware to 25% of console game projects worldwide.  Criterion was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2004, at the time the largest videogame publisher. As CTO, Lincoln established and grew Electronic Arts Mobile to a $150MM business in 3 years.  He then served as CTO for EA’s online publishing business internationally as it transitioned to a direct to consumer business model using digital distribution and in-game micro-transactions.

Lincoln joined DreamWorks in 2008 as Head of Research and Development and has led the re-architecture of DreamWorks production platform to bring scalable multicore, and cloud computing into the heart of the interactive workflows of the studio.  Lincoln was promoted to Head of Technology in August 2011.  In the 80s and 90s, Lincoln had a long academic career as a researcher and Professor at Edinburgh, Texas and Oxford University, researching and teaching mathematics and computer science.  He has a degree in Math and Physics from Durham University and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University.

Greg Gudorf
COO, M-GO (MediaNavi, Technicolor)

Questions? Contact Michele Yoshioka at michele@commnexus.org