Video Platforms: The Reel Deal

Liz Gannes has been a Silicon Valley-based business technology reporter covering web startups for more than four years. She founded NewTeeVee in 2006 and has lead the NewTeeVee team in creating the premier publication for news and analysis in the online video world. She still contributes to GigaOM.com on more general web-related topics. Prior to GigaOM, Gannes was a reporter for Red Herring. She graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in linguistics.

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As Senior Product Manager for Flash Media Server Solutions in the Dynamic Media Organization at Adobe, Laurel Reitman drives the strategy and direction for Adobe Flash Media Rights Management Server which provides content protection of Adobe Flash technology including FLV and F4V audio and video files that are downloaded and played locally. In addition, Laurel is responsible for Adobe Flash Media Encoder which enables users to encode live video to stream through the Flash Media Server.

Prior to joining the Dynamic Media Organization, Reitman was Senior Product Manager for Adobe’s Platform Technologies working across Flash Player, Flex, Adobe AIR, and Adobe Reader. In this role, she helped drive cross business unit initiatives and drive alignment on key strategic areas within Adobe.

Prior to joining Adobe, Laurel worked at Microsoft as a Lead Program Manager working on web technologies, building applications and platforms.

Reitman holds a BS from Yale University in Electrical Engineering.

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Alex Zambelli has been closely involved with digital media technology development at Microsoft for over 6 years. He tested and developed software on product teams that delivered Windows Media Player 9, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and VC-1 codecs before finally putting his hands-on experience to use as a Technical Evangelist for Microsoft VC-1 Encoder. Zambelli was instrumental in ensuring VC-1 codec’s continued adoption and success in the streaming media industry. He is currently working as a Technical Evangelist for Silverlight, focusing on Silverlight media strategies and consulting on key Silverlight partner deployments such as NBC Olympics 2008 and Akamai SmoothHD.

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Marty Roberts oversees marketing and business development for thePlatform and has more than a decade of diverse experience in product management and marketing. Since joining thePlatform in 2006, Mr. Roberts has helped thePlatform develop and launch a series of new product initiatives, create the industry’s largest ecosystem of technology partners for online video, and coordinate numerous external communications programs and events. Hundreds of media companies now use thePlatform to manage and monetize billions of professionally-produced videos views annually, including: the Associated Press, BBC, Cablevision, CBS College Sports, CNBC, Comcast, Corus Entertainment, Cox Communications, ExerciseTV, Gannett/USA Today, HIT Entertainment, PBS, Sony BMG, Starz, Time Warner Cable, and numerous others. Prior to joining thePlatform, Marty was a Director at GiftCertificates.com, and for years he was an early pioneer in the development of online video and digital media services while in product management at RealNetworks.