Ahead of IBC2024, we sat down with our CEO, Thomas Kohler, to get his snapshot views on the show, the industry, and more.
Thomas Kohler joined VO as CEO in April. An established expert in business development and innovation, he is, as always, a busy man. But we managed to sit down with him very briefly and ask him some questions about his first few months in the hot seat and how he feels about the forthcoming IBC. We might have gone slightly over the 60 seconds, but not too much.
How have your first few months at VO been?
The video industry is fast-moving in terms of the evolution of customer needs as well as technological possibilities. Hence, my first months in the job have been quite intense and have involved frequent contact with our customers, as well as meeting the teams that are developing and implementing our products in the market.
Your last role was in the telco industry. Do you see any similarities between that and the video industry?
Telcos, and even more so Tower Companies (which was where I joined VO from), have a much longer time horizon of investment and consequently higher margins compared to the fast-moving video industry. However, I have also worked in the TV and STB area earlier in my career, so the shorter market cycles and lower margins are quite familiar.
What do you see as the key challenges for the video industry?
Given that the main customers of the video industry such as telcos and broadcasters are facing their own economic challenges, the main challenge from my perspective is first to find and deploy new means of content monetization and analytics that better adapt to customer needs. Second, we want to be able to provide flexible and cost-efficient technology solutions in line with our customers’ financial targets.
What do you see as the key opportunities for VO in the short, medium, and long-term as a result?
The transformation of the telco and broadcasting industry is the source of many opportunities for improved content monetization and security, as well as technology cost optimization. At VO, we address these opportunities by identifying the specific needs and objectives of each industry player, and then offering flexible solutions adapted to their needs, based on our core platform and enriched with third-party components. We can also provide system integration services if required, to streamline deployment, processes, and accelerate time-to-market for our customers.
How do you plan to ensure that VO can rise to the challenge of meeting these opportunities in the future?
The starting point is always to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction. That is achieved by meeting their needs in terms of monetization, analytics, and cost efficiency, and that is something that will always remain constant for us. Above and beyond that, we will continue to leverage our extensive industry experience, our market knowledge, our platform, our security technology, and the expertise and diligence of our teams to provide our customers with solutions that meet their evolving needs.
Do you see any new areas of focus emerging?
Besides meeting these developing requirements in terms of monetization and cost efficiency, the increased focus of regulators around the world on content security and the environmental aspects of our industry holds the potential to open up new use cases for our technology. At VO, we’ve already been part of several initiatives aimed at achieving an efficient and sustainable streaming architecture and reducing the carbon footprint of our industry, and that work continues.
IBC2024 is coming up rapidly. What will we see from VO at the show?
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the VO teams that have worked so hard on this year’s edition of IBC. A big trade show takes a lot of effort and commitment, and they were already working on it when I joined the company. We’ve already published our show preview where we’ve detailed what we will be showing in Amsterdam, and we will be announcing more at the event, so stay tuned!
What are you personally looking forward to about the show?
I have been to several IBCs in the past in different professional roles, as a customer or while working in procurement. This will make it the first time I have been at IBC as an exhibitor to meet existing and potential customers. I’m really looking forward to it.
Thomas, thank you for your time.
Thank you. I look forward to seeing you and everyone else out in Amsterdam.
Make an appointment to see the VO team now
IBC2024 starts at the RAI Amsterdam on 13 September, and we look forward to welcoming you onto Stand #1.A51. We have a lot to show you, including compelling demos of our leading technology and how we can help you optimize operational efficiency, amplify viewer engagement, and maximize content delivery. We still have appointments available: please book here.
