At Setplex, we’re so excited to have recently brought on Karl Tempest-Mitchell as our Senior Vice President of Business Development. Karl will kick things off at this year’s IBC show in Amsterdam where, among other things, Setplex will be demonstrating our latest generation user interface along with our enhanced recommendation engine, making content discovery more targeted and accurate. We spent a little time with Karl to get his motivation for joining the Setplex team, his vision for the growth and evolution of Setplex, his forecast of industry trends, and his expectations for IBC 2023.
Karl, is there one key trend you’re paying attention to in the OTT/IPTV space right now?
OTT/IPTV continues to grow each year, and there is no evidence to suggest that this growth will slow in the near-term. Experts from across the industry are predicting consistent development of this market as more consumers discover the wonders of OTT/IPTV.
People are now able to use OTT/IPTV as a much more efficient means of watching the content that they want when they want, without needing to sit and wait for linear TV channels to launch their favorite shows/movies, sports channels, etc. This efficiency of watching behavior is what we need to pay attention to – how to understand consumer behaviors and anticipate their needs.
What makes you excited to lead business development for Setplex?
I’m really excited to share the evolution of Setplex. With all the technology updates we’re launching, I feel like I’m coming in at the right time to introduce the world to Setplex 2.0 – the best kind of sequel!
The Setplex story itself is incredible; a relatively young company with two amazing brothers at the helm. They started their journey by launching their own OTT/IPTV solution and learned the hard way. Because they couldn’t find the technical solutions in the market that fit their needs, they built their own solution from the ground up. This is unique within our industry and it’s that knowledge of understanding the pain points of operators firsthand that gets me excited, and differentiates Setplex from the competition. Setplex comes from a completely different angle than other technology providers – they have lived the story, so they understand the pain points and have built solutions to solve them.
If you could accomplish ONE thing this year for Setplex, what would it be?
That’s simple. By the end of 2023, I want every OTT/IPTV provider, every broadcaster, every content developer and distributor to know Setplex, to understand our history, to understand our solutions and to feel the same way I do about this amazing group of people.
What’s the Setplex plan for IBC?
IBC2023 is about introducing Setplex 2.0 to the market. It’s a new beginning and we will be exposing the world to some of our great tech, including NORA which is our unique middleware and video monetization platform, Streampool (our local CDN solution), Setrix (our encoder/transcoder), our updated user interface, and our expanded recommendation engine (and one of the more important features for today’s operators advanced analytics). It will be a very exciting show, with multiple demos running and our co-founders will luckily be in attendance.
How has your experience in the industry led you to where you are today, and how do you believe it aligns with your expectations for Setplex?
I have previously held executive sales and marketing positions with several first-to-market, advanced technology providers such as Amino Communications, the company that launched the world’s first IP Set-top Box, Airties, home of the first Mesh Wi-fi System, as well as Plume (first SaaS smart home and enterprise management system), ADB (world leader in middleware, broadcast and broadband solutions) and Gamgee (a market leader in connected smart home solutions). I see Setplex joining this elite club in the OTT/IPTV sectors and beyond.
My expectations are to grow Setplex into a global leader and to become a go-to technology company across the entire sector.