Steering Board confirms new Commercial Module chair

The DVB Steering Board has confirmed Martyn Lee of Sky as the new chair of its Commercial Module (CM). He has replaced Graham Mills, who stepped down earlier this year having been in the role since the module’s very first meeting, on 31 January 1997*.

Leadership changes

The appointment of a new CM chair coincides with several other leadership announcements within the CM’s working groups. Jason Power of Dolby has become chair of the CM-AVC group, with Jan Outters of Samsung as vice-chair. The CM-I group is now chaired by Peter Lanigan of TP Vision, with Qualcomm’s Thomas Stockhammer as vice-chair. Finally, a new working group focused on DVB’s stewardship of the SAT>IP specification, CM-HB (Home Broadcast), will be chaired by Nghia Pham of Eutelsat, with Gilles Gautier of Rabbit Labs as vice-chair. 

Martyn Lee comes to the role of CM chair having been active within DVB for 20 years. He also represents Sky at various other industry organizations and bodies on standards, spectrum, business and regulatory issues. He holds an MEng (Honours) from the Open University and an Executive MBA from the University of Hertfordshire. Outside of work, Martyn finds time for the gym, karate, scuba diving and his first grandchild.

Challenges ahead

“Martyn Lee will lead a Commercial Module that has a highly successful track record when it comes to ensuring the usefulness and relevance of DVB’s specifications for the market,” said Peter MacAvock, chair of DVB. “In replacing Graham Mills, he takes the wheel of a well-oiled machine that nevertheless has some important challenges ahead, not least in finalizing Commercial Requirements for DVB-I.” 

“Graham did a tremendous job for DVB and leaves an incomparable legacy,” said new CM chair Martyn Lee. “Nevertheless, I am delighted to take on this role and look forward to working with my Commercial Module colleagues to ensure that DVB continues to deliver market-led specifications and standards.” 

DVB’s Commercial Module is an important distinguishing element of the organization as a whole, underpinning the success of DVB’s market-led approach. It is within the CM that commercial aspects of DVB work items are discussed, with the consensus embodied in a set of Commercial Requirements that govern each and every DVB specification. The CM also validates the resulting technical specifications, developed by the DVB Technical Module, against these Commercial Requirements before passing the specifications to the DVB Steering Board for final approval. 

The vice-chair of the CM is Ralf Schaefer of Technicolor.

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*The DVB Memorandum of Understanding was changed in 1996, creating the Commercial Module. Prior to that there had been separate commercial modules for Cable and Satellite, Terrestrial, and Interactive Services.