MediaKind CEO Allen Broome talks exclusively to TVBEurope about his nerve-wracking introduction to the industry, and the democratisation of video
By TVBEurope Staff
Published: May 20, 2022 Updated: May 23, 2022
MediaKind CEO Allen Broome talks exclusively to TVBEurope about his nerve-wracking introduction to the industry, and the democratisation of video
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
How did you get started in the media tech industry? I spent about ten years working in telecommunications on VoIP at start-ups and Fortune 100 companies. Then, one of my close colleagues joined Comcast, and he made a few introductions on both the voice and video side of their business. The next thing I knew, I was on a flight to Philadelphia and interviewing for roles within both of those teams.
I will never forget my final interview for the video team. It was with a very well-known senior engineer who authored many cable and MPEG specifications. I remember sitting in his office sweating as he flipped through my resume for what seemed like ten minutes. Although it was printed in black and white, my interviewer's red pen notes ensured more red ink on the pages than black. Finally, he looked across the desk and said: Well, the way I see it is we could hire someone with video experience, or we could hire you. Tell me why we should hire you. I had created this story around the similarities of VoIP and Video over IP, and how they were very similar, only voice was more challenging because of the latency issues with crosstalk in a conversation. Boy, was I wrong. Video turned out to be a lot harder!
I received offers from both teams and decided to take the IP video role as it was something brand new, both for Comcast and for me. From there, I built a lab and a team that ran some of the first IP linear testing over DOCSIS.
How has it changed since you started your career? VoD was still a recent product launch at the beginning of my career, and IP video was in its infancy. There was no such thing as direct-to-consumer' (D2C) as all video was delivered through an aggregator. And Netflix was still shipping DVDs! The cloud has since taken a much more prominent role in the media and entertainment space in terms of operation, processing and media commercial and deployment. Streaming is growing exponentially in terms of how viewers and subscribers want to consume their media. It is almost unrecognisable as an industry since I took my first tentative steps into it and continues to evolve at pace. This is one of the most enjoyable parts about being part of it!
What makes you passionate about working in the industry? There isn't one single element. I have been fortunate to meet so many great people over the years who have not only been fantastic colleagues but have also become wonderful lifelong friends. Another key point is that you must be driven to tackle and solve new challenges. Video is hard. It presents some of the most difficult scaling problems in technology, whether it's Super Bowl-type live events, addressable advertising with millions of viewers hitting an SCTE-35 trigger at the same time or ultra-low latency synchronised streaming for sports betting. However, the world's leading media brands rely on innovation to respond to the demands of their viewers. It's this responsibility and trust that is hugely motivating.
If you could change one thing about the media tech industry, what would it be? On International Women's Day in March, I saw a powerful advert campaign on LinkedIn from a company in the UK. One of the ads asked the reader to imagine a CEO and another to imagine someone crying in the office. The first ad then asked, Is it a man? and the second Is it a woman? If you polled a hundred people, I doubt the response would be even close to 50/50. To make our industry more inclusive, we must first address and shatter stereotypes and unconscious gender biases that are inherently at play.
How inclusive do you think the industry is, and how can we make it more inclusive? Not nearly enough. There have been big efforts and notable improvements over the years, but meaningful change takes time, and we have a long way to go. It all starts with awareness and education. People must understand what it means and understand the value of diversity and inclusion.
I am a huge fan of the OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loop for problem-solving. The way diversity really clicked for me was when I understood the orient phase. This is where you take all the information you have gathered about a problem, and you start applying mental models to that data to understand it, matching patterns based on previous experiences. One of the key things you must do is to try and remove your own bias from these mental models or how you interpret the data, and having as much diversity as possible in this phase creates the most accurate orientation of the problem. I know there are many benefits, but I believe this is one of the fundamental ones that helps everyone learn and become better every day. Wider diversity ensures that we all have a broader perception of the world and environment around us.
How do we encourage young people that media technology is the career for them? Like everything else, it's through awareness. There is such a broad range of careers in the media space. From cameras, video editing and production, marketing, legal, finance, and all the engineering and technical roles, ranging from building better codecs, streaming protocols, and the networks that deliver video down to the devices and applications. If you really think about it and look on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc., more young people are in the media technology space than ever before. Video is truly becoming democratised.
Where do you think the industry will go next? The
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
01/10/2026
Third collaboration with celebrated composer
Spitfire Audio have once again teamed up with Grammy-nominated composer, producer and technologist BT, creating...
01/10/2026
FL Studio gets dedicated grid controller
Novation have teamed up with FL Studio developers Image-Line to create another dedicated controller for the popular...
01/10/2026
Six new USB interfaces introduced
Universal Audio's USB audio interface line-up has just been refreshed, gaining six new models aimed at musicians, prod...
01/10/2026
Siretta's SNYPER-5G cellular network analyser has been shortlisted for the IoT Global Awards 2026.
The IoT Global Awards recognise products, services and o...
01/10/2026
Mesh Broadcast Services Fits Big-Truck Audio Power into Compact Eclipse Unit with Calrec Argo M Canadian OB company Mesh Broadcast Services has fitted its Eclip...
01/10/2026
X-Rite Pantone Launches Spectura to Advance Connected Color Quality from Lab to ...
01/10/2026
Thursday 1 October 2026
Nominees revealed for 2026 Sky Arts Awards
Current slide, 0 0, undefined1
0
Irish National Opera and Jennifer Walshe: MARS
Jacob Al...
01/10/2026
Vital TV antenna replaced at SudburyHelicopter and broadcast engineers work together to upgrade TV services for 1.5M in the East
--
Share to Linkedin
Octobe...
01/10/2026
Arqiva appoints Simon Duffy as ChairSimon Duffy joins as Chair effective 01 October 2026
--
Share to Linkedin
October 1, 2026
Press Office
01 October 2026...
01/10/2026
Season 4 of the multi-award-winning hit entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back, serving up another round of unpredictable laughs, unforg...
01/10/2026
New season begins Sunday, 4 October at 6pm on RT lyric fm and RT Listen
RT lyric fm's arts and culture documentary series The Lyric Feature returns on S...
01/10/2026
RT is proud to continue its commitment to supporting and celebrating the arts across Ireland this October, highlighting a vibrant programme of theatre, music, ...
30/09/2026
Add an envelope generator to any plug-in
Sync Audio's latest creation is a handy utility plug-in that can be used to combine and modulate other effects ...
30/09/2026
All-analogue tape-style drive joins Series A
Strymon's reputation was built on their digital knowhow, so many were surprised (and intrigued) when they a...
30/09/2026
Two new expansion packs released
Sonuscore have just introduced two new expansion packs for The Pulse, its production engine instrument for modern cinematic...
30/09/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
30/09/2026
New Solution Expands Harmonic's Network Intelligence Portfolio and Brings Comcast-Developed Fiber Monitoring Technology to Broadband Operators, Providing Re...
30/09/2026
How to Shop Well Now starts Monday at 9.35pm
on RT One and RT Player
On the...
29/09/2026
Two new plug-ins launch alongside updated bundles
Zynaptiq have just announced the launch of two new plug-ins, alongside new and improved versions of two of...
29/09/2026
All-in-one bus processor revealed
Wes Audio's ng product range has come a long way since it was first introduced, and now includes a tasty selection of ...
29/09/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/09/2026
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN, OR AT ANY ADDRESS IN, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ITS TERRITO...
29/09/2026
We tend to think we live in a digital world, with hopes and fears around artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, data centres and the next big technolo...
29/09/2026
Today, in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Apple relea...
29/09/2026
Final Cut Camera, the professional filming app for iPhone, receives a major upda...
29/09/2026
RT lyric fm is proud to announce the annual Choirs for Christmas competition callout. Warm up those vocal chords and join us on RT lyric fm for a celebration ...
28/09/2026
EQ plug-in can now be played via MIDI
Scaler Music have recently released a new and improved version of their patented musical EQ plug-in, kitting it out wi...
28/09/2026
New synth developed in collaboration with philterSoup
Boutique effects pedal and Eurorack manufacturer Animal Factory Amps have announced that the new compa...
28/09/2026
Rohde & Schwarz adds an integrated multi-channel pulse analysis option to its FS...
28/09/2026
Monday 28 September 2026
Sky launches Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps for millions of homes
Sky has launched a new Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps product, rolling out from today, gi...
28/09/2026
Arvato Systems Highlights It's Role for Automotive Manufacturers and Suppliers
TISAX
Arvato Systems has successfully completed the TISAX Level 3 assess...
28/09/2026
Crimecall, presented by Carla O'Brien, returns tonight for a brand new series at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player.
In tonight's episode, alongside appe...
28/09/2026
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS AT THE HEART OF NEW IRISH WRITING
LIVE FROM POETRY IRELAND, DUBLIN AND ON RT RADIO 1 FROM 7PM
DETAILS: www.rte.ie/writing | FOLLOW: #r...
27/09/2026
New compact pedal packs in 120 effects
The latest multi-effects pedal from Boss is a compact unit that promises to give any pedalboard a massive boost in s...
26/09/2026
Launched alongside three new expansion packs
In celebration of their 30th anniversary, Native Instruments have released a major update for their Maschine 3 ...
25/09/2026
Algorithm update & new DVA vibrato-detection engine
A new flagship version of Antares' iconic pitch-correction software has arrived, and along with a co...
25/09/2026
New flagship unit to arrive in early 2027
Two notes Audio Engineering have revealed that a new and improved version of their hugely popular reactive load bo...
25/09/2026
AI-free mixing tool gets an upgrade
Launched in October 2025, Tim Exiles Finalist is an algorithmic mixing tool that's been designed for those who don&#...
25/09/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Mobile Test Summit 2026 puts the spotlight on 6G - registrations...
25/09/2026
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson reflects on IBC 2026 and considers the main learnings against an industry that saw AI finally coming out of the labs and into pr...
25/09/2026
Friday 25 September 2026
How to watch an unmissable weekend of women's football on Sky Sports and NOW
Sky Sports and NOW will broadcast seven live games f...
25/09/2026
Friday 25 September 2026
YAGA trailer released, coming exclusively to Sky and N...
25/09/2026
Watch this space: a new strategic direction for UK media. Arqiva has submitted its response to the Governments Green Paper on the future of television distribut...
25/09/2026
Want to be part of this year's Late Late Toy Show?
Final call for applications in search for this year's stars
The most wonderful night of the year is...
24/09/2026
The next generation of multitrack recording for live sound
The latest version of Waves' dedicated live multitrack recording software delivers an array ...
24/09/2026
An idea machine for musicians
Described as an idea machine for musicians , the latest addition to Polyend's growing collection of guitar pedals combin...
MediaKind CEO Allen Broome talks exclusively to TVBEurope about his nerve-wracking introduction to the industry, and the democratisation of video
