Avner Ronen
WASHINGTON— Avner Ronen, CEO and co-founder of Boxee, Inc., will deliver the keynote address to the upcoming 2013 NAB Show’s Disruptive Media Conference on Wednesday, April 10, 1:45 – 2:15 p.m. in Las Vegas.
Previous speakers include Ben Silverman, founder and chairman of multimedia studio Electus; Philip DeBevoise, president and co-founder, Machinima and Chloe Sladden, director of Media Partnerships, Twitter.
Ronen and four friends came up with the idea for Boxee after they began using Xbox Media Center, the open source software for the original Xbox that allowed people to play digital media on their TVs. They became members of XBMC’s open source community and founded Boxee in order to expand the platform in 2007.
Ronen and a team worked to extend the base code for XBMC with online sources like Netflix and YouTube as well as incorporate social networking into Boxee, which became available as free software for users to download and run on a home theater PC. The company has since released two branded consumer electronic devices dedicated to running the software. Boxee TV, the company’s newest product, features an unlimited cloud DVR, blending live TV integration with streaming services.
Named one of Rolling Stone’s Top Agents of Change, Ronen strives to make personalized, Internet-delivered TV a reality.
Ronen previously was the head of corporate development and M&A for Comverse, Inc., a provider of software and services to telecom service providers. Ronen joined Comverse in 2002, after the acquisition of Odigo, an early instant messaging service company he co-founded in 1998. Prior to that, Ronen served in the Israeli Defense Force in the special computer unit, MAMRAM.
The Disruptive Media Conference is sponsored by Adobe Primetime, Cypress and Telx and produced in partnership with Digital Media Wire. The two half-day programs also cover more traditional OTT technologies and how these impact business models for distribution and consumer engagement.
