Avner Ronen, CEO and co-founder of Boxee, will delivery the keynote address April 10 during the Disruptive Media Conference, part of the 2013 NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Ronen and four friends conceived of Boxee in 2004 while using Xbox Media Center, 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 in 2007 imagined a way to take the platform further, founding Boxee.
Ronen and a team of 11 others 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. Since then, Boxee has released two branded consumer electronic devices dedicated to running the Boxee software. Currently, with Boxee’s newest device, Boxee TV, the company has introduced an unlimited cloud DVR, blending live TV integration with OTT streaming services.
Under Ronen’s leadership, Boxee has won numerous awards since its founding, including the 2008 Consumer Electronics Association's Innovation award, G4’s Best of the Best products of CES in 2009 and 2010’s Last Gadget Standing.
Prior to co-founding Boxee, Ronen was the head of Corporate Development and M&A for Comverse.
The Disruptive Media Conference provides a forum for professionals who oversee the digital and interactive divisions within their companies to explore developments in online video, mobile and branded entertainment. The two half-day programs, April 10-11, cover disruptive media, as well as more traditional OTT technologies, and how these are impacting business models for distribution and consumer engagement.
