The Euro50 Q&A: Julien Signès, Envivio

Envivio, founded and led by Julien Signès, has over the last few years emerged as an industry leader in compression for mobile video and adaptive bit-rate streaming.

Age 41

Education Ecole Polytechnique and Telecom, Paris, in Software and Electrical Engineering.

Previous positions Prior to co-founding Envivio, I was with France Telecom and Orange, focusing on new multimedia services and MPEG-4 technology and strategy. I actively participated in the ISO standardisation process to develop the MPEG-4 standard.

Last year’s highlights In 2011, Envivio significantly strengthened our market leadership and achieved excellent financial results – at IBC we announced that revenues nearly doubled for the period from February 1-July 31 compared to the previous. We also announced exciting new customers and projects, including nearly 40 new customers and projects with Belgacom, Orange France and Stofa.

Most significant industry developments The entire industry has embraced the “TV without boundaries” vision that Envivio has been advocating for quite some time. Operators understand the importance of extending their video services to any device, whether that’s a TV, PC, tablet, smartphone or other iOS/Android device, and we have been busy working with many of them to ensure high quality video to any screen, any time.

Goals 2012 Our goal is to keep driving the evolution of multi-screen. We want to continue helping our customers deliver the best possible quality video, as efficiently as possible, in the many formats required for anytime, anywhere consumption. Envivio is continuing to lead this segment of the industry, as demonstrated not only by financial results, but also our technology innovations.  Most recently, we have extended our software-based architecture to the IT datacenter, and introduced solutions such as advanced advertising capabilities for mobile devices and HTTP stream processing at the edge of the network. Look for more innovation and exciting new solutions as we move into 2012.

Industry challenges and opportunities The world of TV and video is changing rapidly. Service providers need to not only launch their multi-screen services, but they also need to monetise those services and provide compelling, high value content to consumers in a way that is easy to use. Competition for the subscriber continues to be fierce, while new formats and standards continue to emerge.

Alternative career choice Architect.

Most admired personality Steve Jobs for his amazing vision and ability to drive technology innovation and leadership.

Live outside work Travel…I do lots of it for my job and for fun. I enjoy scuba diving, cooking and photography.