Metrological, a TV apps specialist based in the Netherlands, said it is shoring up expansions into North and South America with the appointments of industry vet Michael Pohl as strategic advisor and Wouter van Boesschoten to the post of vice president of technology.
Pohl, the company said, will aid Metrological’s business development activities in the region, while Wouter will lead the company’s technology development and head technical support for “key customers” in North America.
Pohl is currently on the board of Ascent Capital Group and ThinkAnalytics, and advised Cross MediaWorks following its acquisition of advanced ad firm BlackArrow last year. Pohl, previously chairman of BlackArrow and BigBand Networks (now part of Arris) and a board member at Imagine Communications, also was president and CEO of VOD tech pioneer nCube, which was sold to C-COR in 2004 (Arris subsequently acquired C-COR in 2007). Wouter van Boesschoten is late of VOD and video software company SeaChange, heading up solutions architecture for its set-top box/consumer premises equipment platform, Web apps and Reference Design Kit middlware. He joined SeaChange via its 2009 acquisition of eventIS.
Of recent note, Metrological announced that Liberty Global and Comcast were using a new, open-source browser enhancements designed to provide a performance boost to IP-based services and apps for set-tops that rely on the RDK software stack. Liberty Global has been adding those new elements to its RDK-based Horizon TV platform, with Comcast committing to test the browser enhancements on X1, a platform that also uses the RDK.
RDK Management LLC, the RDK joint venture, and Metrological introduced the RDK App Emulator last spring.
“Michael and Wouter have the right skillset to help us serve our existing base in the Americas and to take advantage of the tremendous opportunity for Metrological in the region,” Metrological CEO Jeroen Ghijsen said, in a statement. “The future of TV is app centric and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) are coming to us to take the next steps in their TV app strategies. They are adopting application framework technology that streamlines app deployment and gives them the flexibility to deliver personalized TV app experiences on any device.”
