2020 Speakers

Ash has been interested in DAB since purchasing a Psion Wavefinder back in 2001, leading to him working in the DAB industry from 2006. Since then Ash has managed DAB operations for GCap Media, Global Radio, Arqiva and since 2018, Nation Broadcasting. Ash has also been involved with Portsmouth based community radio station Angel Radio since 2015 helping them grow their footprint on FM and of course, DAB digital radio. Ash recently founded UK DAB Networks to apply for small scale DAB multiplexes around the UK as well as help others apply for licences.

Caleb Epps is an award-winning sound designer and audio director for games and interactive media.

Caleb got his start in game audio sound designing for the Rock Band series at Harmonix Music Systems in Boston. Over the course of the past 13 years, he’s helped shape the soundscape of a wide variety of games: from Indie to AAA, PC to console to VR.

Caleb is currently a Sound Design Manager at Facebook, where he heads up the audio direction of Facebook Horizon.

Caleb received a BA in African-American studies from Harvard University, and an MFA in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices from California Institute of the Arts.

Chloe Fletcher is a Sustainability Data Scientist at BBC Research & Development, responsible for evaluating the environmental impact of media technology and services. Prior to joining the BBC in 2019, Chloe spent four years as an operations and development lead at an environmental non-profit. She holds an MSc in Environmental Modelling and is an Associate Member of the Institution of Environmental Sciences.

Lisa Hack is a Freelance Audio Producer and Associate Lecturer in Radio at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is a trustee and steering group member for the Multitrack Audio Fellowship, a charity which is working for a better audio industry by facilitating paid placements, training & networking for emerging producers from underrepresented groups. Fellows have commissioned for three BBC Radio 4 documentaries so far. 

Multitrack is run by volunteers since 2019 and has been nominated this year for an APA for grassroots productions award.

Robin Ince is a comedian, an author, a broadcaster and a populariser of scientific ideas. The Guardian once declared him a ‘becardiganed polymath’ which seems about right.

He is probably best known as the co-host of the Sony Gold Award winning BBC Radio 4 series The Infinite Monkey Cage with Professor Brian Cox. He also co-hosts the podcast Robin and Josie’s Book Shambles, which is part of The Cosmic Shambles Network, which he also co-created. As a stand-up he has toured the world and won three Chortle Awards, the Time Out Outstanding Achievement Award and was nominated for the British Comedy Awards Best Live show.

His brainchild Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People continues to sell out theatres every Christmas, over a decade after its first appearance.

This year’s show is happening online, with your help https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ninelessons

Zoe Kleinman is a leading technology journalist and presenter with a passion for all things tech and 20 years of broadcasting experience.

From gadgets and games to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, she makes tech news accessible to a mainstream audience of millions across national and international BBC Radio, TV and online outlets including Radio 4’s Today programme, BBC Click, BBC World TV and the UK’s most watched news shows.

After twenty years producing films, TV and advertising, and coaching across the creative industries, Emily retrained in financial advising in 2016. She is passionate about using her understanding of the industry to ensure Creatives, Executives and Managers are better equipped to improve life for themselves, their families and their businesses.

Mark Patrick CEng MIET (Lead Architect, BBC Design & Engineering) started his career in the BBC in 2000 initially working for World Service and has worked on a number of major projects for the BBC including the new W1 Broadcasting House, Salford Media City and most recently the technical design for Cardiff Central Square for BBC Cymru Wales. Mark specialises in broadcast infrastructure including control systems, routing, networking, MCRs and central areas. He has driven the implementation of an ‘IP Live Core’ for Cardiff Central Square based on the latest IP for media standards including ST2110 and AES67.

Emmy Award Winning Audio Engineer and the Lead Audio Engineer for live broadcast events with the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She has worked with clients such as The Vice President of the United States, The Pope, The Prime Minister of Canada, Will Smith, Katy Perry, and many others. Alexandria is also the Chief Engineer and Producer of NASA’s “Houston We Have a Podcast “. With guests such as Astronauts, the director of NASA and the band STYX. In 2017 the podcast won PRSA’s Silver Excalibur Award in the podcast category.

Wolfgang Rein produces radio plays and music at SWR in Germany. He began using Loudness in radio production in 2012, with the ARD workgroup. He has been managing the introduction of Loudness in production at SWR since 2012.

He chairs the subgroup Loudness For Radio of EBU PLOUD at the European Broadcasting Union

Abdallah al-Salmi is a strategy analyst at the BBC World Service. He previously worked in the Middle East as a journalist and a translator and then later at BBC Monitoring as an Arabic Media Analyst.

Sharif Shahwan is an ARIA-nominated producer who started his career in 1993 at hospital radio before moving into commercial radio and then joining the BBC in 2002.
He has worked across a broad range of radio, TV, and digital content, plus a number of BBC Technology projects.
Most recently, he has been a project producer representing BBC Radio Wales in the design and installation of radio facilities at the new BBC Cymru Wales headquarters at Cardiff Central Square.

As a guest university lecturer, smart tech enthusiast, trainer and futurologist, Robin travels extensively promoting the potential of digital technology, inclusive design and inclusive organisational culture. His current interests include smart speakers, wearables, artificial intelligence and smart mobility. Robin was honoured to participate in the Olympic torch relay at the 2018 winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. 

Paola Sunna joined the Centre for Research & Technology  Innovation of RAI, the Italian public broadcaster, in 1997 after getting her degree in Electronic Engineering at Politecnico of Torino.

She has worked on a wide variety of video projects over the years spent at RAI, including: image processing, video coding, next generation video formats, multimodal user-interfaces, hybrid broadcast and broadband middleware, second screens apps, standards (DVB, MPEG, etc) and 3D computer graphics. She got a MBA in 2005. In March 2017, she moved to the EBU Technology and Innovation Department as Senior Project Manager. At the EBU  she was involved in the activities related to VR (Virtual reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) and currently is focusing on next generation audio services, newsroom workflows and 5G for professional media content production. She is the coordinator of the EBU groups dealing with sound-related topics.

Chris started out at talkSPORT seven years ago (when it was just talkSPORT!). During that time he was involved in launching talkSPORT2, talkRADIO and Virgin Radio UK, heading up all of Virgin Radio’s live and recorded band sessions, both in house and out on the road. Since then he headed up the relocation and relaunch of all 4 stations, including launching Virgin Anthems, Virgin Chilled, and relocating three Scottish Sun music stations to The News Building and the launch of Times Radio this year. He used to have a lot more hair….

Andy is the Head of Product for the BBC’s Voice + AI team managing all the BBC’s Voice activities, from publishing content on Alexa and Google home to the new Songbird service recently launched in collaboration with Global News, to beeb, the end-to-end demonstrator of how conversational technology will change the way audiences engage with the BBC.

Ann is a radio producer-turned broadcast engineer who specialises in all things studios and workflow. Equally happy making programmes as running broadcast infrastructure projects, her career so far has included 12 years at the BBC, teaching journalism in New Zealand and training broadcast engineers and producers in South Sudan. She also travels the world as the workflow consultant for Broadcast Bionics. After several years as a volunteer, she formed TBC Media Ltd. with two friends to take over the running of Radio TechCon in 2016. Outside of work, Ann can be found fitting parents with baby slings, drinking gin, and eating chocolate (not necessarily all at once.)

Aradhna runs Clockhouse Media working across broadcasting, media, film and events. She formerly worked at the BBC for 12 years, which she joined as a radio engineer, looking after the studios and production areas for the BBC’s national radio networks. Aradhna subsequently trained engineers and technical staff on new studios, systems and workflows in the purpose built broadcasting centres at Media City UK, Salford and New Broadcasting House, London. She led a number of large-scale projects, including the launch of national television channels for the BBC’s coverage of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and led the technology strategy for BBC Archives, managing their project portfolio. Aradhna now works with a number of clients on projects including broadcast project management, digital and diversity engagement strategy and media event production.