This former “pirate” started his first company when he was just 18, he is a movie aficionado, and this year he is coming to NEM in Dubrovnik to tell us how he has become one of the most successful young entrepreneurs and innovators in Europe. Ladies and gentlemen – Arash Pendari.
Born in Iran, but raised in Sweden, Arash Pendari is owner of Vionlabs, a company which improves user experience for all movie and TV enthusiasts. His company collects all movie, TV and VOD content and enables users to be exposed to content they are interested in, thanks to a special technology.
At NEM 2018, held from 11 to 14 June in Dubrovnik, Pendari will hold a presentation named “Math and art” where he will address the development of artificial intelligence in the movie and TV industry and how artificial intelligence is today used in different ways to improve user experience, personal data and metadata.
In his speeches this young entrepreneur often points out that his start was based on a huge VHS movie collection that soon developed into a DVD movie collection.
“I am an old pirate”, he often says not hiding the fact that for years he worked for illegal movie services, before he decided to turn over a new leaf. He realised that entertainment today is a very important segment of our lives – but he noticed a lot of problems in the industry as well. Still, through his enthusiasm and skill to find customer centred solutions, combined with his passion for movies and TV content, in 2010 he succeeded in turning his ideas into reality under the moto: “Save time searching, spend it watching!”
Pendari has ample experience in media and game development as well, with special emphasis on special effects. He also won the Golden phone award in 2013 for the most innovative mobile solutions. We wanted to know how come the gaming industry fights illegal content downloading more efficiently that the TV and movie industry.
„A good platform can set a system which offers a better experience than piracy. But gaming piracy is different that the movie piracy because the game is difficult to copy, and you need certain skills to do that. For movies and TV it is enough to merely download content. A lot of SVOD services have terrific platforms, but there is still a lot of work ahead to provide users with the experience they deserve”, Pendari explains the difference between the gaming industry and the TV industry piracy.
Pendari also explained what the audience is most interested in 2018:
“The audience wants more depth and thought in the story, thanks to productions such as Marvel Universe and Game of Thrones. The audience has taste and understands how important and huge the experience is when someone invests over ten years in production. Creation of these kinds of series and movies was not possible without the new ways of global exchange and distribution, and will keep pushing the industry forward. Also, there will be increasingly more content and this will lead to higher demands for presenting the materials relevant for you. I think that in the next three years the customer will not accept a non-personalised service which doesn’t broadcast content you can enjoy”, concludes Pendari.
This year’s edition of NEM surpassed all expectations even before it started, and the hotel accommodation within the NEM package is sold out a month and a half before the event. You can still get your accreditations via www.neweumarket.com. Warner Bros., NBC Universal, AMC Networks International and FOX Networks Group confirmed they would be there – you do that today!
