After three years of experience with Belgacom TV, a complete digital TV offering over a DSL infrastructure, Belgacom looks back at the technical and content challenges it faced in order to prepare for the future.

Items that will be discussed by this panel include the following:

• The impact on technology and how technology providers are evolving to support the increased demand of service providers to counter technical challenges
• The increasing customer expectations in terms of interactivity, quality, and "integration" of content in multi-platform environments
• The overall impact this (r)evolution has on the broadband community, the way people "look" at content, the interactive part of the IDTV offering
• The answer of content production companies and broadcaster by delivering new formats

The panel brings together industry leaders in both domestic and international markets and should give attendees a good insight into the challenges of bringing IDTV to the market. In conclusion, there will be an open discussion on how the next TV experience will look and what could prevent companies from getting there.

Jean-Charles De Keyser Vice President Integrated Media Unit & CEO Belgacom Skynet Belgacom TV

Mr. De Keyser is Vice President of the Integrated Media Unit/BelgacomTV. In this capacity, his mission will be to implement Belgacom's media and content initiatives within the framework of BelgacomTV. Mr. De Keyser joined Belgacom on September 1st, 2005 as executive chairman of the board of Skynet/Belgacom TV. As of 2005 he was nominated executive vice president for Benelux, Eastern Europe and Radio at the RTL Group. In 1997, as chief executive officer of RTL Klub, Mr. De Keyser started the Commercial TV Station in Hungary. He became president of RTL Netherlands, RTL Croatia, and board member of M6 France. In 1987 Mr. De Keyser launched RTL-TVI which was a huge success. In a short time, RTL-TVI became the first TV station in the French speaking part of Belgium. In 1991, he also launched successfully the radio station Bel RTL. Mr. De Keyser started his career in 1970 as journalist at RTL Radio in Brussels. In 1979 he became head of news at RTL Television in Belgium and presented the 7:00 pm news from 1982 till 1987.

Wim Coessens Head of Digital Media VRT

Mr. Coessens' current responsibility is to coordinate all of VRT's Internet, IDTV, and mobile activities. In January 2007 he became the general coordinator of the International Film Festival of Flanders Ghent but left the festival the same year to become the managing director of VRT's Radio 1 (PSB). Prior to that, Mr. Coessens worked as a translator and journalist for the Flemish newspaper De Morgen, writing about science, technology, and foreign affairs. In 1994 he took up a staff position with the newspaper, became its managing editor in 2001 and its general manager in 2002. He started his career teaching English at the East-Flanders Institute for Translators and Interpreters in Ghent and at Ghent University. Mr. Coessens holds a master's degree in conference interpreting and studied corporate management at Vlerick Gent-Leven Management School.

Nick Fielibert Chief Technical Officer SPVTG EMEA and AP and Principal Engineer Cisco

Mr. Fielibert is responsible for developing and directing the technical road map and the systems architectures for Cisco SPVTG products in the two regions, as well as solutions strategies for the European and Asian markets. He has been working with Scientific-Atlanta for almost 20 years. His areas of focus include developing cutting-edge technologies to provide innovative ways of delivering increasing amounts of content such as new IP-based digital distribution systems.

Myles MacBean General Manager, Online and Interactive TV Service Walt Disney Company

Mr. MacBean is also head of technology for Disney's connected media services outside the United States. Before Disney, Mr. MacBean worked in various roles in the telecom and Internet market, culminating in his leadership of BT's eCommerce product division.

Tiaan Schutte General Manager, Software Service Platform, Networks, and Integration Solutions Thomson

Mr. Schutte is responsible for Thomson's IPTV, Mobile TV platform, and voice (NGN and IMS) activities. Prior to joining Thomson, he managed Alcatel-Lucent Multimedia and Alcatel's Information, Communication, and Entertainment business units, where he also held both product line management and R&D management positions. Before joining Alcatel in 2003, Mr. Schutte held key management positions at Thirdspace Living (acquired by Alcatel in April 2003), nCUBE Corporation, Broadcast Projects International, and Mindport MCT. He further contributed at Canal+ Technologies and Irdeto Consultants in R&D and portfolio management.

Thomas Werner Head of the Applications Products Practice, Consulting and System Integration Business Nokia Siemens Networks

Dr. Werner is responsible for all the application platforms, comprising mobile TV, IPTV, browsing, and messaging, as well as IMS-based rich communication services. His most recent positions were head of mobile solutions and head of business development at the mobile networks division of Siemens Communications. Before joining Siemens, Dr. Werner worked for Philips Communication Systems in IT, R&D, and corporate development functions in Germany and Belgium. In all, he has almost 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, both in the fixed and the mobile network sectors.