Sam Pemberton

Group CEO, The Softel Group

Sam Pemberton is CEO of The Softel Group, and as such is responsible for creating the vision and strategic direction for the company. The Softel Group owns three highly successful media technology companies; Aston Broadcast (originally formed in 1978), Softel Limited (founded 1983), and Softel-USA, LLC (established 2001). The companies supply a range of advanced technology to the media sector, including high-end 3D broadcast graphics systems, interactive TV solutions, and ancillary data systems. Pemberton founded Softel-USA in California in 2001, and the company quickly grew to become the leading supplier of “ancillary data” products to the broadcast sector. The company is also renowned for its MediaSphere interactive television and IPTV brand. The Group has two US offices (New York and Denver), and two UK-based facilities (Reading and Sandhurst). Pemberton was elevated to CEO of the Group in 2006 and lives in Reading. He holds Bachelor degrees in Computer Science and in Economics from Manchester (England) and an MBA from Reading (England). Specialties: Interactive TV (iTV), particularly the following standards: ACAP, ETV-ebif, MHP, MHEG, OCAP, OpenTV eXtended Data Services (XDS) and Captioning, in particular: DVD subtitling, vChip and other XDS transmission, EIA-508 (webcasting), EIA608 (standard def), EIA708 (high-def), WST Teletext