BCS Edinburgh Branch

TiVo – Creating a Revolution in Home Entertainment

The BCS Edinburgh Branch Sidney Michaelson Memorial Lecture (about Sidney Michaelson)

In partnership with the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Wednesday 11th April 2007, 6:00 pm.

Speaker: Michael Ramsay, TiVo co-founder

Venue: National Museum of Scotland - Lecture Theatre

Admission by ticket only - available from the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Synopsis

In August of 1997, Mike Ramsay, along with his colleague Jim Barton, founded TiVo Inc. The two entrepreneurs shared a vision to revolutionize television viewing by giving people the ability to watch what they wanted, whenever they wanted. Ramsay and Barton invented the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and, when TiVo launched in March 1999, it created a sensation. Consumers who bought TiVo proclaimed that it not only improved the quality of their television viewing experience, but that it actually changed their lives. TiVo put viewers in control -- they could pause live television, fast-forward through commercials, and--because TiVo automatically recorded their favorite shows--they were no longer forced to watch TV on the networks' schedules. What Mr. Ramsay and Mr. Barton introduced into the US television landscape was one very disruptive technology.

The television networks were unanimously threatened by this single innovation and perceived it as a potential death-knell for their industry. They responded with aggressive efforts to destroy TiVo as quickly as possible. Yet despite these efforts of the media industry, TiVo's massive consumer appeal led the company to succeed and flourish. TiVo went on to become the leader in DVR technology, went public in 1999, and today boasts over 4 million subscribers . TiVo is one of the best-loved media brands in the US, and DVRs are now established as an indispensable element of TV viewing.

Mr. Ramsay will share his very first-hand view on TiVo’s history from Silicon Valley start-up to high-growth public company. His lecture will address his experience in building a company that had to take on the gigantic media industry in its earliest stages of development. He'll share how TiVo was able to turn a good idea and a passion to achieve something important into a growing business, and he'll discuss the challenges inherent in creating powerful technology that's easy enough for anyone to use and enjoy. His address will also reflect on how a company can appear larger than life so that it can survive and raise the capital necessary to compete and grow. Mr. Ramsay will also discuss the importance of building a company culture that inspires its employees to excel, to compete, and to stay ahead in the marketplace. This keynote will be an inside story, not only of TiVo, but also of Silicon Valley’s love/hate relationship with Hollywood--a relationship as tenuous today as it was when TiVo hit the scene in 1999.

About the Speaker

Michael Ramsay pioneered the TiVo technology that is changing the world of home entertainment - the culmination of a lifetime of innovation in computer graphics, workstations and consumer software technologies. In 1997 he co-founded Teleworld, which became TiVo Inc., the company that invented, developed and delivered the very first digital video recorder (DVR). Michael Ramsay is a native of Edinburgh. He received a BSc (First Class Honours) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh in 1972. In 1975 he moved to California's Silicon Valley to pursue a career opportunity with Hewlett- Packard. Ramsay was a senior executive at Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI), from 1986-1997. In 1994 he became president of Silicon Studio, a subsidiary of SGI that he founded to pioneer the development of 3D graphics technology that revolutionized the movie and game industries. Ramsay's products were used to create the special effects and 3D animations for movies such as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2 and other blockbusters. The technology has enabled animators and special effects artists to create realistic and compelling experiences, impossible to duplicate in any other way - to the delight of movie audiences worldwide.