Imagine Communications appoints Sky Deutschland’s standards director

Imagine Communications has appointed long-serving Sky Deutschland executive, Stephan Heimbecher, as its new international director of consulting services.

Stephan Heimbecher

Heimbecher will lead a team of industry experts focused on collaborating with customers to solve what Imagine described as “significant challenges that currently face the broadcast and media industries”.

He will help develop migration strategies for Imagine’s customers, with the company focused on innovation around IP production and playout, hybrid and IP facility implementation, cloud and virtualised playout and distribution, and multiplatform delivery and operations across traditional and OTT platforms.

Heimbecher joins from Sky where he has spent the past 16 years working on standards and technology, latterly as director of innovations and standards. He has a total of 25 years broadcast industry experience and started out as a research associate at the Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT).

For the past 20 years he has been involved in the development of standards as a member of the DVB Steering Board through SMPTE and more recently the ITU and IEC, as well as other standards bodies and industry associations including the UHD Alliance and the Ultra HD Forum.

“We are delighted to welcome Stephan to the Imagine Communications team, and we look forward to seeing him lead our new consulting initiatives in APAC and EMEA and reinforcing the IP experience we have already gained through the deployment of a significant number of projects around the world,” said Mathias Eckert, SVP and GM, EMEA/APAC, playout and networking solutions, at Imagine Communications.

“As one of the broadcast industry’s IP transformation market leaders, Imagine Communications, under the guidance and creativity of Stephan, looks forward to offering even more services to help guide and educate our APAC and EMEA customers as they move along on their journey to IP, wherever they are in their transition process.”