SOMEONE YOU SHOULD KNOW Thomas Stockhammer – Qualcomm

Posted on March 6, 2017 in ATSC News

Dr. Thomas Stockhammer is the Technical Standards Director at Qualcomm. He leads the efforts to define the ATSC 3.0 profile for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, better known as “DASH.”  In addition to his role in TG3-6 DASH-IF ad hoc group, he’s also active in various TG3 Technology Group specialist and ad hoc groups, including S33 (Management and Protocols),  S33 (Service Delivery and Synchronization) and S34-2 (Audio).

Stockhammer has contributed and led work in 3GPP, MPEG, DASH-IF and DVB to support the standardization of video and TV services distributed over non-traditional networks and infrastructures.

“This includes over-the-top distribution as well as video services over cellular networks, especially Internet distribution as well as LTE Broadcast,” he says.  “As the ATSC addressed 3.0 convergence with the new media ecosystem, I was invited to join this exciting endeavor, too, and I’ve since tried to help make this brilliant idea a success.”

BRING BROAD INDUSTRY EXPERTISE TO ATSC

Stockhammer finished high school and military services in Germany and began studying electrical engineering and information technology at Munich University of Technology – “not because of my engineering genes, but because I viewed information technology as a way to make a living based on my math interests,” he says.

Over his career, Stockhammer has published roughly 200 papers. He co-founded Novel Mobile Radio (NoMoR) Research, where he served as CEO for 10 years, working with different industry partners in Europe, North America and Asia. 

In 2014, he accepted an offer from Qualcomm Technologies to join QSIO, the Qualcomm Standards and Industry Organization team. Since then, he has worked as a Technical Standards Director to evangelize the convergence of telecommunication and TV industry towards unified and new experiences.

Along with his ATSC activities, Stockhammer holds leadership and rapporteur positions in 3GPP, DVB, MPEG, IETF, CTA, the VR Industry Forum and the DASH-Industry Forum “all basically focused on multimedia communication, TV-distribution, content delivery protocols, virtual reality and adaptive streaming,” he explains.

CREATING EXCITING NEW CONSUMER EXPERIENCES

He admits he doesn’t watch a lot of American television.  “Whenever I do so, it’s typically some live sports either in the hotel or a bar,” he says, adding that he is impressed by the quality of the live production and distribution. 

He sees the consumption of TV behavior changing with the focus not only on the big screen, but smaller mobile screens as well. “You follow stats, social networks, other scores and possibly even transform the service to your mobile phone. ATSC 3.0 will enable much better and more seamless integration of TV services into a connected world, for the benefit of the consumer and the content provider.

Says Stockhammer: “ATSC 3.0 not only defines the base technologies, but also it will enable the artists of content producers to create completely new experiences – things you can’t even think of today; 3.0 means many more Web experiences around premium TV content.”

He and his wife, Christina, have two kids, Lisa and Max, who live in the countryside, about 15 miles West of Salzburg and 60 miles East of Munich, in the Bavarian Alps. They can often be found hiking and biking in the mountains and swimming in fresh mountain lakes near their home.  Stockhammer also stays active by playing soccer, tennis and volleyball.

Posted in ATSC News