President
General Secretary
Cathy Huis in t'veld Esser
Cathy Huis in ‘t veld-Esser is CTO and co-owner of Gofilex. Up to 1998 Cathy worked internationally for leading software companies in the field of transportation and warehousing. After this, Cathy successfully founded her own IT Company specialized in integration and workflow-driven solutions. As of 2005, Cathy took care of the state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary ICT architecture and software development of Gofilex. First of all, with fully RFID supported logistic & warehouse services.Followed by (as of 2009) today’s World wide specialized digital content delivery network: ODD (Organized Digital Delivery network), including additional services solutions. In 2011 Cathy started to developed the very high quality and error-free streaming solution for live-, semi live- and encore events for cinemas. For this, the digital delivery workflow is very much optimized, using the ODD network. Now Gofilex handles electronic delivery in +2200 cinemas and on average 3 live events weekly to cinemas in more than 20 countries.
Juergen Burghardt was Managing Director of FKTG e.V., Owner of BCT Broadcast Consultancy & Training, Germany and a member of the advisory board for media at technical University in Ilmenau, Thuringia, Germany.
Before that he held several management positions at Sony Professional in Europe, was Head of Key Account Management for the Broadcast and Professional Video Market in Germany, Sen.-Manager BC strategy and market development, Head of Marketing, a Product Group Manager, Senior Trainer and Application engineer for professional Audio Recording Studios.
His former professional activities include: Board member of FKTG, a German association for TV and cinema engineers and member of several other professional working groups and associations, Assistant Lecturer at University of Applied Science in Wiesbaden for students of “media-economics”, lecturer for “Video Production Technologies” at University of applied science in Cologne and is the author of “The handbook of professional video recorders”.
Vice President
Treasurer
Patrick von Sychowski, an industry veteran with 25 years of experience, has been elected Vice President of the EDCF, succeeding Julian Pinn. Patrick has an extensive background in cinema business development and analysis, having worked with major companies such as Unique Digital, Deluxe, and CinemaNext. He was also a co-founder and editor of Celluloid Junkie, a prominent publication covering the global cinema industry. His deep knowledge of the sector and commitment to its growth will be invaluable to EDCF in his new role.
Tammo Buhren is CEO of zweiB GmbH and Vandors GmbH. A seasoned event engineer and entrepreneur, Tammo has been a key figure in cinema technology since founding zweiB GmbH in 2003. His companies support a wide array of cinema-related projects, from film premieres to tradeshow installations, and provide integrative cinema solutions through Vandors GmbH, a company acquired in 2023.
Board Members
Born on July 20, 1967, USSR.
University degrees in audio-visual engineering and economics (St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television, 2006 and St. Petersburg National Open University, 2016) Active researcher, lecturer and educator on the technology and economics of the contemporary motion picture exhibition industry. The main area of professional interest is a concept of the Film Industry 4.0 as next-generation technology of the object-based media over IP.
Author of the monograph “Major Cycles and Market Conjuncture of Film Exhibition”. A recipient of the Cinema Expo 2007 Award of appreciation for the achievements in the cinema industry” for the contribution to the development of Digital Cinema in Russia.
In 2011 and 2016, named “Man of the Year in Cinema Industry” by the “Cinema Industry Today” magazine (Russia). Married, 5 kids.
Steve LLamb is currently the VP, Media Technology Standards at Deluxe. Over the past 15+ years during his time at both Deluxe and Technicolor, he has been heavily involved in the development and rollout of concepts, workflows, and standards for both DCinema and IMF mastering, packaging, exhibition, distribution, and key management. He helped manage the global alignment all of Deluxe’s processes for DCinema delivery, including launching their global proprietary Mastering and Packaging toolset currently in use, CIPHER. He serves as a top-level SME for both Deluxe’s internal personal and Hollywood clients, as well as within various industry standards organizations and technology committees, such as SMPTE and ISDCF. He is a current co-chair of SMPTE 21DC (Digital Cinema), chair of the Immersive Audio Drafting Group in 21DC, and Convenor of ISO TC-36/WG 1 (Production Technology).
His prior experience was in multiple areas of Post Production and Media, such as Film & Audio Editing, Image Processing & Compression, VFX, Audio Recording & Mixing, Multimedia, and Web & Graphic Design. Having always been obsessed with rapid evolving technology and photography, he also holds a degree in Computer Animation.
With over 15 years of experience in cinema technology and design, Robert has held various prominent roles in the industry. His career includes senior positions at ODEON Cinemas Group, such as Head of Construction for the Nordics, Baltics, and Germany, where he managed multi-million-euro projects and led teams in delivering state-of-the-art cinema facilities.
As CTO of Norway’s largest cinema chains, Odeon Kino and the former Oslo Kino, Robert played a pivotal role in implementing Norway’s first fully digital cinema in 2008. He later served as CEO of the Norwegian branch of Unique, leading the organization for several years.
Currently, Robert is the Senior Advisor for Cinema Design and Technology at the Norwegian cinema organization Film & Kino. He also consults internationally on design and construction projects through Cineconsult LTD.
Laura Houlgatte
Julian Pinn is as an audio and imaging specialist, technologist, innovator, and consultant with over two decades of experience in the media entertainment technology space. He has provided consultancy to hundreds of international film productions over their techno-artistic optimization for the cinema medium, often following the film through from post-production to theatrical distribution and exhibition. Julian is also a respected senior business development and sales & marketing executive with extensive international experience in leading teams of engineers, sales, and marketing professionals. Julian is a Fellow and an active standards member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. He is the Chair of the British Standards Institute standards committee for Cinematography, the past Chair of the ISO standards committee for Cinematography, and is the current convenor for the ISO working group on cinema audio. Julian is a full voting member of BAFTA, is a board director of the EDCF, and is the Chair of Audio Engineering Society’s Technical Committee for cinema audio. He holds an Honours degree in Music and Sound Recording from the University of Surrey’s Tonmeister program and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) specializing in international marketing and global finance. Julian is the founder of Julian Pinn Ltd, a company that provides bespoke cloud-based content-optimization services and strategic consultancy to a wide range of international cinema and media clients.
Past president, David Hancock is a leading expert on the global film and cinema market and played a fundamental role in the conversion of cinemas to digital projection and distribution technology over the past decade. Leading Omdia’s cinema team, he has set up the cinema intelligence service and the premium cinema service, most recently.
David has authored reports on the cinema market and participated in consultancy projects. He specializes in new business models, market sizing and valuation, competitor analysis and benchmarking, strategic roadmaps, due diligence, and market analyses.
Jerry Axelson
SFI, SE
Jan Runge
Jan is a strategy advisor with 25 years of experience supporting business growth and stakeholder engagement in the entertainment and technology sectors. With expertise spanning public, private, government, and start-up organizations, Jan has worked with global companies as well as trade bodies and government agencies across Europe.
As CEO of the European cinema trade body UNIC, Jan successfully revitalized the organization by establishing a strong presence in Brussels, building an advocacy platform representing cinema owners in 32 countries.
Currently, next to his role with the EDCF, Jan serves as Vice President International at the International Cinema Technology Association (ICTA).
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Wout Vander Elst
Wout Vander Elst is Product Manager Audio & Image at CinemaNext.
Focussing on new and existing technologies and products is his main responsibility with the cinema integrator. Furthermore he oversees internal trainings for both the technical and commercial teams.
He has been active in the AV industry for more than 20 years, in a variety of positions, starting out in the field of live events, both as a freelance engineer and later as material planner and head of the sound department. In 2014, he joins AED Group, a European AV distributor, as product specialist, giving trainings and support all over the continent. His specialty lies in control- and AV-over-IP networks. From early 2019, he led an engineering team during the development and bring-to-market phase of a new active speaker line. In 2021 he joins CinemaNext.
Wout is an EDCF board member as of 2022
Radoslav Markov
Radoslav Markov is a long time developper of new technologies in the domain of digital Cinema and video/film restoration. He is member of many professional organizations like french CST, AES,SMPTE (voting member of Standards technology committees).DCS, IASA. His main goal is to introduce more of pure science in the domain of cinema technology. He is a frequent speaker not only to strictly cinema technology events, but also on large areas of scientific and film/video restoration conferences like No Time to Wait, ARRI Archival workshop, Photonex etc.