technology - cv and bio

bio

Maria Ingold is Head of Technology for FilmFlex Movies, the UK’s leading on demand film service, co-owned by Sony and Disney. With only 13 staff FilmFlex has a turnover of £40M and aggregates and digitally distributes films from 36 movie suppliers, including all the major studios and most of the independent distributors. Though Virgin Media cable television, its on demand films reach 3.5 million homes with over 1 million rentals per month.

FilmFlex also supports independent and young filmmakers by showcasing nominations for film competitions such as First Light Movies and Virgin Media Shorts.

A colleague once described her as "the designer of the future of FilmFlex". Maria recently delivered an end-to-end tape-based and tapeless SD and HD architecture and workflow. This system allows FilmFlex cost-effective, flexible, accurate and fast delivery to its existing and future partners.

Maria mentors through UKRC SET and is called upon to speak on film, video on demand and the role of women in technology in Britain. She enjoys writing and provides case studies of her experience to companies including Skillset.

For her diverse experience Maria was headhunted in 2002 to join BAFTA’s specialist Interactive Entertainment Committee. She is now a full voting member and has since also joined the "Film Not in the English Language Chapter", as she speaks both Japanese and Spanish.

A quarter of a century ago Maria’s interests led her to the unprecedented combined study of Computer Science and Fine Art. Now she has 18 years of experience across interactive multimedia, new media, games, TV and film.

Cutting her teeth on the beginnings of PC-based multimedia at IBM, Maria worked on early sound editing and video encoding and playback software. She then moved into computer game technology, working first on a game development kit for IBM and then for Ocean Software (a.k.a. Atari) on a 3D shoot-em-up game.

Pushing games technology into a new realm, Maria was the Technical Director for Andreas Whittam Smith’s company Notting Hill Electronic Publishers on sound-reactive visualisation software used for band world tours and nightclubs. At Razorfish, she worked on Interactive TV. She then moved into interactive 3D and video database-driven new media as Technical Director for Digital Arts.

Prior to joining FilmFlex, as the Head of IT and Development for OnMedica, Maria delivered on demand multimedia presentations to GPs on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry.

Maria has amassed a large amount of in-depth experience and understanding across a wide range of interactive and visual technologies for both blue chip and niche clients. This gives her a unique perspective in industry to see how disparate technologies across distinct companies can interrelate.

In her free time, Maria does extreme sports, paints in watercolour and oils, occasionally makes short films, and is on the 4th draft a graphic novel that she hopes to publish one day. She and her 18-year old cat meandered across the pond from New Mexico 13 years ago. They are both dual-nationals and love living in London, but do miss the hot dry summers.