Arthur Esch -- Communications Pioneer Advisor -- Keynote Speaker
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Overview
Arthur Esch is an authority on digital and analog communications networks. He invented unique and patented processes for the delivery of television and television-like customized content over diverse networks; including satellite, cable television, telephone land lines, wireless, and hybrid networks.
Arthur Esch was a leader in two of the most important pioneering events in digital communications. In the early 1980s, Mr. Esch led a team that built and marketed the first high-speed digital network to personal computers. In the early 1990’s, before the announcement of the World Wide Web, Arthur Esch partnered with NBC and IBM to create the first digital television network.
Today, Arthur Esch is a strategic advisor to organizations worldwide. He focuses on communications; digital television services; multimedia businesses; marketing Internet-based offerings; and the integration of electronic business with traditional business models.
Mr. Esch is a widely known as the “Father of Desktop News”; and is the leading pioneer in bringing personalized news and television-like content to PCs. His United States Patent 5,283,639 for “Video Information Delivery Method’ is the basis for site specific delivery of multimedia content.
Mr. Esch’s Patents, with more than sixty individual claims, covered television and television like communications through computer and television networks, using both digital and analog signals to deliver customized content.
In a career that spans four decades, Mr. Esch has been involved in numerous start-up operations; IPO’s; the launching of dozens of communications networks; the raising of millions of dollars; and the sale of a number of business entities.
Mr. Esch’s experience spans traditional communications networks; cable television; satellite; wireless; and a variety of hybrid networks. He has enjoyed long-term working relationships with British Telecom, Tribune Companies, IBM, and NBC. Mr. Esch’s accomplishments uniquely qualify him as a global expert on communications, television, and electronic business.
In addition to his career as a corporate advisor, Mr. Esch is an internationally known professional speaker. His specialty is translating complicated, emerging technologies in to every day business language for executives. Because of his broad background in both computing and communications, Arthur Esch uses a totally interactive style; allowing audience members to ask any question anytime. This popular approach has made Mr. Esch a favorite with executive audiences worldwide.
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Chronology
Arthur Esch’s chronological highlights include:
In the 1960s, Mr. Esch graduated from Penn State with a degree in Finance; then graduated from the Navy’s Supply Corps School in Athens, Georgia; and served his active duty time on the Presidential Command Ship, the USS Northampton. Upon completion of his military service, Mr. Esch joined Electronic Data Systems. He was one of the early graduates of the Systems Engineering Program and built some of the first analytical systems for a Wall Street Research Department.
In the 1970s, Mr. Esch pioneered the business of licensing computer software as the base for commercial computer applications. He participated in the design and creation of the first real-time transaction processing platform running on mainframe IBM computers. This revolutionary software provided an easy path to delivering on-line applications. The software branded as ‘TAPS’; allowed traditional programmers to transport their batch software programs beyond time-sharing to real-time, transaction based systems operating on the IBM telecommunications platforms IMS and CICS. Mr. Esch then revolutionized the software licensing business by marketing the TAPS platform to other software companies – allowing them to integrate TAPS into their batch software products and deliver their new software packages in real-time environments. Ultimately, nineteen of the twenty-five largest software companies licensed that technology; and the TAPS software became one of the most widely installed mainframe products in history.
In the 1980’s, Mr. Esch was part of an international team that launched one of the first information superhighways. Under the brand name Nabu Network; the network used Offset-QPSK to deliver a T1 digital signal over satellite to cable television head-ends. The signal was then inserted in the side-band of an unusable television channel and the signal was delivered to tens of thousands of homes in the United States and Canada. In the home, the first broadband cable modem connected the T1 signal to a personal computer that was the fore-runner of the MSX PC. Over 1,000 families received continuously updated news, community information, educational materials, lifestyle programming, and games.
In the mid-1980s, Mr. Esch partnered with British Telecom to create computer software that created television-like content. These Digital Studios created local news and advertisements; that were used at television stations. Because the software could be used on Personal Computers; this new affordable Digital Studio became the first creation tool widely deployed by the cable television industry. At the cable operator’s headend, an unattended personal computer ran a real-time operating system on top of DOS; to continuously receive content from the Digital Studio and display the content using NTSC television grade signals. A number of cable Multiple System Operators partnered with Arthur Esch and Tom Wheeler to create NuCable and NuStar. These organizations widely distributed computer systems, branded as ‘CACS’, to individual cable systems; to create Local Origination television content. The industry ultimately focused on classified advertising as the primary use of the systems; often partnering with local newspapers and radio stations to sell the advertising. Ultimately, this new ‘CACS” based industry exceeded $1 Billion in revenue. Some of these cable systems were networked by NuCable to form regional classified advertising networks. In the NuStar joint venture; advertisements were delivered using nation-wide satellite systems.
In the 1990s, Mr. Esch created the concept; designed the architecture; and was a partner in building the first digital television network, ‘NBC Desktop News’. The joint venture was branded ‘NBC Desktop News’; and delivered professional, personalized business news directly to desktop PCs using traditional telephone land lines. Each subscriber specified a series of custom requirements and the network delivered a customized news broadcast to the subscriber’s Personal Computer. The content consisted of pictures, graphics, text, animations, and audio to form a television-like experience. That service was integrated into MS/NBC.
In the new millennium, Arthur Esch launched two of the largest Internet based multimedia magazines – eAristotle and Practical Ministry Innovations. Both magazines reached over 100,000 Internet subscribers. After licensing those magazines to Travelmole, Mr. Esch focuses on micro publishing to very small targeted audiences. While Internet based systems delivering total personalization require vast amounts of capital and maintenance; micro-publishing is affordable even for small organizations.
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(c) Arthur Esch and Aristotle Institute -- 301.481.3000 or AEsch@PowRE.net
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