The FierceVideo editorial team is proud to present its inaugural Emerging Leaders Awards, recognizing the brightest young professionals rising up the ranks of the streaming video and pay TV industry. Throughout the months of June and July we’ll be featuring these profiles with each of our finalists. We will announce the winners during our upcoming OTT Blitz Week of virtual panels happening during the last week in July.
Dr. Abdul Rehman/SSIMWAVE
Dr. Abdul Rehman, CEO and co-founder of SSIMWAVE, is the inventor of the SSIMPLUS Viewer Score, a software algorithm scientifically based on the human visual system. SSIMPLUS is designed to help streaming video companies measure content quality at any point in their workflows. In 2015 Dr. Rehman, and his colleagues were presented a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award and the American Society of Cinematographers has also created a technical working group named after the company to help preserve the artistic intent of HDR content.
Dr. Rehman was 27 years old when he founded SSIMWAVE to commercialize his discoveries. SSIMWAVE customers include MVPDs in the U.S and Canada.
What his colleagues are saying:
"In the past 10 years, Abdul Rehman has been growing from a gifted Ph.D. scientist and technology guru to an inspirational CEO who leads a rising startup company that is running at the forefront of technology innovation in the streaming video industry and that has been impacting the visual experiences of millions of users." – SSIMWAVE Chief Science Officer Dr. Zhou Wang
Streaming Industry Q&A:
What streaming services do you subscribe to?
Netflix and Disney+.
What are your favorite shows you’re watching in 2020?
“Ozark,” “Money Heist,” “Safe,” “Altered Carbon,” “Bodyguard” and “Dirty Money.”
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Leading a team of extremely talented individuals that bring their best to the table everyday!
What’s next for you in terms of new challenges in streaming TV?
HDR/Dolby Vision is going to be huge in the future; in March, we achieved Dolby certification for our ability to decode Dolby Vision-enabled content. What we’re working on now at SSIMWAVE is the answer to a question that’s always top of mind for the industry: How do I deliver a better experience for less? Right now, companies are delivering content at extremely high bitrates, without it translating to a better experience for viewers. Unless it makes a difference to viewers, why incur the costs?
We’re working on a solution to help the streaming industry become more efficient by breaking it out of the “higher bitrate utilization equals better content quality” mindset. Our SSIMPLUS algorithm can help these companies optimize their delivery costs. We make our customers aware of what the viewers will actually SEE.