Patrick Seaman
Most recently I've been working on a dream job, DeerChannel.com. I designed and built the entire backbone of an innovative, proprietary IPTV launch – a never-before-attempted project to mount wireless TV cameras on wild animals at a remote research facility. This included design and implementation of a fiber optic net around the remote wildlife habitat, equipment, camera design, broadcast studio, and IP network infrastructure plus commerce based web site design and oversight. As always, I'm very hands-on and did the design/implementation/oversight of end-to-end broadcasts, including custom-designed animal-mounted wireless AV plus Internet broadcast architecture. RFP/RFQ’s for equipment, CDN services, custom software development, etc. CDN integration with Akamai StreamOS and Brightcove. IPTV/Streaming platform built on Viewcast Niagara rack mounted video encoders, Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2005, Windows Media Server, Flash Video and ASP.NET.
As so often seems to happen with startups, the company is changing directions. I've built-out all the infrastructure -- so rather than sit idle, I've decided it's time for me to move on.
I’ve been a technologist for longer than I should probably admit, starting out as a scientific programmer. Along the way I picked up experience in seismic software (under contract to the Air Force, no less), the electric power industry, supported building missiles for the Army, as well as a stint learning about logistics/supply-chain, import/export and distribution and warehousing at JCPenney. I started a small software publishing company, Timberwolf, and began doing part-time consulting. Eventually, I took the leap and struck out on my own as a full time consultant.
The year was 1995, and my first big client was Mark Cuban’s tiny back-bedroom company that later became AudioNet and later still, Broadcast.com. It was the dawn of the Internet revolution, and my part in it began as a part-time twenty-hour-a-week contract to provide network and computer support – while the company founders, Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner, went on the road to raise money. The original business plan was an effort to bring college sports radio to expats and people who had moved away from their home and college towns. The twenty-hour-a-week consulting gig turned into eighty hours and never slowed down for the next four years.
It was the birth of Internet Broadcasting. I became the first actual employee of the fledgling company – Cameron Broadcast Networks, which soon changed its name to AudioNet, and later, Broadcast.com. I served as:
Along the way, in the hours between midnight and six-AM, I co-authored the first major book on Internet Broadcasting – Website Sound. I also invented the Internet interstitial ad, the Internet audiobook, the audiobook serialized podcast, and many other innovations. I pioneered Internet Broadcasting and the methodology and infrastructure to make live remote Internet broadcast events bullet proof. There were hundreds and hundreds of events and programs, but some of the most memorable were:
I also served as VP of International Development and Special Projects, helped launch and served on the Board of Directors of Broadcast.com Japan. I led our international expansion and development efforts, negotiated the BBC’s 1st-ever Internet contract, and personally negotiated broadcast rights with the Chinese government.
In 2000, after helping shepherd the Yahoo! Merger, I morphed my existing software publishing company into an award winning and highly acclaimed new media company, Timberwolf Press. Timberwolf produces and publishes fiction and non-fiction books and audio, including Timberwolf’s signature full-cast audio drama’s. We introduced the world’s first MP3 audiobook and the first MP3 CD audiobook. I did a lot of technical editing, as well as book layout and graphic art design.
I also had great fun acting in some of the productions, playing many roles, including Commander Rickman in “Blood and Iron”, “Snow Leopard” in Soldier of the Legion, and Ursis in “The Helmsman” and “Galactic Convoy.”
In later co-founded a volunteer organization, the National RFID Center, with the purpose of promoting RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) interests in the Dallas area. I served a one year term as volunteer CEO. I returned to Internet media and served as CTO for an Internet cellular ring-tone site Buytone.com, and an Internet search marketing company, Search Architects. Sadly, just as things were going well, with a solid and growing customer base (but not enough to pay all the bills), an angel investor had some sort of personal financial implosion and pulled out -- we were unable to find sufficient funding to replace him soon enough so we had to shut things down. All of which brings us to the last couple of years serving as Chief Technologist at Deer Channel.
A 4th generation native Texan, I earned my BS in Applied Mathematics with the equivalent of a minor in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas. I live in the Dallas area with my wife of 24 years and two boys.