Where are you originally from, and where do you currently reside?
Maybe to some extent remarkable and unusual within this industry, I still live 7km away from the hospital that I was born in – which is in the town of Krefeld in Germany, close to Düsseldorf with its international airport and also close to the Dutch border. The proximity to the airport is critical, with almost 30 years of international travel experience and having had years during which I spent more nights in hotels than at home.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Any favourite sports or hobbies?
Family and friends come first when having some time off, but I am very much into music (both actively playing keyboards, and also as a notorious audiophile with a passion for vinyl records) and also photography (for those interested, find @oliverpaschphotography on Instagram). Not that much into sports, unfortunately.
How did you get into the AV industry, and what was your journey to your current role?
It almost sounds like an orchestrated CV, but I’ve been very lucky having been able to make my passion for cinema – always not just about the what, but very much also about the how – my job at some stage, and even to find synergies between what I had originally learned and studied and what I do right now. At the beginning of my career, I was a banker and spent some time with large projects and real estate financing. Interestingly, during the conversion of theatrical exhibition from film to digital, this largely played into my own hands, as I was able to combine my experience in cinema with my financing skills when it came to virtual print fee (VPF) programmes.
I was in cinema exhibition for almost 10 years, then moved to selling projection technology about 20 years ago. Having had various angles to this industry has been incredibly helpful in my career and also to the companies I am or have been working for.
What are your thoughts on the future of the industry? How is your company addressing potential challenges?
What I truly love about the cinema industry is that it never stops. This is an industry of ongoing change and adaptation to new technologies and audience preferences. It just never stops, even though cinema has been considered dead so many times in the past. I strongly believe that cinema will always be there, but it needs to accommodate social and cultural behaviour.
Currently, we see various changes happening on a daily basis – and Barco is at the forefront of supporting those. In what we call mainstream, it is definitely the move to laser projection – replacing projectors with Xenon bulbs with new machines which feature laser light sources, which are so much more efficient, but even more importantly, provide audiences with a better and more consistent presentation quality.
And then there is the move to “premium” experiences, which is driven by various factors: people are keen to get bigger and better experiences when going to the movies. HDR BY BARCO is leading the way here, bringing a never-before-seen image quality to the largest screens, which needs no explanation to be appreciated even by those who are not interested in technology, as the difference is very obvious. This move is not just about technology – it also relates to the fact that the cinema industry has simply become faster than ever before.
Cinemas are competing to get audiences into their theatres in week one or two after a theatrical release, knowing that – very unfortunately, with shrinking release windows – the same content will be available in non-cinema markets sometimes only days or weeks later. This has become a battle for time and attention.
Any exciting news you’d like to share – upcoming projects, tech developments, or plans for 2025 and beyond?
I have already mentioned HDR BY BARCO. This is not just yet another technology. I think it’s truly the next step in the evolution of image quality on cinema screens, only comparable to the step from film to digital; now it’s SDR to HDR. This story has only just begun and we are seeing major players bundling this revolutionary technology into their premium offerings. Vue with “EPIC” comes to mind, as does German group Cineplex with “ULTIMATE”.
It is very exciting to see how positively audiences react to this. From a Barco point of view, we are step by step extending our role in the whole cinema ecosystem, now also looking into audio processing and even power amplifiers – which I personally love, bearing my passion for audio in mind.
What excites you most about working in AV every day?
Working in the cinema industry is a privilege – it brings me together with a lot of people who are passionate about what they are doing, whether in movie production, post-production, equipment manufacturing or theatrical exhibition. The industry is actually much smaller than it may seem, which comes with the benefit that it almost feels like a second family to me: people know each other and meet practically everywhere around the globe throughout the business year.
If you had to predict one major shift in the AV industry over the next decade, what would it be?
Projection will 100 percent move to laser light sources. It just makes perfect sense. And we will – hopefully – see more remote quality monitoring and automation in theatrical exhibition, ensuring that audiences get the experience they deserve. I personally believe that AI will play a major role in achieving this. Unfortunately, there are practically no ushers any more checking for the right sound level at the beginning of each show, depending on the content and also auditorium occupancy – automation will help to bridge this gap, but it requires knowledge and experience to get this right. AI will hopefully be able to learn from those who do or did know about this.
What’s the most valuable leadership lesson you’ve learned during your career in AV?
Lots of learnings here, and I struggle to highlight one as the most valuable. I am still learning every day. Maybe I’d say: trust your instinct, never make decisions against your gut feelings – in my career, whenever I haven’t acted accordingly, it has always proved to have been a mistake in hindsight. In terms of collaborating with wider teams, ensure that everyone knows who is expected to contribute what. I am almost obsessed by the concept of clear RACIs – incredibly simple, incredibly important.
What advice would you give to someone looking to build a successful career in pro AV?
Build your own network or become part of the existing cinema networks. As a board member of the ICTA (International Cinema Technology Association) you won’t be surprised that I am going to promote becoming a member – it gives you immediate access to those whom you want to meet and know. The cinema industry tends to welcome new people with open arms, being very aware of the fact that there is no degree programme in cinema, which is why this is such a wonderful and diverse community of people who are passionate about what they are doing. And more recently, there are a lot of great mentoring programmes available, which I strongly recommend looking into. The cinema industry is all about relationships.
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