Interview with NDI Head of Strategy Miguel Coutinho

The blog post explores the transformative journey of NDI, a groundbreaking technology that originated within NewTek and has now evolved into an independent force under the Vizrt Group. In an insightful interview with Pulse 2.0, Miguel Coutinho, NDI's Head of Strategy, shares his background and the strategic vision propelling the company forward. Coutinho, a seasoned strategist with a background in innovation projects across Europe, sheds light on his decision to join NDI, driven by the ambition to contribute to the global adoption of NDI's revolutionary technology, aiming to embed it in every multimedia device.

NDI, once a proprietary technology within NewTek, has undergone a strategic transformation to emerge as a standalone company, meticulously refining its business plan. Coutinho elaborates on the company's trajectory, emphasizing the identification of user and licensee needs, revenue projection, and the development of product and technology roadmaps. The team's exponential growth from a 5-person unit to nearly 30 hires signifies NDI's commitment to its mission. Beyond media and entertainment, NDI's 5-year projection plan extends into sectors such as communication, video conferencing, security, and healthcare.

Reflecting on his favorite memory at NDI, Coutinho recounts the experience at CABSAT 2023 in Dubai, where he witnessed the dynamic NDI community showcasing the platform's flexibility. Challenges faced by NDI include meeting the diverse demands of its millions of customers globally. The company is dedicated to perfecting a universal standard that addresses industry-specific requirements while ensuring interoperability between NDI-enabled hardware and software.

Coutinho delves into NDI's core features, positioning it as a platform for seamless connectivity, acting as the invisible glue in a rapidly expanding ecosystem of products and users. The instant discoverability, registration of devices, and remote real-time control of multiple devices are highlighted. NDI's technology evolution, reducing complexity and expanding possibilities, is exemplified by the recent announcement of NDI 6, supporting high-end applications with superior image and color depth.

Significant milestones for NDI include its adoption by the corporate and video conferencing industry, integration into products by major OEMs and ISVs, and its presence on over 600 different hardware SKUs, nearing a million devices. Customer success stories underscore NDI's versatility, finding applications across professional broadcasting studios, AV installations, healthcare, education, retail, and entertainment. NDI's Total Addressable Market (TAM) is positioned as a multi-billion opportunity, spanning professional to consumer markets, offering a comprehensive video connectivity solution.

Coutinho distinguishes NDI from competitors by its ability to solve a broad spectrum of challenges and offering a unifying video connectivity platform. Looking ahead, NDI's goals involve releasing updates targeting specific sectors and enhancing WAN connectivity. The company actively collaborates with major cloud providers to enable NDI connectivity and workflows, aiming to break down barriers between local and wide-area networks. Coutinho concludes by emphasizing NDI's role as a unifying standard, making video connectivity equally accessible to content creators, users, and consumers across brands, products, technical knowledge, and contexts.

Read the full blog post by Amit Chowdhry for Pulse 2.0 HERE