Carlos Nicholas Fernandes

Last updated
Carlos Nicholas Fernandes
Born
Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Nationality Singapore
Alma mater Booth School of Business, University of Chicago and University of Bombay
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known for RecordTV.com, Network DVR

Carlos Nicholas Fernandes (born 1976) is an inventor, founder and CEO of InstantTV, a service that offers Cloud DVR. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Early life

Fernandes was born in Mumbai. Fernandes started his first business when he was 12, selling water purifiers door-to-door. [6] He went on to study Electrical Engineering from Bombay University, and completed an MBA from Chicago University. [7]

Career

Initial years

Fernandes moved to Singapore in 1998 and joined the Information Technology Institute (ITI) (later known as Kent Ridge Digital Labs and currently known as the Institute of Infocomm Research), which is a government research institute run by Singapore's Agency for Science Technology and Research. In 1999, he joined a startup called Ecquaria Technologies, where he developed and marketed software. Ecquaria had been founded by people who had previously been associated with Kent Ridge Digital Labs. [8]

PerceptiveI

Fernandes founded PerceptiveI, a company that offered enterprise software solutions, in 2000. [9] The technology used in this company won many awards, both for Fernandes and the company. [10] [11] For his work, Fernandes was recognized by David Lim, the then Singaporean Minister for Information, Communications, and the Arts in 2003. [12]

RecordTV

Fernandes purchased the assets of RecordTV.com, and added in technology that he had invented and patented in 2006 (along with Varsha Jagdale), [1] in a way that would not violate the rights of copyright owners. [13] This allowed RecordTV users to legally record TV shows, [3] [14] something which the original company had been sued for by the MPAA. [15] [16] [17] [18] Later, the service was renamed to InstantTV and launched its own app. [19] [20]

Current pursuits

Blaze

In 2017, Fernandes launched Blaze, an AI-based conversational news bot (chatbot) that was enhanced through human curation, in India. [21] [22] It is accessible through Facebook Messenger. [23] [24] As of 2018, he was working on the fake news problem. [25]

RecordTV vs MediaCorp litigation

Fernandes got into legal trouble in 2008 after MediaCorp alleged that RecordTV was using technology that violated copyright laws. Fernandes refused to shut down his company, and instead preemptively sued MediaCorp for groundless threats. [26] He then claimed millions in damages and continued to operate its website. [27] He even won the appeal, after MediaCorp decided to take the case further. [28]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "A System and Method for Recording Television and/or Radio Programmes Via the Internet". wipo.int. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "Check-in to Law-Now and make sure you have all the legal know-how you need for your world" (PDF). www.olswang.com. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  3. 1 2 Jakarta Globe (25 January 2015). "RecordTV CEO Carlos Fernandes Talks the Future of Television at Davos" . Retrieved 25 April 2018– via YouTube.
  4. ↑ "Customising the news". newindianexpress.com. 4 September 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "Blaze: An AI-based Conversational Bot Ventures in India - Media Infoline". mediainfoline.com. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  6. ↑ Singh, Kushwant (Dec 30, 2003). "Can-do Carlos". Streats.
  7. ↑ Parthasarathy, Anand (2017-04-17). "Android TV: The future of the idiot box is online!". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  8. ↑ "If you're young and business-minded, here are some tips for you". Singapore Business Review. Oct 3, 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  9. ↑ Chng, Grace (Feb 26, 2003). "Hail the IT Heroes". Computer Times. The Straits Times.
  10. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  11. ↑ "News Releases". mediaroom.com. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  12. ↑ "The Singapore Infocomm Industry - Creating the Next Wave of Growth - Infocomm Media Development Authority". Base. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  13. ↑ Lim, Roland (July 12, 2007). "Singapore firm offers free trial for online video recorder service". The Business Times.
  14. ↑ Siew, Alfred (July 24, 2007). "RecordTV shows with an online VCR". The Straits Times.
  15. ↑ "RecordTV.com Paying to End Suit". LA Times. April 18, 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  16. ↑ MILLER, GREG (16 June 2000). "Entertainment Firms File Suit to Shut Down RecordTV.com" . Retrieved 25 April 2018– via LA Times.
  17. ↑ McClintock, Pamela (18 April 2001). "RecordTV.com shut down". variety.com. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  18. ↑ "RecordTV.com to sell assets". cnet.com. 23 May 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  19. ↑ "With InstantTV, Singapore startup wants to be global platform for linear TV - Techgoondu". techgoondu.com. 3 January 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  20. ↑ "InstantTV - TV in an instant! - Androidrank profile". www.androidrank.org. Archived from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  21. ↑ "Will Bots replace Apps in next 5 years? Let's take a look". businessinsider.in. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  22. ↑ Parthasarathy, Anand (Apr 26, 2017). "Anytime, anywhere TV is here!". The Week. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  23. ↑ mobility (17 May 2017). "Blaze: An AI-based Conversational Bot Ventures in India - Mobility India". mobilityindia.com. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  24. ↑ "Human-AI solution is only way to balance content quality: Blaze's Carlos Fernandes". www.bestmediaifo.com. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  25. ↑ Hub Culture (25 January 2018). "Hub Culture Davos 2018 - Carlos Fernandes, CEO and Founder of Blaze" . Retrieved 25 April 2018– via YouTube.
  26. ↑ "David takes on Goliath, in realm of copyright". ZDNet. July 7, 2008. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
  27. ↑ "Singapore Copyright Infringement Online TV show recording service sued by Broadcasting Company". mirandah.com. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  28. ↑ Quah, Michelle (Dec 2, 2010). "Appeals court hits RecordTV's play button". The Business Times. Archived from the original on Dec 25, 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-06. Alt URL
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