Here's my unorganized notes/opinions from the meet
Post# of 96879
Posted On: 08/23/2015 1:52:08 AM
Re: Musclechick00 #28445
Here's my unorganized notes/opinions from the meeting (some of my opinions might change as I continue to process the information). I will organize them later.
1) Peter is an uninspiring leader, Aaron Taylor should be CEO
2) Al Stone is moving back to a COO position at NTEK after his time spent at NTGL. He's a no BS kinda guy, I liked him. Spoke with him a little after the meeting. He mentioned they've been focused on cutting costs
3) Each division is separating and going to have clear management structures, responsibilities, and responsibility for their own revenue (sounds like something Peter said in a SHL)
4) One misconception that this meeting cleared up for me (which I should've realized earlier) is that they're still a start up - developing products, processes, and the company structure. My opinion is that #3 is the right way to go, they just have had time to do it with how busy they are. The way Aaron Taylor described it, they had to build the ship and prove to movie studios it could float with some of the lower end content that we've seen. Now that they've done that, he believes we'll see more deals coming, especially after the 1000 Paramount movie deal.
5) NTGL audits to be completed in September. Audits for NTEK will be next. A lot of shareholders harped on audits but I stopped paying attention because it's a dead horse and I'd rather they put their efforts into generating revenue.
6) Samsung Ventures has considered an investment in NTEK, but they'd want to take a huge chunk of the company similar to what a VC would do.
7) From Al Stone's point of view, the engineers and developers are not just pushing the envelope for what is being done in this field, but "pulling it from the other side".
Phil Foley (spoke to him before the meeting, he is NOT David's brother) - in charge of UltraFlix development. A lot of the delays in manufacturers stems from the different chip sets each one uses and with this being a still, relatively new field, each one has its own set of bugs, which has delayed certain TV launches. My opinion - Huge obstacle that they've had to overcome and the source of a lot of delays, Phil knows what he's doing.
9) On that same note, each TV pretty much requires its own output file so the there are 12 different encodings for each film. An example of a delay has been with Sony where David Blake had to rework the output encoding to work on Sony TVs, this required NTEK to have to rework a lot of their library. They didn't want to launch on Sony with only a few movies.
10) LX Rudis (4K Studios) - one of the better presentations given. Right now they're doing a lot of stuff by hand but they're working on getting software going to automate a lot of the labor. More IronDragon movies coming.
11) Jim Hernandez is working with Phil Foley to design an encoding network that will use all computers on their network to make efficient use of computing power. However, Aaron Taylor mentioned that they're in negotiations with Google/Amazon for cloud computing power to make the process even faster. My opinion - Given their limited resources at the moment, the former is more likely with transitions to Google/Amazon.
12) Mark Morris (Uplink.to) - working on the IOS for UF. Still in development because there's a lot of different screen sizes so he wants feedback from IOS users. My opinion - he's a smart dude but I got lost.
13) Aaron Taylor - the highlight of the meeting. My opinion - He should be CEO
14) 1000 movies signed with Paramount. They've licensed these films for 15 months (not exclusive) starting September 1st. These films include the Godfather series, Star Trek (he said the Star Trek series should be in the first batch), Mission Impossible 1-4
15) Deal signed with Warner Brothers. WB remastered 18 movies to 4K, NTEK has them all and includes films like 300 and Godzilla
16) A&E networks (History Channel, Military, Lifetime) - signed a deal, content to be added (not sure on timeframe)
17) Signed a deal this last week with the 49ers, Harmonic, and Verizon to test live stream a concert happening before a 49ers game. More than likely Sony and Samsung TVs only
18) Deal signed for 49ers content to be put on UF
19) As more testing is done, we'll see a separate UltraFlix live channel (not sure if that means within UF or as a separate app)
20) Roku 4 launching end of September, will have UF channel and will be using UF promo reels as part of their sales tactics.
21) Amazon UHD - is an android device, UF will "slide" right into place there
22) For live music, they're trialing things now with EDM - Sony is a potential partner for this since they have Sony Music (easier to deal with Sony since the music label is under Sony vs going with a music only company). Please note, Aaron made it very clear, NTEK has not signed any content deals for Sony movie content
23) 4K TV sale projections - 4.4M in 2015, 10M in 2016, 14M in 2017 (also noted that the TVs continue to beat analyst predictions)
24) Aaron is in contact with Best Buy on a weekly basis and they've said they'd love to promote UF, but UF has to have good content before they do. Promos to include: a retail promo reel, handing out of gift cards to customers LOOKING at TVs.
25) Manufacturers will be using UF promo reels (Hisense ordered 1 million gift cards to hand out with TV purchases, which gives us an idea of how successful Hisense thinks they'll be in the US market)
26) We'll start to see UF in TV ads for manufacturers (how effective this is, who knows but does give a penny stock company some serious legitimacy if it happens)
27) The content/customer management software was pretty cool. They'll be using this to get data to content/manufacturer partners about what's working, what's not, etc. ~145K customers as of this morning - moving coming from Samsung and Vizio (Only 10 Sony, see notes above about delays)
28) By end of 2016, they expect ~5.5M users with ~$70M revenue, $15M profits. (20% profit margins, 60-70% goes to the Studio, 10% to TV manufacturers)
29) Competitor is M-GO, which received $50M in funding and NTEK is ahead of them.
30) A total of 2 scanners, 1 in LA, 1 in SF. For comparison, he noted that Warner Brothers only has 2 scanners.
31) For 2015, they can operate with no further A/S increases and if they meet Aaron's growth projections, no further A/S increases will be needed.
32) Cloud computing should drop encoding costs down to $3/movie
33) They do want to redo the user interface to put higher rated movies first
34) As noted above, each movie has 12 output files for different TVs. David Blake has written 19 different encoding "recipes" that will eventually be used on the cloud to be able to encode a lot more than currently able.
35) They are behind on some bills and readily admitted that but they're not important ones. The managers were quick to point out that their all-stars (guys like David Blake, Jim Hernandez and others on the development side) are not cheap.
36) Nuvola's - few thousand sold to JVC only a few thousand in inventory since they manufacturer them as the orders come in. Some Nuvola's are being used by Mersive? a presentation software company such as in boardrooms.
37) Direct TV box - they might be able to do a deal with them but doubtful as they are a competitor for content (Aaron mentioned they're kind of assholes because they throw money at content and in the contract include a "favored nations clause" that wouldn't allow that content to be licensed to anyone else for cheaper than DirectTV got it. Expect this to be a bigger problem since ATT bought them)
38) Bollywood and a lot of independent studio films weren't purchased but are on revenue shares. Admitted that a lot of these films are filler content to gain attention from bigger studios
39) They're aware their website sucks but given their limited resources, they just haven't had time to focus on it.
40) There was a lot of talk about new tech having to be developed so I asked about patents, Aaron said that UF has a few right now that are in the encoding arena.
41) NTGL is still tethered to NTEK for funding and will be until the shares are issued out and they can raise their own capital. Al Stone did mention that some big gaming manufacturers were looking at NTGL to invest.
42) David Foley is in good spirits. has lost a lot of weight and is reading a lot of books.
43) When questioned about insiders owning shares, Al Stone gave the answer of we're not sure then added it's not a lot (no BS, that's why I like him). Discussions with other managers revealed that a lot of them have given up their shares to help keep the company solvent.
44) A concern from some shareholders was that the company would be bought out. Management said, nah, we're not going to sell at anywhere close to this valuation. I did ask some of them how they're going to cash out if it goes big, they basically shrugged their shoulders and said we don't know. This leads me to believe they're either getting compensated with higher salaries or have bonuses built in down the line.
45) Sound - they're not sacrificing any bits for lower sound quality. IE, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby
46) Ultra Media Group is still an option but doesn't sound like they've used it. I asked if that was going to be a new responsibility for Peter in his more CFO role and they said it's going to be all of their responsibilities since they all wear different hats depending on workload. (Al has a degree in finance too so he said he'd be just as good at making those deals as Peter) - My interpretation - they have UMG as an option but doesn't sound like they want to use it
47) In the communications arena, they're planning on making the execs more accessible but emphasized that Dan Wong is in constant contact with them and is the main avenue for shareholders.
My overall opinions:
They're going places. A lot of the delays have been from the engineering/development side of things in having to deal with each different chip set. These obstacles seem to be removed so we'll see a lot more from them in terms of progress.
Aaron Taylor to CEO, Riordan should be purely focused on funding/audit issues, Stone is an old school baller and with him at COO, things will happen faster.
I was surprised about how many of the execs mentioned that they follow online posting sites.
For those with doubts, you really do just have to listen to these guys (not Peter) and you'll see they're the real deal.
I'm keeping my shares and I think everyone from the meeting will keep theirs too.
1) Peter is an uninspiring leader, Aaron Taylor should be CEO
2) Al Stone is moving back to a COO position at NTEK after his time spent at NTGL. He's a no BS kinda guy, I liked him. Spoke with him a little after the meeting. He mentioned they've been focused on cutting costs
3) Each division is separating and going to have clear management structures, responsibilities, and responsibility for their own revenue (sounds like something Peter said in a SHL)
4) One misconception that this meeting cleared up for me (which I should've realized earlier) is that they're still a start up - developing products, processes, and the company structure. My opinion is that #3 is the right way to go, they just have had time to do it with how busy they are. The way Aaron Taylor described it, they had to build the ship and prove to movie studios it could float with some of the lower end content that we've seen. Now that they've done that, he believes we'll see more deals coming, especially after the 1000 Paramount movie deal.
5) NTGL audits to be completed in September. Audits for NTEK will be next. A lot of shareholders harped on audits but I stopped paying attention because it's a dead horse and I'd rather they put their efforts into generating revenue.
6) Samsung Ventures has considered an investment in NTEK, but they'd want to take a huge chunk of the company similar to what a VC would do.
7) From Al Stone's point of view, the engineers and developers are not just pushing the envelope for what is being done in this field, but "pulling it from the other side".
Phil Foley (spoke to him before the meeting, he is NOT David's brother) - in charge of UltraFlix development. A lot of the delays in manufacturers stems from the different chip sets each one uses and with this being a still, relatively new field, each one has its own set of bugs, which has delayed certain TV launches. My opinion - Huge obstacle that they've had to overcome and the source of a lot of delays, Phil knows what he's doing. 9) On that same note, each TV pretty much requires its own output file so the there are 12 different encodings for each film. An example of a delay has been with Sony where David Blake had to rework the output encoding to work on Sony TVs, this required NTEK to have to rework a lot of their library. They didn't want to launch on Sony with only a few movies.
10) LX Rudis (4K Studios) - one of the better presentations given. Right now they're doing a lot of stuff by hand but they're working on getting software going to automate a lot of the labor. More IronDragon movies coming.
11) Jim Hernandez is working with Phil Foley to design an encoding network that will use all computers on their network to make efficient use of computing power. However, Aaron Taylor mentioned that they're in negotiations with Google/Amazon for cloud computing power to make the process even faster. My opinion - Given their limited resources at the moment, the former is more likely with transitions to Google/Amazon.
12) Mark Morris (Uplink.to) - working on the IOS for UF. Still in development because there's a lot of different screen sizes so he wants feedback from IOS users. My opinion - he's a smart dude but I got lost.
13) Aaron Taylor - the highlight of the meeting. My opinion - He should be CEO
14) 1000 movies signed with Paramount. They've licensed these films for 15 months (not exclusive) starting September 1st. These films include the Godfather series, Star Trek (he said the Star Trek series should be in the first batch), Mission Impossible 1-4
15) Deal signed with Warner Brothers. WB remastered 18 movies to 4K, NTEK has them all and includes films like 300 and Godzilla
16) A&E networks (History Channel, Military, Lifetime) - signed a deal, content to be added (not sure on timeframe)
17) Signed a deal this last week with the 49ers, Harmonic, and Verizon to test live stream a concert happening before a 49ers game. More than likely Sony and Samsung TVs only
18) Deal signed for 49ers content to be put on UF
19) As more testing is done, we'll see a separate UltraFlix live channel (not sure if that means within UF or as a separate app)
20) Roku 4 launching end of September, will have UF channel and will be using UF promo reels as part of their sales tactics.
21) Amazon UHD - is an android device, UF will "slide" right into place there
22) For live music, they're trialing things now with EDM - Sony is a potential partner for this since they have Sony Music (easier to deal with Sony since the music label is under Sony vs going with a music only company). Please note, Aaron made it very clear, NTEK has not signed any content deals for Sony movie content
23) 4K TV sale projections - 4.4M in 2015, 10M in 2016, 14M in 2017 (also noted that the TVs continue to beat analyst predictions)
24) Aaron is in contact with Best Buy on a weekly basis and they've said they'd love to promote UF, but UF has to have good content before they do. Promos to include: a retail promo reel, handing out of gift cards to customers LOOKING at TVs.
25) Manufacturers will be using UF promo reels (Hisense ordered 1 million gift cards to hand out with TV purchases, which gives us an idea of how successful Hisense thinks they'll be in the US market)
26) We'll start to see UF in TV ads for manufacturers (how effective this is, who knows but does give a penny stock company some serious legitimacy if it happens)
27) The content/customer management software was pretty cool. They'll be using this to get data to content/manufacturer partners about what's working, what's not, etc. ~145K customers as of this morning - moving coming from Samsung and Vizio (Only 10 Sony, see notes above about delays)
28) By end of 2016, they expect ~5.5M users with ~$70M revenue, $15M profits. (20% profit margins, 60-70% goes to the Studio, 10% to TV manufacturers)
29) Competitor is M-GO, which received $50M in funding and NTEK is ahead of them.
30) A total of 2 scanners, 1 in LA, 1 in SF. For comparison, he noted that Warner Brothers only has 2 scanners.
31) For 2015, they can operate with no further A/S increases and if they meet Aaron's growth projections, no further A/S increases will be needed.
32) Cloud computing should drop encoding costs down to $3/movie
33) They do want to redo the user interface to put higher rated movies first
34) As noted above, each movie has 12 output files for different TVs. David Blake has written 19 different encoding "recipes" that will eventually be used on the cloud to be able to encode a lot more than currently able.
35) They are behind on some bills and readily admitted that but they're not important ones. The managers were quick to point out that their all-stars (guys like David Blake, Jim Hernandez and others on the development side) are not cheap.
36) Nuvola's - few thousand sold to JVC only a few thousand in inventory since they manufacturer them as the orders come in. Some Nuvola's are being used by Mersive? a presentation software company such as in boardrooms.
37) Direct TV box - they might be able to do a deal with them but doubtful as they are a competitor for content (Aaron mentioned they're kind of assholes because they throw money at content and in the contract include a "favored nations clause" that wouldn't allow that content to be licensed to anyone else for cheaper than DirectTV got it. Expect this to be a bigger problem since ATT bought them)
38) Bollywood and a lot of independent studio films weren't purchased but are on revenue shares. Admitted that a lot of these films are filler content to gain attention from bigger studios
39) They're aware their website sucks but given their limited resources, they just haven't had time to focus on it.
40) There was a lot of talk about new tech having to be developed so I asked about patents, Aaron said that UF has a few right now that are in the encoding arena.
41) NTGL is still tethered to NTEK for funding and will be until the shares are issued out and they can raise their own capital. Al Stone did mention that some big gaming manufacturers were looking at NTGL to invest.
42) David Foley is in good spirits. has lost a lot of weight and is reading a lot of books.
43) When questioned about insiders owning shares, Al Stone gave the answer of we're not sure then added it's not a lot (no BS, that's why I like him). Discussions with other managers revealed that a lot of them have given up their shares to help keep the company solvent.
44) A concern from some shareholders was that the company would be bought out. Management said, nah, we're not going to sell at anywhere close to this valuation. I did ask some of them how they're going to cash out if it goes big, they basically shrugged their shoulders and said we don't know. This leads me to believe they're either getting compensated with higher salaries or have bonuses built in down the line.
45) Sound - they're not sacrificing any bits for lower sound quality. IE, Dolby 5.1 and Dolby
46) Ultra Media Group is still an option but doesn't sound like they've used it. I asked if that was going to be a new responsibility for Peter in his more CFO role and they said it's going to be all of their responsibilities since they all wear different hats depending on workload. (Al has a degree in finance too so he said he'd be just as good at making those deals as Peter) - My interpretation - they have UMG as an option but doesn't sound like they want to use it
47) In the communications arena, they're planning on making the execs more accessible but emphasized that Dan Wong is in constant contact with them and is the main avenue for shareholders.
My overall opinions:
They're going places. A lot of the delays have been from the engineering/development side of things in having to deal with each different chip set. These obstacles seem to be removed so we'll see a lot more from them in terms of progress.
Aaron Taylor to CEO, Riordan should be purely focused on funding/audit issues, Stone is an old school baller and with him at COO, things will happen faster.
I was surprised about how many of the execs mentioned that they follow online posting sites.
For those with doubts, you really do just have to listen to these guys (not Peter) and you'll see they're the real deal.
I'm keeping my shares and I think everyone from the meeting will keep theirs too.
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