Our Company |
MKPE is a Los Angeles-based consultancy, connecting business and new technologies with the entertainment media market. Clients benefit from our services in industrial relations, strategic planning, strategic marketing, and market education. We maintain our reputation as best-of-breed by remaining sharp on trends, business use case, business rules, and political will for emerging media technologies. While we have many achievements in digital cinema, MKPE has been leading clients to new opportunities in the entertainment media industry for 20 years. MKPE is a former joint-venture partner of Karagosian MacCalla Partners (KMP). |
Our Team  |
Michael Karagosian is president and founder of MKPE. He is a recognized leader in the entertainment technology sector, providing analysis and guidance in emerging technologies. He is widely known for his role as senior consultant to the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), where he provides leadership in representation and policy development in the industry transition to digital cinema. Michael has broad experience in business development, helping senior management navigate the political and business issues that arise with emerging technologies. Michael served as senior consultant in the UK Film Council's $25M Digital Screen Network, providing guidance in the world's first investment of public funds in digital cinema technology, and achieving Hollywood acceptance of the plan. He is a member of the prestigious Gerson Lehrman Leaders program, and member of the Board of Directors for In-Three. Michael was a founder and former president of Cinema Group, Ltd., creator of the CinemAcoustics cinema audio product line, and a former Advisory Board member for Digital Harmony, which specialized in IEEE 1394 implementation for the consumer entertainment market. As an industry leader, Michael is also known for consensus building. Michael is active in the standards area, having chaired, over time, several sub-committees of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) DC28 Technology Committee for Digital Cinema. He is a past chair of the US-based Cinema Advertising Council (CAC) Technical Committee. He is a member of the prestigious Gerson Lehrman Leaders program, and a recipient of the 2006 ShoWest Award of Appreciation for Contribution to the Advancement of Digital Cinema. Other activities, past and present, include AESSC, ITU-R, ISO, and the EDCF (European Digital Cinema Forum). An engineering graduate of U.C. Berkeley, Michael has extensive technology achievements, including the innovation of high-speed media networks in Walt Disney theme parks, development of the CinemaMatrix™ digital surround decoder used by studios such as Skywalker Sound and Pixar Animation, development of the first commercial 5.1 theatre sound processor for Dolby Laboratories (introduced with the 70mm release of Apocalypse Now in 1979), and the development of numerous integrated circuits. Michael is a contributing author of Understanding Digital Cinema, and the EC publication Digital Cinema Perspectives. He has also authored numerous articles in publications around the world. |
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Thomas MacCalla is senior vice-president of MKPE. He is a results oriented leader, skilled in motivating and developing excellence, and proven in his ability to open doors to new and emerging markets. Thomas has been a valued advisor to state and city officials regarding the direction of future trends. Thomas, an MBA graduate of UCLA, is a pioneer in entertainment technology, combining the telecommunications and computer science disciplines with an understanding of picture and sound technologies. Thomas' proven leadership with emerging technology in the entertainment market led to his appointment as Pacific Bell's first Director of Entertainment Technology in the early 90's. With studios such as Disney, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros, he pioneered the use of high speed networking for digital dailies, special effects and animation, and the early work in Digital Cinema. He formed the consultancy Visions-In- Motion, and became the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), a research arm of the University of Southern California. With ETC, Thomas led innovative and key projects, including the first research work in postproduction networking, content security testing, and review of entertainment technologies to the home. He was the founder and chief architect of the former ETC Digital Cinema Lab (DCL) in Hollywood, where nearly all tests that led to the DCI Digital Cinema Technology Specification and to SMPTE standards were first conducted. Thomas is known for his strategic planning and brokering services to leading and emerging entertainment and technology organizations. Among his many projects he was responsible for negotiating and consummating the contract between a major US studio and the Institute for Creative Technology (ICT), a research organization directed by the U.S. Army with emphasis in visual, audio, and artificial intelligence projects, for the purpose of creating a unique application utilizing commercial video game platforms. He participates in many digital cinema-related industry groups, including the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE), European Digital Cinema Forum (EDCF) and International Telecommunications Union (ITU), as well as forums for broader entertainment technology. |
Barbara Karagosian is executive vice-president. She is a prominent consultant in administration, personnel management, and legal nurse management to the health care industry, and brings her managerial skills to MKPE's operations. She served as Director of the Emergency Department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for many years, and also served as their Director of Medical Nursing. Barbara received her B.S. from University of Exeter, U.K, her M.S. from University of Leeds, U.K., and has a certificate in Management Development from University of Southern California. |