David Ronca — CEO

Director of Facebook’s Video Processing Team, part of the Video Infra org, and responsible for Facebook video products like Instagram, Live, Reels, and Watch. My current passion is reducing the complexity, cost and power requirements of video processing; a top consumer of power in global data centers. The work we are doing will change the way the world encodes video. --- Netflix In nearly 12 years at Netflix, I was a key contributor to our device streaming technology as we grew our Streaming business from an IE plugin to many millions of devices. See the linked video "A Brief History of Netflix Streaming" for a nerd dive into Netflix streaming. We worked to optimize our audio and video encoding systems to meet global scale. This included asset inspection, cloud-based parallel encoding, and next-generation packaging and DRM tools. Video quality was also a major focus of our team, and we worked to define new models for video quality analysis. Having built a foundation of scalable technologies including parallel inspections and encodes, internal EC2 spot market, and an exceptional subjective video quality metric (VMAF), we are then began running large-scale experiments focused on leveraging our cloud capacity to produce the highest possible video quality at the lowest possible bitrates. All part of our "Aim-Low" initiative. The result of this effort is a good streaming experience at video bitrates as low as 100Kbps. For more details, see the encoding video and tech blog links below. We also invested in new and exciting technologies such as Dolby Vision HDR, and interactive content. As always, we design for scale at the start. Because of this work, Netflix has been able to deploy the largest library of HDR content on the planet.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Video Processing and Encoding Technologies expert in the Media industry.

Location: Campbell, California, United States

Experience: 34 yrs 9 mos

Skills

Video Processing
Team Leadership
Encoding Technologies
Team Management
Subtitle Technology
Hdr Technology
Encoding Tools Development
A/v Development

Career Highlights

Led the Encoding Team at Netflix to a Technical Emmy.
Pioneered Dolby Vision HDR encoding workflows.
Reduced video processing complexity and power consumption.

Work Experience

RoncaTech, inc

CEO (11 mos)

Netflix

Director, Encoding Technologies (4 yrs 6 mos)

Manager, Encoding Tools (4 yrs 5 mos)

Senior Developer (3 yrs 6 mos)

Corel

SW Manager (11 mos)

InterVideo

Mgr, Systems SW (6 yrs 7 mos)

Mitel

Distinguished Engineer (1 yr 9 mos)

Baypointe Innovations

Distinguished Engineer (1 yr 9 mos)

Centigram Communications

Distinguished Engineer (3 yrs 5 mos)

Rolm Systems

Engineer II (3 yrs 9 mos)

Education

C++ at University of California, Berkeley

at De Vry

Master's degree at San José State University

COM at DevelopMentor

David Ronca

CEO

Campbell, California, United States34 yrs 9 mos experience

Highly Stable

Key Highlights

Led the Encoding Team at Netflix to a Technical Emmy.
Pioneered Dolby Vision HDR encoding workflows.
Reduced video processing complexity and power consumption.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Video Processing and Encoding Technologies expert in the Media industry.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Video ProcessingTeam LeadershipEncoding TechnologiesTeam ManagementSubtitle TechnologyHdr TechnologyEncoding Tools DevelopmentA/v Development

Other Skills

video qualitytranscoding workflowsE2E streaming solutionsscalable inspectionencode toolspost-encode verification toolsDolby Vision encoding workflowteam buildingTTML2IMSC1.1Dolby VisionHDR contentJava A/V formatting toolsstream verifiersHTTP Live Streaming

About

Experience

34 yrs 9 mos

Total Experience

4 yrs 6 mos

Average Tenure

11 mos

Current Experience

Roncatech, inc

CEO

Jun 2025 – Present · 11 mos

Spearheaded technical consulting services at RoncaTech, focusing on video quality, transcoding workflows, and E2E streaming solutions.
Developed and implemented strategies for building high-performance teams, enhancing hiring processes, and conducting effective performance reviews.
Fostered a culture of diversity and inclusion, resulting in a more innovative and collaborative work environment.

video qualitytranscoding workflowsE2E streaming solutionsVideo ProcessingTeam Leadership

Netflix

3 roles

Director, Encoding Technologies

Promoted

Nov 2014 – May 2019 · 4 yrs 6 mos

Built the Encoding Team from scratch to 50-person team of audio, video, and systems experts.
Successfully created a team culture where diverse team members could thrive.
Manage development of highly scalable inspection, encode, and post-encode verification tools
Build out of studio innovation tools and pipelines
Team lead for absolute screaming cloud-based parallel video encoding system
Led the Japanese subtitle project, which drove the adoption of TTML2 and IMSC1.1, and won a Technical Emmy.
Develop streaming specifications for new device types
Manage 3rd-party relationships with technology providers
Lead the buildout of the Dolby Vision encoding workflow #Alway@Scale
Extreme team building, hiring of the 'best-of-breed' audio and video experts

scalable inspectionencode toolspost-encode verification toolsDolby Vision encoding workflowteam buildingEncoding Technologies+1

Manager, Encoding Tools

Promoted

Jun 2010 – Nov 2014 · 4 yrs 5 mos

Manage development of highly scalable inspection, encode, and post-encode verification tools
Team lead for absolute screaming cloud-based parallel video encoding system
Tools for processing of closed captions
Develop streaming specifications for new device types
Manage 3rd-party relationships with technology providers
Extreme team building, hiring of the 'best-of-breed' audio and video experts

scalable inspectionencode toolspost-encode verification toolsEncoding Tools Development

Senior Developer

Jan 2007 – Jul 2010 · 3 yrs 6 mos

Lead developer for scalable Java A/V formatting tools and stream verifiers.
Define A/V profiles for new devices.
Co-inventor of the BD-Live Variable Bitrate, Adaptive Streaming solution as seen in the Netflix PS-3 Streaming Application.
Developed production tools to produce HTTP Live Streaming content for our iPad and iPhone applicactions
Developed H264, AC-3, VC-1, and ASF parsers in Java.
Developed Asf, MP4, and BD writers in Java.
Developed Java BD Stream verifier for production encoding.
Knowledgeable in MP2 TS/PS, H264 NAL, ASF, MP4, and BD Stream specifications.
Developed initial Silverlight player UI and diagnostics for the Netflix player.
Spec'd and implemented the API for hosted Sivlerlight players as seen in the Microsoft Netflix plugin for MCE.
Wrote DRM encryption modules in Java for production encoding.

Java A/V formatting toolsstream verifiersHTTP Live StreamingA/V Development

Corel

SW Manager

Dec 2006 – Nov 2007 · 11 mos

In December, 2006, InterVideo was acquired by Corel.

Intervideo

Mgr, Systems SW

May 2000 – Dec 2006 · 6 yrs 7 mos

Significant contributor in all areas of development as we grew from $15M private to $100M+ public company.
Manager and project lead for various desktop video and DVD applications and technologies.
Project lead on security task force to address application security and DRM issues
Designed and developed COM-based DVD authoring/editing SDK
Implemented running preview engine for DVD menus
Implemented ATSC/DVB video buffering engine for recording and time-shifting, including trick-mode support
Managed development and UI design of DVD authoring plug-in for video editing application
Managed OEM engineering support
Led transition to COM-based design and development methodology
All aspects of team management including interviews/offers, scheduling, performance tracking, etc.
Gave live audience demos and presentations at Comdex trade shows.