Resume
Los Angeles, California · manuel.briand@gmail.com · LinkedIn
Download as PDF (English) PDF en français
Summary
Principal Media Streaming Engineer with a PhD in DSP and 36 granted US patents (16 invention families). I design the content-aware ABR stacks behind Disney+, for every format from 4K HDR and IMAX to the new 9:16 vertical video, and own perceptual video and audio quality for Disney streaming: ABR stacks that cut Disney+ VOD delivery by 15% on average while improving perceived quality, plus dialogue clarity and automated quality control.
Skills
- Video Quality & Encoding
- VMAF, CAMBI, subjective testing · HEVC, AV1, H.264 · HDR10, Dolby Vision · per-title ABR
- Audio
- Dolby Atmos (JOC, AC-4), DTS:X, IAMF · loudness (EBU R128, ATSC A/85) · dialogue intelligibility
- Streaming
- HLS, DASH, CMAF, SSAI, multi-DRM
- ML for Media
- Python, PyTorch · Whisper, SpeechBrain, MMS, Demucs
- Engineering
- C/C++ DSP, FFmpeg, AWS, Docker
Show All Skills
- Audio
- IAMF, Opus, Dolby (AC-3/EC-3, JOC/AC-4), xHE-AAC, MPEG-H, ITU-T G.719, DTS-HD, DTS:X · EBU R128 / ATSC A/85 loudness, ADM/BWF · dubbing, audio description (AD) · Skywalker Sound CODA, Dolby Encoding Engine
- Video
- H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1, ProRes, HDR (HDR10/10+, Dolby Vision 5/8.1) · VMAF, CAMBI, PSNR, SSIM · Per-title ABR and Content-Aware Encoding (CAE)
- Streaming
- HLS, DASH, CMAF, multi-DRM, SCTE-35, SSAI/SGAI, packaging/origin, CDN, VAST, AVMetrics
- AI/ML
- PyTorch, TensorFlow · Speech & audio (Whisper, SpeechBrain, MMS, Demucs) · Video (OpenCV) · LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic) · CUDA
- Languages & Tools
- C/C++ (fixed & floating-point DSP), Python, Bash, Matlab, SQL, XML/JSON · AWS, Linux, Docker, FFmpeg, GStreamer, Shaka, hls.js, Pure Data, Pro Tools, Adobe Creative Cloud, DaVinci Resolve
Work Experience
2021–Present
- Own visual and audio quality (VQ/QoE) evaluation for Disney streaming: SDR, HDR, IMAX, and Atmos.
- Invented the Dialogue Clarity Engine and accessible-audio renderer, backward compatible with 100% of devices; production integration complete.
- Design the content-aware (CAE) ABR stacks for every Disney+ format, including the new 9:16 vertical video (UHD and FHD, SDR and HDR); per-variant objective and perceptual scoring cut VOD delivery by 15% on average, up to 40% on the most-watched titles.
- Invented a way to adapt cinematic sound to vertical video: 16:9-to-9:16 cropping data re-balances the soundfield to follow what stays in frame (in development, patent pending).
- Designed an automated VQ flow from the ground up (chaptered QC payload, content-adaptive playback speed, patented as US 12,236,979) with automated QC scoring across ABR rendition configurations.
- Built the language-QC pipeline for dubs and subtitles: voice-activity detection, adaptive windowing and a Whisper, VoxLingua107 and MMS cascade covering 30 languages (24 validated so far); no file falsely flagged on a 187-file validation set, about 24× faster than real time (case study).
Show 6 More
- Teach the ingest and QC teams to run subjective reviews and to use and improve the automated QC pipeline, as I did with QC teams at DTS and DIRECTV.
- Co-developed DIS, an objective dialogue intelligibility score, with Fraunhofer: modeling, features, validation, and scoring tools.
- Completed production integration of the Dialogue Clarity Engine on Skywalker Sound’s CODA Edge (on-premise, containerized), and demoed personalized-audio prototypes to Disney+ creative teams.
- Built production ML systems for speech and audio understanding, including dialogue-clarity models integrated for production (presenting at the AES Show in Nashville, Tennessee, on Nov 1, 2026).
- Engineered content-specific encoding presets yielding hundreds of thousands in annual CDN savings.
- Filed 2 patent applications (pending): horizontal-to-vertical audio soundtrack generation; crossfade rendering for adaptive multi-view live streaming.
2015–2021
- Lead architect for the DIRECTV 4K/HDR/Atmos (UHD) service launch in 2016, a cross-functional initiative from strategy to execution.
- Pushed leadership to adopt CMAF/HLS across live and cloud DVR, reducing egress costs and production issues by more than 50% on Android, Fire TV and Roku.
- Built the case for $650K a year in cloud DVR storage savings by compacting the ABR ladders of old recordings (90% of stored volume, under 10% of viewing), validated against playback KPIs on Fire TV, Android, and iOS/tvOS.
- Lead AV architect for the AT&T TV set-top box: cleared partner-app audio integration and certification blockers with a driver update mixing the Google Assistant into live audio.
- Consolidated live audio (channels, ad insertion, and described video) onto a single loudness profile, cutting audio variants per live channel from 4 to 2.
- Grew engineers: an intern I mentored was hired full time; led the KPI-emulator project with a Cal State LA student team, and supervised the internship that built audio-fingerprint “skip intro” detection.
Show 8 More
- Designed the architecture of the 1st DIRECTV 4K/UHD set-top box audio pipeline (Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Atmos decoding) and the 1st DIRECTV HDR (HLG and PQ10) delivery with Dolby Atmos (Rio Olympics, US Open, NBA, MLB).
- Defined the primary and secondary PIDs for the satellite service, making sure it supported dynamic ad insertion and alternate languages.
- Designed and led the implementation of the DIRECTV 4K/UHD loudness monitoring and control infrastructure (ATSC A/85, AC3, EC3).
- Defined the consolidated live SSAI architecture specification for multi-DRM HLS and DASH streaming; key contributor to mezzanine content and metadata specifications and to encoding and packaging systems requirements.
- Initiated chapters metadata extraction in Python, enabling “skip intro” for 70% of the VOD catalog.
- Enabled 5.1 surround across live, cloud DVR, VOD, and server-side ad insertion; brought described video (audio description) to live channels for FCC compliance.
- Fixed loud ads on live ad-inserted channels by tracing them to an AC3 loudness-metadata bug in the ad-insertion workflow, and defined the platform’s lip-sync protection strategy and alarm thresholds.
- Led technical collaborations with Apple (Atmos in the HLS specification), Microsoft (CMAF encryption), Google, and Netflix; supported Audience Network’s 4K/HDR/Atmos music show at Manhattan Beach Studios.
2011–2015
- Earned the CTO Award for the ATSC 3.0 next-generation audio submission licensed as DTS:X: channel- and object-based audio for IMAX theaters and luxury automotive.
- Developed the DTS:X architecture: moved it from a low-bitrate and scalable hybrid, which could not compete with true low-bitrate codecs, to one design running from low bitrate up to lossless, the DTS:X on the market today; lead developer and tester for the ATSC 3.0 submission.
- Designed the DTS:X bitstream syntax, led the effort towards a fixed-point implementation of the DTS:X audio decoder and developed a suite of “Golden-Ears” bitstream conformance tests for 3rd party implementations.
- Directed and oversaw the design of HLS & DASH scalable audio encoding and packaging technologies for Music, Radio and Video Streaming services using DTS-HD.
- Contributed audio bitstream signaling to DASH-IF IOP, HLS Authoring Spec for Apple TV and CTA WAVE (formerly Web Application Video Ecosystem).
2007–2011
- Received the CTO Award for innovative contributions to the ITU-T G.719 speech and audio standard.
- Designed G.719’s perceptual model and a new bandwidth-extension algorithm with noise filling.
- Shipped prototype Matlab and production C/C++ reference software to the ITU-T, evaluated with 3GPP, ITU and MPEG quality-measurement tools.
- Drove technical improvements into ITU-T audio standards, validated by objective measurements and listening tests.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Digital Signal Processing and Computer Science. Industrial (CIFRE) PhD with Orange Labs, where both interns I supervised went on to PhDs.
Master of Science in Digital Signal and Image Processing
Bachelor of Engineering
Industry
Founding member of the CMAF Industry Forum; member of the Alliance for Open Media (AV1, AV2, IAMF) and the Streaming Video Technology Alliance (SVTA). Contributor to AES, ATSC (S34-2), CTA WAVE, DASH-IF, SMPTE and the SVG DTV Audio Group. Reviewer for AES and IEEE.