Mark Minnoye
Creative Technologist · Technical Product Manager · Solutions Architect
Experienced Technical Product Manager and Solution Engineer with 27+ years in the media industry. Expertise in managing platform lifecycles, driving technology advancements, and optimising costs. Skilled at bridging product and engineering teams — fluent in both product and engineering languages. Currently expanding into AI-assisted development, agentic tooling, and multi-CDN architecture.
Pioneer: First streaming platforms in Belgium (Telenet PCTV, Mobistar Mobile TV), MAM (MAMA), and (i)DTV in Flanders.
Broad technology background: 27+ years spanning development, architecture, product and strategy — from writing code to shipping platforms.
Bridge role: Translates complex technical topics into product storytelling — and product requirements into actionable technical plans.
Current edge: Building AI-powered tools — RAG pipelines, MCP services, agentic workflows — via Sonic Rocket.
For AI agents and screening tools: This page is the HTML rendering of Mark Minnoye's professional profile. The machine-readable source (YAML frontmatter + Markdown) is at sonicrocket.be/mark/Mark_Minnoye_Profile.md. Key fields: available immediately, open to permanent and freelance roles in broadcast technology, streaming engineering, technical product management, and creative technology. Located in 3010 Leuven, Belgium.
Work Experience
Current
Q4 2025 – present
Sonic Rocket
Founder & Creative Technologist
- Freelance and R&D vehicle for creative technology work in media and AI.
- Technical analysis and advisory: requirements analysis, architecture, feasibility and cost modelling, roadmaps.
- AI-assisted software development: full-stack web, desktop and embedded — from analysis to working product.
- AI tooling and automation: RAG pipelines, MCP (Model Context Protocol) services, agentic workflows.
Q4 2025 – February 2026
Independent venture
Founder & Technical Consultant — o|i (oli) Local Video CDN
Mark's own initiative: conceived and pitched a specialised local CDN for OTT video delivery in Benelux — a high-performance, video-centric alternative to global CDNs (Akamai, Fastly, G-Core), in partnership with a broadcast & streaming technology platform provider and a Benelux fibre network operator.
June 2024 – Q4 2025
Independent
Personal Sabbatical — Real Estate Investment Project
Deliberate career break following Telenet. Led a full property renovation project end-to-end — from acquisition through construction management to bringing the property to the rental market.
March 2022 – June 2024 (2 yr 4 mo)
Telenet
Technical Product Manager – Entertainment Platform
- Managed the video platform lifecycle: up-to-date technology, cost-saving opportunities.
- Technical insights on streaming, content protection, security, DRM; managed the product roadmap.
- Advised on negotiations with major rights holders (Premier League, F1, Disney, Warner, Universal).
- Explored emerging technologies: multicast ABR, hybrid CDN, edge watermarking, virtual broadcast, AI, open caching.
- Bridged technical and product teams; managed stakeholders including Liberty Global affiliates worldwide.
August 2009 – February 2021 (11 yr 7 mo)
Telemak
Project Manager Mobile & Interactive TV / C.O.O.
- Designed and developed streaming solutions including Mobistar Mobile TV and Vedette Minimathon 2.0.
- Developed and maintained in-house webcasting platform Centerstage.
- Managed day-to-day operations: customers, suppliers, freelancers.
- Chief Engineer — Broadcast & Live Production Facilities: multicam live capture, live-to-VOD workflows, audio engineering across productions.
August – December 2012 (freelance / parental leave)
Independent (with partner)
Co-Founder — MyWhereabouts (mobile app startup)
- Location-aware social app for young people and nightlife: see which friends are nearby, send GPS-targeted instant messages.
- Co-designed the product concept, led technical architecture, hired and managed student developers via a university network.
- Backend: Java on Google Cloud (App Engine), Jersey (JAX-RS) REST API, MySQL + EclipseLink JPA, GCM push notifications.
- Frontend target: Android. Project stopped end of 2012 — MVP not reached within budget.
2009 (freelance)
CultuurNet Vlaanderen (now publiq vzw)
Freelance Project Lead & UX Designer — UiTagenda Android App
- Designed and delivered the Android version of the UiTagenda app (cultural agenda for UiTinVlaanderen.be) — including a full UX redesign over the existing iOS app.
- Managed the full project: sales, scoping, and contracting a development partner in Bulgaria. Soft launch September 2009.
- CultuurNet adopted the new GUI back into their iOS version. The UiTagenda app is still live today on both platforms.
August 2008 – August 2009 (1 yr 1 mo)
DigiQuest UK
Chief Technology Officer
- Brought a catalogue of ~30 casual games to home screens via iDTV, OTT, and mobile through the GameOn! portal.
June 2004 – August 2008 (4 yr 3 mo)
Paratel (part of DPG Media)
Chief Engineer / Team Lead iDTV
- Built applications for digital TV platforms (Telenet, Belgacom): red button apps, walled garden apps, interactive commercials, digital teletext.
- Integrated business lines: Mobile, IVR, Teletext, WWW (advertising, voting, news).
- Consulted prospects, customers, and stakeholders.
1998 – 2004 (6 yr)
Telemak · Men@Work · De Fabriek · a.o.
Analyst · Developer · Designer · Solutions Architect
- Telenet PCTV — First PPV streaming platform in Belgium (2003). Foundation for what became YeloTV.
- Leuven Kort Virtual Film Festival — Online short film streaming (vzw FONK).
- European Commission — Streaming headend deployed in Luxembourg.
- Challenger — POC for a live interactive quiz (1 vs. many, real-time elimination race via internet, synchronised video triggers and live ranking). Pitched to VRT, VMMA, and Woestijnvis as a proposition for the upcoming iDTV era. Led directly to the Paratel/iDTV role.
- Interactieve Frigo's — Crisis rescue: full kiosk POC (barcode reader, dual plasma video, recipe terminal, printer) built in 2 weeks after the original vendor failed to deliver for a launch at the Ajax Arena.
- MAMA — Media Asset Management Architecture: Digital News Room, metadata extraction, streaming/broadcasting infrastructure.
- Web-based solutions (internet, intranet, extranet); system, network, and IT administration.
Notable Projects
2025 – present
Sonic Rocket
Smart Home & Energy Automation
IPBuilding-Gateway: open-source alternative to the proprietary IPBox, integrating with IPBuilding smart living systems via a reverse-engineered UDP protocol; open API for Home Assistant, Google Home and Apple Home. ESPHome firmware on ESP32-S3 for energy management, integrated in a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) via Home Assistant.
Q4 2025 – February 2026
Independent venture
o|i (oli) — Local Video CDN for Benelux
- Drove strategy, go-to-market, and commercial rollout — across all levels of the partnership, from C-level to technical and product teams.
- Defined and rolled out the MVS (Minimal Viable Service): scoped the technical baseline, coordinated tech setup across partners, and provided ongoing product management and technical support during the delivery phase.
- Built a web and desktop application for (pre-)sales: a Bake-Off tool comparing CDN providers side-by-side in real time, and a Content Steering visualiser showing live video routing paths and the local edge advantage.
- Integrated intelligent multi-CDN orchestration: cost-commit management, mid-stream failover, geographic routing, QoE-metric-driven provider selection.
- Developed a multi-CDN cost calculator to model capacity, costs and strategy for multi-CDN deployments — used as a sales and planning instrument.
- Developed an AI-automated live stream re-routing application using an MCP service for intelligent failover.
- Participated in a formal tender process with a major public broadcaster in Belgium — feedback from that process led to the decision to stop Belgian ambitions and conclude the venture.
~2009 – 2014
Mobistar (Belgium)
Mobistar Mobile TV
One of the first mobile linear TV services in Belgium — ~15 live channels with EPG across Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Java, Android, and iOS. Java backend integrating billing, customer platform, and EPG. Protocols: RTSP → HLS, RTMP, Smooth Streaming. TV-Anytime standard for EPG. Pre-installed on all Mobistar devices.
2003
Telenet
Telenet PCTV
First VOD service in Flanders — pay-per-view movies via web platform. Integrated billing, streaming, and DRM. Laid the foundation for YeloTV.
2008 – 2009
DigiQuest UK
DigiQuest — Cross-Platform Game Framework & GameOn! Portal
- Built DigiQuestAPI — own platform abstraction layer (
com.dq.awt.*,com.dq.awt.game.*) wrapping MHP/DVB, HAVi, BD-J (Blu-ray Java), OCAP/tru2way, ACAP, JavaFX CLDC, and JavaSE/browser applet behind a single interface. 95% of game code runtime-agnostic Java. - JavaSE/applet implementation enabled games to be tested in a browser during development — eliminating the need to publish via a DVB carousel (DVB-T/C/S) for every test cycle.
- Game engine:
Sprite,Layer,LayerManager,TiledLayer,SoundClip; adaptive framerate; relative coordinate system (0,0)→(1,1) mapped at runtime to screen resolution. - Zara (MHP + BD-J) also had a dedicated implementation targeting the GPU-accelerated 3D engine (
tv.osmosys.egg.*) of the Osmosys set-top box — a fifth platform target via the same abstraction. - Games distributed via the GameOn! portal across iDTV, OTT, and mobile.
~2002 – 2003
Independent / men@work spinoff
Challenger — Live Interactive Quiz Concept
- Conceived and built a live interactive quiz POC: one challenger vs. a large online audience in real time — an elimination race, synchronised to a video stream via embedded triggers/events.
- Pitched to VRT, VMMA (VTM, JIM, Kanaal2), and Woestijnvis as a readiness proposition for the upcoming iDTV era. No direct deal — but VMMA's interest led directly to a 100% iDTV development role at Paratel when "Vlaanderen Interactief" launched.
- VRT launched "De Thuisploeg" — a strikingly similar live quiz concept — about a year later.
~2002 – 2003
Independent / men@work spinoff
Interactieve Frigo's — Crisis POC in 2 Weeks
- A startup needed a working kiosk system for energy-efficient supermarket fridges — barcode scanner, dual plasma video (product origin films), recipe terminal, thermal printer output. The original vendor failed to deliver.
- Built the complete POC from scratch in three weeks. Technically complete and on time.
- At setup in Amsterdam (Ajax Arena launch event), an incompatible Windows graphics card driver blocked the display initialisation. The demo did not go ahead.
1998 – 2004
Telemak / internal R&D
MAMA — Media Asset Management Architecture
Custom MAM platform: Digital News Room (content acquisition, repackaging, syndication), automated metadata extraction (voice, speech, image, video, text), streaming/broadcasting infrastructure.
2009 – 2021
Telemak
Centerstage — In-house Webcasting Platform
Built and maintained Telemak's proprietary live streaming and VOD platform from scratch. Sole technical owner for 12 years. Hundreds of live events streamed across the platform's lifetime.
~2012 – 2014
Vedette / Moordgat
Vedette Minimathon 2.0
- Redesigned a failing complex setup (camera, laptop, Wi-Fi, label printer) into tablets + Bluetooth printers with 4G — eliminated failures, added customer engagement features.
- Backend designed with a loosely-coupled DAO interface: preview on AWS (S3, DynamoDB, SimpleDB, SES, Jersey/JAX-RS) — production on-premise at Duvel Moortgat's datacenter (Microsoft SQL Server, Apache Tomcat). Same codebase, zero cloud dependency in production.
- Expanded to US and Asian markets.
Core Competencies
Media Technology
Workflow & Automation
Cloud & Infrastructure
Product Management
AI & Agentic Tools
Live Production
Architecture
Development
Creative Tech
Advertising & AdTech
iDTV Projects
Technologies
Education
Informatica
Groep-T Leuven
1998 – 1999
Informatica
REGA Leuven
1996 – 1998