Kieran Kunhya

He recalls first programming in QBasic on Windows 3.1 and Windows 95; as a teenager he found a player that decoded such files without bloated separate players, his introduction to FFmpeg’s native decoders.⁠[1]

In August 2011 Najdi, a video-on-demand provider owned by Telekom Slovenije, chose the open-source Open Broadcast Encoder (OBE) for its VOD content; as founder of Open Broadcast Systems and creator of OBE, he said he hoped Najdi would gain flexibility in its encoding chain by using open-source software.⁠[2]

In 2012 he gave a lightning talk titled “FOSS in Broadcast” at FOSDEM; the conference bio described him as lead developer of the Open Broadcast Encoder project, which aims to create a FOSS broadcast television encoder, and as a contributor to the x264 encoder and FFmpeg/libav.⁠[3]

His GitHub repository x262, a version of x264 with MPEG-2 support, is part of the Open Broadcast Encoder project.⁠[4]

In August 2013 several public and private Icelandic broadcasters adopted OBE, including SportTV, which used it for all distribution to the IPTV networks of Iceland Telecom and Vodafone Iceland as it expanded from one to four channels; as managing director of Open Broadcast Systems, he said he looked forward to working with the broadcasters and their suppliers.⁠[5]

In May 2015 Open Broadcast Systems acquired a satellite downlink facility in Central London and later turned it into a broadcast technology lab replicating customers’ infrastructure for product development and troubleshooting; the company said even competitors questioned the decision at the time.⁠[6]

In 2016 Open Broadcast Systems’ OBE C-100 encoders and decoders carried several EU Referendum broadcasts over IP for Sky News, including the Prime Minister’s final speech and resignation provided as the UK pool feed; he said Sky News had shown that IT hardware could deliver the most important event of a generation.⁠[7]

On June 8, 2017 Open Broadcast Systems was named Rising Star at the TVB Awards 2017; as founder and managing director, he said the biggest barrier for such solutions was the industry mindset, which the company would keep working to change.⁠[8]

On December 6, 2018 Open Broadcast Systems announced RIST (Reliable Internet Stream Transport) support in its IP encoders and decoders; he said RIST offered a simple yet highly effective way to interchange professional signals between vendors and predicted wide adoption in professional broadcasting.⁠[9]

In March 2020 the RIST Forum announced new directors, naming him, as CEO of Open Broadcast Systems, alongside Paul Atwell, Adi Rozenberg and John Wastcoat.⁠[10]

On September 23, 2020 he published “RIST: Video Transport for Content that Matters” in Streaming Media; his author bio said he led a team of engineers using software and IT equipment in live broadcasting and had worked with many leading broadcasters.⁠[11]

He was a speaker at SMPTE 2020, whose bio described Open Broadcast Systems as a maker of low-latency contribution encoders and decoders and said he specializes in IP video software engineering and holds a master’s degree in physics from the University of Bristol.⁠[12]

On September 20, 2022 Open Broadcast Systems open-sourced its internal PTP and STThe Straits TimesThe Straits Times is Singapore’s oldest English-language daily, founded in 1845 as The Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce. Long part of Singapore Press Holdings, it has been published since December 2021 by the not-for-profit SPH Media Trust.Open the full entry-2110 analysis tool; he said it had been instrumental in developing ST-2110 and ST-2022-6 support in its C-200 encoders and decoders and that he hoped it would push the industry toward better PTP and timestamp compliance outside the lab.⁠[13]

On January 16, 2024 Open Broadcast Systems released a high-performance SRT implementation developed fully in-house for its encoders and decoders; he said many content providers used SRT to send and receive video over the internet and that the in-house implementation gave customers the highest possible reliability.⁠[14]

On February 13, 2024 Open Broadcast Systems announced 100 Gigabit Ethernet support in its low-latency encoders and decoders, allowing dozens of ST 2022-6 or ST-2110 streams per server; he called implementing 100G support a massive technical endeavour.⁠[15]

In November 2025 FFmpeg publicly criticized GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry’s AI-generated vulnerability reports as “CVE slop”, arguing that Google should either provide patches with its reports or directly support the project’s maintenance; FFmpeg developer Michael Niedermayer said he disagreed with the comments “FFmpeg (Kieran)” had made about Google.⁠[16]

On February 19, 2026 Open Broadcast Systems added 200 Gigabit Ethernet support to its encoders and decoders, calling it the first known encode/decode solution with 200G; as founder and CEO, he said customers moving to IP and the cloud needed efficient bulk transport at scale.⁠[17]

On April 14, 2026 Open Broadcast Systems announced that BBCBBCThe BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the United Kingdom’s public broadcaster. Its predecessor was the British Broadcasting Company, formed in 1922, and since 1927 it has been established under a Royal Charter. It provides television, radio, and online services in the UK, is funded mainly by the television licence fee, and broadcasts worldwide in multiple languages through BBC World Service.Open the full entry World Service had selected its decoders for IP television distribution to its global rebroadcast partners; he said software-based solutions gave broadcasters flexibility to deliver content reliably over IP.⁠[18]

He appeared on episode 496; the page calls him a longtime FFmpeg contributor and the person behind FFmpeg’s X account.⁠[19]

He said the FFmpeg account shows these projects are built by people in their spare time; he also wrote FFmpeg-style assembly lessons, after which people submitted patches.⁠[1]

X: Public account: https://x.com/kierank_ (opens in a new window)⁠[20]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-kunhya-73442919/ (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

Open Broadcast Systems: Official website: https://www.obe.tv/ (opens in a new window)⁠[6]

FFmpeg: Official website: https://ffmpeg.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[21]