By Darren Gilbert

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and how you got to where you are today?

Wow, have you got a week? I suppose to begin; my background is as a muso. During the 90s I played in various Indi bands, worked in the coolest music studio in South Africa with my mate Mark, tried to be a rock star, and then realised there was no money in it. LOL.

One thing I did realise was that music and technology were starting to merge. I remember an article I was in, in early 1992, where we were chatting about this thing called the Internet and how you will be able to one day get your music on it.

I also helped develop and launch EntertainmentAfrica.com and was part of developing the digital strategy for the South African Music Awards (SAMAs). To this day, I am still part of the awards.

I also partnered with Greg Upton and we launched the video streaming platform called SSTREAMM. We provide video solutions to corporates and entertainment brands across the continent. Events have included the SAMAs, MTV Africa Music Awards, Namibian Music Awards, NGC, Metro’s, BalconyTV, and more.

In 2015, I partnered with Mortimer Harvey and one of the most innovative digital people I have worked with – Luisa Mazinter – to create Stream.Digital, a video solution for corporates.

You’ve worked in the tech space for nearly two decades. What interests you about this space in particular?

I started at Prezence [Digital] in the late 90s, developing microsites for record labels. Then I moved into the tech side of music distribution, but my real passion has been digital video content creation and distribution.

I created BalconyTV five years ago and launched that in South Africa. [I also] developed some awesome music properties such as inRooms (a VH1-style show shot at Marshall Music, Woodmead), Urban Rooftops, STAGE360, and various other properties.

I love filming bands and using mobile tech et cetera to do it. YouTube changed the world in my opinion and my aim is to create a ‘YouTube’ for Africa. Livestreaming has always been a passion of mine. I’ve even livestreamed the opening of a coffee shop.

You’ve launched a number of services recently, PockitTV included. Can you tell us more?

PockitTV is a mobile video distribution platform for mobile networks. Our aim is to provide an African-built video streaming platform for the content. The aim is to distribute video to every mobile phone in Africa. In October, we launched PockitTV onto MTN Play and it has gone through the roof.

PockitTV provides entertainment content such as music, lifestyle, kiddies, and comedy. We also want PockitTV to become the home for short form content in Africa.

Since then, we have also launched two more services on MTN Play: Allsports, in partnership with the Perform Group out of the UK, providing short form sports news and content, and Trace Presents, a short form video offering of Trace TV content you won’t see on television. We aim to monetise content for content creators and give them a platform that reaches the masses.

We also provide digital video content to other networks including Vodacom and Cell C. On Cell C, we have SportVideos.co.za while with Vodacom, we provide content to their Video Play platform, which is also pretty exciting.

Our next aim is to get brands involved as mobile is the perfect way for brands to interact with consumers – and what better way than with video.

How impressed are you with tech space in Africa? What is this industry doing right and where can it improve?

Africa is a mobile-driven economy. Everything we do is on our mobile phones and for that reason I think we can be at the forefront of developing content for mobile on mobile.

Our biggest obstacle is data costs and accessibility to WiFi. These walls are starting to be broken down though. Devices are getting cheaper and more sophisticated, and data is slowly coming down (not faster enough yet), but I do think the networks are trying to be more inventive in packaging services and rolling out solutions.

I’m sure we will get there in the end. One thing I do encourage is more support from government to provide Internet for the masses.

What does the future hold for Julian von Plato?

Virtual Reality (VR) is my new favourite hobby. I bought myself a Samsung Gear 360 camera and S7 edge phone and haven’t looked back since. I launched my own VR channel recently on Facebook called VRInterview and I interview people, shoot bands, and experience the world around me in VR.

Samsung have been great in actually supporting me in this and have since started to provide me with toys to do more VR.

I think VR is also a great educational tool and has so many possibilities, so there is lots to do in that space.

As usual, music is my passion, and I am hoping to take BalconyTV to more cities around Africa. Also, we are launching STAGE360, our new urban content platform, in January [2017] with some exciting partners that I wish I could share with you but have to wait till we announce. And finally, obviously, we want to build PockitTV across Africa.

For more information, connect with Julian von Plato on Twitter.

*Image courtesy of Henry Engrebrecht, 2015