I was born in Italy, in Ravenna, 58 years ago, and here I live after over 20 years “on the road”.
I have been active in the world of multimedia for over 30 years, quite a rare case.
It all started when the FM Radio market was free in Italy, in 1976. I started working as a DJ in FM radio stations and I continued that with passion for about 10 years. I finished my DJ career in a Catholic radio station 😊, directed by Ersilio Tonini, who was a cardinal of the Catholic Church, with the most large presence in Italian national media. I was lucky enough to also consult Vatican Radio on the choice of automation software in the early 2000s.
At the same time as DJing, I developed a great interest in music for radio and radio broadcasting (I was sure I could never become famous as a DJ … I was “too nerd”) … and decided to take a degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Bologna.
Discussed my thesis in 1986, at the age of 25, with the design of a remote audio mixer with digital control, based on Commodore 64 😊
After that I tried in every way to start my career in the audio industry. Luckily, I met Mr. Bugari, a well-known manufacturer of electronic organs and guitars in Italy. He believed in me and entrusted me with the responsibility of marketing Shure microphones in Italy of which his company was (and still is) a distributor. What a dream to enter the offices of broadcasting companies, such as RAI, Vatican Radio, Radio 24, 105, RTL, VideoItalia and many others!
So I started my journey in the multimedia sector, working first as an employee until 1999 and then as a consultant, for companies like GeneralMusic, Creative Labs, ESO / Eastech and others.
With the starting of multimedia technologies I was totally in the loop. The first example was pioneering: a video catalog with a touch screen for Generalmusic at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 1991, based on IBM AVC and OS / 2. The same system was used for the Palazzo Grassi museum in Venice.
Around the mid-1990s I worked on creating the first multimedia PCs (audio only at that time!) as an OEM account manager for Creative Labs in the Munich office. It was exciting to contribute to the first generation of PCs with multimedia motherboards from HP, Siemens, AT&T.
Around the year 2000 I produced the first multimedia e-learning products on CD and video streaming web presentations (with fabulous ISDN line … dedicated to those who complain about ADSL)
Twelve years ago I founded OC Open Consulting, one of the best players in Europe for the creation of multimedia content for the hi-tech industry.
With OC we have developed e-learning platforms for prestigious organizations and companies: from the UN in New York to the National Italian Forensic Council; from the world’s most prestigious Sport Cars brand to Same Deutz Fahr farm tractors; and many automation companies that use automation, among which I like to mention Unilever, Baxter, and the Italian Sacmi and Datalogic.
In addition to this, I have written as a freelance journalist for the magazines Strumenti Musicali, Backstage and Insound since 1991.