Pankaj Kedia, is the Country Manager, Dolby Laboratories India. As Country Manager with Dolby Laboratories in India, Pankaj’s goal is to help establish and grow Dolby’s business across various market segments, including cinema, broadcast, PC, mobile, consumer electronics, and gaming.
What gadgets do you use?
I use quite a few. A phone, tablet, laptop, iPod, iPod speaker docks, home theatre, HD STB, Blu-ray player, large screen TV, streaming player, sound bar and a PS3.
I recently ordered a new 7.1 home theatre. We just completed the renovation of our apartment and that gave me the perfect opportunity to upgrade my older 5.1 based home theatre. I also used the opportunity to upgrade the speakers and am looking forward to installing the new system in the next few weeks.
What is your dream machine?
I know this is clichéd but it has to be a flying car or maybe a car that can transform into a flying robot. I was a huge fan of the Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot series when I was a kid, and have also always wanted to flying robot. And given how bad the traffic in Mumbai is, a flying car would be very useful.
What do you not like about technology?
At times you need to compromise on the quality of experience if you want convenience. Most of the portable music players and mobile phones have this problem, where the quality of the audio experience is severely compromised. Even the audio on the iPad is really bad.
What apps or tools do you use the most?
I am hooked to Instagram at the moment. But there are a lot of apps that I use. I really love the Dilbert app. I use the Lonely Planet travel guide apps when we travel on holidays.
What’s the biggest tech disaster according to you?
Well, there have been many technology disasters. If you think beyond just tech products – I think the Chernobyl and the Japan nuclear disaster were some of the worst caused by technology. There are times when excessive faith in technology has led to disasters. But we need to also balance that by continuing to experiment and invent; pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
What’s the biggest tech success according to you?
I think a lot of the development and advancement in the medical field are great successes. They save human lives and there can be no bigger success than that.
One instance where technology solved your problem.
There are so many things for which we rely on technology in our day to day life. I do particularly like being able to stream my music from various devices including my PC, phone & music player to my speakers to different rooms at home. I find this very convenient; not being restricted by space and device. The other thing I really find very useful is the integration of travel guide apps with maps. They really help you explore places better and try new routes when travelling to a new place, and especially in a country where English is not commonly spoken.