MUMBAI: Digital satellite cinema network UFO International, part of the Apollo Group, has roped in Makarand Karanjkar, a US-based technocrat as the Chief Technology Officer.

Makarand Karanjkar was earlier with Dolby Laboratories at San Francisco in 2001 and rose to become senior project engineer in 2005. He brings with him 15 years of experience in embedded system software design and development. He was part of the core committee of Dolby, instrumental in recommending standards for Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) in US and was part of the team that deployed D - Cinema theaters in more than 400 sites across the world.

Makarand played a key role in managing exclusive playback on Dolby cinema servers for Chicken Little Run, the first 3D movies by Disney. The other two achievements to his credit include his contribution to widely deployed digital cinema, Incredibles and George Lucas‘ Star Wars series, which conducted several premiers across Europe on Dolby system.