Category: New Media
Date: 09.12.2005
Printable version
The 91Èȱ¬ swept the board at the Royal Television Society's prestigious Technology Awards last night (8 December), winning six out of the eight categories, including a Lifetime Achievement award for Chris Clarke of 91Èȱ¬ Research & Development.
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Clarke was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award for the outstanding 'back room' work done over the past 30 years.
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This included work on digital PAL decoding and TV standards conversion in the Seventies, making possible a worldwide agreement on digital video standards.
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In the Nineties, Clarke also led the team that created the technical standards for the first DTT transmitter and receiver, and which led to the digital wireless cameras used in News, Sport, and innovative productions like Flashmob - the Opera.
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Commenting on the award, 91Èȱ¬ Director-General Mark Thompson said: "Digital television is a central part of our plans for the future, and for future services to the public.
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"And without the kind of back room work that Chris Clarke has done, both on standards and on the development of DTT, we wouldn't be able to look forward to the future with such confidence. So on behalf of the whole 91Èȱ¬ I'd like to salute him and thank him for all his work."
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The technical team behind the 91Èȱ¬ TWO series, Coast, also picked up the Technology in Content Delivery and Technology in Consumer Electronics awards for its Coast Mobile service, a ground-breaking initiative in conjunction with Gavitec AG and Hewlett-Packard, which allowed users to access audio and video material using symbols captured by a mobile phone camera.
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91Èȱ¬ technological innovation was also recognised in the following categories:
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Judges' Award - 91Èȱ¬ General Election Results programme, for advancing the way information was presented to viewers.
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Technology in Content Creation, Capture or Restoration - for the 91Èȱ¬'s use of mobile phones in the newsgathering process, which the judges cited as "a European pioneer in its field."
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Research & Development Team - awarded to 91Èȱ¬ Research & Development's interactive team for the creation and delivery of interactive TV services for all the main digital TV delivery platforms.
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Notes to Editors
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About the RTS Technology Awards
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The RTS Technology Awards seek to recognise excellence in technological activities from 'scene-to-screen and back'.
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The Lifetime Achievement award is for the individual or team who, in the opinion of the judges, most deserves recognition for an outstanding contribution, over an essentially continuous and substantial period of years, to any combination of production, delivery or domestic technology.
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Further comments on Chris Clarke's Lifetime Achievement Award
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David Wood, Head of New Technology at the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva, said: "Without Chris Clarke's contribution, there would be no ITU Rec 601, the cornerstone of digital television throughout the world. His conclusion that a PAL signal could be decoded by any sampling frequency, backed up by thorough studies, was the key to unlock the agreement on component coding, which led to the worldwide standard Rec 601."
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Prof. Dr.-Ing.
Ulrich Reimers, chair of the Technical Module of the DVB project, said: "The very timely completion of the 91Èȱ¬ DVB-T modem, and its subsequent successful testing, were extremely important to the rapid acceptance of the DVB-T standard. This enormous achievement was largely a result of the work of Chris Clarke, who not only led the modem team at 91Èȱ¬ R&D but also did much of the design work himself."
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About 91Èȱ¬ R&D
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91Èȱ¬ Research & Development is a world-leading centre for media production and broadcasting technology.
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It helps the 91Èȱ¬ to build public value by innovating in technology in support of the 91Èȱ¬'s public service purpose.
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Its technological innovation helps the 91Èȱ¬ to deliver its services on all the new digital platforms, to ensure that licence payers are able to access our programmes, to reduce costs and improve efficiency, to keep ahead in programme innovation, and to generate external revenue.
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Like the rest of the 91Èȱ¬, R&D has recently been under review. Next year, the 91Èȱ¬ plans to integrate its R&D and Technology Direction departments to become 'Technology', part of the New Media & Technology Division.
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The new group, which will focus on the 91Èȱ¬'s technology strategy and innovation, will play a crucial role in leading the 91Èȱ¬'s required business transformation over the next ten years.
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The 91Èȱ¬ Executive Board and Governors unanimously supported the Review's conclusion that a strong, vibrant and world-class technology function is key to our ability to create a Digital 91Èȱ¬, at the heart of, and indeed helping to create, a fully Digital Britain.
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91Èȱ¬ R&D has a staff of about 130 professional engineers, mathematicians and scientists.
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Its current work includes:
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digital TV services - interactivity, electronic programme guides, and reception improvements;
access services for TV - subtitling, signing, and audio description;
Digital Radio Mondiale - digital radio for the long, medium, and short-wave bands;
navigation - helping people to find 91Èȱ¬ programmes that will appeal to them;
wireless techniques in broadcast production;
virtual production for TV - computer-generated sets and virtual actors;
production technology - enabling TV and radio production from a computer desktop
developing new services for the 91Èȱ¬ website.
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CC/JH
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