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We're very happy to present the final part of Quentin's interview with Richard Salmon eploring the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s research and expertise in display screens for television.

In this final section they look at the role of of Hi Definition screens and the large screens needed to watch them. Different technologies, their relative merits, and future developments are covered too.

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Last week we donned hard hats and visited the soon to open new HQ for R&D in London, Centre House. You may recall from an earlier post about South Lab Progress that we're getting a lot of connectivity put into the new space- all that is very apparent in this film as we get a guided tour of the building from Justin King as he and his team install the infrastructure.Ìý We also visit the recently handed over studio facilities we'll be occupying in the heart of TV Centre.

The film opens at Kingswood Warren though, as researchers, engineers and support staff finish up their research work and pack up in preparation for the move.



[Apologies for the background noise right at the start of the film, it seems the noisy aircon at KW doesn't encode well!]

One of the ways a small research team like those at ´óÏó´«Ã½ R&D can try and influence a large industry cost-effectively is to take a prototype - or even a simple proof-of-concept demo - to a conference, trade show or other industry gathering. If you can get the right people excited about your vision of the future, that vision is far more likely to come about. That's exactly what my colleague Jerry Kramskoy had the opportunity to do at this year. We were invited (and subsidised) by 's to give a demonstration on their stand.

One of the technologies we think has real promise for improving the experience of mobile phone use in the home is the . Right now they're mostly being marketed as a way to improve in-home signal quality, but there's no purely technical reason why the technology couldn't be used to give home network access to phones connected to that home's Femtocell. (Some phones can already get access to home networks using of course.) In contrast to Wi-Fi, Femtocells operate in managed spectrum, so there should be fewer interference issues when multiple networks are operating in the same area. In addition, Femtocells may be able to give a better quality of service to individual devices, since mobile phone base-stations are more proactive than Wi-Fi access points when it comes to managing the allocation of spectrum between the devices that connect to them.

For our demo at CES, we wanted to demonstrate that Femtocells are a completely viable way of delivering streaming video from a home network to multiple phones simultaneously. We certainly didn't expect to make headlines with that demonstration and we didn't, but it's an important step towards establishing the viability of Femtocells as a key component of a media-capable home network. We also wanted to get people thinking and talking about the possibilities that the technology implies for the home media experience. I'm pleased to be able to say that we achieved both goals.

Running on a computer connected to the Femtocell via a router, taking the role of a home media server, we set up a streaming video service with material taken from recent productions by our brilliant colleagues in the Natural History Unit. Linked to from a simple web server running on that same computer, getting the video streams up and running on the phones was as simple as pointing their built-in web browsers at that server and clicking the links. The Femtocell, a model lent to us by , was more than capable of transmitting the video streams to three phones simultaneously, at a bitrate per stream of 300kiB/s (giving good quality on the relatively small mobile phone screens). Indeed, the model we used supports HSDPA and is theoretically capable of sharing up to 3.6Mbps between the devices connected to it - one of the things we plan to try is testing with more phones, and perhaps a higher bitrate.



The response from visitors to the CES stand was very favourable. Unsurprisingly, many people were unfamiliar with Femtocell technology and assumed that Wi-Fi was being used as the wireless network link. Some people even assumed that the data was being carried over the power leads being used to keep the phones' batteries topped up, and insisted on seeing them working while unplugged! Most people were impressed with the quality of the video, and many people got quite enthusiastic at the potential that Femtocells offer for delivering high-quality video to phones from home networks.

There was another aspect to our demo: Jerry's attendance was subsidised by the DCKTN because it fitted with a UKTI objective to demonstrate an end-to-end video chain using media and hardware developed by UK organisations. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ and Ubiquisys are both British companies, and Samsung (who provided the phones) have an R&D operation in the UK, and build many UK-designed technologies into their phones, such as processors and radio modules. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ technology programme reported on our demo in their . Sadly Jerry doesn't get his 15 seconds of fame, and they don't present the technology from quite the same angle as us - but it's always nice to see our work make it into the international mainstream media...

Matthew Postgate was interviewed recently by about the role and the future plans of R&D.Ìý They also recently featured a , which R&D has had a great deal of input to over the last few years.

In other news, you may be interested to see Spencer Piggott's post over on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Internet Blog outlining the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s technology strategy.Ìý Many of the core building blocks in this document are directly informed by the research at R&D.Ìý Seeing as there was some confusion over how R&D turns into strategy in an earlier post we thought it was worth pointing to this.

Here's the second part of the Displays & Screens discussion with Quentin Cooper and Richard Salmon.Ìý In this second part they explore the recent advances in 3D television and what the current technical trials are.Ìý This may be of interest to those of you who were wondering if and when the ´óÏó´«Ã½ may be trialling 3D- as this film makes clear the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is well up to speed on developments, but we remain cautious about its suitability for domestic use.

We're mothballing the ´óÏó´«Ã½ R&D Knowledge Exchange blog this week- it will still be online and all the content maintined, but no new entries will appear there- so this is a good opportunity for us to have a quick look at the academic collaboration that R&D is engaged in.



R&D is awash with examples of fantastic collaboration with industry and academia. The formal partnership with the was kind of unique though in its incremental engagement with individuals from relevant faculties in various universities which culminated in the delivery of 8 co-funded research projects partnered jointly by lead academics and ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff, and specifically targeted at areas of strategic importance to FM+T strategy at the time. Its an interesting model and by and large was a successful knowledge exchange pilot programme. We've blogged extensively about it in the past, and the papers are available to download.
Whilst we continue to map the shape of our strategic partnerships agenda within R&D moving forward, we want to share our best practice do's and don'ts for successful collaborative partnerships with academia based on our experience working at the heart of this particular programme over the last 3 years and we'll be uploading a document shortly for perusal and comment. By we, I mean my ´óÏó´«Ã½ colleague Brendan Crowther, Julie Taylor from ,Ìý Sue Amor and Jo Pollack from the AHRC and from Cambridge.Ìý We also sent evaluation questionnaires out to all the project partners for their feedback on the whole collaborative process and these too will be available on this site soon.

We're delighted to be able to share another of the films we shot toward the end of last year covering the facinating subject of developments in dispays and screens.Ìý We had hoped this film, in three parts, would have been able to be shown over Christmas but we had a few technical glitches at the last minute.Ìý So, better late than never, here comes the interview with Quentin Cooper and Richard Salmon in 3 parts.

In part one of this film Quentin and Richard Salmon discuss the last of the old Cathode Ray Tube displays, and what the implications of this are in terms of the way that displays show colour.

´óÏó´«Ã½ R&D runs a Trainee Technologist programme, taking graduate and graduate equivalent applicants from a range of backgrounds and right now we are accepting applications to enter the programme in Manchester and London based rolls.Ìý The deadline for this years entry is the 18th of January, so if you fancy your hand at this sort of work, get your skates on and your application in quick!



For a quick overview of what sort of work our staff get up to take a look at Tony and Bruce on these video's for the 'Job's North' ´óÏó´«Ã½ site.ÌýÌý Tony is currently in the Trainee Technologist programme, Bruce finished it, erm, "some time ago".Ìý The work is pretty varied, and our research staff have a wide range of backgrounds in different branches of engineering, electronics, and science.Ìý The rapid propogation of IP technologies and the increasing need to develop innovative interface models for new services mean we're increasingly leaning on ergonomics, design and skills from the psychological sciences too in order to push the frontier of media technology.Ìý And above all we need a creative inquisitiveness in all our researchers.

We do take great care to run a fair recruitment process, but we also recognise the system is a bit daunting at first to potential recruits.Ìý Do please take the time to fill in the online forms with a bit of care- and remember you can save as you go.Ìý Our recruitment process is very much 'evidence based'- the job description we supply can be used as a kind of check list for the sort of things we'd like to see evidence of in your background, qualifications and experience.

So, what do you fancy doing in 2010? Ìý

Happy new year to everyone out there, and straight off, let's look at the imminent relocation of the R&D (South Lab) from Kingswood Warren to Centre House.Ìý As you might imagine, such a massive programme of work is having a huge impact on the department right now, so we thought it was worth giving you a quick update on progress over the Christmas and New Year break.

Site Preparation
No one would expect a standard 1980's office block, and one that's been out of use for two and a half years at that, to be immediately ready to accommodate a world-class broadcast engineering research laboratory, but what may surprise is the speed with which the site has been converted for our needs.Ìý It was only in July of 2009 that the final greenlight for this work was given, and since then what was the home of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Drama has been radically overhauled.

Huge amounts of air conditioning have been added to the building to accomodate the extensive computing facilities that will occupy one whole floor of the reconditioned facility.Ìý We've also had power supplies upgraded- the digging up of the site to add new cabling uncovered one of the this part of town has to offer!

Phase 1
So right now we have Phase 1 completed, which thanks to the sterling efforts of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Workplace and the main contractor, was achieved a day ahead of schedule and to an impeccable quality standard.Ìý Now the very first sections of the building are in our own IT specialists' hands being rapidly configured to support the first research teams who will move on site on the 12th of February.Ìý This work will include turning what was a very run-of-the-mill building into one of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s most connected facilities ever- with more data connectivity per square metre than any other building.Ìý Of course, if we're going to be developing the media technologies of the next decade and beyond, we need to be ahead of the curve in terms of the infrastructure we use. Also going ahead in the period from now until the 12th February is the installation of new digital TV test-chain facilities (aka the "Transmission Suite").


Still to come is the addition of the satellite farm on the roof to give us the facilities to continue to contribute to the development of that method of distribution.Ìý

TC 0
In addition to the laboratories and offices being built out in Centre House, we've also been given the go-ahead to set up TC 0 as a research space.Ìý TC 0 (pronounced tea-sea zero) is a smallish television and radio studio in Television Centre, just across Wood Lane from Centre House, that we'll be using for our continuing work on advances in production technology.Ìý Even with the best efforts of the architects and designers from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Workplace, there were some facilities we were never going to shoehorn into Centre House, so taking on this space at Television Centre allows us to continue to provide cutting edge research and development in the studio environment.Ìý It may also be a great space to demonstrate projects to colleagues at TVC!

TC 0 will be ready for occupancy at some point around the end of February this year, but Centre House occupancy is just five weeks away!Ìý And within two weeks of that, we'll all be there!
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Ìý Exciting times indeed!

Welcome back from the Christmas and New Year break- we took a little time out here in R&D to recharge batteries, fuel cells and exotic energy systems, as we have a tremendously exciting few months ahead of us.Ìý We'll post about that soon, but lets kick off the new year with another great video from Quentin Cooper's further exploration of R&D.

In today's film Quentin meets with Chris Chambers and Ranulph Poole, two of R&D's most experienced engineers, and explores the peculiar spaces that are our 'controlled environments'.
[Ed:- we've finally managed to get a corrected version of this film up- apologies for the delay in the corrections]