Category: New Media
Date: 09.12.2005
Printable version
The 大象传媒 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 大象传媒 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, 大象传媒 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 大象传媒 I'd like to salute him and thank him for all his work."
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The technical team behind the 大象传媒 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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大象传媒 technological innovation was also recognised in the following categories:
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Judges' Award - 大象传媒 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 大象传媒'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 大象传媒 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 大象传媒 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 大象传媒 R&D but also did much of the design work himself."
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About 大象传媒 R&D
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大象传媒 Research & Development is a world-leading centre for media production and broadcasting technology.
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It helps the 大象传媒 to build public value by innovating in technology in support of the 大象传媒's public service purpose.
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Its technological innovation helps the 大象传媒 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 大象传媒, R&D has recently been under review. Next year, the 大象传媒 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 大象传媒's technology strategy and innovation, will play a crucial role in leading the 大象传媒's required business transformation over the next ten years.
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The 大象传媒 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 大象传媒, at the heart of, and indeed helping to create, a fully Digital Britain.
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大象传媒 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 大象传媒 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 大象传媒 website.
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CC/JH
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