BBC Research & Development is the technical research department of the BBC.

Function

It has responsibility for researching and developing advanced and emerging media technologies for the benefit of the corporation, and wider UK and European media industries, and is also the technical design authority for a number of major technical infrastructure transformation projects for the UK broadcasting industry.

Structure

BBC R&D is part of the wider

BBC Design & Engineering BBC Design & Engineering (styled as BBC Design + Engineering) was an operational business division of the BBC, which combined the BBC Digital, BBC Engineering and BBC Worldwide Technology divisions. It is responsible for all of the BBC's digital ...

, and is led by Jatin Aythora, Director, Research & Development. In 2011, the North Lab moved into

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by Peel Media; its principal tenants are media organisations and the Quayside Media ...

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

along with several other departments of the BBC, whilst the South Lab remained in

White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football c ...

in London.

History

In April 1930 the Development section of the BBC became the Research Department. The department as it stands today was formed in 1993 from the merger of the BBC Designs Department and the BBC Research Department. From 2006 to 2008 it was known as Research and Innovation but has since reverted to its original name. BBC Research & Development has made major contributions to broadcast technology, carrying out original research in many areas, and developing items like the peak programme meter (PPM) which became the basis for many world standards.

Innovations

It has also been involved in many well-known consumer technologies such as

teletext A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...

DAB DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * '' Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dą ...

NICAM Near Instantaneous Companded Audio Multiplex (NICAM) is an early form of lossy compression for digital audio. It was originally developed in the early 1970s for point-to-point links within broadcasting networks.Croll, M.G., Osborne, D.W. and Spi ...

and

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

. It was at the forefront of the development of

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...

, stereo FM, and RDS. These innovations have led to Queen's Awards for Innovation in 1969, 1974, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1998, 2001 and 2011. In the 1970s, its engineers designed the famous LS3/5A studio monitor for use in

outside broadcasting Outside broadcasting (OB) is the electronic field production (EFP) of television or radio programmes (typically to cover television news and sports television events) from a mobile remote broadcast television studio. Professional video camera ...

units.Prakel, David (August 1979)
"BBC's Home Service"
''Hi-Fi Answers'', pp67–9 (Courtesy link) Licensed to manufacturers, the loudspeaker sold 100,000 pairs in its 20+ years' life.Seydor, Paul (2 December 2008)
"Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 Loudspeaker"
''The Absolute Sound''.

Closure of Kingswood Warren and move to London and Salford

In early 2010 the department had approximately 135 staff based at three locations: White City in London, Kingswood Warren in

Kingswood, Surrey Kingswood or Kingswood with Burgh Heath is a residential area on the North Downs in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. Part of the London commuter belt, Kingswood is just to the east of the A217 separating it from Tadwort ...

, and the R&D (North Lab) at the BBC's Manchester offices at New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

. In early 2010 the Kingswood Warren site was vacated and the bulk of the department relocated to Centre House, in

White City, London White City is a district of London, England, in the northern part of Shepherd's Bush in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, 5 miles (8 km) west-northwest of Charing Cross. White City is home to Television Centre (previously th ...

co-locating with the main campus of the BBC in London, whilst a significant number have moved to the new North Lab in

. BBC R&D has more than 200 employees in their UK labs.

Future projects

BBC R&D engineers and researchers are currently active on approximately 50 projects, including 7 active national and international collaborative research efforts. These include R&D projects built around BBC Redux—the

proof of concept Proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has prac ...

for the cross-platform,

Flash video Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There ar ...

-based streaming version of the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

References

External links

*
BBC R&D Reports list 1933 - 1996
(PDF, 965 kB) *
Move

Location of South Lab

Video clips

History of the department and interviews with the staff

Talk by Matthew Postgate in Manchester in November 2009
at

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sa ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:BBC Research and Development Audio engineering Digital Video Broadcasting Engineering research institutes Freeview (UK) Organisations based in Salford Organisations based in Surrey Radio technology Reigate and Banstead Research institutes in England Science and technology in Greater Manchester Scientific organizations established in 1923 Sound production technology Sound recording technology Television technology 1923 establishments in the United Kingdom