Alan Edward Bell was a technologist who played a central role in developing the universal DVD format and the

DVD copy protection CD/DVD copy protection is a blanket term for various methods of copy protection for CDs and DVDs. Such methods include DRM, CD-checks, Dummy Files, illegal tables of contents, over-sizing or over-burning the CD, physical errors and bad sectors. M ...

system. He worked at

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, IBM, Warner Bros. Studios, and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

before co-founding WR Entertainment.T. Plimmer, "Alan Bell obituary", The Guardian, Sun 29 May 2016 10.17 EDT
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Background, Education, and Death

Alan Bell was born in

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th cent ...

, south London, around 1949. His parents, Ivy (nee Smith) and Ted were a factory worker and a printer, respectively. The family moved to

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of ...

, West Sussex, in 1957 where Bell attended Thomas Bennett comprehensive school. Bell studied at

Imperial College, London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a c ...

, gaining a first class degree in physics in 1969. He was awarded a PhD degree in 1973 also from Imperial College for experimental work on the low-temperature magnetic and electrical properties of dilute alloys (Kondo effect) working under A. D. Kaplin. He then received a Sarnoff Fellowship to visit

RCA Laboratories The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

at Princeton, N.J. as a postdoctoral researcher working, for nine months, on

liquid crystals Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. The ...

using optical Raman scattering to determine the molecular ordering of the nematic phase. Bell was married to Patricia (nee Wilkinson) from 1972 until their divorce in 2009. They had two children, Geoffrey and Melissa. In May 2016, Bell was killed in a motorcycle accident while on vacation in

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

Career

In 1974, Bell completed his postdoc and joined the technical staff at the

David Sarnoff Research Center. His research focussed on improving the recording characteristics of metallic recording media. The research led to the development of broadcast-quality optical video recording, the RCA videodisc. Bell served as a Senior Scientist for Exxon’s Central Research Laboratory. From 1982 to 2000, he worked for IBM

Almaden Research Center IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the largest industrial research org ...

. He was instrumental in the unification of the competing formats that resulted in the introduction of DVD and was a member of IBM's digital media team focused on copy protection technologies.Alan E. Bell, "Next-Generation Compact Discs" Scientific American , Vol. 275, No. 1, pp. 42-46, July 1996
/ref> The method and format were agreed between IBM,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

, Matsushita, and

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

. In 2000, Bell was named Executive Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros., Technical Operations."Alan E Bell named senior vice-president technology", Warner Brothers press release, October 25, 2000
/ref> In 2007, Bell became

Executive Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

and Chief Technology Officer for

. In September 2009, Bell co-founded WR Entertainment with six other founders

James F. Cardwell James F. ("Jim") Cardwell is an entertainment industry consultant. He served as president of Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home E ...

Ryan Wiik Gunnar Ryan Wiik (born September 23, 1981) is a Norwegian actor and entrepreneur. Wiik resides in Los Angeles, California. Biography Wiik grew up in the seaside town of Drøbak, Norway. In 2007, Wiik appeared as Jason in the thriller '' Timber ...

, Duane M. Eberlein, Øyvind Holm-Johnsen, Steinar Larsen and Michael Joseph Smith. Alan Bell is most recognized for his role in the unification of the DVD format, and also led the negotiations that led to the development of

, without which the major studios would not have released content to DVD.

Awards and Recognition

In 1975, Bell received an RCA Laboratories Achievement Award. In 1984, he became a Fellow of the

Optical Society of America Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conference ...

for his contributions to the DVD format. In 2001, Bell became a fellow of the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

"for developments in optical data storage applications and technology". Bell has authored or coauthored 29 issued US patents and numerous scientific papers.DBPL Computer Science Bibliography: Alan E. Bell
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Alan E. Cinema pioneers DVD IBM employees Living people American chief technology officers Alumni of Imperial College London 1949 births