BBC Research & Development is the technical research department of the

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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 Division (business), business division of the BBC, which combined the BBC Digital, BBC Engineering and BBC Worldwide Technology divisions. It is responsible for all ...

, 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 MediaCi ...

in Salford 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 clu ...

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 Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential ...

, 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 * Dąb, ...

, NICAM 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 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, 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 t ...

. In early 2010 the Kingswood Warren site was vacated and the bulk of the department relocated to Centre House, in White City, London co-locating with the main campus of the BBC in London, whilst a significant number have moved to the new North Lab in

in Salford. 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 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 {{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