2010
BBC Kingswood Warren closes
Kingswood Warren closes for the final time, BBC R&D staff move to BBC's West London Campus and Manchester.
Successfully transmitted a live music event using Super Hi-Vision signals
This was from BBC Television Centre to NHK in Japan.
Freeview HD launches
The technical launch of Freeview HD services takes place in December 2009, initially from Crystal Palace and Winter Hill, using the new DVB-T2 broadcasting standard. Full Freeview HD services launch in March 2010 .
2011
Queen's Award for the Piero Sports Graphic System
The Production Magic team at BBC R&D has been working on new techniques and applications of computer-based image processing for TV production for many years. Some of this work was recognised in the form of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the "Innovation" category, for their contribution to the Piero sports graphics system.
BBC R&D North Lab moves to BBC MediaCityUK in Salford
MediaCityUK is the new location for BBC North (BBC Radio Five Live and BBC Breakfast are broadcast from there). BBC Oxford Road in Manchester is decommissioned.
2012
World's first Super Hi-Vision coverage of the Olympic Games
With live transmission from London to Japan and the USA. The games were held in London and the BBC was the host broadcaster. The opening ceremony was broadcast live on BBC 1 and achieved one of the biggest UK television audiences in recent years.
BBC Connected Studio launches
YouView launches on 26th July 2012
Joint venture between the public service broadcasters in the UK. BBC R&D contributes heavily to its launch.
HM The Queen officially opens BBC North and sees BBC R&D's work
Queen Elizabeth II accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh opened BBC North in MediaCityUK and staff gave the royal party a short demonstration of the work undertaken by the Department.
2013
BBC R&D's Central Lab in One Euston Square, Central London opens on 23rd June 2013
It becomes BBC R&D's 3rd lab.
2014
World's first implementation of a live end-to-end UHD broadcasting system over IP at Commonwealth Games 2014
BBC Connected Studio and World Service (international) partnership programme launches
2015
Replacing NICAM decoder in New Broadcasting House in London
NICAM stands for Near Instantaneous Companded Audio Multiplex.
Built the BBC micro:bit prototype
Pocket-sized codeable computer with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology, given to school children in year 7 for free.
Work on a joint HDR proposal with NHK begins
On the 15th May 2015, the BBC announced they had begun work with NHK to develop a joint High Dynamic Range (HDR) proposal that would be proposed to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Freeview Play launches in October 2015
2016
ITU Recommendation defining two HDR transfer functions
On the 6th July 2016, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced Rec. 2100 which defines two HDR transfer functions one of which was Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) developed by BBC R&D and NHK.
HLG edit from Planet Earth II added to iPlayer IPTV platform for UHD testing
On the 8 December 2016, the BBC announced that it was adding a 4-minute Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) edit from their Planet Earth II series to its iPlayer IPTV platform for public Ultra High Definition (UHD) testing.
2017
BBC Director General Tony Hall announces the Culture UK partnership
On 4th April Tony Hall announced CultureUK a new creative partnership designed to energise audiences, artists - and the creative industries. He cited that ‘We have a world class Research and Development team at the BBC and I want to share their expertise. Working closely with the sector, and tech partners, I want us to look at new ways to captivate new audiences - storytelling in VR; immersive theatrical experiences; big creative collaborations that can only exist in the digital space'.
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BBC Media Centre- BBC announces Culture UK partnership
Doctor Who in Binaural Sound
A special binaural version of 'Knock Knock' episode 4 in the latest series of Doctor Who is made available on the BBC iPlayer. Giving an immersive spatial sound experience for headphone listeners, it was remixed using BBC R&D's binaural production tools.
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BBC Taster VR app launches on Android and IoS
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High Efficiency Video Coding standard wins Primetime Engineering Emmy
R&D made significant contributions to the development of the video compression standard H.265/HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), via the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC), which was awarded an Engineering Emmy.
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R&D releases ‘The Inspection Chamber’, the BBC’s first interactive audio play for Amazon Alexa
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BBC launches first broadcast HbbTV service in the UK
R&D was involved in writing the latest HbbTV 2.0.1 specification, ensuring that the service – which will move the BBC away from existing Red Button technology- meets the needs of the BBC’s interactive services as well as the wider UK broadcast industry.
Related Links
- BBC R&D- HbbTV standards
- BBC R&D- HbbTV interactive television
- BBC R&D- Connected TVs and viewing companion screens
Blue Planet II in UHD, HDR, HLG
All seven episodes of the landmark natural history series Blue Planet II are published to iPlayer, following a small trial with Planet Earth the previous year. Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) is an High Dynamic Range (HDR) system specifically developed for television by BBC R&D and Japanese broadcaster NHK.
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BBC RemArc wins Dementia Innovation of the Year award from Alzheimers Society
The BBC Reminiscence Archive (RemArc), a tool to trigger memories in those with dementia using archive material, was designed by BBC Archives and launched on R&D’s Taster platform.
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‘Lost’ Morecambe and Wise episode restored
R&D worked with archivists and experts from Queen Mary University of London to reclaim rare footage of an early Morecambe & Wise BBC broadcast from an heavily degraded acetate film reel.
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2018
Launch of Civilisations AR app
In March, the BBC released its first augmented reality app to accompany the Civilisations series on BBC Two. The app, created by BBC R&D and Nexus Studios, gives users ‘hands on’ access to ancient artefacts from around the world.
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'iSpy Sound Detective Agency' wins BBC Radio & Music award
'iSpy Sound Detective Agency', a binaural adventure series produced by CBeebies Radio in collaboration with R&D's audio team, won 'Best Digital Innovation' at the BBC Radio & Music Awards. Judges praised the show for introducing children to the concept of visual impairment through its innovative use of R&D's binaural sound production system.
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BBC’s first Ultra High Definition (UHD) live streams on iPlayer
The BBC announced that its coverage of the FIFA World Cup would be broadcast in UHD and HDR on iPlayer- a first for the corporation. This was followed in June by live UHD-HDR streams of the Wimbledon Championships on iPlayer. That year the wedding of Prince Harry Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle was also recorded in UHD.
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Audio Definition Model Renderer wins EBU Technology & Innovation award
R&D engineers Chris Pike and Thomas Nixon received the European Broadcasting Union's Technology & Innovation Award for their work on the next-generation audio 'EBU ADM Renderer', alongside partners from the EBU.
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R&D and BBC Four create ‘Made By Machine: When AI Met The Archive”
An experimental documentary co-produced by BBC R&D and BBC Four, 'Made By Machine: When AI Met the Archive' saw an AI editor designed by R&D delve into BBC Four's archives and create four ‘mini BBC Four’ programmes, without any human input: the first of its kind in the broadcasting industry.
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Alicia Grandjean wins 'Future Stars of Tech' Web Development award
Alicia Grandjean, a software engineer in IRFS, won the Future Stars of Tech award for her achievements in the 'Web Development' field.
The 'Future Stars of Tech' awards are open to IT professionals or business professionals in the technology industry who have started their career in the last eight years and clearly demonstrate strong potential for becoming a successful technology leader.
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R&D wins ACM Best Paper and Doctoral Consortium awards
Members of the 2-IMMERSE consortium, including R&D engineer Maxine Glancy, received the ACM's 'Best Paper' award at TVX2018 conference for their paper, 'New Production Platform for Authoring Object-Based Multiscreen TV Viewing Experiences'.
Neelima Sunil from the University of Nottingham also won the ACM doctoral consortium award for 'Building Trust in Personal Data Driven Media Experiences', which was based upon research conducted whilst on placement with BBC R&D.
Related Links
- 2-IMMERSE- Developing prototypes of multi screen experiences for 'any device' environments
- Twitter: ACM best paper award winners 2018
- Twitter: ACM Doctoral Consortium award winnder 2018
Low latency UHD live streams
In September, R&D announced that it has solved the issue of delays between internet-delivered live streams and live broadcast TV, as seen during World Cup 2018.
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R&D wins IBC 2018 awards for AI in Production and media innovation
In September, R&D engineer Craig Wright accepted the 'IBC Best Conference Paper' award on behalf of his co-authors, for their paper on AI in production. Head of BBC R&D Reality Labs David Johnston also accepted a joint 'IBC Special Award' for the BBC's "Damming the Nile" VR experience from BBC VR Hub and R&D’s ‘Civilisations AR’ app, in recognition of their innovative uses of these new technologies.
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Civilisations Festival wins Prix Italia award
Part of the CultureUK programme the 'Civilisations Festival' - a partnership between the BBC R&D, BBC Arts and museums and art galleries across the UK, built around BBC Two’s 'Civilisations' series- won a Prix Italia for 'Cross Platform working', in recognition of the "huge cultural and educational value" of the collaboration.
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'Nothing To Be Written' wins Raindance Festival VR award
'Nothing To Be Written', a BBC Proms Virtual Reality experience delivered by BBC VR Hub, 59 Productions and the BBC Research & Development spatial audio team, won the 'Best UK Experience' award at the Raindance Immersive Stories (Virtual Reality) Festival 2018.
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Civilisations AR wins Lovie award
The 'Civilisations AR' app - produced by R&D and Nexus Studios- won a Lovie award in the 'Best Use of VR' category.
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R&D engineers win SMPTE Digital Processing Medal and Fellowship
The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) awarded their prestigious Digital Processing Medal this year to R&D engineer Tim Borer, in recognition of his "significant contributions in the areas of image processing, particularly motion-aware video frame-rate conversion and video compression algorithms, including techniques used in phase correlation-based frame interpolation."
SMPTE also bestowed a Fellowship, one of only 15, to R&D engineer John Fletcher. Fellowships are awarded to "individuals who have, through their proficiency and contributions to the motion-picture, television, or related industries, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives in media and entertainment."
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Live UHD streams on iPlayer win 'What HiFi?' innovation award
The BBC's first-ever live 4k HDR streams on iPlayer, captured during this year's FIFA World Cup and Wimbledon tennis championships, won the 'What Hi Fi?' award for Innovation at their 36th annual awards ceremony.
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HbbTV awards for multiscreen experiences and HbbTV testing
The 2-IMMERSE collaborative research partnership- which includes BBC R&D- won the HbbTV award for 'Best Multiscreen Experience' for their Moto GP concept demonstrator. It was also runner-up for the Judge's Grand Prix prize. The jury felt that the demo was a “Very sophisticated application, HbbTV 2.0 and Multiscreen at the highest level".
Robert Foreman, R&D Technologist, also received 'Best Individual Contribution to the HbbTV Association' award, for his work on the HbbTV Test Suite Activity. The jury said “Rob is one of the most significant contributors to the HbbTV test suite.”
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Inclusive Boards name Ian Forrester in top 100 'Most Influential BAME Leaders in Technology' rankings
Ian Forrester, R&D Development Producer, was named by Inclusive Boards as being one the top 100 most influential BAME leaders in technology in the UK, in a report published in the Financial Times.
The report was released as part of the launch of the Inclusive Tech Alliance membership body, which aims to increase diversity in the technology sector.
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Lauren Ward wins EPSRC Connected Nations Pioneers award
Lauren Ward won the EPSRC Connected Nation Pioneers Award in the 'Making Digital Technology Work for People' category, for her work on the use of object-based broadcasting to reduce the barriers to television content experienced by people with hearing loss.
Lauren is a PhD candidate from the University of Salford, who recently completed an internship with BBC R&D’s audio team.
First public trials of 5G Augmented Reality app for Roman Baths
R&D holds the first public trials of an AR app, distributed over an experimental 5G network at the Roman Baths in Bath, as part of the 5G Smart Tourism project to explore if a high-bandwidth, low-latency mobile network can enable high quality immersive experiences on mobile devices.
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2019
'Nothing to Be Written' wins UploadVR award
The BBC Prom's World War One-set Virtual Reality experience, 'Nothing To Be Written', which features a binaural soundtrack mixed by R&D, won UploadVR's 'Best Mobile VR Experience' award.
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Katy Noland wins TVNewsCheck’s 'Technology Women To Watch' award
Katy Noland, Senior R&D Engineer wins a 'Technology Women to Watch' award, from TVNewsCheck's 'Women in Technology' industry awards. This prize recognises ‘women who show the promise of contributing significantly to advancing their industry technologically’.
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R&D launches Orkney 5G radio trials
BBC R&D announces a world-first trial on Stronsay, Orkney Islands, which enables participants to receive live BBC radio over experimental 5G mobile connections.
BBC R&D is a partner in the 5G RuralFirst testbed, which is exploring how 5G connectivity could benefit businesses and communities in remote areas.
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R&D South Lab moves to Lighthouse
Research & Development moves its South Lab to the Lighthouse building, adjacent to Broadcast Centre at White City Place, London, as Centre House is decommissioned.
Makers Academy name Misa Ogura in first 'Women in Software Power List'
Misa Ogura, R&D Software Engineeer, was included in the first annual 'Women in Software Powerlist' announced by software development academy Makers. The Powerlist recognises women rising stars in the UK's software development sector, as well as aiming to make female role models more visible.
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Makers Academy: Presenting the Women in Software Power List 2019
Civilisations AR app wins Peabody Futures of Media Award
The 'Civilisations AR' app, developed by BBC R&D and Nexus Studios, won a Peabody Futures of Media Award for outstanding digital storytelling, in their 'Mobile' category.
The Peabody Futures of Media Awards "celebrate the spirit of innovation and the most powerful narratives in an ever-changing digital landscape".
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BBC R&D: Civilisations AR- Bringing the collection into your home
World Cup live UHD streaming on iPlayer wins Connie award
The BBC's first-ever live UHD-HDR broadcasts on BBC iPlayer, captured during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, won a Silver 'Connie' award in the Premier TV category.
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FA Cup broadcast in UHD HDR for first time
R&D collaborated with industry partners to develop a single production workflow for live HD/SDR and UHD/HDR broadcasts, which debuted for BBC Sports’ FA Cup Final coverage on 19 May.
Related Links:
- BBC R&D: 'The FA Cup, the Next Step on the BBC’s Ultra HD Roadmap'
- Wired - Here’s how to watch the FA Cup Final in Ultra HD for the first time
- SVG Europe- FA Cup Final 2019: BBC Sport to use single production workflow for both SDR broadcast and UHD HDR stream
- What HiFi - BBC advances 4K HDR broadcast production for FA Cup Final
5G: Rory Cellan-Jones makes first live news report over 5G network
BBC Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones reported on the launch of EE's 5G network launch from Covent Garden, using that same network - the first time a 5G network has been used by a production team for a live TV programme.
R&D’s Technology Transfer team helped co-ordinate the collaboration between the BBC and BT that resulted in the delivery of Rory's report.
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New Article Formats wins BBC News 'Best Digital Innovation' award
R&D's work on 'New Article Formats', led by IRFS' Tristan Ferne, won 'Best Digital Innovation' at the 2019 BBC News Awards held in London. Judges selected winning entries based on "incredible teamwork, creativity, innovation and real dedication to making BBC News the best in the business".
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Interactive Blue Peter Garden VR game launched
The BBC launched Blue Peter Garden Explorer, a VR game for children developed by BBC R&D with BBC Children’s Blue Peter team. Through 360° video and interactive navigation, Blue Peter fans can explore the famous Garden from the comfort of their own home.
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BBC Click makes interactive 1000th episode with object-based media tools
BBC Click’s 1,000th show is the BBC’s first full-length interactive programme, letting users choose how they want to watch it. It was produced using BBC Research & Development's StoryKit object-based media tools and was released on BBC Taster on 5 July 2019.
Related Links
- Click 1,000 on BBC Taster
- BBC R&D: Creating a Personalised and Interactive Episode of BBC Click with StoryKit
- 5 July 2019: BBC Breakfast (2h:58m:47s - 3h:06m:15s)
- 5 July 2019: Spencer Kelly on Radio 4 Today (2h:57m:12s - 2h:59m:50s)
- 5 July 2019: BBC Media Centre press release
- BBC News- Click 1,000: How the pick-your-own-path episode was made
BBC Click announces interactive 1,000th episode:
Personalisable social media documentary made with object-based media tools
‘Instagramification’ is a documentary about one of the world’s biggest social media platforms. Each viewer experiences the documentary based on a combination of their mood, personal preferences and the choices they make; seeing a slightly different, personalised version of the story.
'Instagramification' was devised and produced by Spirit Media, an independent production company, using R&D's StoryFormer authoring tool. It launched on BBC Taster on 5 August 2019.
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Chris Poole wins HbbTV 'Best Individual Contribution' award
Chris Poole was honoured by the HbbTV Association with a 'Best Individual Contribution' award, in recognition of being a "huge supporter of the development and use of HbbTV in the UK".