BBC Research & Development is seeking to stimulate debate on the technologies and workflows of the future through a series of fascinating video interviews. Called BBC R&D In Session, the first series is now online at bbc.co.uk/rd. The interviews aim to set the agenda on the challenges and opportunities that digital technology has brought to the industry. The speakers include not just engineers and technicians but representatives of the wider broadcasting world. Author of The Art of Immersion Frank Rose is interviewed on digital storytelling, and historian Dan Snow talks about history as metadata. “With the launch of our first In Session video series, we are aiming to involve the wider industry in defining the longer term challenges and opportunities we face,” said Matthew Postgate, controller of Research and Development at BBC. “It is an ideal platform to collaborate and discuss new ideas with all the players in the ecosystem, large or small, and I am looking forward to more In Session events to help push those boundaries.”
Other participants in the first series include the BBC’s Graham Thomas on what comes after HD and 5.1 audio, and outgoing EBU technical director Lieven Vermaele on the moves toward a worldwide digital television standard. Louisa Heinrich of digital service design specialist Fjord is interviewed on the choreography of personal devices, and Matthew Postgate himself looks into the future to consider what a new broadcast system might look like.
