1. From Ian Childs, Head of BBC R&D (1996 - 2001).
Simon was an important member of my team and championed a number of significant
initiatives in broadcasting technology. From his early work in developing the system to
present widescreen films on the (then) 4:3 aspect ratio for television which achieved
widespread and long term use within the BBC he became an international expert in RDS. He
created RDS-EON, the BBC travel service, and RDS-TMC used for traffic information
broadcasting over FM radio and subsequently led the EBU’s B-TPEG group in creating the
TPEG streams used on DAB digital radio. He then became the BBC’s representative on
DAVIC, and the leader of its Applications Committee, turning his attention to the use of
computer hard discs to record off-air television signals – consumer digital recorders (PVR’s).
He correctly saw that an important factor would be the information flow which would enable
the recorder to operate flexibly, and then led this work through the TV-Anytime Forum which
he established, and which has proved highly influential in delivering the necessary standards.
Throughout his career with the BBC, Simon demonstrated an outstanding vision of the likely
development paths of broadcasting and programme-production technology, together with an
appreciation of the important challenges which would need to be overcome before such
developments could be brought into being. His appreciation of the importance of
collaboration and standardisation to ease the introduction of such new developments was a
major factor in the widespread adoption of many of the projects he was concerned with.