Foreword

Welcome!

The past 30 years have been an exciting time in entertainment technologies, network research, and online delivery. With the stealth rise of ubiquitous computing through mobile phones; the shrinking of the planet by audio and video conferencing via instant messaging; democratisation of news, knowledge and opinion reporting via wikis and blogs, the future appears to be even more exciting.

In Building Public Value, the BBC has committed to the delivery of BBC content to the British Public over this multitude of systems, in a way that is enjoyable, accessible and repurposable by the British Public in the way they choose.

Whilst this is an exciting and intriguing future, this does require a new evolution in the way large media such as video, and audio are stored, and delivered. This document explores this vision, and suggests a number of key challenges that need to be addressed along the way. These are however only the first steps into the 21st century that we are taking. In order to take the next steps we must meet these challenges head on, resolve to solve them and move forward. Our view is that this is a challenge that needs to be met in participation with industry and the community.

Michael Sparks
Senior R&D Engineer,
Digital Media Group, BBC R&D
http://bbc.kamaelia.org/