Nicholas Pinks

I joined the BBC in September 2008 as an Industrial Trainee and since then I’ve had some of the most exciting three years of my life.

In 2007 I graduated from Oxford Brookes University, with a first class degree in Media Technology. Traditionally BBC R&D have recruited from the more scientific backgrounds, but as I had Maths and core engineering skills from my degree plus industry experience I was offered a one year placement. During that year I worked for a project that was investigating tapeless production techniques. This saw me working on Dragon’s Den, The Weakest Link and EastEnders - all key BBC productions.

During my initial year I applied for, and subsequently joined, the Trainee Technologist scheme commencing in September 2009. Initially I was sent to Wood Norton for a six week formal broadcast engineering training course with the other graduates on my year group. Currently on the scheme we spend eight months on a project and rotate through three different projects over our two years. During this time R&D have supported my successful application to the IET to become a Chartered Engineer.

My first placement was working with the BBC Archives, where I was part of a team who are working on systems to allow the audience access to the entire BBC archive. I filed my first joint patent with this team; they are currently building an artificial intelligence to detect the genre of programmes.

I have now finished the trainee scheme and over the two years, in addition to the many weeks of training covering Software Engineering, Broadcast Operations, Network Design and many of the business skills essential to a successful career, I have worked in three main areas; BBC Archives, Technology Transfer and YouView. These projects have been technically demanding and there is a clear growth in the expectations the department have on you over your trainee period. It’s very exciting watching my own technical understanding grow over the years, culminating in proposing my own project which department have fully supported and is potentially going to be used in London 2012.

In addition to these projects I have also produced and directed my own TV series using R&D’s cutting edge technology. My programmes were shown on BBC HD over Christmas. Not only did I get to have my work shown on National TV, but I travelled to Geneva the following February to present the programme and findings to the European Broadcast Union.

BBC Research and Development is an abstract environment, you are expected to challenge any and all technology with the goal of suggesting new ways to improve the BBC's methods of programme making and delivery. The BBC holds new technologies very close to its heart; working and learning as part of its cutting edge team is incredibly exciting.

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as an Industrial Trainee and since then I’ve had some of the most exciting three years of my life