Stuart Grace

I am not the typical R&D trainee because I already had more than 20 years’ experience as a software developer before joining the scheme. I took a degree in Computer Science at Cambridge in the 1980s and have worked at various companies since then, writing software for numerous scientific, industrial and commercial projects. I occasionally checked the BBC website for possible job opportunities as it seemed an interesting place to work with a good reputation for technological innovation, but the vacancies advertised always seem to require skills in specialist areas such as video or broadcasting. My experience was in more general areas of IT such as software design, databases and networks.

Then two years ago I discovered the Trainee Research Technologist scheme: this offered exactly the training and experience I was lacking in these specialist areas. Going from a Senior Software Engineer back to a Trainee obviously involved taking a significant cut in salary for a while, but this was worthwhile because of the excellent training (I’ve had eight weeks of university-level courses so far), the wide range of exciting projects available to work on, and a great environment to work in.

My training has been tailored to recognise my previous software experience. So for example, I took courses in digital video and audio, broadcast engineering and digital signal processing, but skipped the courses in software engineering and networking.

Alongside the formal training, I have worked on a few of the current projects within R&D. These included using the processors on PC graphics cards to speed up the decoding of a certain type of video file, and producing a software library to allow efficient sharing of uncompressed video streams between several programs on a Linux server. These projects nicely complemented the training courses by allowing me to use in real-world situations some of the things we were taught in the classroom, such as the way video signals are digitally encoded within a television studio.

I’m based at the BBC’s new MediaCityUK site at Salford but spent several months working at the R&D lab in London. Travelling there and back each week could be tedious, but it was rewarding to work with a large team of very experienced research engineers who are shaping the future of television, radio and internet technology. It was also a chance to get familiar with more parts of the BBC and, in particular, the iconic Television Centre in Wood Lane.

After 16 months, all my work at BBC R&D was assessed and it was decided that I was ready to leave the training scheme early. I’ve now been promoted to Research Technologist and I’m settled back in Manchester, ready to tackle some more R&D projects.

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