Beyond the red button [Research & Designthe BBC]

THE BBC IS responsible for a myriad of innovations ranging from FM stereo radio and teletext to interactive television services that are accessable via the red button. The British Broadcasting Corporation has been a front runner of communications development since its creation in the early 1920s. The captains of the radio industry, led by Marconi, Radio Communication Company, Metropolitan-Vickers, General Electric, Western Electric and British Thomson-Houston, met at the London-based headquarters of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) to discuss how to market radio sets to the general public. "It\´s the old chestnut that is still problematic for consumer electronic companies today: \´We\´ve created the technology, now we have to ensure that the content is available\´," says Paul Gray, European director of research firm Displaysearch.