21285 - SCTE Broadband Dec2021 COMPLETE v1

42 Vol. 43 No. 4 - November 2021 Issue Melissa Cogavin talks to the SCTE’s outgoing CEO Dr Roger Blakeway upon his retirement. Roger Blakeway 30 plus years is a long time in the industry, how did you get started? By accident! I have always had a little chuckle to myself when asked in interviews ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?’ I never had any idea! My early career in the late 60’s followed on from my doctorate at Birmingham University, working for Lucas Research on semiconductors, integrated circuits and automotive modules. An opportunity to be involved with a government exchange programme in 1973 saw me move to the Military Vehicles Engineering Establishment at Chobham, Surrey. As a Principle Scientific Officer, I ran a research group looking at ballistic fire control systems for tanks. This involved low light TV, thermal imaging and auto-follow systems. The latter used motion prediction, using Walsh transforms, in a similar way to that used by MPEG some 30 years later to reduce bit rates on digital TV signals. Back with Lucas Defence Systems after 30 months with the MoD, I continued to work in the same field, spending time with Egyptian and other Middle Eastern armies upgrading their aging systems. The MoD experience attracted the attention of a software systems consultancy, Scicon, which was part of BP. I joined them in 1979 as manager of their Engineering Division. It was there that I worked on standards implementation as well as on a contract for serial data transmission over radio for the MoD; I was also involved in embedded micro systems such as badge reader and control systems for North Sea platforms. At the same time we worked with the BT Prestel service, providing embedded software to enable early home micro computers, such as the Sinclair Spectrum, BBC Micro etc. to act as data terminals. By Melissa Cogavin, Managing Editor, SCTE ® Looking back at a stellar career from the industry Working with Scicon Micronet