4 ms·

That's some decent BBC engineering from a team that works away quietly in the background and just makes things happen, or keep happening. I don't work in that f

That's some decent BBC engineering from a team that works away quietly in the background and just makes things happen, or keep happening. I don't work in that field, but like many people in my profession (Systems and networking), I also tend to be invisible until something breaks, and then I am the fall guy if it's not fixed within a heartbeat. /I was half expecting the article to outline how a box full of 80s technology had been replaced with a Raspberry Pi!

flurpitude 11y ago
"I was half expecting the article to outline how a box full of 80s technology had been replaced with a Raspberry Pi!" The Parallella computer, which looks a lot like a Raspberry Pi, has a Xilinx Zynq chip similar to the one in the BBC's new codec. So it's almost true.
- duskwuff 11y ago
  Here's the exact board that's in there: http://store.digilentinc.com/zedboard-zynq-7000-arm-fpga-soc-development-board/ http://store.digilentinc.com/zedboard-zynq-7000-arm-fpga-soc...
  - kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
    It is a bit odd that they shoehorned in an existing commercial board rather than just put the FPGA on the main board or even designed a custom daughter card if upgradability was a concern. As it is, they are now tied to the availability of boards with the same board-to-board connector and a similar form factor.
    - Sanddancer 11y ago
      They used a commercial board that implements the Vita 57 bus, which is the standard way to interface with an FPGA [1]. So if they need replacements down the road, they just have to get one that implements the same standard, and standards for industrial equipment tend to stick around for a considerable amount of time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA_Mezzanine_Card https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA_Mezzanine_Card
MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
BBC engineering is indeed pretty good. I hope they make more than half the german wage as is usual for british engineering jobs.
kokey 11y ago
I would hope so with a £5.1 billion budget. That's more than half the FTSE 100 companies.
- nekopa 11y ago
  The engineering team has a budget that big? Do you know what the budgets are for the other aspects of the BBC? Like TV and radio broadcasting, production of TV and radio shows, administration, HR and other areas? Edit: found an old breakdown here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Expenditure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Expenditure Seems like their whole technology department has a budget of £175m
  - kokey 11y ago
    Europe average R&D spend cross industry is just above 4%, but that's mostly pulled up by R&D on healthcare (which is closer to 18%). Without healthcare I think it's around 2%. I would hope to see them spend at least £100m on R&D, but that's obviously not just on broadcast technology.
    - IanCal 11y ago
      > In 2011/12 BBC R&D’s budget was approximately £14 million Page 32: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/howwework/reports/pdf/bbc_economic_impact_2013.pdf http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/howwewor...

flurpitude 11y ago

"I was half expecting the article to outline how a box full of 80s technology had been replaced with a Raspberry Pi!" The Parallella computer, which looks a lot like a Raspberry Pi, has a Xilinx Zynq chip similar to the one in the BBC's new codec. So it's almost true.

duskwuff 11y ago
Here's the exact board that's in there: http://store.digilentinc.com/zedboard-zynq-7000-arm-fpga-soc-development-board/ http://store.digilentinc.com/zedboard-zynq-7000-arm-fpga-soc...
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
  It is a bit odd that they shoehorned in an existing commercial board rather than just put the FPGA on the main board or even designed a custom daughter card if upgradability was a concern. As it is, they are now tied to the availability of boards with the same board-to-board connector and a similar form factor.
  - Sanddancer 11y ago
    They used a commercial board that implements the Vita 57 bus, which is the standard way to interface with an FPGA [1]. So if they need replacements down the road, they just have to get one that implements the same standard, and standards for industrial equipment tend to stick around for a considerable amount of time. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA_Mezzanine_Card https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA_Mezzanine_Card

MrBuddyCasino 11y ago

BBC engineering is indeed pretty good. I hope they make more than half the german wage as is usual for british engineering jobs.

kokey 11y ago

I would hope so with a £5.1 billion budget. That's more than half the FTSE 100 companies.

nekopa 11y ago
The engineering team has a budget that big? Do you know what the budgets are for the other aspects of the BBC? Like TV and radio broadcasting, production of TV and radio shows, administration, HR and other areas? Edit: found an old breakdown here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Expenditure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#Expenditure Seems like their whole technology department has a budget of £175m
- kokey 11y ago
  Europe average R&D spend cross industry is just above 4%, but that's mostly pulled up by R&D on healthcare (which is closer to 18%). Without healthcare I think it's around 2%. I would hope to see them spend at least £100m on R&D, but that's obviously not just on broadcast technology.
  - IanCal 11y ago
    > In 2011/12 BBC R&D’s budget was approximately £14 million Page 32: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/howwework/reports/pdf/bbc_economic_impact_2013.pdf http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/howwewor...