During 2006 the Steering Board of the DVB Project decided to create a form of 'lifetime achievement award' that would represent the highest honour that could be bestowed upon a participant in the work of the Project.

The Honorary Fellowship of the DVB Project aims to honour, on their retirement from active participation in the Project , significant individuals who have made sustained and substantial contributions to DVB over the years. An Honorary Fellow is asked to continue to support the DVB Project and, where appropriate, can be consulted for advice at the Chairman's request.

An Honorary Fellowship should be granted very rarely, typically no more than once per year. It is a discretionary award made by the DVB Chairman to an individual, not a company. It will not be granted to any person by default.

Honorary Fellows of the DVB Project


Drs. Theo Peek (formerly of Philips)
Awarded October 15, 2008

Theo Peek became the second Chairman of the DVB Project in 1996, taking over from Peter Kahl. Theo led the programme for 12 years to Summer 2008 and under his guidance the DVB Project became the undisputed global leader in providing digital TV specifications. His strong belief in consensus has served DVB well. It has not always been easy to achieve consensus but, thanks to Theo's patience and determination, agreement has been reached on some very difficult issues. He was highly respected for his impartial approach, always working in the best interests of DVB as a whole.
 
Theo's appointment as Honorary Fellow of the DVB Project recognises his substantial and sustained achievements throughout the period that he led DVB.  Some of the highlights include the mobile TV specification for handheld devices (DVB-H), the second generation of the core DVB transmission specifications for satellite and terrestrial broadcasting (DVB-S2, DVB-T2) and the open interface for receiver applications (MHP and GEM) which have been adopted in diverse markets and TV-related products including the Blu-ray Disc specification. Theo has made a lasting impact on DVB and the markets where DVB specifications are used. This award is richly deserved.


Dr. Ian Childs (formerly of BBC)
Awarded November 2, 2006

Dr. Ian Childs attended the very first meeting of the Working Group on Digital Television Broadcasting (WGDTB) which took place in Hamburg in June 1992. He represented the BBC in this meeting and was immediately nominated one of the two vice-chairmen of the group. Since that very first event he attended most of the 75 meetings of the WGDTB which later became the DVB Technical Module. In the early days of the work it had to be decided whether or not hierarchical source coding would be used in order to facilitate the transmission of SDTV and HDTV video in one stream. Dr. Childs volunteered to evaluate the consequences of this decision. He found out that the overhead resulting from hierarchical source coding would be so significant that the simulcasting of SDTV and HDTV videos would be preferable. The ‘Childs Factor’ thus became one of the fundaments of the work in DVB.
In addition to being vice-chairman of the Technical Module Dr. Childs was its special rapporteur on audio. "With Ian’s retirement the Technical Module lost one of its key people and I lost an important advisor and a very good friend”, commented Dr Ulrich Reimers, Chairman, DVB Technical Module.