My life in standardisation began in 1980. The task I was given when I joined the EBU was to try to gain agreement on a single worldwide digital video standard. I had a great mentor – Professor Henri Mertens. I still remember, and believe, his truism that: „a single standard, even if not the optimum, is a hundred times better than no single standard at all‟.

We did find a compromise for the digital future for the standard definition video world, and happily the process resulted in the 4:2:2 digital video standard, Recommendation 601. I felt on top of the world. A little later I worked with others on what is a kind of audio equivalent – the EBU/AES digital audio interface.

It was about the same time that the story of HDTV standards began. It‟s difficult to describe how excited we were about HDTV when we first saw it. It was developed by the NHK Research Laboratories, who were and still are the world‟s finest broadcast research laboratory. It would be, I was sure, the most powerful medium the world had seen, and I thought it could be used for everything – including TV and the movies.

In fact a movie was made in HDTV right then – Julia and Julia, produced by my friend Gaetanno Stucchi of the RAI. It was made and then taken to Europe‟s major film festivals. It did not win any prizes at all, because unfortunately there is no specific prize for the greatest technical innovation and the worst acting and plot. The movie „Julia and Julia‟ taught me another important lesson. All the technology in the world doesn‟t help if you don‟t have a good programme to use it on.

HDTV standardisation took a very long time in the ITU-R. It was no fault at all of NHK; they stood helpful and patiently waiting. There were many years of political battles – first tensions between Europe and the United States, and then internal tensions within the United States. It took over ten years to resolve the issues.

We finally succeeded in the late 1990s, and I had fantastic help from two friends – Junji Kumada of NHK and Valod Stepanian from Iran. One of the things that I learned in those years was about the way negotiations need to be done to succeed. You have to try to find what the wishes are, and the needs are, of all the parties concerned. You have to find an „all-win‟ solution. This is what it is about.

And it‟s not just this. You have to try to understand the people you are dealing with – are they the kind of people that can never change their minds at all, or can change it given some time and patience. People have different personalities. The more you can put yourself on their wavelength, the more you know what you need to do. People are not machines. You have to put both the people and the different national interests into the mix.

During the HDTV time, another thing I learned was that Teddy Roosevelt‟s maxim about „speak softly and carry a big stick‟ does not work in standardisation. If you try bullying or governmental pressure, it has the opposite effect. It hardens attitudes and makes agreement more difficult.

We did finally agree in HDTV - what is called ITU-R Rec. 709. You‟ll also see in that Rec. a 1080p/24 format, which you could call the birth of digital cinema.

In the early 1990s I was also part of the team with the idea of the DVB Project. One of the key ideas that have made the project so successful over the years was that, before starting to prepare the technical specification, you should decide what the system needs to do to be a commercial success. This was not my own idea, rather that of Robin Crossley from SES, but I wish I had thought of it, because it was so right.

After the story of HDTV, the ITU world moved on to UHDTV and 3DTV. UHDTV will have 16 or 32 times the resolution of today‟s HDTV, and the results will be fantastic. For 3DTV, happily we have now achieved a standard in the DVB Project, though not yet in the ITU.

3DTV is great, but when we think about 3DTV, we should not forget that we perceive depth by a number of „cues‟. One is the disparity or difference between the image the left and right eye sees. But there are many other cues which just come from the „planar‟ image. Since UHDTV will have better planar depth cues, it will give a greater impression of depth without a second image. UHDTV may eventually be something of a substitute for 3DTV.

We have come a long way with UHDTV, and standardisation is almost there. But if you will allow me, I would like to tell you about what I experience when it comes up in many parts of the world including in Europe and in the United States. It is a kind „fear of progress‟. People even ask me if I can „slow down‟ the pace at which new systems are standardized. I tell them a straight „no‟. I gain some courage to do so from one of my favourite books and screenplays, which is called „Things to Come‟ by H G Wells.

Wells‟ story line, so he said, was based on the Hindu proposition that people are of three kinds: either „builders‟ „destroyers‟ or „followers‟. Actually I have found this to be a relatively accurate description of humanity.

In the story itself, the world is in a mess, and the engineers take over and run the world logically. Nice idea - but some hope of that? Wells believes that our destiny is continual progress, and I would like to read to you a few of the lines from the book, which sums this up: “Rest enough for individual man...but for Man no rest and no ending...when he has conquered all the mysteries of time, still he will be beginning”. What we have started with media standards will continue...probably without end – but how exciting is that.

Finally, dear friends, I learned that in China there is a notion that a man can aspire to five states in his life – some call them five „happiness‟s‟. These are longevity, wealth, health, virtue and a peaceful death in old age. They say that there is a „sixth happiness‟, but that each man has to find that for himself. I have to tell you that I have found mine. It is to be in this great business, and to have known you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I will keep this award close to me physically and close to my heart forever. I have to thank you on my behalf and my family‟s, including my wife who is somewhere in the shadows of this room silently supporting me - as she always does.

Thank you.