Alan E. Bell

Last updated
Alan E. Bell
Born(1949-01-01)January 1, 1949[ citation needed ]
Brixton, south London
DiedMay 15, 2016(2016-05-15) (aged 67)
Alma mater Imperial College, London
Occupation(s)Technologist, Engineer/Physicist
Employer(s) RCA, IBM, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures
SpousePatricia Wilkinson (m. 1972-2009)
Awards

Alan Edward Bell was a technologist who played a central role in developing the universal DVD format and the DVD copy protection system. He worked at RCA, IBM, Warner Bros. Studios, and Paramount Pictures before co-founding WR Entertainment. [1] [2]

Contents

Background, Education, and Death

Alan Bell was born in Brixton, south London, around 1949. His parents, Ivy (nee Smith) and Ted were a factory worker and a printer, respectively. The family moved to Crawley, West Sussex, in 1957 where Bell attended Thomas Bennett comprehensive school. [1]

Bell studied at Imperial College, London, gaining a first class degree in physics in 1969. He was awarded a PhD degree in 1973 also from Imperial College for experimental work on the low-temperature magnetic and electrical properties of dilute alloys (Kondo effect) working under A. D. Kaplin. [2] [3] He then received a Sarnoff Fellowship to visit RCA Laboratories at Princeton, N.J. as a postdoctoral researcher working, for nine months, on liquid crystals using optical Raman scattering to determine the molecular ordering of the nematic phase. [2]

Bell was married to Patricia (nee Wilkinson) from 1972 until their divorce in 2009. They had two children, Geoffrey and Melissa. [1]

In May 2016, Bell was killed in a motorcycle accident while on vacation in Laos. [1]

Career

In 1974, Bell completed his postdoc and joined the technical staff at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center. His research focussed on improving the recording characteristics of metallic recording media. The research led to the development of broadcast-quality optical video recording, the RCA videodisc. [2] [4]

Bell served as a Senior Scientist for Exxon’s Central Research Laboratory. [5]

From 1982 to 2000, he worked for IBM Almaden Research Center. He was instrumental in the unification of the competing formats that resulted in the introduction of DVD and was a member of IBM's digital media team focused on copy protection technologies. [6] The method and format were agreed between IBM, Intel, Matsushita, and Toshiba. [7]

In 2000, Bell was named Executive Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros., Technical Operations. [8] [5] [9]

In 2007, Bell became Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Paramount Pictures. [8] [10] [11]

In September 2009, Bell co-founded WR Entertainment with six other founders James F. Cardwell, Ryan Wiik, Duane M. Eberlein, Øyvind Holm-Johnsen, Steinar Larsen and Michael Joseph Smith. [12]

Alan Bell is most recognized for his role in the unification of the DVD format, [13] [14] and also led the negotiations that led to the development of DVD copy protection, [15] without which the major studios would not have released content to DVD.

Awards and recognition

In 1975, Bell received an RCA Laboratories Achievement Award. [2]

In 1984, he became a Fellow of the Optical Society of America for his contributions to the DVD format. [16]

In 2001, Bell became a fellow of the IEEE "for developments in optical data storage applications and technology". [2]

Bell has authored or coauthored 29 issued US patents and numerous scientific papers. [17] [18] [19] [6]

Related Research Articles

The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company. In 1932, RCA became an independent company after the partners were required to divest their ownership as part of the settlement of a government antitrust suit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical disc</span> Flat, usually circular disc that encodes binary data

An optical disc is a flat, usually disc-shaped object that stores information in the form of physical variations on its surface that can be read with the aid of a beam of light. Optical discs can be reflective, where the light source and detector are on the same side of the disc, or transmissive, where light shines through the disc to the be detected on the other side.

A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to watch the DVD content, which could be a movie, a recorded TV show, or other content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Videodisc</span> Random-access disc containing audio and analog video signals

Videodisc is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access disc that contains both audio and analog video signals recorded in an analog form. Typically, it is a reference to any such media that predates the mainstream popularity of the DVD format.

A format war is a competition between similar but mutually incompatible technical standards that compete for the same market, such as for data storage devices and recording formats for electronic media. It is often characterized by political and financial influence on content publishers by the developers of the technologies. Developing companies may be characterized as engaging in a format war if they actively oppose or avoid interoperable open-industry technical standards in favor of their own.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DualDisc</span>

The DualDisc is a type of double-sided optical disc product developed by a group of record companies including MJJ Productions Inc., EMI Music, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and 5.1 Entertainment Group and later under the aegis of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It featured an audio layer intended to be compatible with CD players on one side and a standard DVD layer on the other. In this respect it was similar to, but distinct from, the DVDplus developed in Europe by Dieter Dierks and covered by European patents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blu-ray Disc Association</span> Industry development and licensing consortium

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is the industry consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray Disc technology and is responsible for establishing format standards and promoting business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc. The BDA is divided into three levels of membership: the board of directors, contributors, and general members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movietone sound system</span> Sound system for film

The Movietone sound system is an optical sound-on-film method of recording sound for motion pictures that guarantees synchronization between sound and picture. It achieves this by recording the sound as a variable-density optical track on the same strip of film that records the pictures. The initial version was capable of a frequency response of 8500 Hz. Although modern sound films use variable-area tracks instead, modern motion picture theaters can play a Movietone film without modification to the projector. Movietone was one of four motion picture sound systems under development in the U.S. during the 1920s, the others being DeForest Phonofilm, Warner Brothers' Vitaphone, and RCA Photophone, though Phonofilm was principally an early version of Movietone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical storage</span> Method to store and retrieve computer data using optics

IBM defines optical storage as "any storage method that uses a laser to store and retrieve data from optical media." Britannica notes that it "uses low-power laser beams to record and retrieve digital (binary) data." Compact disc (CD) and DVD are examples of optical media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DVD recordable</span> Recordable optical disk technology

DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('burned') to the disc by a laser, rather than the data being 'pressed' onto the disc during manufacture, like a DVD-ROM. Pressing is used in mass production, primarily for the distribution of home video.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forward Versatile Disc</span> Optical disc format intended as an alternative to HD DVD and Blu-ray

Forward Versatile Disc (FVD) is an offshoot of DVD developed in Taiwan jointly by the Advanced Optical Storage Research Alliance (AOSRA) and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) as a less expensive alternative for high-definition content. The disc is similar in structure to a DVD, in that pit length is the same and a red laser is used to read it, but the track width has been shortened slightly to allow the disc to have 5.4 GB of storage per layer as opposed to 4.7 GB for a standard DVD. The specification allows up to three layers for total of 15 GB in storage. WMV9 is used as the video codec allowing for 135 minutes of 720p video on a dual layer disc, and 135 minutes of 1080i video on a three-layer disc. FVD uses AACS copy protection which is one of the schemes used in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs.

DiscoVision is the name of several things related to the video LaserDisc format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical disc recording technologies</span> List of technologies used to write to optical discs

Optical disc authoring requires a number of different optical disc recorder technologies working in tandem, from the optical disc media to the firmware to the control electronics of the optical disc drive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparison of high-definition optical disc formats</span>

This article compares the technical specifications of multiple high-definition formats, including HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc; two mutually incompatible, high-definition optical disc formats that, beginning in 2006, attempted to improve upon and eventually replace the DVD standard. The two formats remained in a format war until February 19, 2008, when Toshiba, HD DVD's creator, announced plans to cease development, manufacturing and marketing of HD DVD players and recorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DVD</span> Optical disc format for the storage and playback of digital video and other digital data

The DVD is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind of digital data and has been widely used for video programs or formerly for storing software and other computer files as well. DVDs offer significantly higher storage capacity than compact discs (CD) while having the same dimensions. A standard DVD can store up to 4.7 GB of storage, while variants can store up to a maximum of 17.08 GB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blu-ray</span> Optical disc format used for storing digital video and other digital data

The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006. It was designed to supersede the DVD format, capable of storing several hours of high-definition video. The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The name "Blu-ray" refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HD DVD</span> Obsolete optical disc format

HD DVD is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format.

China Blue High-Definition is a high definition optical disc format announced in September 2007 by the Optical Memory National Engineering Research Center (OMNERC) of Tsinghua University in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High-definition optical disc format war</span> Format war in the mid to late 2000s between HD DVD, HD VMD and Blu-ray

The high-definition optical disc format war was a market competition between the Blu-ray and HD DVD optical disc standards for storing high-definition video and audio; it took place between 2006 and 2008 and was won by Blu-ray Disc.

Dorothy M. Hoffman was an American chemical engineer. In 1974 she became the first woman to be elected President of American Vacuum Society and the first woman to serve as president of any scientific society in the USA.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 T. Plimmer, "Alan Bell obituary", The Guardian, Sun 29 May 2016 10.17 EDT
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 CED Magic: Memories of VideoDisc - Who's Who in VideoDisc: Alan E. Bell
  3. A.E. Bell, "Magnetic and electrical measurements on very dilute zinc and copper based alloys", Imperial College, London, Ph.D. Thesis, 1973
  4. Alexander B. Magoun, "David Sarnoff Research Center: RCA Labs to Sarnoff Corporation", Arcadia Publishing, page 105, 2003
  5. 1 2 "Alan E Bell named senior vice-president technology", Warner Brothers press release, October 25, 2000
  6. 1 2 Alan E. Bell, "Next-Generation Compact Discs" Scientific American , Vol. 275, No. 1, pp. 42-46, July 1996
  7. "Record Companies unveil DVD Copy Protection Plans", Tech Monitor: Technology, March 3, 1999
  8. 1 2 "TM Forum - Alan E. Bell". TM Forum. Archived from the original on 2011-08-07.
  9. J. Goldfarb, "Inventors try one disc for two new DVD formats", NBC Tech News, Sept. 19, 2006
  10. C. Mayberry, "Par hires Bell to get technical", The Hollywood Reporter, Jan 30, 2007
  11. E. Jacobs, "Paramount's Alan Bell Talks About Their Exclusive HD-DVD Decision", Movieweb, Aug. 22, 2007
  12. "WR Entertainment". Wide Release Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2019-05-02. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  13. "Alan E. Bell". Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. Archived from the original on 2010-06-20.
  14. Hyperleap: Alan E. Bell
  15. C. R. Odgers, A. Bell "Method and Apparatus for Uniquely Identifying a Large Number of Film Prints", US Patent 7,308,430, Issued Dec 11, 2007
  16. Optica: list of Fellows: 1985
  17. Justia Patents: Alan Edward Bell
  18. USPTO search for Bell,-Alan E. or Bell, Alan Edward
  19. DBPL Computer Science Bibliography: Alan E. Bell