Dr. Forrest was a pioneer in digital compression and a founder of the DVB alliance, which led to a worldwide standard for digital TV. His academic career spanned the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the UK, and Stanford in California. It culminated with the post of Professor of Electronic Engineering at University College London, where he had a research group in microwaves and optics.
In 1984 he joined Marconi Defence Systems as Technical Director and later became Director of Engineering at the UK’s Independent Broadcasting Authority. From this engineering team, he formed the communications company NTL, becoming its first Chief Executive and, later, Deputy Chairman. A Fellow and Past Vice-President of both the Royal Television Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, he was awarded the CBE in H.M. the Queen’s Jubilee Honours and the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts at des Lettres by the French Government.
Commenting on the appointment, Simon Atkinson, CEO, Mirics, said: “Mirics has achieved a leading technical and commercial position, shipping the FlexiTV receiver in production volume on several continents. As the global markets for digital broadcast TV expand, we look forward to drawing on Dr. Forrest’s expertise, which we are certain will deliver benefits both for business growth and product evolution.”
Dr. Forrest added: “I am delighted to join the Mirics team. It is a superb company with very impressive software and technology already in production. With more exciting developments in the pipeline, I look forward to helping in this next important phase of growth.”
