The Royal Television Society (RTS) has crowned the winner of its annual RTS Young Technologist of the Year Award, presented in memory of A.M Beresford-Cooke. Benjamin Sheppard, Design Engineer at BBC, was selected to receive the award by a panel of expert industry judges, which was chaired by Digital Media Consultant, Terry Marsh. Sheppard is a self-taught design engineer who has been creating websites, web tools and digital services since the age of 12, going on to specialize in eCommerce for the last 10 years. In 2022, he started working with the BBC to develop a suite of broadcast graphic elements, which became an entire framework of redevelopment including fully responsive and adaptable components, with dynamic functionality.
Implementation of the solutions Benjamin Sheppard created has enabled more efficient and cost-effective builds for the BBC, resulting in a wider variety of productions being able to be aired – including expanded sports programmes, weather and more. Furthermore, his expertise has seen him work on the European Broadcasting Union’s initiative to standardize HTML5 graphics. As winner of the RTS Young Technologist of the Year for 2024, Sheppard will receive an all-expenses paid trip to IBC 2024.
The RTS Young Technologist of the Year Award runner-up and recipient of the Coffey Award for Excellence in Technology 2024 is Connor Webster, Lead Software Engineer at YouView TV Ltd. Webster joined YouView as a Graduate Software Engineer and swiftly moved up the ranks to Lead Engineer within five years. Most recently, he has helped YouView support the successful launch of Freely. This started with investigating the feasibility of running an HbbTV Operator Application on retail Smart TVs, followed by the design and development of innovative production solutions in collaboration with Everyone TV, the UK's public service broadcasters and global device manufacturers. Together a world's first.
Chair of the RTS Young Technologist of the Year Award Jury, Terry Marsh, said: “Benjamin is a highly impressive and inspiring young talent who in just two years has profoundly impacted the offering of one of the country’s leading broadcasters, the BBC. The insight and skillset he possesses for eCommerce and development, alongside his input with the European Broadcasting Union, is something that particularly resounded with the Jury. Following a round of extremely strong entries, we are proud to now be celebrating the achievements of both Benjamin and Connor today, who have demonstrated remarkable technical skills and deep-rooted ambition, which I’m sure will see them both continue to flourish and have long, successful careers in our industry.”
Benjamin Sheppard said: “It is an honor and a privilege to win such a prestigious award and to be named Young Technologist of the Year 2024. I am grateful to Terry Marsh and the members of the jury for recognising my hard work and contribution to the broadcasting sector. I would like to say a big thank you to my mentor at the BBC, Ryan McKenna, and my wife and dog, for their continued support. I look forward to continuing my work with complex web-based broadcast graphics, and implementing new processes to help the industry to progress.”
The Young Technologist Award was established by the RTS with funds received from the family of A.M. Beresford-Cooke – a distinguished engineer who significantly contributed to the development of British broadcasting technology through his work on towers and masts for VHF and UHF transmission. The aim of the award is to advance education in the science, practice, technology, and art of television and its allied fields.