RSGB 2025 Convention: The biggest nerd she’s ever met - my TV adventures with Hannah Fry скачать в хорошем качестве

RSGB 2025 Convention: The biggest nerd she’s ever met - my TV adventures with Hannah Fry

Neil Smith, G4DBN Neil takes you behind the scenes of BBC2’s programme “The Secret Genius of Modern Life” and his memorable on-screen adventures with mathematician and best-selling author, Professor Hannah Fry and the BBC Science Unit. Recently, Neil recreated another of Leon Theremin’s inspired inventions, this time from the 1920s. The device was a mechanical CCTV system that used HF radio to transmit images to a large-screen display and helped launch Theremin’s extraordinary shadow career in surveillance technology and espionage. In this talk, Neil shares how he brought the system to life, what it was like to work with the production team, and how he learned to shape complex ideas into stories that connect with a broad audience - without losing the magic of the technology. Neil, G4DBN has been building technical contraptions since the 1960s, starting in a childhood workshop shed that still stands near Lincoln. These days, his setup includes a CNC machine shop, electrochemistry lab, video studio, a collection of military and aeronautical microwave electronica, and more test gear than some small countries. Neil's life got even more interesting when he began saying ‘yes’ to oddball project requests, including two that came via the RSGB and landed him on BBC2 with Hannah Fry. Neil runs a niche manufacturing business making microwave antenna system components, wrangles two Chihuahuas for sake of his sanity, shows off on YouTube as "Machining and Microwaves" and moonlights as an IT Security Architect. His radio interests stretch from the high GHz bands up to light, and down to the murky depths between DC and 2MHz.