Ken and Rebecca were two of the founders Motion Media Technology and served variously as Chief Executive, Managing Director and Financial Director. Both joined the company at the outset in January 1993.
The planning for setting up the Company started in about August 1992 after the Image Processing Group of SGS-Thomson Microelectronics based in Bristol had been told that they would have to relocate to Grenoble in France or face redundancy.
The plan was to set up a new company to develop and sell video telephony equipment. The original business plan (under the name IXV) foresaw the development of PC add-in cards, stand alone videophones and safety and security (SASEC) products. It also identified the need for £2.5m of investment to make it happen - an amount eventually raised 5 years after it would have ideally been needed!
The Company was started at the beginning of 1993 with no major funding identified and the founders working for nothing and living off their redundancy. By the end of 1993 sufficient progress had been made for the Company to win a major customer to help bring the first PC add-in card to completion and market. Production of the Xyclops 900 commenced before the end of 1994.
The Company went on to develop a prototype stand alone videophone and this was working early in 1996. However, it was based on R&D silicon and the design underwent a major revision and cost reduction before finally going into production late in 1997 as the mm220. A derivative product in the form of a TV set top box videophone, the mm120, followed a months or two later.
The Company developed a SASEC (safety and security remote surveillance) product in 1997 and this too has entered production.
Motion Media PLC joined the Official List of the London Stock Exchange in May 2000 and set up a subsidiary in the USA in 2001 based at Wilmington, North Carolina.
More about these products can be found on the Motion Media web pages together with information about the Company and job opportunities.
Rebecca left the Company in 2000 and Ken left the role of Chief Executive
for a 1 year Sabbatical starting at the end of October 2001.