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Stephen Streater thinks in quantum leaps forward.

A graduate of Cambridge University, his post graduate work in artificial intelligence with the British Military drew the attention of venture capitalists who wooed him into floating Eidos, his first startup. Eidos became famous for its Lara Croft/ Tomb Raider series, and consistently had top ten selling video games.

Streater’s expertise in video compression technology was fundamental to the development of the pioneering Eidos non-linear editing system, which worked on Acorn computers, and which was launched in 1990. This system handled 30,000 – 40,000 hours of editing a year on a system that became known for its reliability – it rarely needed technical support.

With the next millennium around the corner, Stephen Streater left Eidos in 1999 to start UK-based Forbidden Technologies plc. The goal – to create a system that allowed for frame accurate, time-code accurate editing over the internet. At the time, most people considered this an impossible target.

FORscene became a reality out of Streater’s belief that it was possible. Launched in Europe in 2004, over 100 TV programmes had used FORscene by 2006, and it had won the coveted Royal Television Society Award for advancing post‐production.

FORscene was now market-ready. At the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, the television industry couldn’t get enough of Forbidden’s FORscene. “Nothing to install” now had universal appeal as web-browser applications such as e-Bay, Google, and Yahoo were now common place. With the push toward internet television and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) the need for FORscene web-based video editing has become far-reaching.

Stephen Streater provides a full-service off-line editing program with the FORscene platform. Users are given a password protected, virtual editing room that is equipped with sophisticated logging and search features; assembly editing with seamless export to Avid or Final Cut for finishing; and publishing to an iPod, smartphone or web. All it takes is a high-speed broadband connection.

Born in the United States, raised in London, England and educated at Cambridge, Stephen Streater sees the endless possibilities of artificial intelligence and continues to revolutionize video technology around the world with his innovative brilliance.

Interview with Stephen Streater