The most important part of any organisation is it's people. Organisations are made of people, every sort... from the bottom to the top, and our activities are reflected from those people. I reflect on this because back in February, the IET Media Technical Network lost one of its own: Martin Russ, who passed after a short illness. We thought it apt for those who knew and worked with him to put a few words together about him.
My memories of Martin are fond and energy filled; his self-titled Media Innovator role did not do justice to a man with depths of knowledge, curiosity and energy many could not even think of emulating. When it came to the IET Multimedia committee, I recall Martin's meticulous attention to detail and his precision for a well run event which only served to improve the IETs standing through Martin's hard work. One event, at Bletchley Park, was hugely popular, perfectly executed, and fascinating. It show-cased, in abundance, everything we knew and loved about Martin; Martin the innovator, Martin the organiser, and under-pinning those traits, Martin the truly decent and honourable man.
Phil Clayson
Past Chair IET Multimedia Communications Technical Network
I first met Martin when I took on the role of chairing the TN. I was immediately impressed by Martin’s cheerful enthusiasm and his willingness to get stuck into the work needed to grow the TN’s impact within the media industry. Over a number of IBCs, Martin and I interviewed some of the movers and shakers in the industry and from that not were not only able to produce information pieces to be published by the TN, but were also able to better direct the TN to match the direction in which the industry was moving. There is no doubt that a large part of the success of this exercise was down to Martin’s skills in eliciting information from senior staff in companies who might otherwise have felt themselves too busy during IBC to be interviewed in this way by an IET TN team. I know that I shall greatly miss Martin’s presence, and I am sure that is the case for all of us that knew him.
Graham Turner
Past Chair IET Multimedia Communications Technical Network
Martin pre-dated me in what became the IET Media Technical Network, he himself being the Chair of the Multimedia Communications Technical Network as it was called, for three years. He engaged in the executive committee in all roles, both before and after his being Chair, which is how I met him. He was always thinking about what we could do, what we could organise, what we could write and what we could communicate. His knowledge was broad and deep on all things audio, and expanded to cover other subjects including IT security, something that I remember having discussions about in depth because of his liking for disabling Javascript and the problems that created for him accessing certain services (I am more liberal with allowing Javascript to run...). He had done so much in his life: TV Cameraman, film reviewer, lighting operator, special effects creator, sound designer, audio engineer, director, producer, and a long career in multimedia R&D in BT, co edited the M3W MPEG standard, founded a music accessory company, a digital media startup and held 12 patents. He used his technical experience well in writing a number of articles over the years for the IET, and also took part in the judging of the IBC Best Paper. However he hid his writing expertise from being a prolific writer of articles for music magazines, right down to being known as Mr Midi, something I only found out about in his obituary (https://www.soundonsound.com/news/martin-russ-obituary) and at his funeral at the end of March. He is missed.
Ian Nock
Vice Chair/Past Chair IET Media Technical Network
Martin was a keen contributor in raising the profile of the IET and especially the Technical Network, mainly via the numerous interesting and informative blogs and other content he wrote over the years for our various community platforms. He was a valued member of the Media Executive committee and all the staff Community Managers who worked alongside him over a long period of time, have praised his commitment to the TN both as a committee member and Chair/Past Chair.
Deborah-Claire McKenzie (on behalf of all the IET Communities Staff who worked with Martin)
IET Community Manager
