Widescreen Television at the Sydney 2000 Olympics

Eric Hitchen began his career in television in 1952, when he became an instructor on studio equipment with the Marconi Co. He then worked as an engineer at Marconi, installing television studios in the U.K., and from 1956 to 1960 in Australia. Hitchen moved to Australia in 1964, and following installation work for Amalgamated Wireless Australasia, he became a project engineer with the Australian Broadcasting Commission. From 1973 to 1989, Hitchen was chief engineer of commercial television station TEN-10 in Sydney. During this time, he was the engineer in charge of Channel Ten's coverage of the Los Angeles and Seoul Olympic Games and was a consultant assisting in the subsequent bids of Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney for the right to hold an Olympic Games. His present position is that of consultant engineer to the Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations. Hitchen served on a number of Australian delegations to ITU-R meetings in the 1980s and is a member of the IEE, SMPTE, and BKSTS. He was awarded a Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design for his work on the Sydney Opera House in 1972 and the Paul Marian Engineering Award from the Australian Commercial Television Stations in 1986.