Theo Peek is retiring as chairman of the DVB Steering Board and is being replaced by former EBU technical director Phil Laven. The decision was made on Thursday at a meeting that also gave the go ahead for the new DVB-T2 standard.
The former director of technology and business development for Philips Consumer Electronics, Peek was a co-founder of the European Project for Digital Video Broadcasting and had been its chairman since November 1996.
Laven retired from the EBU in 2007 after ten years with the organisation. Prior to joining the EBU he was controller of engineering policy at the BBC. Laven will be more than familiar with the work of the DVB, he was previously vice chair of the DVB, and represented the EBU on the Steering Board. He is also chairman of the ETSI/EBU/CENELEC Joint Technical Committee, responsible for setting European standards for broadcasting systems.