Vision mixer

Back in the early 1980s engineers from what was then Racal sat down in a poky Reading office with some suits from BT and hammered out the technical details of the world’s first analogue cellular system.

It’s unlikely that those present realised the significance of the occasion, but this relatively low-key meeting spawned Vodafone, helped kickstart the mobile phone industry, and it’s fair to say now represents a technology milestone that has since shaped our lived in innumerable ways.

In 2000 Racal’s advanced technology laboratory was acquired by Thales, and today forms the UK research arm of the French defence giant — but the spirit of innovation remains as strong as ever. According to managing director John Howard, who has been in charge of the group throughout this period, its role in the birth of the mobile phone is just one example of research taking its developers in an unexpected direction.