Signal processing challenges from audio-video coding to telecommunication: A living piece of history

When I was invited to contribute to the celebrations in honour of Prof. Giovanni Sicuranza, I accepted with en thusiasm. Giovanni is a prominent figure in Italian DSP (Digital Signal Processing) research history and I am fortunate enough to have been acquainted with him since the beginning of my career. When I joined Telettra and began working in Audio-Video Coding research, Giovan ni had already started his long-lasting and fruitful cooperation with the Telettra DSP Laboratory. This highly constructive relationship continued after Telettra was acquired by Alcatel, and I enjoyed the invaluable experience to share with Giovanni an exciting research season. Not only. In 2000, the DSP Lab started working in the area of Telecommunication and also in this research field the studies conducted with Giovanni deeply influenced the activity developed by Alcatel, first, and by Alcatel-Lucent later on, and prompted their Italian branch to produce outstanding results.