Inside Biz News: Engineering Emmys Highlights (Video)

Actress and real-life scholar Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) and Hollywood-Silicon Valley digerati honored some of production's top tech stars at the 2011 Engineering Emmys, held recently at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, California. See the mind-blowing "Ultimate Arm," which of your favorite shows are shot with the innovative Panavision Genesis digital camera, plus outtakes from the stage. Complete list of honorees and more below; scroll down.

63rd Primetime Emmy® Engineering Awards
Complete Winners List

The Philo T. Farnsworth Award
• Time Warner and Time Warner Cable

The Philo T. Farnsworth Award honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have significantly impacted television technology and engineering. Time Warner received the honor for their pioneering work in bringing true interactive and versatile on-demand television to audiences. Its "Full Service Network," with trial roots in the 1990s, is the forerunner to current day on demand and entertainment communications services. TWC was the first service to offer traditional cable, interactive television, telephone services, and high-speed PC access by integrating them over a now-standard fiber-optic/coaxial network.

The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award
• Andy Setos of The Fox Group

The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award honors a living individual whose on-going contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.This year’s award went to President of Engineering for The Fox Group, Andy Setos, a pioneer whose teams have designed and operated a number of state-of-the-art production and distribution facilities. He remains a thought-leader in advanced broadcast and video delivery.

The Engineering Emmy Awards
• The iPad (Apple, Inc.)
• The Ultimate Arm (Adventure Equipment)
• The Panavision Genesis (Panavision and Sony)
• The Linear Tape File System-LTFS (IBM Corporation and Fox Networks Group)

The Engineering Emmy goes to an individual, company or organization for engineering developments so significant an improvement on existing methods, or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television content. This year’s four recipients are:

Apple, Inc. for the iPad, a pioneering tablet computer developed and marketed as a platform for audio-visual media, which keeps revolutionizing the television experience for consumers. With over 33 million iPads sold worldwide, it is one of the fastest selling consumer electronic devices in history and connects users to over 1500 TV-centric apps to date. Users to watch original programming directly on the device, plus enjoy companion viewing experiences for many of televisions biggest shows.

The Ultimate Arm by Adventure Equipment, for the creation of the Ultimate Gyro-stabilized Remote-Controlled Crane for motion picture cameras. This high speed, high torque, lightweight crane, with record image stability, and the amazing capability to thrive in all operating conditions has been used to produce some of the most compelling television, film and commercial content ever seen.

Panavision and Sony for the Panavision Genesis, the first digital motion picture camera to commercially introduce (in 2005) a single-chip sensor the size of a Super 35mm motion picture frame. Developed by Panavision in conjunction with Sony Corporation, the Genesis marked an innovative breakthrough in digital motion picture camera design and produced significant advances in single chip digital camera technology used for primetime television production. It enabled the use of existing 35mm motion picture lenses, along with other features that enable the Genesis to emulate a more film-like look and feel.

IBM Corporation and Fox Networks Group for LTFS (Linear Tape File System), a system that enables real-time content recording and high-speed recovery of that material, enabling broadcasters to bring us more news, sports and entertainment faster than ever. IBM and Fox Networks Group have worked together since 2004 to fundamentally change the way audio and video content is recorded and transmitted.

The Engineering Plaque
• Yahoo! Connected TV

The Engineering Plaque honors achievements that exhibit a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry and is no consolation prize to, but a positive recognition of engineering achievements on a different level of technology and industry impact than the Emmy statuette. Yahoo! Connected TV is honored for its collection of more than 180 easy-to-use apps, specifically to complement TV viewing. The apps range from video on demand (over 75,000 movies and TV shows), to news, finance, sports, games, social networking, music, photo sharing, shopping and more. Since shifting the television viewing paradigm in 2009, Yahoo! has empowered viewers everywhere to enjoy more personalization.

The Engineering Certificates
• Xfinity TV iPad App
• Time Warner TV iPad App

The Engineering Certificate honors those accomplishments which demonstrate a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry. This year's certificates go to:

Xfinity TV iPad App,which gives Comcast customers more ways to interact with their TVs at home without requiring them to be in front of the cable box. Sports fans can find the shows they want to record on the fly or pre-tune the DVR so they can advance Live TV. Parents can program what their children watch from another room in the house. Customers can even locate the On Demand videos they want to enjoy using web-enabled search and browse filters and tune to the video information page of the TV.

The TWCable TV iPad App, which helps Time Warner Cable customers enjoy the entertainment they love anywhere, anytime, on any device. Delivery of live streaming content to mobile devices such as the iPad required loads of innovation. Version 2.0 introduced the ability to control the set-top box and DVR, adding both time-shifting and place-shifting capability. It is also one of the first apps combining the use of the iPad as a main-screen viewing device, plus a "companion" device for enhanced experience with conventional TV devices.

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The 63rd Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards were overseen the Engineering Committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, led by co-chairs Chris Cookson, President of Sony Pictures Technologies, and Geoff Katz, Vice President and Executive Producer for Related Content Database, Inc.

Among the committee members are Wendy Aylsworth, SVP of Technology, Warner Bros.; Curtis Clark, ASC; David E. Feldstein, Executive Producer, Mobile and Advanced Platforms, Fox Sports; Kevin Hamburger, Supervising Producer, "The Talk"; Eileen Horta, Sound Editing Governor, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; David N. Jensen, Partner, Digital Transformation Leader, IBM; Will Kreth, Sr. Director - Advanced Video Strategy, Time Warner Cable; Bob Lambert, CEO, the digital firm; John D. O'Brien, Electronic Production Governor, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; Leon Silverman, General Manager, Digital Studio at Walt Disney Studios.