February 09, 2012

2011 Engineering Award Recipients

Screen star and real-life scholar Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory) joined Hollywood-Silicon Valley digerati to toast top magic-makers at the 2011 Engineering Emmys, held October 2011 at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, California. See all the honorees listed here.

The 2011 Engineering Award recipients are as follows:

ENGINEERING CERTIFICATE

The Engineering Certificate is for those accomplishments which contribute to the efficiency and productivity of the industry.

XFINITY TV IPAD APP

The XFINITY TV App gives Comcast customers the ultimate access to the TV shows & movies they love, without having to watch in front of their cable boxes at home. Customers can watch their favorite shows on their computers and mobile devices, change channels on the TV, and schedule DVR recordings remotely—all on the go, right from the app. Parents can even program their kids’ shows from another room in the house. XFINITY TV subscribers can also use advanced search and browse filters to find On Demand shows based on their subscription and start watching, all in seconds.

TIME WARNER TV IPAD APP

The TWCable TV IOS app is an important step along the path of helping our customers enjoy the entertainment they love anywhere, anytime, on any device. Deliver of live streaming content to mobile devices such as the iPad required innovation both in content services and workflow (ingest, management, and distribution) and content experience (discovery and rendering). With version 2.0, the app introduced the ability to control the set-top box and DVR, adding time-shifting capability in addition to place-shifting. It is also one of the first apps combining the use of the iPad as a "consumption" device for video viewing and a "companion" device for enhanced experience with the traditional TV.

ENGINEERING PLAQUE

The Engineering Plaque honors achievements that exhibit a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry. The Engineering Plaque is not a “consolation” prize, but a positive recognition of engineering achievements on a different level of technology and industry importance than the Emmy.

There is one Engineering Plaque awarded in 2011.

YAHOO! CONNECTED TV

Yahoo! Connected TV is the leading platform for Internet-connected TV, and is available across leading TV brands worldwide including Samsung, Sony, VIZIO, Toshiba, and HiSense. More than 8 million consumers have purchased TVs with the Yahoo! Connected TV platform across 135 countries.

Today the Yahoo! Connected TV experience centers around a collection of more than 180 easy-to-use TV apps, providing deep content designed to complement TV viewing. TV apps run the gamut from video on demand, including more than 75,000 movies and TV shows on-demand, to news, finance, sports, games, social networking, music, photo sharing, shopping, and more.

ENGINEERING EMMY AWARDS

The Engineering Emmy Awards are presented to an individual, a company, or an organization for developments in engineering that are either so extensive an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television.

There are four Engineering Emmys awarded in 2011.

ULTIMATE ARM

For the concept and development of the Ultimate Gyro-stabilized Remote Controlled Crane; a high speed, high torque, lightweight crane, with record image stability, and the amazing capability to thrive in all operating conditions.
The Ultimate Arm can be mounted on any mobile platform and has the perfect combination of speed, stability, and agility. The arm can pan at a rate of 90 degrees per second, making a complete rotation in less than four seconds at vehicle speeds of 120 mph. No matter how rough the terrain or extreme the movement of the arm, the image will remain stable. Separating itself from the competition by its unique build, the arm and counter balanced rear of the crane move independently of each other, allowing the arm to absorb the frequency and reduce the oscillating effect that often plagues more rigid cranes.
The Ultimate Arm and Lev Head are a perfect fit for camera operators. The system is easy to use with both standard wheels and joystick controls. The joysticks allow operators to control pan, tilt, dutch, and zoom simultaneously. The diversity of the equipment allows the ability to adapt to all the needs of the production.

LINEAR TAPE FILE SYSTEM

IBM and Fox have worked together since 2004 to fundamentally change the way that audio and video content is recorded and transmitted. This effort enabled major improvements in digital workflow and dramatic reductions in the costs associated with capturing, storing and repurposing media content while providing dramatic improvements in transfer rates, storage density, automated workflow, meta-data capture and content availability.

Combining digital broadcast and IT standards in a broadcast environment, the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) has enabled real-time content recording and high-speed recovery of content to be a broadly-supported, multi-industry solution.

SINGLE CHIP DIGITAL CAMERAS

The EMMY Engineering Award is being given to the Panavision Genesis and the Sony F35 for important advances in Super 35mm single image sensor digital motion picture camera technology used for Prime Time television productions.

The Panavision Genesis was the first digital motion picture camera to commercially introduce in 2005 a single-chip (CCD) 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. It enabled the use of existing 35mm motion picture lenses, along with an advanced log encoding of its image capture (Panalog) that facilitated the reproduction of a wider dynamic range of scene tones better able to emulate a more filmic look and feel.

Building on the success of the Panavision Genesis, Sony first introduced their Super 35mm single chip (CCD) sensor camera, the F35, in January 2008 with 10-bit S-Log and S-Gamut RGB wide color space image encoding which rapidly became a favorite choice among filmmakers for its ability to reproduce a very wide dynamic range of scene tones with a filmic look. Sony subsequently offered a 12-bit upgrade for the F35, along with S-Gamut RGB output, to further expand the code value range from 1023 to 4096 code values, thereby enabling an even more nuanced reproduction of scene tones.

These digital motion picture cameras provided the production community with image capture configurations that expanded the creative option of a digital camera beyond HD video broadcast imaging parameters. This facilitated the reproduction of a wider dynamic range of scene tones with a color space closer to film.

iPAD

The iPad is a tablet computer developed and marketed primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content.
Like iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad is controlled by a multitouch display - a departure from most previous tablet computers, which used a pressure-triggered stylus - as well as a virtual onscreen keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. The iPad uses a Wi-Fi connection to access local area networks and the Internet, with a 3G wireless network interface which can connect to HSPA or EV-DO data networks and on to the Internet. The device is managed and synced by iTunes running on a personal computer via USB cable.

THE PHILO T. FARNSWORTH CORPORATE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award is an award to honor a company whose contributions over a long period of time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

There is one Farnsworth award in 2011.

FULL SERVICE NETWORK

Time Warner and Time Warner Cable's Full Service Network (FSN) was a pioneering trial for interactive television that targeted an initial 4,000 households in Orlando, Florida, with services that ranged from video-on-demand to ordering fast food using just the TV remote.

The trial aimed to study how interactive services would work, as well as their costs and advertising capabilities. It was the first service network to offer traditional cable, interactive television, telephone services, and high-speed PC access by integrating them over a fiber-optic and coaxial cable network. It was the forerunner to robust video on demand and other entertainment and communications services consumers enjoy today.

CHARLES F. JENKINS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award honors an individual whose contributions over a long period of time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

There is one Jenkins awards in 2011.

ANDREW G. SETOS

Andrew G. Setos is a pioneer and thought-leader in advanced broadcast and video delivery across many distribution channels, including the earliest as well as the most recent efforts in advanced television systems delivery, standards work, inter-industry collaboration, rights management, optical media, i.p. and satellite-delivered video, high-bandwidth fiber optic systems in news and sports, and digital workflow and asset management.

Most recently President of Engineering for Fox Entertainment, Andy led the technical vanguard at Fox for more than two decades. Under his stewardship, Fox garnered many awards and accolades for innovative applications of emerging technologies in state-of-the-art production and distribution facilities which he and his team architected and operated.

Prior to Fox, Andy held pivotal senior engineering and operations roles at Viacom Networks Group, Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, MTV and Nickelodeon. He was Chief Engineer at renowned WNET/Thirteen New York, where he planned and supervised production technologies for such award-winning series as Live from Lincoln Center, Dance in America, and The McNeil/Lehrer News Hour.

Andy has always been an active and impassioned participant in the most leading-edge cross-industry efforts, many of which he helped found; including MPAA's MovieLabs entity, the Digital Cinema Initiative consortium, the DVD Forum, and USC's Entertainment Technology Center. This year, Andy's work shepherding the joint IBM / Fox effort in LFTS is recognized separately with its own Emmy, a model of two organizations developing a new format specification to be shared and adopted throughout the video and data industry, for the greater good.

He is a Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and a past member of the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s executive board and FCC Technology Advisory Committee. He is past Chairman and board member of the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center. Mr. Setos holds a B.S. degree from The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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