Honorees Announced for the 66th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards

NoHo Arts District, CA – The Television Academy has announced the recipients of the 66th Primetime Emmy® Engineering Awards. This year, the Television Academy and NATAS have joined together to present the Engineering Emmy Awards from both organizations in a joint January 8 ceremony during the CES conference at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.  The Emmys awarded will celebrate engineering excellence from all aspects of the television community.  

Below is the list of the awards to be presented by the Television Academy:

The Philo T. Farnsworth Award

Honoring an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have significantly impacted television technology and engineering.

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is this year's recipient of the Philo T. Farnsworth Award.

Founded in 1916 under the chairmanship of famed inventor Charles F. Jenkins, the Society of Motion Picture Engineers was chartered to develop standards and provide training to streamline the U.S. government's burgeoning use of motion picture products. Increasing its scope in 1950 to embrace the emerging technology of television, the Society has continuously developed standards and educational programs that have made substantive impacts on this industry.

Notable technological advancements from SMPTE include their trademark color bars and their core High-Definition work including the Emmy Award-winning HD-SDI standard. Along with being responsible for the newly published and developed standards for the next generation television format characteristics of ultra-HD, high-dynamic-range and immersive audio, SMPTE continues to contribute to the television ecosystem as it expands into a wide array of distribution channels enjoyed on omnipresent devices.

Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award

Honoring a living individual whose on-going contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

Laurence J. Thorpe is this year's recipient of the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
Larry Thorpe is a renowned industry expert in the field of video acquisition and is generally considered to be one of the leaders of HDTV development. He has held the position of the head of HDTV market development at Sony Electronics as well as Senior Fellow at Canon U.S.A. A Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), he has published numerous papers on camera technology and the topic of HDTV while serving as an advisor to the Advanced Television Systems Committee, the Federal Communications Commission and SMPTE. A graduate of the College of Technology in Dublin, he began his career with the BBC in London.

Engineering Emmys

Presented to an individual, company or organization for engineering developments so significant of an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television.

This year's five Engineering Emmy recipients are:

Philips Professional Broadcasting for the LDK6000, DPM CCD Multi-format HDTV Camera System

The Philips LDK6000 HD Camera System, first demonstrated in 2000, uses their patented DPM (Dynamic Pixel Management) imager technology, enabling the camera to capture multiple video formats and frame rates without physically changing the image sensor. The DPM sensor, a full frame transfer (FT) 2/3" type CCD imager, combines 9.2 million sub pixels (1920x4320) to capture 1920x1080, 1280x720, 720x576, or 720x480 pixel images in 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios as well as 2.37:1 (Cinemascope). The DPM sensor, coupled with a mechanical blade shutter, eliminates the vertical artifacts and distortions exhibited by an Interline Transfer (IT) CCD type sensor. Due to the LDK 6000 camera system's use of existing triax cable to interconnect the camera with the base station, it quickly became a popular choice for remote sports and entertainment television productions including the Olympics (2004) and Super Bowl (2005), as well as live entertainment shows such as the Academy Awards (2003-2006).

Sony Professional Solutions of America for the Multi-format HDTV CCD Fiber Optic Camera System.

The Sony HDC1500, first used in 2005 on the hit FOX TV show, American Idol, produced at CBS's Television City Studios, provided superior HDTV image quality in a progressive video format (720 progressive). Due to the flexibility of this camera system with the ability to capture native progressive or interlace video images, the Sony HDC 1500 gives TV producers the freedom to produce their HDTV show in any desired HD format (1080i/720p, 23.98/24/29.97/30/50/59.94/60 fps). The camera output aspect ratio can be set to 16:9, 4:3 or letterbox. The HDC 1500 has been the camera of choice for HDTV studio operations due to the flexibility of its design, use of SMPTE fiber camera interconnect and progressive image capture.

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

Supporting the world of digital content, HDMI, created and deployed a universally-implemented, standardized, digital-interconnection method that delivers high quality digital audio, video and auxiliary data to home entertainment devices while simplifying the consumer experience. Unlike older cables, an HDMI connection transmits uncompressed audio-video data in 100 percent digital form through a single cable. This development led to worldwide adoption by consumers and manufacturers  -- including HDMI founders Hitachi, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Technicolor (Thomson) RCA and Toshiba -- providing a superior viewing experience, with pixel-for-pixel video accuracy and audiophile-quality sound.

Intel Corp for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)

Intel Corporation, in concert with HDMI, created and deployed a universally implemented protocol for the clear identification and transparent delivery of copyrighted high quality audio/video content in a manner that discourages unauthorized redistribution. Gaining broad adoption as an approved output protocol, it supports billions of device interfaces used by consumers worldwide.

Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) for its Recommended Practice on Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television.

For most of television's history, viewers have complained about big differences in volume between commercials and the surrounding programming. Spurred by public pressure, impending legislation, and newly-refined techniques for quantifying apparent loudness, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) codified a Recommended Practice onTechniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television as RP A/85. This publication is now mandated by the FCC as an enforceable regulation in response the United States Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act of 2010, effective December 13, 2012. The concrete action by the ATSC to develop an automated method to address the issue has resulted in dramatically improved consumer satisfaction.

About the 66th Emmy Engineering Awards
The 66th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards are overseen by chair Wendy Aylsworth, SVP of Technology, Warner Bros. Committee members are Russell Calabrese, Television Academy Animation Governor and Producer/Director Hi-Test Productions, Inc.; Chris Cookson, Former CTO Warner Bros. and President Sony Pictures Technologies; Jim DeFilippis, President and CGO, TMS Consulting, Inc.; Kevin Hamburger, Television Academy Vice Chair and Senior Supervising producer, The Talk; David Jensen, Partner, EY; Frank Morrone, Re-recording Mixer at Technicolor; William Powloski, Governor Special Visual Effects Peer Group, Visual Effects Supervisor and Producer, Velocity Visuals; Vince Roberts, Executive Vice President, Global Operations and Chief Technology Officer, Disney ABC Television Group; Steve Venezia, Television Academy Sound Governor and Senior Director Worldwide Content Services, Dolby Laboratories; Barry Zegel, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBS Television City.

Contact:
PMK*BNC
Chris DiIorio - 310-854-4866 - chris.diiorio@pmkbnc.com