SMPTE Unveils 2017 Awards Recipients

LOS ANGELES & WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE will roll out the red carpet for the newly announced SMPTE 2017 Award recipients. The individual winners will be recognized during the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition.

This year, Renville “Ren” H. McMann Jr. will posthumously be inducted into SMPTE’s Honor Roll, the organizations highest honor. McMann is being recognized for his work in the development of television and imaging technology. In his career, he was granted 36 patents, including the electronic video recorder, the electronic image enhancer, the color camera system and magnetic scan conversion techniques. He was a key contributor in the development of color TV signal processing and image gathering technology, as well as HD systems.

Paul E. Debevec

The 2017 Progress Medal, which is given for “outstanding technical contributions to the progress of engineering phases,” will be awarded to Paul E. Debevec. Debevec is being cited for his work on computer-generated objects based on measurement of real-world illumination and their application in films like “The Matrix” sequels, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Avatar,” “Rogue One” and “Life of Pi.” He has also helped develop HDR imaging, co-authoring the book “High Dynamic Range Imaging: Acquisition, Display and Image-Based Lighting.”

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The remaining award recipients are as follows:

Camera Origination and Imaging Medal – David S. Corley
David Sarnoff Medal – Phillip Bennett
Digital Processing Medal – Michael A. Isnardi
James A. Linder Archival Technology Medal – James M. Reilly
Samuel L. Warner Memorial Medal – Mark Robert Gander
Technicolor – Herbert T. Kalmus Medal – Joseph Goldstone
Workflow Systems Medal – Randy Ubillos
SMPTE Journal Award – Sean T. McCarthy for “How Independent are HDR, WCG, and HFR in Human Visual Perception and the Creative Process?”
Journal Certificates of Merit – Katy C. Noland for “High Frame Rate Television: Sampling Theory, the Human Visual System, and Why the Nyquist-Shannon Theorem Does Not Apply” and David Long & Mark D. Fairchild for “Observer Metamerism Models and Multiprimary Display Systems”
Student Paper Award – Elizabeth DoVale for “High Frame Rate Psychophysics: Experimentation to Determine a JND for Frame Rate”
Student Paper Honorary Mention – Jonathan Bouchard, for his paper “Quality Control of Stereoscopic 3D Compositing Using Half-Occlusion Geometry"
Presidential Proclamation – Mark Schubin
Excellence in Standards Award – Johann Safar
Society Citation – Elizabeth “Betty” Migliore
Citation for Outstanding Service to the Society – Merrick Ackermans; Herbert Jay Dunmore; John Walsh; and David Wheeler
Louis F. Wolf Jr. Memorial Scholarship – Trevor Canham; Emily Faw; and Catherine Marie Meininger

In addition, SMPTE will announce 12 new SMPTE Fellows during the Awards Gala.

All winners will be honored at the 2017 SMPTE Awards Gala on Oct. 26. For more information, visit www.smpte2017.org.