WASHINGTON—At its annual NextGen Broadcast Conference this week, ATSC honored Julia Kenyon of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) with the 2026 Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award.
“Julia is an excellent consensus builder and techno-diplomat who is a graceful and very competent leader,” ATSC President Madeleine Noland said. “She knows how to help groups get things done efficiently and collegially, which is a real art. Not only has she led multiple ATSC committees, but Julia also has a terrific sense of humor and is able to blend levity with the serious nature of standards work. She is always curious, and most recently has been helping ATSC participants really lean into the benefits of developing artificial intelligence tools.”
Kenyon has served as Vice Chair of ATSC Specialist Group on Interactive Environment (TG3/S38), Vice Chair of ATSC Implementation on Conformance (IT-3), and Chair of ATSC Specialist Group on Management and Protocols (TG3/S33). Additionally, for more than three years, she has served as CTA’s lead technical representative for the NextGen TV Test Suite development, working not only with ATSC but as chair of CTA’s own groups that work with the test suite.
Kenyon also guided ATSC in the development of A/381, the recommended practice for use of the broadcaster application for NextGen TV.
“Julia Kenyon brings unique skills to the challenge of ensuring NextGen TVs work properly with the advanced services ATSC 3.0 broadcasts provide,” said Brian Markwalter, vice chair of the ATSC board of directors and senior vice president of research and standards for the CTA. “Besides her visible leadership in ATSC and CTA standards groups, Julia directs the TV testing program that backs the NextGen TV logo. CTA commends Julia on this recognition of all she has done for ATSC and the industry.”
“Julia is an exceptional contributor to ATSC 3.0,” added Dr. Paul Hearty of Technology Advisors, an ATSC board member and ATSC Technical Group 3 (TG3) chair. “She leads and contributes to standards and compliance development both in ATSC and in CTA, covering the spectrum from origination of services at broadcast to consumption at consumer devices. She maintains balance, fairness, and technical rigor—as well as humor—throughout.”
The Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award is given each year to an ATSC member whose technical and leadership contributions have been exemplary. It is named for its first recipient, the late Bernard Lechter, retired staff vice president, Advanced Video Systems at RCA Laboratories, whose 30-year career covered all aspects of television and display research.
Lechner Award recipients:
- 2000 – Bernard Lechner, Consultant
- 2001 – Rich Chernock, Triveni Digital
- 2002 – Regis Crinon, Microsoft
- 2003 – Glenn Adams, Extensible Formatting Systems
- 2004 – Graham Jones, National Association of Broadcasters
- 2005 – John Henderson, Hitachi
- 2006 – Art Allison, NAB
- 2007 – Mark Eyer, Sony Electronics
- 2008 – Michael Dolan, TBT
- 2009 – Wayne Bretl, Zenith/LG Electronics
- 2010 – Pat Waddell, Harmonic
- 2011 – Jim Starzynski, NBC Universal
- 2012 – S. Merrill Weiss, Merrill Weiss Group
- 2013 – Mark Aitken, Sinclair Broadcast Group
- 2014 – James Kutzner, PBS
- 2015 – Luke Fay, Sony
- 2016 – Madeleine Noland, Zenith/LG Electronics
- 2017 – Skip Pizzi, NAB
- 2018 – Mark Corl, Triveni Digital
- 2019 – Adam Goldberg, AGP/Sony
- 2020 – Jae-Young Lee, ETRI
- 2021 – Alan Stein, InterDigital
- 2022 – Youngkwon Lim, Samsung Electronics
- 2023 – Glenn Reitmeier, NBC Universal/Sarnoff Labs
- 2024 – Ali Dernaika, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- 2025 – Aldo Cugnini, AGC Systems
- 2026 – Julia Kenyon, Consumer Technology Association
