The Television Academy and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the recipients of their Emmy Awards given to individuals, companies or organizations for their developments in television engineering, science and technology.

The awards ceremony will be held Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the Television Academy's Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, California.

This joint Engineering, Science and Technology recognition follows the announcement that the two organizations are currently exploring reunification. Previously, the organizations combined these ceremonies for the 2014 awards season.

The combined awards include:

• Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Barry B. Zegel (recipient)
• Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award: Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. (recipient)

Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Award recipients include:

• Adobe for the development of Adobe Premiere
• Avid Technology for the development of Avid DNx
• Benjamin Graf of Accentize for the development of Chameleon
• James Robinson of Hitomi for the development of MatchBox Glass
• Roland Hathaway, Darcey Crownshaw, Frank Balzer and Dean Hathaway of Snow Business USA for the development of Snowbase
• Starlink Services LLC, a subsidiary of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., for the development of Starlink
• Curt O. Schaller and Dr. Roman Foltyn for the development of the Trinity 2 Hybrid Camera Stabilizer System
• SipRadius, NBCU, Grass Valley, CBS Sports, Disney, Game Creek, Amazon and Vindral, for web-based, frame-accurate remote monitoring systems for distributed broadcast production
• OBS, Proton, Wave Central and Above Media, for FPV drone camera systems for live sports broadcast coverage
• ATSC, the Broadcast Standards Association, for standardization of ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV for digital broadcasting
• Advanced Media Workflow Association, Sony Corp., BBC and Streampunk Media Ltd, for development of AMWA NMOS discovery, registration and connection
• Telecast Fiber Systems, Bluebell Opticom Ltd and MultiDyne Electronics for SMPTE hybrid cable format converter and power injector, and
• Disney Research, Rising Sun Pictures, Digital Domain and Metaphysic (Brahma AI), for AI-based face replacement and performance-preserving post-production transformation

"Television has always been shaped by those who dare to imagine what's possible and then create the technology to make it a reality," said Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy. "The recipients of our Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards represent the extraordinary ingenuity and innovation that continues to propel our industry forward, and we are proud to recognize them."

"These organizations have given creators greater freedom, helped teams solve complex challenges and enriched the experience of viewing audiences everywhere," said Wendy Aylsworth and Paul Debevec, co-chairs of the Television Academy's Engineering, Science & Technology Committee.

"We congratulate and celebrate these great minds and great organizations who continue to advance our ever-evolving medium," said Terry O'Reilly, chair of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. "The most meaningful technological innovations don't simply improve television, they redefine what it can be."

"This year's crop of winners are at the intersection of necessity and ingenuity, and we are thrilled to be able to team up with the Television Academy's committee for this exceptional night," said NATAS Technology & Engineering Chair Joe Inzerillo.

The following is a more detailed list of awards and recipients chosen for recognition by the Television Academy:

• Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award. Honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. This year, the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is bestowed upon Barry B. Zegel in recognition of his decades of sustained leadership that helped define and improve the technical infrastructure, standards and operations that are the foundation of modern television production. His career demonstrates the rare combination of engineering expertise, executive leadership, industry governance and mentorship that define the qualities of lifetime achievement honorees. Zegel's professional career was spent at CBS, culminating as senior vice president and general manager of CBS Television City — one of the world's most influential and state-of-the-art television production facilities. Throughout that career, Barry championed the adoption of emerging technologies that improved how television is produced rather than simply maintaining existing systems, helped guide the industry through the high-definition television transition, and served as rapporteur for the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland. He played key engineering and operational roles for the CBS Network coverage of three Winter Olympic Games, including serving as director of Olympic operations for the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, earning him two Emmy Awards. Recognizing that technologists lacked adequate representation within the Academy, Zegel was the prime driver in founding the Television Academy's Science & Technology Peer Group, creating a permanent home for engineers and technologists within the organization. This organizational legacy will continue benefiting future generations of industry professionals.
• Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award. Honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have significantly impacted television technology and engineering. This year's recipient is Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment Inc. For more than 80 years, Chapman/Leonard has been a leading and pioneering custom camera support equipment manufacturer and supplier for television and motion picture productions, accredited with fundamentally expanding the creative possibilities of camera movement in production. The company's original Hercules Mobile Crane offered crab steering, an electric battery drive and first-of-its-kind hydraulic self-leveling. The Lenny Arm became an industry standard for its modular design, wide payload and high reach. Their Hustler and PeeWee dolly series provided responsive boom hydraulics, maneuverability, and versatility on and off track. Their work in sports broadcasting led to the development of its Olympian series of sideline vehicles utilized in the Olympics and NFL. Chapman/Leonard continues to push boundaries with new inventions big and small, like the Hydroscope Telescoping Crane, which can be submerged underwater, and its smallest dolly, which utilizes a 4-stage nitrogen pneumatic column. Founded in 1945 when Ralph Chapman created Chapman Studio Equipment to design and manufacture a more versatile camera crane, Chapman later merged the business with his son Leonard's company in 1965 to form Chapman/Leonard. Still a family-run business, Charles Leonard, Ralph's great grandson, is currently president and CEO.

Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards are presented to an individual, company or organization for developments in engineering, science and technology so extensive an improvement on existing methods or so innovative that they materially affect the production, recording, transmission or reception of television and have elevated the storytelling process. Information about these Emmy Awards are as follows:

• Recipient: Adobe Inc. for the development of Adobe Premiere. Premiere is a professional non-linear editing system for assembling, shaping and finishing television content. Editors, assistant editors, story producers and post-production teams across all forms of television production worldwide use it daily. With over two decades of continuous development, it has repeatedly delivered capabilities that the professional editing industry subsequently adopted as standard practice. Its format-agnostic architecture makes mixed cameras, codecs, frame rates, and aspect ratios editable together in a single timeline, removing transcoding and conform operations as preconditions of creative work. Adobe continued to innovate Premiere by including machine-learning and generative AI functionality as part of native timeline operations rather than having to use external utilities. These intuitive features provide clear, transparent identification of AI-generated work throughout the production process. Often first to market with features, the impact of Premiere is cumulative and measurable. Work that once required specialist hands, dedicated bays, or a return to set now happens inside the edit room in tandem with creative decisions. Premiere has materially changed the speed, cost, and location-dependence of television post-production, putting professional-grade tools within reach for productions of every budget. For more information, please visit Adobe.com.
• Recipient: Avid Technology for the development of Avid DNx. Avid DNx is a production mezzanine codec family designed to carry creative intent intact from acquisition through post-production and delivery. Its low-complexity intraframe compression and constant-bit-rate design give editors frame-accurate random access and predictable real-time playback on multi-stream layered timelines so creative teams can stay focused on a show's narrative and performance rather than renders and format friction. The same media conforms from lightweight, HDR-capable proxies to high-quality finishing without translation loss, using a single broadcast-ready master format in editing, color, VFX interchange, playout and archive. These properties, combined with support for all the professional color spaces and operating systems and being standardized by SMPTE, have made DNx a foundation of television production worldwide. For more information, please visit Avid.com.
• Recipient: Benjamin Graf of Accentize for the development of Chameleon. Chameleon is an audio plug-in that analyzes location or studio-captured sound recordings and duplicates their reverberation characteristics. It uses a neural network to create custom reverb programs that mimic the reverberation tails and early reflections of the measured audio. This allows the user to apply these custom reverberation profiles onto other recordings. Prior to Chameleon's development, impulse responses had to be captured on set and loaded into a reverberation plugin, or manually finding similar preset reverb programs and manually adjusting their controls to create an acoustic match. Chameleon lets the user simply drag an audio file onto the plugin, or audition existing audio assets inside of the workstation, to create a reverb program and profile in a matter of seconds. The plug-in can also create surround reverb programs from mono or stereo inputs. This workflow allows audio professionals to quickly match reverberant audio captured at different locations, times and spaces. This also facilitates more seamless integration of ADR post-production dialog into the final sound mix. The quality, ease of use and speed of Chameleon lets audio professionals spend more time focusing on other creative aspects when mixing. For more information, please visit Accentize.com.
• Recipient: James Robinson of Hitomi for the development of MatchBox Glass. MatchBox Glass transforms a standard mobile iPhone into a precision lip sync and latency measurement instrument, deployable instantly at the point of capture, replacing traditional manual test methods and dedicated hardware generators. It enables accurate end-to-end measurement of audio/video synchronization across live, remote, and cloud-based television production environments. MatchBox Glass generates a calibrated visual and audio reference directly in front of the camera and microphone, allowing true "from the glass" measurements. This eliminates the need for dedicated hardware, signal insertion, or controlled baseband access; historical approaches that are increasingly impractical in modern distributed production workflows. The result is a reliable product used ubiquitously in the live broadcast industry to ensure accurate synchronization at the audio/video capture source. For more information, please visit Hitomi.tv.
• Recipients: Roland Hathaway, Darcey Crownshaw, Frank Balzer and Dean Hathaway of Snow Business USA for the development of Snowbase. Snowbase is a biodegradable, eco-friendly, artificial snow made from pure wood pulp cellulose. It is completely free of peroxide bleaches and chemical fire retardants, designed for both indoor and outdoor use at any temperature, and safe to apply on living flora and fauna. The immediate nature of Snowbase's application reduces both production time and cost. When airflow is applied to it, Snowbase lays, drifts, and settles exactly like real snow. When passed through a high-pressure, low-volume water mist, it instantly adheres to any surface, including vertical and inverted ones. It also retains water to mimic the slightly opaque look of real snow slush. Given that Snowbase is not an ice-based formula, it can remain applied for multiple hours and days without need for reapplication. Moreover, it can be modified by adding water, dirt, and other materials to represent the aging of snow. Snowbase cleans up just as efficiently as it applies: it can be easily cleared with standard air blowers or water hoses, keeping strike times short and costs low. For more information, please visit SnowBusinessHollywood.com.
• Recipient: Starlink Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, for the development of Starlink. Starlink is a constellation of low-orbit satellites that enables high-speed, low-latency broadband almost anywhere on Earth. It has transformed the creation and the consumption of television, removing the connectivity constraints that long dictated where programming could be made and who could receive it. Orbiting at an altitude of roughly 550 kilometers rather than the 35,786 kilometers of geostationary satellites, it reduces round-trip latency from over 600 milliseconds to approximately 25 milliseconds, unlocking live contribution, remote collaboration and real-time review from locations that previously supported none. Its mobile, turnkey units allow productions to transmit live feeds and move footage to post facilities from virtually any location. Starlink has significantly extended the production and contribution capabilities of the television industry, allowing creation of stories from locations not previously accessible. For more information, please visit Starlink.com.
• Recipients: Curt O. Schaller and Dr. Roman Foltyn for the development of the Trinity 2 Hybrid Camera Stabilizer System.
• The Trinity 2 hybrid camera stabilizer system offers unparalleled camera movement. The concept, design, and technical implementation enable users to operate the system effortlessly to produce innovative, highly creative, complex camera trajectories. Its versatility includes low to high transitions, 360-degree rotation, consistent stability and horizon, use of interfaces for cooperative control and the provision of metadata and modular setups for every situation. It can overcome weather or dynamic environment influences that previously hindered similar shots. It gives camera operators, cinematographers, and directors freedom for storytelling that previously required use of several different pieces of equipment over multiple shots. Now creatives can smoothly combine setups into one fluid movement, up or down stairs, through crowds and in tight spaces for long continuous takes. The Trinity 2 has become a mainstay for most major award shows, live concert films, high-end reality competitions, narrative action scenes, and major sporting events. For more information, please visit Arri.com.

For NATAS, the more detailed list of innovations recognized by the 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards are:

• Web-Based Frame-Accurate Remote Monitoring Systems for Distributed Broadcast Production. Recipients: SipRadius, NBCU, Grass Valley, CBS Sports, Disney, Game Creek, Amazon, & Vindral. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the live television industry rapidly developed new technologies to enable high-quality, real-time production from remote locations. These innovations evolved through early 2024 and are now standard across major broadcasters, cable networks and streaming platforms, fundamentally transforming the live production landscape. The recipient organizations independently created and implemented these groundbreaking technologies during this pivotal period.
• FPV Drone Camera Systems for Live Sports Broadcast Coverage. Recipients: OBS, Proton, Wave Central and Above Media. First-person view (FPV) drone camera systems represent a significant advancement in live sports production. The technology combines high-speed aircraft, miniature broadcast cameras, low-latency RF transmission and specialized stabilization systems to deliver immersive, athlete-following coverage previously unattainable with conventional camera platforms. The 2026 Winter Olympics demonstrated the technology's maturity and broad application across multiple sports.
• Standardization of ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV for Digital Broadcasting. Recipients: ATSC, the Broadcast Standards Association. ATSC 3.0 standardization represents a significant advancement in television broadcasting, establishing the industry's first fully IP-based broadcast standard to reach commercial scale. Through a multi-year, consensus-based engineering, drafting and balloting process led by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the standard has enabled new capabilities including UHD, HDR, immersive audio and interactive services. ATSC 3.0 is now commercially deployed across the United States and internationally, reaching millions of households and driving significant changes across the broadcast equipment, consumer electronics and regulatory landscape.
• Development of AMWA NMOS Discovery, Registration and Connection. Recipients: Advanced Media Workflow Association, Sony Corporation, British Broadcasting Corporation, Streampunk Media, LTD. SMPTE ST 2110, together with AMWA NMOS IS-04 and IS-05, established an open, standardized framework for transporting, discovering and connecting video and audio over IP networks. Supported by industry-wide testing initiatives, automated test suites and open-source implementations, these technologies accelerated the adoption of IP-based workflows across the television industry. Today, NMOS and SMPTE ST 2110 are widely adopted and have been used in thousands of television productions worldwide, fundamentally advancing the way broadcast media is transported and connected.
• SMPTE Hybrid Cable Format Converter and Power Injector. Recipients: Telecast Fiber Systems, Bluebell Opticomm Ltd, Multidyne Electronics Inc. SMPTE camera chains are fundamental to broadcast production, connecting cameras and base units through standardized hybrid cabling. Format converters extend these camera systems over existing single-mode fiber infrastructure for distances of multiple kilometers while maintaining video, data and power connections. The technology enables greater flexibility in venue and mobile production environments while significantly reducing cable weight and improving operational efficiency, with substantial savings possible when replacing long runs of traditional SMPTE camera cable.
• AI-Based Face Replacement and Performance-Preserving Post-Production Transformation. Recipients: Disney Research, Rising Sun Pictures, Digital Domain, Metaphysic (Brahma AI). AI-based facial transformation technology enables a performer's appearance to be digitally adjusted while preserving natural expression, movement, lighting and scene realism. These systems maintain continuity throughout a sequence and adapt to changes in pose, lighting, occlusion and performance. Applications include visual effects, de-aging, stunt work, identity protection and real-time production environments. Technologies developed by companies such as Metaphysic and Disney Research have been used in major film and television productions to digitally de-age actors and enhance on-screen performances.

Also honored at the upcoming October ceremony will be the technology "Pioneers":

• Practical Transduction developed by Theodore Willard Case, Georges Claude and
• First Demonstration of Recognizable Television by John Logie Baird.

NATAS also announces the nominees in the competitive category, "Excellence in Production Technology — Application." Now in its third year, this category recognizes not the technology itself, but the innovative use of applied science and engineering products to produce television in new and unique ways. The winner will be announced on October 14, in conjunction with the show. This year's nominees are:

• Good Morning America - ABC News - The Walt Disney Company
• ABC News |The Walt Disney Company
• Prime Vision NFL's Thursday Night Football (TNF)
• SportsMEDIA Technology (SMT)
• Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
• Disney+

NEW YORK—The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the “Excellence in Production Technology” Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leighton, co-founder of Akamai, received Lifetime Achievement Honors at the 76th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards held on Dec. 4th at the Prince George Ballroom in New York.

During the ceremony, hosted by David Pogue, Dr. Leighton’s Lifetime Achievement Honors reflected a career where he patented more than 50 developments surrounding content delivery, internet protocols, algorithms for networks, cryptography and digital rights management, and he created the largest distributed computing platform, which today delivers and secures tens of millions of requests per second to billions of users around the world.

Prior to the ceremony, Adam Sharp, president & CEO, of NATAS shared: “It is a privilege to celebrate the individuals and companies who continue to redefine how technology can deliver communications to consumers around the world. I applaud Dr. Leighton’s many years of development and leadership, plus the countless technological achievements he has realized as co-founder and now CEO of Akamai.”

Joe Inzerillo, Chair of the NATAS Technology & Engineering Committee said: “As the technological landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the pioneering work that has come from this year’s class of honorees is astounding. Congratulations to all this year’s Technology & Engineering Emmys winners.”

“Every time you stream content to your viewers, every time you shop online or check your bank balance, or hold a virtual meeting with colleagues at work, chances are very good that you’re using Akamai or the technology that Akamai employees pioneered,” added Dr. Leighton. “Our goal today is the same as it was in the beginning - to power and protect life online by making the internet fast, reliable, and secure today, for billions of people a trillion times a day.”

NASA+ won the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy for its “2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA”. This was a live broadcast and streaming event for the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, featuring expert commentary, multiple telescope feeds (including a dedicated one for the corona), and coverage from across North America, offering science, stunning visuals, and citizen science opportunities like Eclipse Soundscapes, allowing everyone to experience this rare cosmic event even if not in the path of totality.

Other 2025 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards Honorees at the Dec. 4 ceremony included:

• Pioneering Standardization of VOD Asset Metadata Distribution Specifications: CableLabs
• 360 Degree Consumer Video Capture, Editing and Presentation Technologies: GoPro; Insta360; Google; Adobe; Apple; ByteDance
• Specification for AV1: Alliance for Open Media
• SMPTE ST 2067 — Standardization of Interoperable Master Format (IMF): SMPTE/IMF USER GROUP; Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA); Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI); University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center (USC-ETC)
• Pioneering Mastering HDR Display: Dolby Labs
• AI Image/Video Enhancement for High Quality TV Catalog Restoration: MTI Films; Topaz Labs
• Standardization of Common Media Application Format (CMAF): MPEG Systems (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 3)

Also celebrated at the December 4th ceremony are the following Technology Pioneers:

• For the pioneering concepts of the light valve: Michael Faraday and John Kerr
• For the pioneering development of the photocell: Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, Julius Johann, Phillipp Ludwig Elster, and Hans Friedrich Karl Geitel
• For the pioneering development of optical-input facsimile transmission, Carlo Mario Perosino, Édouard Belin, and Arthur Korn

For more information, please visit the website at http://www.theemmys.tv/

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES—The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the inaugural “Excellence in Production Technology” Emmy Award to “The Santa Clauses Season 2” during the 75th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards at the Prince George Ballroom in New York on Oct. 9.

During the ceremony, hosted by David Pogue, Emmy award-winning science correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, Vizio founder and CEO William Wang also received Lifetime Achievement honors for his contributions to the television manufacturing industry by bringing premium-quality, innovative TVs, and soundbars into millions of U.S. homes at affordable prices.

“We’re delighted to honor the individuals and companies dedicated to delivering high-quality content and innovative new technologies for consumers,” NATAS President and CEO Adam Sharp said. “Mr. Wang’s Lifetime Achievement Award comes after a long career of reshaping what’s possible and making advanced technology accessible, speaking to his powerful leadership and founding of Vizio.”

“I am deeply honored to receive this prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award,” Wang said in a statement. “My life has been dedicated to bringing great technology to consumers in America. This recognition is also a testament to the incredible team at Vizio—it is our lifetime achievement. Together, we’ve challenged the status quo and have created new possibilities for the future of television. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and excited for the journey ahead as we continue to push the boundaries of technology and entertainment.”

Accepting the “Excellence in Production Technology” award, Rachel Rose, R&D supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic, said: “The team at Industrial Light & Magic are incredibly honored to be recognized by [NATAS] with an Emmy Award for our innovative StageCraft technology and the advancements made for ‘The Santa Clauses, Season Two.’ This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our exceptional team of technologists, artists, and production crew.”

ILM contributed successfully to the first season with StageCraft LED work. For Season 2, ILM StageCraft was used once again with ILM also contributing post visual effects. Visual effects work on the project was overseen by Trevor Hazel, with a seamless partnership between ILM’s San Francisco office and SDFX. Together, the team ultimately delivered 333 shots of Christmas cheer for the series.

In addition, the 2024 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards were given out at the event. Honorees included the following:

Pioneering Development of Inexpensive Video Technology for Animation:

• Lyon Lamb (Bruce Lyon and John Lamb)

Large Scale Deployment of Smart TV Operating Systems

• Samsung
• LG
• Sony
• Vizio
• Panasonic

Creation and Implementation of HDR Static LUT, Single-Stream Live Production

• BBC
• NBC

Pioneering Technologies Enabling High Performance Communications Over Cable TV Systems

• Broadcom
• General Instrument (CommScope)
• LANcity (CommScope)
• 3COM (HP)

Pioneering Development of Manifest-Based Playout for FAST

• Amagi
• Pluto TV
• Turner

Targeted Ad Messages Delivered Across Paused Media

• DirecTV

Pioneering Development of IP Address Geolocation Technologies To Protect Content Rights

• MLB
• Quova

Development of Stream Switching Technology between Satellite Broadcast and Internet to Improve Signal Reliability

• DirecTV

Design and Deployment of Efficient Hardware Video Accelerators for Cloud

• Netint
• AMD
• Google
• Meta

Spectrum Auction Design

• FCC
• Auctionomics

TV Pioneers—Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT)

• Boris Lvovich Rosing
• Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton

TV Pioneers—Development of Lighting, Ventilation & Lens-Coating Technologies

• Hertha Ayrton
• Katharine Burr Blodgett

NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES—The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has unveiled the recipients of the 2024 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and announced that the ceremony honoring the recipients will take place at the NAB New York media and technology convention in New York, October 2024, at the Javits Center.

“The Technology & Engineering Emmy Award was the first Emmy Award issued in 1949 and it laid the groundwork for all the other Emmys to come,” said Adam Sharp, CEO & president, NATAS. “We are extremely happy about honoring these prestigious individuals and companies, together with NAB, where the intersection of innovation, technology and excitement in the future of television can be found.”

“As we commemorate 75 years of this prestigious award, this year’s winners join a legacy of visionaries who use technology to shape the future of television. Congratulations to all!” said Dina Weisberger, co-chair, NATAS Technology Achievement Committee.

“As we honor the diamond class of the technology Emmys, this class typifies the caliber of innovation we have been able to enjoy for the last 75 years.  Congratulations to all the winners.” added Joe Inzerillo, co-chair, NATAS Technology Achievement Committee.  

NATAS said that the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards are awarded to a living individual, a company, or a scientific or technical organization for developments and/or standardization involved in engineering technologies that either represent so extensive an improvement on existing methods or are so innovative in nature that they materially have affected television.

2024 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award honorees include: 

• Pioneering Development of Inexpensive Video Technology for Animation. Winners: Lyon Lamb (Bruce Lyon and John Lamb). 
• Large Scale Deployment of Smart TV Operating Systems. Winners: Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, Panasonic. 
• Creation and Implementation of HDR Static LUT, Single-Stream Live Production. Winners: BBC and NBC.
• Pioneering Technologies Enabling High Performance Communications Over Cable TV Systems. Winners: Broadcom, General Instrument (CommScope), LANcity (CommScope), 3COM (HP). 
• Pioneering Development of Manifest-based Playout for FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming Television). Winners: Amagi, Pluto TV, Turner.
• Targeted Ad Messages Delivered Across Paused Media. Winner: DirecTV
• Pioneering Development of IP Address Geolocation Technologies to Protect Content Rights. Winners: MLB, Quova. 
• Development of Stream Switching Technology between Satellite Broadcast and Internet to Improve Signal Reliability. Winner: DirecTV
• Design and Deployment of Efficient Hardware Video Accelerators for Cloud. Winners: Netint, AMD, Google, Meta.
• Spectrum Auction Design. Winners: FCC and Auctionomics.
• TV Pioneers – Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT). Winners: Karl Ferdinand Braun, Boris Lvovich Rosing, Alan Archibald Campbell Swinton. 
• TV Pioneers – Development of lighting, ventilation, and lens-coating technologies. Winners: Hertha Ayrton, Katharine Burr Blodgett.

NEW YORK—The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) announced the winners of the 43rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards. which were livestreamed Tuesday night at Watch.TheEmmys.TV as well as Emmy apps for iOS, tvOS, Android, FireTV, and Roku (full list at apps.theemmys.tv/).

The ceremony marked the first time since 2019 that the annual event was held in person and was filled a star-studded group of sports television personalities as presenters such as Cristina Alexander, On-Air Talent (ESPN/ESPN Deportes), Nate Burleson, Host and Analyst (CBS/Nickelodeon), Andrés Cantor, Commentator (Telemundo), Dominique Dawes, Executive Producer and Olympian (NBC), Lauren Gardner, Studio Host (MLB Network), Bomani Jones, Studio Host (HBO), Adriana Monsalve, Host (Univision/TUDN), Tom Rinaldi, Reporter (FOX), Taylor Rooks, Studio Host (Turner Sports), Holly Rowe, Reporter (ESPN), Mike Tirico, Studio Host (NBC), Tracy Wolfson, On-Air Talent (CBS) plus other luminaries from the sports world.

Trailblazing sports journalist Lesley Visser was honored with the prestigious Sports Lifetime Achievement. Visser, who is enshrined in six different halls of fame, is the most highly acclaimed female sportscaster of all time. She is the only sportscaster, male or female, to have worked on the network broadcasts of the Final Four, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the Olympics, the World Series, the Triple Crown, the World Figure Skating Championship and the US Open Tennis Championship.

In addition, after helping launch the Coca-Cola HBCU Sports Production Grant last year, ESPN Sports Anchor Elle Duncan returned to help Henry Hendrix, Coca-Cola’s Senior Vice President of Multicultural Marketing, announce the winner of the $40,000 grant—Delaware State University’s “Once a Hornet. Always a Hornet… The Past, Present and Future of Delaware State University Football.” Gwenna Gentla, class of ‘23 accepted on behalf of the student production team which also included Nia Pope, Isaiah Williams, Chelsea Abrams, Michelle Crockett, Carlos Vasquez and advisors Dr. Renee’ Marine and Zachary Kimball.

The other finalists for this year’s grant were “Florida A&M Defeats Bethune Cookman in Florida Classic Micro-Movie,” Florida A&M; “Emergence,” Hampton University; “Aggies Roll,” North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University; and “HBCU Legacy: The Ingred Wicker-McCree Story,” North Carolina Central University.

Winners were announced in 47 categories including Outstanding Live Sports Special, Live Sports Series and Playoff Coverage, four Documentary categories, Esports Championship Coverage, Outstanding Play-by-Play Announcer, Studio Host, and Outstanding Personality/Emerging Talent among others.

The list of the winners is available here. 

ESPN won 11 Sports Emmy Awards last night, which it said were the most of any network group.

The ceremony is available on-demand at Watch.TheEmmys.TV sponsored by Vimeo.

NEW YORK—The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has announced the recipients of the 73rd  Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards. The ceremony will take place April 25 at the Wynn Encore Ballroom in Las Vegas during the NAB Show (April 23-27).

“The Technology & Engineering Emmy Award was the first Emmy Award issued in 1949 and it laid the groundwork for all the other Emmys to come,” said Adam Sharp, CEO & president, NATAS. “We are extremely happy about honoring these prestigious companies, again in partnership with NAB, where the intersection of innovation, technology and excitement in the future of television can be found.”

The Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards are awarded to a living individual, a company, or a scientific or technical organization for developments and/or standardization involved in engineering technologies that either represent so extensive an improvement on existing methods or are so innovative in nature that they materially have affected television.

The 73rd Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards honored: 

• Shadow TV for “Video & Audio Search based on Index Feeds coming from Multiple Sources.”
• Go Pro and Socinext for “In Camera Sensor and Software Stabilization.”
• Marvin H. White and Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Group for “Correlated Double Sampling for Image Sensors.”
• Peter J. W. Noble for “Pioneering Development of an Image-Sensor Array with Buried-Photodiode Structure.”
• MPEG and W3C – WebFonts Working Group for “Standardization of Font Technology for Custom Downloadable Fonts and Typography for Web and TV Devices.”
• Apple, MLB Advanced Media, Microsoft and Netflix for “Common Key Technology of OTT Content.”
• Cable Labs, OATC and SCTE for “Development of the Event Scheduling and Notification Interface (ESNI).”
• Arvato Systems Group, EditShare and Primestream (Ross) for “Cloud Enabled Remote Editing and Project Management.”
• Bell South, Cablevision, DirecTV and NCM Solutions for “Pioneering Development of Technologies to collect granular linear TV Viewership Data including STBs, ACR, Connected TV’s for Measurement, Marketing & Advertising.”
• Apple, MLB Advanced Media, MPEG and 3GPP for “Standardization of HTTP Encapsulated Protocols.”
• Haivision and Vitec for “Management of IP Multicast Video Distribution to Desktops and TVs in News & Media Production Facilities.”

In addition Maurice Leblanc and Paul Nipkow were named 2021 Television Technology Pioneers. This honor recognizes historical individuals whose work has materially affected television but has not been recognized by a NATAS Technology & Engineering Emmy Award. 

Maurice Leblanc has been inducted as a Television Pioneer for the first suggestions of color TV and the use of the cathode-ray tube.  For the first patent for a complex television system, Paul Nipkow has also joined this celebrated group.

After studying electrical engineering and working on railway projects, Leblanc established his own company. On 1880 November 2, he submitted a paper, “Study of the electrical transmission of luminous impressions,” to the French journal La Lumière électrique (Electric Light). In it, he outlined the principles of television and was probably the first to suggest color images (based on a beam-splitting prism) and the first to suggest the use of a cathode-ray tube (CRT) in the display. He also suggested vibrating mirrors for camera scanning and a variable-aperture modulator. Many of his suggestions were used in later television systems.

While still a student, Nipkow conceived a complete television system and was the first to patent it. His use of a selenium photocell was common by that time, but his use of a light valve based on Nicol prisms and the Faraday magnetooptical effect was new. His main creation, however, was a spinning disk with a spiral of perforations for scanning, an idea adopted widely (with modifications) by many other inventors and arguably formed the basis (40 years later) of the first television system able to reproduce a recognizable human face.

NEW YORK—The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 42nd Annual Sports Emmy Awards, with ESPN and Fox leading all networks in total nominations.

“In a year where sports production literally ground to a halt, we received a record number of submissions. From innovative solutions to the constraints of production during the pandemic to the superb storytelling that confronted the social justice issues of our times, we are so proud of what our nominees were able to achieve,” said Justine Gubar, executive director, Sports Emmy Awards.

NATAS announced nominations in 46 categories. ESPN received a total of 54 nominations across its different networks and website. Fox was the second most-nominated network with 31.

The single most-nominated program of the last year was CBS’ production of Super Bowl LV, which garnered 11 nominations. Other high profile sporting events that received nominations include Nickelodeon’s NFC Wild Game production and NBC/Olympic Channel/NBCSN’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games coverage, which netted two nominations for its promotional campaigns despite being postponed.

Here is a breakdown of some of the nominations:

Outstanding Live Sports Special

• 2020 NBA All-Star Game on TNT, TNT
• The 116th World Series, Fox
• The 146th Kentucky Derby, NBC  
• The Match on TNT, TNT 
• Super Bowl LV, CBS 

Outstanding Digital Innovation

• The Last Ascent, RBTV 
• NBA on TNT’s AT&T Holovision, TNT 
• NFL Media virtual production, NFL Media Group 
• SportsNation Football Visualization Platform, ESPN/ESPN+/ESPN.com/Twitter 
• Super Bowl LV “As One: The Lombardi Comeback,” CBS 

Outstanding Digital Innovation 

• College Football Playoff National Championship, ESPN 
• Fox NASCAR, Fox/FS1 
• The Masters, CBS 
• NBA Bubble, ESPN/TNT/NBA 
• Super Bowl LV, CBS 

Outstanding Technical Team Studio 

• 2020 NFL Draft, ESPN/ABC/NFL Network 
• College GameDay, ESPN 
• Fox NASCAR, Fox/FS1 
• MLB Tonight, MLB Network 
• The Super Bowl Today, CBS 

The George Wensel Technical Achievement Award 

• Fox NASCAR, The Racing Drone, Fox/FS1 
• Fox NFL, Megalodon, Fox 
• MLB Network Showcase, Statcast 3D, MLB Network 
• MLB Postseason on TBS, Base Cam, TBS 
• Notre Dame Football, NBC HDR LUTs, NBC 

All nominees can be found online.

The 42nd Annual Sports Emmy Awards will take place virtually on June 8, streamed live on Watch.TheEmmys.TV.

NEW YORK—Nearly 80 broadcasters, universities, companies and standards organizations will be recognized as recipients of the 72nd Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Award during a ceremony Oct. 10 to be held in partnership with NAB during the 2021 NAB Show, Oct. 9-13, in Las Vegas, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced.

“The Technology & Engineering Emmy Award was the first Emmy Award issued in 1949, and it laid the groundwork for all the other Emmys to come,” said NATAS CEO & President Adam Sharp. “We are extremely happy about honoring these prestigious companies, again in partnership with NAB, where the intersection of innovation, technology and excitement in the future of television can be found.”

The award is presented to living individuals, a company or scientific or technical organization for development and/or standardization involved in engineering technologies that either represent an extensive improvement on existing methods or are so innovative in nature that they materially have affected television, NATAS said.

The winners include:

System to Measure Video Performances and Demographics across multiple platforms

• Nielsen

Pioneering Development and Deployment of Server-Side Ad Manipulation and/or Playout for Adaptive Bitrate Video Distribution

• mDialog, Anvato (Google)
• NBCU
• This Technology (Comcast)
• Seawell (Commscope)
• Time Warner Cable (Charter)

Development of Open Perceptual Metrics for Video Encoding Optimization

• Beamr 
• Netflix 
• University of Southern California 
• Université de Nantes 
• University of Texas at Austin 
• SSIMWAVE 
• Disney 
• Google 
• Brightcove 
• ATEME 

Development of the Event Signaling and Management API Standard

• CableLabs 
• Comcast 
• TimeWarner Cable (Charter) 
• SCTE 

Pioneering Deployment of the Event Signaling and Management API 

• TimeWarner Cable (Charter) 
• Arris (CommScope) 
• Cisco 
• Envivio (MediaKind) 
• Harmonic 
• RGB 
• This Technology (Comcast) 

Pioneering Development of LED Lighting for Television Production

• Litepanels LTD (Vitec Production Solutions)

Cross-MVPD Dynamic Ad Insertion for Cable Network Video on Demand Content 

• Canoe Ventures 

AI/Optimization for Real-Time Video Compression

• Harmonic
• MediaKind 
• ATEME 
• Amazon Web Services 

Invention and Pioneering Development of Intra-Pixel Charge Transfer CMOS Image Sensors 

• Eric Fossum
• ON Semiconductor 
• Eastman Kodak 

Standardization of SMPTE ST 2110 

• SMPTE 
• Video Services Forum (VSF) 

Common Encryption

• European Broadcasting Union 
• DVB 

Content Delivery Networks 

• Akamai Technologies 

Standardization and Commercialization of Television—Broadcast, Hybrid Electrical and FiberOptic Camera Cable and Connectors

• SMPTE 
• The Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) 
• European Broadcasting Union  
• LEMO 
• Belden 
• NEMAL 

OLED Reference Monitors for Creative, Technical, Quality Control and Client Viewing 

• LG Electronics 
• Sony Electronics  

Dynamic Metadata for Optimal HDR and WCG Color Volume Mapping 

• Dolby Laboratories

Advanced Authoring Format 

• AAF Association (AMWA) 
• Avid Technology 
• BBC Research & Development 
• European Broadcasting Union 

Pioneering Secure Cloud-Based VFX Project Management and Collaboration at Scale 

• Nelvana (Corus Entertainment) 
• Shotgun Software (Autodesk) 

Development and Pioneering Deployment of Synchronized Local DMA Advertising Capability for DBS/MVPDs 

• Ampersand 
• Comcast 
• Charter 
• Cox 
• AT&T 
• Dish 
• Invidi 

Standardization of the ISO Base Media File Format 

• File Format Subgroup under ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG 3 

On-Air Touch Screen for Data Visualization 

• CBS 
• CNN

Development of Massive Processing Optimized Compression Technologies 

• Amazon 
• ATEME 
• Bitmovin 
• Brightcove 
• Disney 
• Encoding.com 
• Facebook 
• Google-YouTube 
• Netflix 

Newsroom Computer System (NRCS) Used to Plan and Automate the Production of Linear Live-To-Air or Live-to-Recording News Program 

• Associated Press 
• Avid

More information is available on the NATAS website. 

NEW YORK—The winners of the 71st annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards were announced Wednesday, Jan. 15, recognizing innovation and achievement in areas ranging from imaging sensor development to pioneering work on a public cloud-based media supply chain.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) will honor this year’s recipients in partnership with the National Association of Broadcasters during the 2020 NAB Show at the Wynn Encore Hotel and Spa on April 19.

“The Technology & Engineering Emmy Award was the first Emmy Award issued in 1949, and it laid the groundwork for all the other Emmys to come,” said Adam Sharp, president and CEO of NATAS. “We are especially excited to be honoring Yvette Kanouff with our Lifetime Achievement Award in Technology & Engineering.”

Describing Kanouff as one of the “talented and innovative leaders” who has made “the incredible world of television possible,” Robert Seidel, chairman of the NATAS Technology & Engineering Achievement Committee, pointed out that she spearheaded “transformational technologies,” such as video on-demand, cloud DVR, digital and on-demand ads, streaming security and privacy. “The National academy is happy to be honoring her with our Lifetime Achievement Award in Technology,” he said

Winners of the 2020 Technical/Engineering Achievement Awards include:

• Adobe for a pioneering system for live performance-based animation using facial recognition;
• Apple, Google, LG, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera and Samsung for HTML5 development and deployment of a full TV experience on any device;
• AWS, Discovery, Evertz, Fox NE&O (Walt Disney Television) and SDVI for pioneering public cloud-based linear media supply chains;
• Sling TV, Sony PlayStation Vue and Zattoo for pioneering development of large scale, cloud-served, broadcast-quality linear channel transmission to consumers;
• Dell (Isilon), IBM, Masstech and Quantum for early development of HSM systems that create a pivotal improvement in broadcast workflows;
• Cable Labs for pioneering development and deployment of hybrid fiber coax network architecture;
• Bell Labs and Michael Tompsett for pioneering development of the CCD image sensor;
• AVI West, Dejero, LiveU and TVU Networks for VoCIP (video over bonded cellular internet);
• Canon and Flovel for ultra-high sensitivity HDTV camera; and
• ACL NetworX, Audinate, Audio Engineering Society, Keven Gross, QCS, Telos Alliance and Wheatstone for development of synchronized multichannel uncompressed audio transport over IP networks.

The Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards honor a living individual, a company or a scientific or technical organization for developments and/or standardization involved in engineering technologies that either represent so extensive an improvement on existing methods or are so innovative in nature that they materially have affected television.

More information is available on the NATAS website.

NEW YORK—Now in its 64th year, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is embracing the digital realities of its industry and has created a new logo and branding reflecting that.

“The Emmy Awards are stronger than ever, with new distribution platforms driving record-breaking entry levels in each of our competitions,” said Adam Sharp, NATAS president and CEO. “The new NATAS branding captures the long history of the iconic Emmy Award, now right at home in the digital age.”

The new identity package will be implemented across each of NATAS’ competitions, programs and properties, as well as the academy’s 19 regional chapters. It includes variations to accommodate a myriad of platforms, screen sizes and products.

NATAS also announced that it is working with Switzerland-based Frontify as its brand management platform, which will provide a cloud-based platform for maintaining up-to-date style guides, shared media libraries and in-depth collaboration for stakeholders across brand, design, marketing and front-end developers.

NEW YORK—The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) has announced the recipients of the 70th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for their work in 11 separate areas.

“We award the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award to these outstanding companies and individuals who are the ‘tool makers’ of the industry that have materially affected the television viewing experience,” said Robert Seidel, chairman of the NATAS Technology & Engineering Committee.

• NBCUniversal Company owned stations, Accelerated Media Technologies Inc. and Enterprise Electronic Corp. will be honored for pioneering development of mobile X-band radar trucks for television weather.

• Sounds in Sync, Syncho Arts and the Cargo Cult will be recognized for automated sound conformation.

• Unity Technologies and Epic Games Inc. will be present with the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for 3D engine software for the production of animation.

• Massive, Golaem, Basefount and Sidefx will be honored for their cost effective crowd simulation tools.

• Packetstorm will be recognized for its pioneering development of a packet impairment test generator for SMPTE ST 2022.

• NBC and Conus Communications (Hubbard Broadcasting) will receive an Emmy Award for development of a Ku-band satellite-based communication system for early satellite newsgathering.

• NASCAR Productions, PSSI Global Services and Big Ten Network will be honored for large-scale “at-home” production of live sports. NBC Sports will be recognized for large-scale distributed production for live sports.

• W3C, Microsoft, Comcast, Netflix and Google will receive an Emmy Award for standardization of HTML5, Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) and Media Source Extensions (MSE) for a full TV experience.

• Fujitsu, Qvidium, Net Insight, VideoFlow, DVEO, Artel, Haivision, Cobalt, Zixi, AVI West, Streambox and Dejero will be honored for pioneering a reliable transmission method for live contribution and distribution TV links.

• Peter Dillon, Al Brault, Hitachi, NEC, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba will be recognized for pioneering development of the single-chip color camera.

The recipients will be honored in Sunday, April 7, 2019, in Las Vegas during the 2019 NAB Show at the Wynn Encore Hotel.

More information is available on the NATAS website.

WASHINGTON – Broadcast trade organizations joined forces to launch the “Alison & Adam Memorial Fund” to support families of the victims of the Roanoke TV shooting.

The National Association of Broadcasters, the Radio Television Digital News Association and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that they will contribute to and accept donations from broadcasters on behalf of Alison Parker and Adam Ward. Commitments of $40,000 have already been offered by broadcaster interests, according to NAB.

Parker and Ward were tragically killed by a former employee in a Wednesday shooting on WDBJ-TV, Roanoke, a CBS affiliate owned by Schurz Communications.

A portion of the contributions will be distributed to family members of Parker and Ward by the NAB. An additional contribution will go to Vicki Gardner, executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce, who was injured in the incident.

Any remaining funds will be directed to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based organization dedicated to press freedom and protecting the rights of reporters to work without fear of reprisal. NAB previously donated $10,000 to CPJ following the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American journalists abducted and murdered while covering the Syrian Civil War.

“Our hearts are heavy with grief over this horrifying act of violence against two individuals with a zest for life and a love of broadcasting,” said NAB President Gordon Smith. “We encourage our member companies to join with NAB in supporting the families of these two young journalists, who were taken way too soon.”

“This unspeakable tragedy has shocked every member of the journalism community,” said Mike Cavender, executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association. “We hope donations provided through this fund demonstrate a small measure of our support for the families of Alison Parker and Adam Ward.”

“This senseless and tragic loss has touched a cord throughout the television industry,” said Bob Mauro, president of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “Our hearts and prayers are with Alison’s and Adam’s families. We encourage our members to support this effort and hope these donations help them in their time of need.”

Contributions to the Alison & Adam Memorial Fund can be made by sending checks made out to:

NAB Alison and Adam Memorial Fund
C/O NAB
1771 N Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036

NAB is also developing an easy online method of contributing to the Alison & Adam Memorial Fund which will be available on NAB’s Website in the very near future.