NATAS Announces Recipients of 71st Tech & Engineering Emmys

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.

Phil Kurz

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.