Seven companies and organizations will receive an Engineering and Technology Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for technology that describes how to convert content produced in the 16:9 HD format to fit into legacy analog 4:3 screens.
The technology award winners, involved with developing what’s now known as the Active Format Description (AFD), will be celebrated at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
The winners are: the Advanced Television Systems Committee, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Digital TV Group, Digital Video Broadcasting, NBC Universal, Ericsson, Miranda Technologies and the Consumer Electronics Association.
AFD technologies and systems were created in anticipation of the need for cable operators to provide analog narrow screen TV services in parallel with the wide screen HDTV digital service in the United States.
NATAS is recognizing AFD developers for their “pioneering development and implementation of the Active Format Description (AFD) technology within many of their products, as well as their evangelizing efforts to drive the industry toward an end-to-end system for AFD, thus enabling tens of millions of U.S. households with legacy analog TVs to see the images intended by the program producer.”
Last week, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers announced it — along with SMPTE — is a recipient of a Technical Emmy for developing local ad-insertion standards for cable.
Other Technical Emmy Awards and recipients include Samma for a system for Automated Migration of Media Assets; and Mitsubishi’s Diamond Vision Systems, Prof. Shuji Nakamura of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Nichia for the Pioneering Development of Large-Venue, Large-Screen Direct View Color Video Displays.
For Development of Integrated, Deployable Systems for Live Reporting from Remote Environments, Technical Emmys go to David Bloom, NBC and MTN Satellite Communications. For Standardization of Loudness Metering for Use in Broadcast Audio: ITU-R Study Group 6, the awards go to Dolby Laboratories, Communications Research Centre, Dr. Gilbert Soulodre and Craig Todd.
Finally, for Development of Professional Tapeless Portable Acquisition Systems Using Affordable Media, the Emmy goes to Sony Professional Solutions of America. For the Pioneering Development of Removable Solid State Media for Video Camera/Recorders (Camcorders), the Emmy goes to Panasonic.
