The 73rd Engineering Emmy Awards Include Awards for Reed Hastings, Dolby

Television Academy
(Image credit: Television Academy)

LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy has announced the 73rd Engineering Emmy Awards, with awards going to Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Dolby Labs and eight others. 

The awards will be given out on Thursday, Oct. 21, at the JW Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles, at L.A. LIVE.

"Engineers, scientists and technologists are a vital part of our industry and are key to the continuing evolution of television," said Frank Scherma, chairman and CEO of the Television Academy. "These extraordinary pioneers and groundbreaking companies we are honoring have advanced the medium and elevate storytelling to a worldwide audience."

"It has been a challenging year for the television production community; but despite the pandemic, production has come back and with it a host of new technologies that are being used to help the storytelling process," said Committee Chair John Leverence. "This year a wide range of technologies are being recognized. They run the gamut from high-end, computer-generated special effects to lighting enhancements; audio tools; script-note technology; and systems that help maintain distancing protocols."

The list of awards includes: 

  • The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Reed Hastings. This award honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.
  • The Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award will be given to Dolby Laboratories. This award honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have substantially impacted television technology and engineering.

This year, eight Engineering Emmys were awarded. They are presented to an individual, company or organization for engineering developments that considerably improve existing methods or innovations that materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television. The eight awards are: 

  • Recipient: Arnold Global Illumination Rendering System - Marcos Fajardo, Alan King, Thiago Ize. Arnold is a photo-realistic, stochastic, ray-tracing renderer widely used by visual effects and animation studios around the world. 
  • Recipient: ARRI SkyPanel - ARRI. The ARRI SkyPanel is a family of ultra-bright LED soft lights. 
  • Recipient: CEDAR Studio - CEDAR Audio Ltd. CEDAR Studio was developed specifically to meet the needs of audio professionals in the field of film and television post-production. Originally comprising four processes, it has grown to provide a wide range of tools for cleaning and restoring audio. 
  • Recipient: Golaem Crowd - Golaem. Golaem Crowd helps artists to populate television shows, films and game cinematics in minutes by procedurally animating thousands of characters with advanced behaviors in real-time and with complete artistic control. 
  • Recipient: Massive - Stephen Regelous. Massive is a pioneering software package that first gave artists the ability to simulate crowds using an artificial intelligence-based approach. 
  • Recipient: Scriptation - Steve Vitolo, Felipe A. Mendez P., Franco Zuccar. Scriptation automates the tedious process of transferring handwritten notes, annotations and verbal comments to a script and redistributing to all departments. 
  • Recipient: Teradek Bolt 4K - Nicolaas Verheem, Marius van der Watt, Dennis Scheftner, Zvi Reznic. Teradek Bolt 4K is a zero-delay, wireless video transmission system for on-set monitoring, offering high-quality wireless video integrated into the workflow.
  • Recipient: V-Ray - Chaos. Chaos' V-Ray is a physically based rendering and adaptive ray tracing solution used to create photo-realistic visual effects in episodic production since 2003. 

More on the awards and award winners can be found here

The 73rd Engineering Emmy Awards are overseen by Committee Chair John Leverence and committee members Wendy Aylsworth; Stuart Bass, ACE; Bob Bronow, CAS; Jeff Calderon; Jim DeFilippis; Greg Gewickey; David Ginsberg; Frank Morrone, CAS; David Plakos; Jeffrey Riedmiller; Michael Ruscio; Leon Silverman; Derek Spears; David Stump, ASC; Craig Weiss; and Barry Zegel.

George Winslow

George Winslow is the senior content producer for TV Tech. He has written about the television, media and technology industries for nearly 30 years for such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TV Tech. Over the years, he has edited a number of magazines, including Multichannel News International and World Screen, and moderated panels at such major industry events as NAB and MIP TV. He has published two books and dozens of encyclopedia articles on such subjects as the media, New York City history and economics.