
SMPTE Fellows Robert Ross and Richard Friedel Earn Lifetime Achievement Awards From NATAS
April 8 Awards Presentation in Las Vegas Will Recognize Ross and Friedel for Their Industry-Changing Innovation and Vision
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - April 4, 2018 - SMPTE , the organization whose standards work has supported a century of advances in entertainment technology and whose membership spans the globe, today announced that SMPTE Fellows Robert Ross, senior vice president for East Coast operations at CBS Engineering, and Richard Friedel, executive vice president at FOX Engineering, will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) at the 69th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards on April 8 in Las Vegas.
Robert Ross of CBS and Richard Friedel of FOX have had a hand in many of the innovations enabling todays advanced media formats and the availability of television anytime, anywhere, said Chuck Dages, chairman of NATAS. For their vision and their many significant achievements, the National Academy is pleased to honor them both with our Lifetime Achievement Award in Technology.
The Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards honor technology companies and individuals whose innovation and vision have materially affected the way the audience views television and have set the standard for technological excellence in the industry.
Bob and Richard have made exceptional contributions to SMPTEs standards development work and have led the way in bringing key technological advances into the realm of reality, said SMPTE President Matthew Goldman, senior vice president of technology, TV and media at Ericsson. Were proud to be closely associated with two esteemed leaders in the motion imaging field. We congratulate them both on this latest honor and look forward to celebrating with them at the 2018 NAB Show.
About Robert Ross
Ross has served as senior vice president for East Coast operations at CBS Broadcasting since October 1998, and he has led the engineering and technical teams and overseen a series of significant technological advances for the network. Ross was responsible for the conversion of the CBS broadcast center to HD; the rebuild and upgrade of the CBS Network Media Distribution Center; the rebuild of the networks satellite distribution system; the creation of the Path Fire and Pitch Blue systems for domestic and international distribution; the conversion from videotape to digital distribution for both domestic and international syndication; the restoration of the Ed Sullivan Theater for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert; and the design and build of key production areas for CBS Sports, the CBS Evening News, and CBS This Morning.
For 19 years, Ross worked at Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting Company) stations WBZ-TV, WJZ-TV, and KYW-TV, and he was vice president of engineering for Group W prior to the CBS/Westinghouse merger.
Ross holds an Advanced Amateur Radio License and has been a contributing author to a national magazine on consumer electronics. He has contributed to the standards process for the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and various SMPTE Engineering Committees. Ross is the past chair of the Toolkit working group of the Media Security and Reliability Council (MSRC), a Federal Communications Commission Advisory Committee, and the past president of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA). He is a SMPTE Fellow, a member in the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), and Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame inductee.
About Richard Friedel
Friedel oversees FOX Networks Engineering & Operations, the 21st Century Fox unit responsible for engineering, operations, and technology supporting FOXs national and regional television businesses. He is responsible for long-term technology strategy and day-to-day operations for the Fox Network Center in Los Angeles and the Fox Houston Technical Operations Center, home of Fox Sports regional networks, and he provides technical support for 14 regional production centers. He was also a member of the team that launched FOX News Channel. Before joining FOX, Friedel served in various positions at Capital Cities/ABC, NBC News, and local television stations.
A graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Friedel is a SMPTE Fellow. He also holds memberships in the Audio Engineering Society (AES), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), SBE, and Society of Cable Television Engineers (SCTE). Friedel serves as ATSC Board Chairman, president of the Video Services Forum (VSF), and president of NABA. He was honored in 2015 by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) with the NAB Engineering Achievement Award.
Further information about SMPTE is available at smpte.org.
# # #
About SMPTE
For more than a century, the people of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, or SMPTE (pronounced simp-tee), have sorted out the details of many significant advances in media and entertainment technology, from the introduction of talkies and color television to HD and UHD (4K, 8K) TV. Since its founding in 1916, SMPTE has received an Oscar and multiple Emmy Awards for its work in advancing moving-imagery engineering across the industry. SMPTE has developed thousands of standards, recommended practices, and engineering guidelines, more than 800 of which are currently in force today. SMPTE Time Code and the ubiquitous SMPTE Color Bars are just two examples of SMPTEs notable work. Now in its second century, SMPTE is shaping the next generation of standards and providing education for the industry to ensure interoperability as the industry evolves further into IT- and IP-based workflows.
SMPTE is a global professional association of technologists and creatives who drive the quality and evolution of motion imaging. Its membership today includes more than
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...
08/09/2026
Latest soft synth inspired by the Memorymoog
XILS Lab have just launched a software instrument that draws its inspiration from Moog's iconic Memorymoog,...
08/09/2026
The Airport Chaplain takes off as SBS's biggest launch of 2026
8 September, 2026
Media releases
1.67 million viewers on National Total TV to date
Best...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Mo-Sys, the world-leading developer of virtual production, camera robotics and image tracking technology, has completed a business restructuring, which has incl...
08/09/2026
New York, September 8, 2026 The TSAmediaHUB audiovisual contribution and distribution infrastructure developed by Telef nica's Audiovisual Services area re...
08/09/2026
Expanded Riyadh operation brings Asharq and Thmanyah services together on a resilient on-premises Pebble platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, content mana...
08/09/2026
Techex, a pioneering leader in live video workflows, will showcase its broadest software feature set to date at IBC 2026 (Stand 2.B45), extending its lead in so...
08/09/2026
Visitors to Grass Valley's booth at IBC2026 will be introduced to new Framelight X capabilities that connect content acquisition, management, editing and pu...
08/09/2026
BCNEXXT will showcase the latest evolution of Vipe at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B09), introducing a series of innovations designed to deliver higher-quality audience exp...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Ad Insertion Platform (AIP), a leading innovator in advanced ad insertion technologies, to...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics and augmented and virtual production, is announcing a major package of enhancements to its Suite 7 soft...
08/09/2026
Big Blue Marble is supporting TDF, French infrastructure and network operator, broadcasting Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and radio services, as a techno...
08/09/2026
Agents work inside a single production environment, from incoming wire copy to a live studio show...
08/09/2026
Building on their strategic partnership, Ceeblue and Layercake make the unthinkable possible: scalable sub-second streaming over standard DRM, SSAI, and CDN wor...
08/09/2026
Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time graphics, augmented and virtual production, is completing the environment for fast-paced broadcast production wi...
08/09/2026
A SaaS portfolio built to work together, helping operators grow audiences, monetise smarter and run leaner, on their own terms
At IBC 2026 (stand 1.B49) Synam...
08/09/2026
Accedo, global provider of video streaming software and services, has been selected by PlayOn Sports, a national leader in high school sports technology, to exp...
08/09/2026
LiveU, the leader in live IP-video solutions, is enabling The Associated Press to take global newsgathering to the next stage with intelligent connectivity and ...
08/09/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced the latest evolution of it...
08/09/2026
Compact, power-efficient X Platform performance brings broadcast-grade reliability and ultra-low latency to space-constrained remote production (REMI) workflows...
08/09/2026
Zixi, the leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Kiloview, a leading provider of professional IP video encoding and decoding solutions, t...
08/09/2026
Collaboration gives content owners scalable CDN capacity and broadcasters enhanced flexibility, including for C-band transition planning
Quortex today announce...
08/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Sky Go gets a major upgrade for Sky Glass and Sky Stream customers
Today, Sky launches a new version of the Sky Go app for Sky Glass ...
08/09/2026
Documentary thriller simulating a Russian attack on UK soil will culminate in a live final episode reuniting the playersTuesday 8 September 2026
Trailer releas...
08/09/2026
Tuesday 8 September 2026
Jamie Demetriou and Amelia Dimoldenberg to host next t...
08/09/2026
Wuppertal September 8, 2026
Riedel Introduces New OnAir Headset PlatformRiedel Communications today announced the launch of its new OnAir headset platform, a...
08/09/2026
BERLIN, September 8, 2026 - J nger Audio will introduce a major expansion of its flexAI audio processing platform at IBC 2026. The flexAI system adds autonomous...
08/09/2026
New Vendor-Agnostic Broadband Intelligence Fabric Reduces Operational Complexity and Improves Service Quality for Broadband Service Providers SAN JOSE, Calif. -...
08/09/2026
Arvato Systems Brings TI Expertise to the Stage
Panels, workshops, and real-world examples at the TI-SUMMIT 2026
Arvato Systems, a partner of the TI-SUMMIT 2...