SMPTE Awards Fellow Status to 4 Exemplary Members

(08/09/2013) The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the worldwide leader in motion-imaging standards and education for the communications, media, entertainment, and technology industries, has awarded the Fellow grade of SMPTE membership to 14 industry leaders. Fellow status is conferred upon individuals who have, by proficiency and contributions, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives in the motion picture, television, or related industries.

New SMPTE Fellows will be inducted on Wednesday, Oct. 23, during the Fellows Luncheon, and further recognized on Thursday, Oct. 24, at the SMPTE Honors and Awards Ceremony. Both events are taking place in conjunction with the SMPTE 2013 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.

Paul R. Beck, president and chairman of Foxboro Cable Access Inc., has worked in the broadcasting community since 1965, holding various technical, operations, and management positions at The Boston Catholic Television Center Inc., WSBK-TV, and WHDH-TV, as well as at his alma mater, Emerson College. Beck has been a member of the New England Section of SMPTE since 1977 and, representing the IAVA and AVMA, has served as a technical liaison for PH-7 technical standards. He is a co-founder of the Museum of Broadcast Technology and a film/video archivist/producer for the New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association Inc.

Siegfried Foessel of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) is an expert in digital cinema and media technologies. He has led critical projects including the DCI Compliance Test Plan, and JPEG 2000 standardization for digital cinema, and continues to shape the industry through his leadership and participation on the ISO SC29/JPEG systems group, EDCF technical board, and FKTG standards body.

Paul Gardiner has been a central figure in regulatory oversight and licensing for commercial television in the United Kingdom, serving first with the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and its successors, Independent Television Commission (ITC) and Ofcom, where he focused on technical standards and information. Now with Sony, Gardiner has been involved with the AMWA-EBU FIMS project and is co-chair of the FIMS Technical Board; a U.K. delegate to ITU R Working Party 6C, with a particular interest in UHDTV; and co-chair of SMPTE TC-10E Essence.

Friedrich Gierlinger has been with the IRT, the research and development institute for public broadcasting corporations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, since 1979. He was involved in the development and standardization of measurement techniques for analog and digital television, and currently specializes in quality measurement/control and display technology. He chairs Germanys national system and measurement expert group; participates in other expert groups focusing on measurement, quality control, and UHD; and is a member of several SMPTE committees.

Douglas Greenfield of Dolby Laboratories Inc. has contributed to the development of professional film-dubbing equipment, miniature noise-reduction modules for C-format VTRs, and the Dolby SR single-channel and multitrack modules. The recipient of numerous awards related to motion-picture sound technology, Greenfield is active in digital cinema standSiegfried Foesselardization efforts (SMPTE TC-21DC) and serves as a member of AES, SMPTE, and AMPAS. He is responsible for Dolby programs in motion-picture postproduction and motion-picture exhibition, and special projects including 3D presentations.

George C. Hoover, chief technology officer at NEP, is known for his extensive experience, exacting standards, and unparalleled technical engineering and design expertise, all of which have influenced virtually all areas of sports and entertainment television over the past two decades. He has earned four Emmy Awards, and in 2011 was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Hoover is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the American Institute of Architects. Along with Jim Boston, he is the co-author of TV on Wheels: The Story of Remote Television Production, the second edition of which is being published in October 2013. Along with Boston he also co-authored the NAB Engineering Handbook section on remote television engineering.

R. Norman Hurst is a principal software engineer for the products and services division at SRI International, where he developed video test and measurement products including the Visualizer digital video test pattern (in use by all major networks), a 3D test pattern suite, and the TG-100 uncompressed video player with A/V test patterns. He holds 35 U.S. and many international patents, and earned a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for developing the MPEG Compliance Bitstreams DTV testing technique. He is involved with standards bodies including SMPTE, ATSC, MPEG, and ITU-R.

Chris Johns, chief engineer for broadcast strategy at BSkyB, has led the evolution of the Sky platform from the launch of its multichannel analog satellite offering in 1989 to its HD launch and delivery of 3D broadcasts to the home. In addition to sitting on many broadcast groups and societies, Johns chairs the U.K. section of SMPTE and is an Honorary Fellow of the BKSTS. His current focus is helping Sky to enhance the entertainment delivered across a multitude of platforms from a common core while maintaining or improving audio and visual quality on an array of devices.

Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, a partner at Sandflow Consulting LLC, works with Hollywood and Silicon Valley clients on worldwide standards, proof-of-concept development, and product architecture. His expertise covers the entertainment technology ecosystem, from content authoring to playback, including audio, video, and timed text; file formats; Internet protocols; digital cinema

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