SMPTE Announces 2014 Honorees and Award Winners
Annual SMPTE Honors & Awards Ceremony Highlights Vision, Ingenuity, Perseverance, and Dedication to Motion Picture and Television Industries
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Aug. 26, 2014 - 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, today revealed the outstanding industry members who will be recognized Thursday, Oct. 23, at the SMPTE 2014 Honors & Awards Ceremony.
The SMPTE 2014 Honors & Awards Ceremony, supported by IMAX, is being held in conjunction with the SMPTE 2014 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Those registering for SMPTE 2014 may elect to purchase awards ceremony tickets with their conference package. A limited number of tables are also available for purchase. Further details about the event are available at www.smpte2014.org.
Honorary Membership in the Society recognizes individuals who have performed eminent service in the advancement of engineering in motion pictures, television, or in the allied arts and sciences. It is the Society's highest accolade. This year, SMPTE honors three technologists for their innovations, which have left a lasting impression on the industry.
George Lucas is best known as a writer, director, and producer responsible for iconic American films, but Lucas is also a pioneer in the adoption of new technologies for motion picture production and exhibition. Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in 1975, and it has gone on to produce visual effects (VFX) for nearly 300 films. Among many other innovations, ILM invented the OpenEXR file format in 2000 to support high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. The animation studio Pixar was founded as the Graphix Group of Lucasfilm in 1979. In 1981, Lucas co-founded the sound company THX to advance the quality of theatrical sound systems. In 2002, Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones was the first major Hollywood feature to be captured digitally, on 24p high-definition (HD) video cameras. In his determination to push the medium of cinema with new technologies and techniques, Lucas encountered both support and skepticism. It is now clear that his perseverance and vision were key factors in the eventual widespread adoption of digital cinematography in motion picture production. Photo Credit - Bloomberg via Getty Images
Leonardo Chiariglione is generally considered to be the driving force behind the development of the MPEG set of standards that underpin today's many digital moving pictures applications. Chiariglione's constant push for a simple, standardized moving pictures toolbox began in 1988 with the founding of the International Standards Organization (ISO) Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) group, and it continues to the present day. Chiariglione has forcefully maintained focus on timely standardization, technical simplicity, and efficiency. The wide adoption of MPEG-2 to MPEG-4, in particular, is apt testimony to the contribution Chiariglione and the MPEG group has made to date.
The Honor Roll posthumously recognizes individuals who were not awarded Honorary Membership during their lifetimes but whose contributions would have been sufficient to warrant such an honor.
John Logie Baird (1888-1946) is inducted into the SMPTE Honor Roll in recognition of his lifelong contributions as a pioneer in television technology. His accomplishments include the first live television demonstration (in 1925), the first publicly shown color television system (1928), and the first fully electronic color television picture tube. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) began transmitting with the Baird system in 1929. Baird continued to develop new technology including a mechanical color system in 1939 (adopted by CBS/RCA); a 500-line 3-D system in 1941; and an electronic 600-line color display in 1944. Baird lobbied for post-war standardization of his 1,000-line electronic color television system. Photo Credit - The LIFE Picture Collection, Getty Images
The Progress Medal is the highest SMPTE medal award, and it recognizes outstanding technical contributions to the progress of engineering phases of the motion picture, television, or motion imaging industries. Ioan Allen has earned the 2014 Progress Medal Award in recognition of his many contributions to the motion picture and television industry, specifically his innovations in sound research and development programs at Dolby Laboratories, including Dolby Stereo , Dolby Spectral Recording (SR), and Dolby Digital, as well as his ongoing contributions to worldwide standards organizations.
The Archival Technology Medal recognizes significant technical advancements or contributions related to the invention or development of technology, techniques, workflows, or infrastructure for the long-term storage, archive, or preservation of media content essence. The 2014 award will be presented to Neil Beagrie in recognition of his long-term contributions to the research and implementation of strategies and solutions for digital preservation. Beagrie played a key role in the development of a collaborative approach to the study and dissemination of knowledge relating to research data management, digital preservation, digital curation, and data archive. He was responsible for establishing the Digital Preservation Coalition, with more than 35 major members from industry, national libraries, broadcasters, and archives. In addition, he was responsible for establishing the digital preservation program within the Joint Information Systems Committee. This program helped to create the Digital Curation Center, which seeks to actively manage, preserve, and curate digital data throughout the research life cycle.
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SMPTE Announces 2014 Honorees and Award Winners 
