#Virtual Production Tech Developers Among Engineering Emmy Recipients

The developers of eight technologies used in television will receive Emmys during The Television Academy’s 75th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards, which is slated to be presented Oct. 18 in its typical timeframe. Amid the writers and actors strikes, last week the TV Academy announced that the Primetime Emmys would move to Jan. 15, and the Creative Arts Emmy presentations, to Jan 6 and 7.

During the Oct. 18 ceremony the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to TV tech pioneer Birney Dayton, was one of the founders as well as CEO and CTO of broadcast tech firm NVISION, which he ran for 20 years; and the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award will be bestowed on the National Association of Broadcasters trade group.

During the ceremony, Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards will be presented to Chris Deighton, Richard Mead, Adrian Jeakins and Evangelos Apostolopoulos for the Brompton Technology Tessera SX40 LED video processor that has been an enabler of the use of LED screens for virtual production; and Steve Rosenbluth, Thomas E. Burgess, Konstantin Smola and Glen Winchester for the Concept Overdrive motion system, another tool for virtual production and augmented reality.

Emmys will be awarded to Raymond Drewry and Jim Helman for the Entertainment Identifier Registry, aimed at standardizing content identification and developed through studio joint venture MovieLabs; and the International Telecommunications Union’s radiocommunications study group 6, for the standardization of high dynamic range television.

Honorees also include David Eubank for the pCAM Pro mobile software app with cinematography tools; Thomas Riedel, Jake Dodson, Wolfgang Fritz and Jiou-Pahn Lee for the Riedel Bolero wireless intercom; Jeffrey Gray, Russell Hocken, Barrett Phillips, Greg Smokler for the SmallHD monitor platform; and Meir Shashoua, Yaniv Alon and Shai Fishman for the Waves Clarity Vx Pro noise-reduction plugin.

Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Dayton is credited with building the first fiber-optic transmission system for over-the-air television, used for the opening ceremonies of the 1980 Olympics. In the late ’80s, he chaired the systems analysis working party of the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service, which tested and selected technologies to establish the digital television distribution standard that continues to operate throughout North America. He also helped develop the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers analog and digital component video standards; co-chaired the SMPTE HD electronic production working group; and was awarded SMPTE’s highest honor, the Progress Medal.