DSC Laboratories, developer of innovative products designed to optimize picture quality, is delighted to announce that its president, David F.E. Corley will be awarded the prestigious Camera Origination and Imaging Medal from SMPTE®, (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers), the organization whose standards work has supported a century of advances in entertainment technology.
Corley will be honored for his five decades of continuous innovation and calibration tools for image acquisition, display, and color correction. The SMPTE 2017 Awards Gala will take place on Thursday, Oct. 26 in Hollywood, California, during the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition (SMPTE 2017).
The SMPTE Camera Origination and Imaging Medal recognizes significant technical achievements related to inventions or advances in imaging technology, including sensors, imaging processing electronics, and the overall embodiment and application of image capture devices.
The lack of tight telecine workflows in the 1960s led Corley to design TA2, the industry’s first camera color test chart. Subsequent generations of this innovation are widely used today in content production for film, broadcast, as well as emerging media-centric markets such as law enforcement, security and medical imaging.
“At the time, we were producing 35mm television commercials. Unhappy with the way our films looked on television, I made an appointment with the CBC to find out why," said Corley, reflecting on the journey that led to the first DSC test pattern.
Working with the CBC Engineering team in Montreal, the problem was identified, and CBC suggested that Corley produce a grayscale test pattern on color film that would optimize color quality during the transfer of film in a telecine film chain.
“We needed to produce a test pattern with tolerances that were 10-times tighter than any industry standards at the time. To achieve this, we had to re-engineer commercial cameras, printers, processors, and densitometers,” said Corley. “After two years of work, we produced the first practical test patterns that met EBU and SMPTE-C colorimetry standards. Looking back on it now, this was a groundbreaking achievement.”
The specialized equipment designed by Corley has made landmark advances in the audio-video industry, and his innovations continued with the advent of digital imaging. Pioneering DSC test charts, such as the rear illuminated Ambi/Combi® and front-lit CamAlign® test charts, have proven to be critical developments for capturing optimum image quality for HDTV as well as digital cinema.
Complete details about the SMPTE 2017 Awards Gala and tickets are available at www.smpte2017.org/awards-gala.html. More information about DSC Labs is available at www.dsclabs.com.
About SMPTE®
Since its founding in 1916, SMPTE has been setting image quality standards in motion pictures and television. The society has won multiple Emmy® awards and an Oscar® for its work in advancing moving-image engineering 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 SMPTE’s notable work. As it enters 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’s global membership includes more than 7,000 members: motion-imaging executives, creatives, technologists, researchers, and students who volunteer their time and expertise to SMPTE’s standards development and educational initiatives. A partnership with the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) connects SMPTE and its membership with the businesses and individuals who support the creation and finishing of media content. Information on joining SMPTE is available at www.smpte.org/join.
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About David F.E. Corley
Educated at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford and Kings in Canterbury U.K., David F.E. Corley’s formal schooling was interrupted by mononucleosis, and he was sent to work on a farm for two years to build up his health. In his spare time, Corley performed with a marionette troupe. While still in his teens, this trainee farmer and part-time puppeteer immigrated with his parents and brother to Toronto.
Circumstances led Corley into film and television production where he and his wife Susan established DSC Laboratories in 1962. Always concerned with image quality, Corley’s work resulted in many ground-breaking inventions including seamless panorama technology. He called these soft edge masks “Fuzzies®”. These small film masks enabled the multiple 35mm projector AV craze of the 1980s. Numerous other patents followed including dichroic additive printing, vibrationless electronic shutter, ambient light illuminator, optical signal generators, camera reference device, storable test patterns, security camera image correction, color image reference for monitors and projection images, apparatus for optimizing high color gamut images, microscope calibration apparatus with other patents pending.
Corley's latest patent is an entirely different method of image control, designed to provide precision image control visually. While the ChromaMatch® can use traditional electronic tools, the new system uses four simple components to provide total control from image acquisition through image display, editing, projection, and printing in across many different media from movies through broadcast, still photography, and even mobile device imaging.
Active in IEEE and SMPTE engineering committees, Corley is the only Canadian honored with a Fuji Gold Medal from SMPTE. In 2011, he received a Special Gemini Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television for Outstanding Technical Achievement. A Life Fellow of SMPTE, Corley has served as a Canadian Regional Governor and two terms as a SMPTE Education Director.
About DSC Labs
David and Susan Corley founded DSC Labs in the basement of their home in 1962 before moving into the custom, 15,000 square foot DSC Labs building in 1989. Originally award-winning film producers, DSC has evolved to become a world leader in image control – DSC’s flagship ChromaDuMonde® is often referred to as “the Hollywood standard.” DSC test charts are trusted by the industry and are in widespread use on every continent, even controlling image quality in space exploration and to the depths of the world's deepest oceans.
