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. 24, at the SMPTE 2013 Honors & Awards Ceremony.
The Progress Medal is the highest SMPTE medal award and recognizes outstanding technical contributions to the progress of engineering phases of the motion picture, television, or motion imaging industries. Keiichi Kubota has earned the 2013 Progress Medal Award in recognition of his 37-year career in television science and technology and his significant contributions in the areas of HDTV standardization activities for SMPTE, ATSC, and the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television. The award also recognizes his contribution to the rollout of NHK’s digital satellite broadcasting service and, most recently, the standardization of UHDTV in ITU-R and coverage of the 2012 London Olympics in Super Hi-Vision.
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 2013 award will be presented to Milton R. Shefter in recognition of his long-standing and continued leadership contributions to the motion picture and television industry in defining practices for the storage and archive of the industry’s film legacy and digital media content. Co-author and co-editor of “The Digital Dilemma,” which articulates the industry’s archival challenges in the digital era, Shefter is one of the industry’s earliest and most consistent expert voices on image and sound preservation. He is a SMPTE Fellow and a past president of the Association of Moving Image Archivists.
The David Sarnoff Medal recognizes outstanding contributions to the development of new techniques or equipment that have contributed to the improvement of the engineering phases of television technology, including large-venue presentations. Chuck Pagano will receive the 2013 award for his pioneering technology and innovation efforts with ESPN, including the creation of ESPN’s first Bristol-based Digital Center; the adoption of HD; the creation of ESPN’s infrastructure for its expanding online, mobile, and TV Everywhere efforts; the 2009 opening of the L.A. Production Center, which was the world’s first 1080p production center; groundbreaking experiments in virtual reality; pioneering 3D sports production advances; globe-spanning fiber networks; new research facilities that are now testing 4K technologies; and work on the new Digital Center 2, a 195,000-square-foot facility that will feature a number of other technical firsts when it goes live in 2014. Pagano is a true innovator who is always experimenting and looking towards the future in order to best serve sports fans — anytime and anywhere.
The Digital Processing Medal recognizes significant technical achievements related to the development of digital processing of content for cinema, television, games, or other related media. The 2013 award will be presented to R. Norman Hurst in recognition of his invention of methods for splicing MPEG-2 transport streams, the development of test bitstreams for evaluating video and audio compression equipment performance, and the development of electronic test patterns that enable evaluation of video encoding and processing systems through visual observation of the outputs they produce. The impact of these inventions has been felt in broadcasting, cable, and satellite distribution; in consumer electronics; and throughout production, postproduction, and networking — in each case advancing the state of the art of the industry.
The Kodak Educational Award honors an individual who adv
