Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards

A Primetime Emmy Engineering Award is an award given most years by the Television Academy, also known as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It is a Primetime Emmy Award given specifically for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development. According to the Television Academy, the Primetime Emmy Engineering Award (or Engineering Emmy) is presented to an individual, company or organization for engineering developments so significant an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television. The award, which is Television's highest engineering honor, is determined by a jury of highly qualified, experienced engineers in the Television industry.

The Primetime Emmy Awards have been given since 1948 to recognize outstanding achievements in Primetime Television for Performance, for the Creative Arts and for Engineering. The Primetime Emmy Engineering Award is not the same as the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award, which is given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Television Academy's sister organization. NATAS gives Emmy Awards in various categories including "Daytime," "Sports," "News and Documentary," and "Public Service."

In addition to the Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards, since 2003 the Television Academy also bestows in most years the Philo T. Farnsworth Award, which is a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award given to honor companies and organizations that have significantly affected the state of television and broadcast engineering over a long period of time, and the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, which has been given in most years since 1991 to one or more individuals whose contributions over time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

The Primetime Engineering Emmys have been given annually since 1978 (the year that ATAS and the NATAS agreed to split ties), although Special Emmys for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development were occasionally bestowed in prior years. The awards which have been given include the Engineering Emmys, which are accorded the Emmy Statuette, and two other levels of recognition, the Engineering Plaque, and the Engineering Citation.

1978

Engineering Emmy Award: Petro Vlahos for the ULTIMATTE Video-Matting Device

Engineering Citation: To the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)

1979

Engineering Emmy Award: Ampex Corporation for the Automatic Scan Tracking System for Helical Video Tape Equipment

Engineering Citation: Magicam, Inc. for the Development of Real Time Tracking of Independent Scenes

1980

Engineering Emmy Award: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Public Broadcasting Serice (PBS), and American Broadcasting Company (ABC) for Closed Captioning for the Deaf System

Engineering Emmy Citation: David Bargan for the '409' and 'TRACE' Computer Programs used for Off-line Videotape Editing

Engineering Emmy Citation: Vital Industries for its Pioneering Development of Digital Video Manipulation Technology

Engineering Emmy Citation: Convergence Corporation for the ECS-100 Video Tape Editing Systems

1981

Engineering Emmy Award: Rank Cintel for the Mark III Flying Spot Telecine

1982

Engineering Emmy Award: Hal Collins for Contributions to the Art and Development of Videotape Editing (posthumous)

Engineering Emmy Award: Dubner Computer Systems, Inc., and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) for the Dubner CBG-2 Electronic Character and Background Generator

Engineering Citation: Chapman Studio Equipment for the Development of Crane Systems

1983

Engineering Emmy Award: Eastman Kodak for the Development of High Speed Color Film 5294/7294 Color Negative Film

Engineering Citation: Ikegami Electronics for the Development of the EC-35 (a camera used for electronic cinematography)

Engineering Citation: Ampex Corporation ADO for Digital Effects Displaying Capabilities with Improved Picture Quality

1984

Engineering Emmy Award: None given

Engineering Citation: Corporate Communications Consultants Inc. for the 60XL Color Correction by Armand Belmares Sarabia

1985

Engineering Emmy Award: Auricle Control Systems (ACS) for the Auricle Time Processor

1986

Engineering Emmy Award: Nagra, Inc., for the Nagra Recorder

Engineering Emmy Award: CBS, Sony and Cinedco for Design and Implementation of Electronic Editing Systems for Film Programs

1987

Engineering Emmy Award: Spectra Image, Inc. for D220 Dual Headed Video Disc Player

1988

Engineering Emmy Award: Optical Disc Corporation for the Recordable Laser Videodisc System

Engineering Emmy Award: Sony Inc. for the DVR-1000 Component Digital VTR

1989

Engineering Emmy Award: Pacific Video Inc. for the Electronic Laboratory

Engineering Emmy Award: Cinema Products Corporation for the Steadicam

Engineering Plaque: Composite Image Systems for the Pin Registered Transfer Process

Engineering Plaque: Istec, Inc. for the WESCAM Camera Mount

Engineering Plaque: Matthews Studio Electronics for the Nettman Cam-Remote

Engineering Plaque: Offbeat Systems for the Streamline Scoring System

Engineering Plaque: Steadi-Film Corporation for the Steadi-Film System

Engineering Plaque: UCLA Film and Television Archive for the restoration of the Fred Astaire Specials

1990

Engineering Emmy Award: Comark Communications, Inc. and Varian/Eimac for the Klystrode UHF High Power Amplifier Tube and Transmitter

Engineering Emmy Award: Zaxcom Video, Inc. for the TBC Control System

Engineering Plaque: Samuelson Alga Cinema for the Louma Camera Crane

Engineering Plaque: Alan Gordon Enterprises for Image 300 35mm High Speed Camera

1991

Engineering Emmy Award: Vari-Lite for the Series 200 Lighting System

Engineering Emmy Award: Camera Platforms International, Inc. for the D/ESAM Digital Mixer

Engineering Plaque: Manfred Klemme for the Dcode TS-1 Time Code Slate

Engineering Plaque: Lightmaker Company for the AC/DC HMI Ballast

Engineering Plaque: Mini Image Intensifier for ENG Cameras

Engineering Plaque: Grass Valley Group for the Kadenza Digital Picture Processor

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Harry Lubcke

1992

Engineering Emmy Award: Charlie Douglass for the Invention and Development of the Post Production Sweetener

Engineering Emmy Award: The Accom D-Bridge 122 Video Encoder

Engineering Plaque: Filmlook Inc. for the Filmlook Process for Film Simulation

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Kerns H. Powers

1993

Engineering Emmy Award: Avid Technology Inc., for the Media Composer

Engineering Emmy Award: Newtek Inc. for Video Toaster

Engineering Plaque: CBS Laboratories for Mini-Rapid Deployment Earth Terminal (RADET)

Engineering Plaque: Les Aseere for the scientific detective work that solved the mystery of type "C" video tape dropout and ventilated scanner debris.

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Richard S. O'Brien

1994

Engineering Emmy Award: Philips Var-Lite for the VL5 Wash Luminaire

Engineering Emmy Award: Kodak for the Keykode Edgeprint Film Numbering System

Engineering Plaque: Cinema Products, Research in Motion, Evertz Microsystems, and the National Film Board of Canada, four creative hardware developers whose reader, decoder and user technology enabled the widespread use of Keykode.

1995

Engineering Emmy Award: C-Cube Microsystems for the MPEG Encoding Chip Set

Engineering Emmy Award: Barber Technologies for the Barber Boom

Engineering Emmy Award: Tascam for the DA-88 Digital Multitrack Recorder

Engineering Emmy Award: Philips Laboratories for the Ghost Cancellation

Engineering Plaque: Saunders Electric Incorporated for the Synchronized Load Commander System and Mobile Power Distribution

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Julius Barnathan of ABC

1996

Engineering Emmy Award: LaserPacific Media Corporation for the Supercomputer Assembly

Engineering Emmy Award: General Instrument Corporation for the Digicipher Digital Television System

Engineering Emmy Award: Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. for the Powervu Digital Video Compression System

Engineering Emmy Award: Tektronix., Inc., for the Profile Professional Disk Recorder

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Joseph Flaherty

1997

Engineering Emmy Award: J.L. Fisher for the J.L. Fisher Camera Dolly

Engineering Emmy Award: Panasonic for the AJ-LT75 DVCPRO Laptop Editor

Engineering Emmy Award: Grand Alliance for the Digital TV Standard

Engineering Plaque: The BOOM TRAC Microphone Dolly System

Engineering Plaque: Alan Gordon Enterprises for the Mark V Director's Viewfinder

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Richard E. Wiley

1998

Engineering Emmy Award: Brian Critchley of Digital Projection International and Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments’ for the Digital Micromirror Device POWER Displays Projector

Engineering Emmy Award: Tiffen Filters for the Design and Manufacture of State-of-the-art Camera Lens Filters

Engineering Emmy Award: Philips Digital Video Systems and Eastman Kodak for the Design and Manufacture of the Industry-Standard High-definition Digital Telecine

Engineering Plaque: Avid for the Real-Time Multicamera System

Engineering Plaque: Tektronix for the Lightworks 'Heavyworks' Multistream Editing Systems

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Yves Faroudja

1999

Engineering Emmy Award: Sony, Inc. for the HDCAM HDW-500 Digital HD Studio VTR

Engineering Emmy Award: Optex Inc., for the Aurasoft Soft Light

Engineering Plaque: Videotek for the VTM-200 Series Multi-Format, On-Screen Monitoring

Engineering Plaque: Spectracine, Inc., for the Spectra Professional IV-A Digital Exposure Meter

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Charles A. Steinberg

2000

Engineering Emmy Award: The Dorrough Loudness Meter

Engineering Emmy Award: The Panavision Lightweight Camera

Engineering Emmy Award: Clairmont Camera for the MovieCam Superlight

Engineering Plaque: Lipsner-Smith Company and Consolidated Film Industries (CFI) for their joint development of the Model CF-8200 Ultrasonic Film Cleaning Machine

Engineering Plaque: TEAC America, Inc. for the MMR-8 and MMP-16 Recorders

Engineering Plaque: Soundmaster Group for the Integrated Operations Nucleus ION Operating Environment

Engineering Plaque: Cooke Optics, Inc., for Cooke Prime Lenses

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Charles Mesak

2001

Engineering Emmy Award: Vari*Lite, Inc. for the VARI*LITE Virtuoso Console

Engineering Emmy Award: Cast Lighting, Ltd. for WYSIWYG

Engineering Emmy Award: DaVinci Systems, Inc. for 2K Color Enhancement System

Engineering Emmy Award: Pandora International for Pogle Platinum with MegaDef

Engineering Emmy Award: Panavision, Inc. for the Primo Lens Series

Engineering Emmy Award: Apple for FireWire

Engineering Emmy Award: Clairmont Camera for Clairmont Camera Lenses

Engineering Plaque: Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment, Inc. for the LenCin Pedestal

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Gilbert P. Wyland

2002

Engineering Emmy Award: TM Systems for The Digital Solution to Language Translation, Dubbing and Subtitling

Engineering Emmy Award: Apple, Inc. for Final Cut Pro

Engineering Emmy Award: 2d3 Ltd. for the Boujou Automated Camera Tracker

Engineering Emmy Award: ARRI for Arriflex Cameras

Engineering Plaque: Barber Technologies for the EZ Prompter

Engineering Plaque: HBO Interactive Ventures for Band Of Brothers Interactive Television Programming

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Charles Cappleman

2003

Engineering Emmy Award: Dedo Weigert of Dedotec, USA Inc. for the Dedolight 400 Series Lighting System

Engineering Emmy Award: Emory Cohen, Randolph Blim and Doug Jaqua of Laser Pacific Media Corporation for the 24P HDTV Post-Production System

Engineering Emmy Award: David Pringle, Leonard Pincus, Ashot Nalbandyan, Thomas Kong and George Johnson of Lightning Strikes, Inc. for Softsun

Engineering Plaque: NewTek, Inc. for LightWave 3D

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Ray Dolby

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Panavision

2004

Engineering Emmy Award: Dolby Laboratories for the Dolby LM 100 Broadcast Loudness Meter With Dialogue Intelligence

Engineering Emmy Award: Sony Corporation and Panavision for the First 24P Digital Imaging System

Engineering Plaque: Philip John Greenstreet of Rosco Laboratories, Inc. for Roscolite Scenic Backdrops

Engineering Plaque: David Grober and Scott Lewallen of Motion Picture Marine for Perfect Horizon

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Les Paul

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Chyron Corporation

2005

Engineering Emmy Award: Dolby Laboratories for Dolby E Audio Coding Technology

Engineering Emmy Award: Sprint Corporation for Sprint PCS VisionSM Multimedia Services

Engineering Emmy Award: Toon Boom Animation Inc. for USAnimation Opus

Engineering Emmy Award: MobiTV, Inc. for MobiTV, the first mobile television network and technology platform to bring live broadcasts to mobile phones.

Engineering Plaque: Litepanels, Inc for Litepanels Mini LED Light

2006

Engineering Emmy Award: None

Engineering Plaque: Scott Walker, Mark Walker, Jeff Watts, Scott Noe, Richard Brooker of BOXX Communications, LLC for Vid-Wave Boxx Engineering Plaque: Harry Fagle for the Four-Channel Video Integrator (Quad-Split)

2007

Engineering Emmy Award: None

Engineering Plaque: TM Systems, LLC for the TM Systems QC Station

Engineering Plaque: Osram Sylvania Products, Inc., for Osram HMI Metal Halide Lamp Technology

Engineering Plaque: Digital Vision for DVNR Image Processing Hardware and DVO Image Processing Software

Engineering Plaque: Silicon Optix for the Teranex Video Computer

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Howard A. Anderson

2008

Engineering Emmy Award: Joint Video Team Standards Committee (JVT) for the development of the High Profile for H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC.

Engineering Emmy Award: Glenn Sanders and Howard Stark of Zaxcom, Inc. for the Deva Location Sound Recorder.

Engineering Plaque: Scott Leva for the Precision Stunt Air Bag

Engineering Plaque: Sebastian Cramer and Andreas Dasser of P+S Technik GmbH for the Skater Dolly Product Family

Engineering Plaque: Craige Bandy and Ed Bandy of Tricam Video Productions Company for the 360 Overhead Jib

Engineering Plaque: Georg Dole, Swen Gerards, Jan Huewel and Daniel Schaefer of Coolux Media Systems for Pandoras Box Real-Time Compositing Media Server

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Woo Paik

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Evertz Technologies Limited

2009

Engineering Emmy Award: Dolby Laboratories, Inc. for the Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer

Engineering Emmy Award: Fujinon Inc. and NHK for the Fujinon Precision Focus Assistance System

Engineering Emmy Award: Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio

Engineering Emmy Award: Litepanels, Inc.for Litepanels LED Lighting Products

Engineering Plaque: Herb Ault, Aaron Hammel and Bob Anderson of Grip Trix, Inc., for the Grip Trix Electric Motorized Camera Dolly

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the technological innovations that made possible the first live broadcast from the lunar surface by the crew of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969.

2010

Engineering Emmy Award: NEXUS Digital Audio Routing

Engineering Plaque: Apple, Inc. for Apple Final Cut Studio

Engineering Plaque: Avid., Inc., for Avid Media Access

Engineering Plaque: David Eubank for the pCAM Film + Digital Calculator

Engineering Plaque: Showtime Sports Interactive

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Ron Estes and Robert Seiden

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Awards: Desilu and Digidesign

2011

Engineering Emmy Award: IBM Corporation and Fox Group for the Development and Application of LTFS (Linear Tape File System)

Engineering Emmy Award: Panavision, Inc. and Sony, Inc. for Single Chip Digital Camera Technology used for Primetime Television Production.

Engineering Emmy Award: Ultimate Arm, for the Ultimate Gyrostabilized Remote Controlled Crane

Engineering Emmy Award: Apple, Inc for the iPad

Engineering Plaque: Yahoo! for Connected TV to Yahoo!

Engineering Certificate: The Xfinity iPad app

Engineering Certificate: Time Warner iPad app

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Andy Setos

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Awards: Time Warner and Time Warner Cable for the creation of the Full Service Network

2012

Engineering Emmy Award: Colorfront, Ltd. for Colorfront On-Set Dailies

Engineering Emmy Award: FilmLight, Ltd. for Truelight On-Set and Baselight TRANSFER

Engineering Emmy Award: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES)

Engineering Emmy Award: American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Technology Committee for the ASC Color Decision List (ASC CDL)

Engineering Emmy Award: Dolby Laboratories Inc. for the Dolby PRM-4200 Professional Reference Monitor

Engineering Emmy Award: Sony Electronics Inc. for the BVM E250 OLED Reference Monitor.

Engineering Emmy Award: Toon Boom Animation Inc. for the Toon Boom Storyboard Pro

Engineering Plaque: Adobe Systems for the Adobe Pass Viewer Authentication process

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Richard Green

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Eastman Kodak Company

2013

Engineering Emmy Award: YouTube

Engineering Emmy Award: Aspera Inc., for FASP Transport Technology

Engineering Emmy Award: Josh C. Kline of Digital Dailies Web Based Streaming Production Dailies and Cuts

Engineering Emmy Award: iZotope for RX Audio Repair Technology (iZotope)

Engineering Emmy Award: Lightcraft Technology for Previzion Virtual Studio System

Engineering Plaque: LAWO AG Audio networking and routing system for large scale television entertainment productions

Engineering Plaque: Final Draft Inc., Final Draft Screenwriting Software

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Chris Cookson

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Sennheiser Electronic Corporation

2014

Engineering Emmy Award: Philips Professional Broadcasting for the LDK6000, DPM CCD Multi-format HDTV Camera System

Engineering Emmy Award: Sony Professional Solutions of America for the Multi-format HDTV CCD Fiber Optic Camera System

Engineering Emmy Award: High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

Engineering Emmy Award: Intel Corp for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)

Engineering Emmy Award: Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) for its Recommended Practice on Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Laurence J. Thorpe

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)

2015

Engineering Emmy Award: Mark Franken for EdiCue

Engineering Emmy Award: Michael Sechrest, Chris King, and Greg Croft for SpeedTree

Engineering Emmy Award: Zhou Wang, Alan Bovik, Hamid Sheikh and Eero Simoncelli for the Structural Similarity (SSIM) Video Quality Measurement Model

Charles H. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Garrett Brown

Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Grass Valley USA, LLC

The 67th Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards Ceremony took place on October 28, 2015 at Loews Hollywood Hotel.

References