Two colleagues based in the EBU Technology and Development Department accepted Emmy Awards in Las Vegas last week. The 63rd Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards were presented during a ceremony at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Thursday.
Dr Hans Hoffmann, senior manager at EBU TECHNICAL, accepted an award on behalf of SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). The award recognised the work done by SMPTE, along with SCTE (Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers), on digital cable standards for the insertion of advertising on local cable systems.
The award presented to Peter Siebert, DVB’s executive director, honoured the pioneering development of Active Format Description and Aspect Ratio Control technologies. These are signalling mechanisms that allow broadcasters to control, for example, how a 4:3 video will be displayed on a 16:9 TV screen. DVB was one of eight organisations jointly recognised with this Emmy, the others being ATSC, SMPTE, DTG - Digital TV Group, NBC Universal, Ericsson, Miranda Technologies and CEA.
 |  | |
| Peter Siebert and Hans Hoffmann holding their Emmys, with Lieven Vermaele, EBU Technology and Development Director | ||
An Emmy was also awarded to recognise work on the standardization of loudness metering for use in broadcast audio, an area in which the EBU’s PLOUD group continues to play a leading role. The EBU recommendation on Loudness, EBU R 128, is already on the way to wide implementation across Europe; the inclusion of loudness standardization among last week’s Emmy awards is an indication of the global importance of this topic.