Emmy Award for ITU, ISO and IEC

Hollywood recognizes work on crucial video standard

The United States Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has awarded the prestigious “Primetime Emmy Engineering Award” to ITU, to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), for work in extending an advanced video coding standard so that it can deliver high-definition images. In use throughout the industry, that standard is Recommendation ITU–T H.264. (It is also known as ISO/IEC 14496 Part 10 and as MPEG-4 AVC.)

The three organizations received recognition for their Joint Video Team's (JVT) landmark achievement in helping to extend the reach of high-definition video to many devices, from mobile phones to high-definition television (HDTV). The JVT was formed in 2001 by the video experts group in Study Group 16 of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU–T), together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).

ITU/V. Martin

The Engineering Emmy Awards are presented “for developments in engineering that are either so extensive an improvement on existing methods, or so innovative in nature, that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television.” This Award was presented at a ceremony on 23 August 2008 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, United States.

The Engineering Emmy Awards are presented “for developments in engineering that are either so extensive an improvement on existing methods, or so innovative in nature, that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television.”

H.264 is a highly efficient video compression method that substantially reduces the bandwidth needed to deliver high-quality video and the space required to store it. Seven sets of capabilities, referred to as “profiles”, have been created for use in specific applications. The great efficiency of the codec, in combination with its scalability in delivering excellent quality across the entire bandwidth spectrum — from HDTV to videoconferencing and third-generation (3G) mobile multimedia — has led to its increasing popularity.

The Award was presented at a ceremony on 23 August 2008 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, United States. It was formally received by Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, accompanied by Scott Jameson, Chair of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC 1), and three of the four Chairmen of the JVT: Gary Sullivan, from Microsoft; Ajay Luthra, from Motorola, and Thomas Wiegand from the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin.

From left to right: Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, accompanied by three of the four Chairmen of Joint Video Team (JVT): Ajay Luthra, from Motorola; Gary Sullivan, from Microsoft and Thomas Wiegand from the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin, along with Scott Jameson, Chair of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC 1)

In his acceptance speech on behalf of ITU, ISO and IEC, Malcolm Johnson noted that “international standards have clearly played an enormously important role in the development of television and the entertainment industry, and our three organizations have made significant contributions over the years.”

Gary Sullivan, who has served as Chairman of the JVT since its inception, said: “This Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recognizes a broad and collaborative effort that has yielded significant technical achievements in entertainment technology.” He applauded the nine companies that had been cited in the Award (see box) for their work on the standard, as well as crediting the efforts of “many more”. In addition to the input of manufacturers, active participation in the JVT by academia and the research community led to significant contributions to the development of H.264.

ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden said “this second Emmy Award in 12 years for multimedia standards developed by ISO and its partners is living proof of the market relevance of international standardization as practised by ISO, IEC and ITU, while illustrating the role played by international standards in translating innovation into useable technology.”

Commenting on the Award, the IEC General Secretary and CEO Ronnie Amit said he “would like to pay tribute to the experts from the industry, who have made the work of the JVT so relevant and timely. Their leadership, energy and inspiration to bring video and audio coding standards to fruition shows what truly international standards can bring in terms of interoperability and benefits, and how they can touch the lives of billions of people around the world.”

A jewel of a standard

H.264 is now being deployed in products and services from companies such as Adobe, Apple, BBC, BT, France Telecom, Intel, Motorola, Nokia, Polycom, Samsung, Sony, Tandberg and Toshiba. It delivers high-definition video images over broadcast television, cable television and a variety of direct-broadcast satellite-based television services, as well as Blu-Ray disc formats, mobile phones and Internet protocol television (IPTV).

“This amazing video codec can be found in Blu-ray, YouTube, the iPhone… products at the cutting edge of today’s information and communication technologies," said Mr Johnson. “It brings high-quality, high-definition video to a vast range of devices and applications. Numerous broadcasting, cable, videoconferencing, consumer electronics and Internet companies incorporate it into their new products and services. H.264 is the jewel in the crown of international standards collaboration.”

The group of experts that developed the standard continues to be very active. JVT has begun working on the next generation of video coding, aiming to deliver high-quality video at even greater compression rates. With their track record of achievement, innovative video compression standards could soon be on the horizon.