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by Lex Machina

Article by Dawna Lee Heising

Dawna Lee Heising and John Alsedek of Eye on Entertainment on Time Warner Cable covered the 61st Primetime Emmy® Engineering Awards, sponsored by the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, on Saturday, August 22 at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles. Buzz Aldrin accepted the prestigious Philo T. Farnsworth Award that was awarded to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), commemorating 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. The Philo T. Farnsworth Award honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over a long period of time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

Four Engineering Emmys were awarded at the EMMY Engineering Awards. Presented to an individual, company, or organization for engineering developments so extensive an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television, this year’s Engineering Emmy recipients include:* Henson Digital Puppetry Studio (The Jim Henson Company)The Henson Digital Puppetry Studio is an animation system that allows performers to puppeteer and voice digital characters in real time on a soundstage setting with multiple virtual cameras and a real time viewer, generating a high yield per minute and cutting both animation time and costs exponentially.* Fujinon Precision Focus Assist (Fujinon, Inc. and NHK) Fujinon’s Precision Focus Assist enables camera operators the ability to ensure fast accurate focusing of high definition images under varying conditions. * Litepanels LED lighting products (Litepanels, Inc.)Litepanels’ products are low-voltage, low-wattage, energy efficient, LED lighting fixtures that allow for a wide range of applications of LED technology to a variety of image capture situations.* Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer (Dolby Laboratories, Inc.)The Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer is an innovative audio platform that provides a file-based automated work-flow solution for faster-than-real-time encoding, decoding, conversion, transcoding, loudness correction, audio creation, and upmixing.

One Engineering Plaque also was awarded. The Engineering Plaque honors achievements that exhibit a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry. The Engineering Plaque is a positive recognition of engineering achievements on a different level of technology and industry importance than the Emmy. Grip Trix Electric Motorized Camera Dolly (Grip Trix) will be awarded this year’s Engineering Plaque. This special equipment camera dolly is virtually silent and is adaptable to accommodate just about any moving camera shot.

The 61st Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards are overseen by Stephen Jones, Chair and Philip Angerhofer, Vice-Chair, of the Technology and Convergence Committee. Members of the committee are Stuart Bass, Russell Calabrese, Brian Seth Hurst, Geoff Katz, Don McCuaig, John Nachreiner, John O’Brien, Michael Olman, Lowell Peterson, Jason Rosenfield, Brian Sheesley, Cristy Trembly and Steven Venezia. Publicity for the Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards and for the Television Academy of Arts & Sciences is handled by The Lippin Group.

About the Academy of Television Arts & SciencesThe Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was founded in 1946 just one month after network television was born. It is a non-profit organization devoted to the advancement of telecommunications arts and sciences and to fostering creative leadership in the telecommunications industry. In addition to recognizing outstanding programming through its Emmy® Award, the Television Academy publishes Emmy® Magazine and stages many industry-related programs, services and year-round events for the television community. For additional press information and resources concerning the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, please direct your inquiries to Robin Mesger of The Lippin Group at (323) 965-1990.