Bernard Lechner, 2000 ATSC Outstanding Contributor and award namesake

Bernard J. Lechner is a consultant to government and industry as an expert on all aspects of television and display systems. He is extensively involved in technical research on advanced television and display systems and in the development of standards for high-definition television (HDTV).

Formerly Staff Vice President, Advanced Video Systems, RCA Laboratories, Mr. Lechner's 30-year career at RCA covered all aspects of television and display research, from early work on home video tape recorders in the late 1950's, extensive development of flat-panel matrix displays in the 1960's including pioneering efforts on active-matrix liquid crystal displays, advanced two-way cable TV systems and pay-TV systems in the early 1970's, electronic tuning systems and CCD comb-filters for TV receivers in the mid-1970's, automated broadcast cameras and CCD broadcast cameras in the late 1970's and early 1980's, to HDTV in the mid-1980's. Two of the broadcast camera projects for which Mr. Lechner led the research team were awarded Emmy's by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Mr. Lechner received two RCA Laboratories Outstanding Achievement Awards and a David Sarnoff Team Award in Science.

He serves as chairman of the ATSC Specialists Group on Digital TV Transport Standards (T3/S8) and he has been an active participant in the other various groups working on standards for Advanced Television Systems in the U.S. including the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACATS), SMPTE, and the CEMA/NCTA Digital Standards Working Group relating to standards for "Cable-Ready" Digital Television receivers. During 1989 and 1990, Mr. Lechner served as a memberof the U.S. delegation to the extraordinary and final meetings of the Comite Consultatif International des Radiocommunications (CCIR) in Geneva concerning international HDTV standards.

He was chairman of the Teletext Committee of the Electronic Industries Association from 1980 to 1986 and has been a member of the National Cable Television Association Engineering Committee since 1977. He served for 15 years as Chairman of the Advisory Commission for Electrical Engineering at Mercer County Community College and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Palisades Institute for Research Services since 1981.

Mr. Lechner is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Society for Information Display (SID) and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi. In 1971 he was named the first recipient of the Frances Rice Darne Award by SID for his outstanding contributions to matrix displays. In 1972 he was elected to the SID Board of Directors and has since served as Treasurer, Secretary, Vice President and President (1978-1980) of SID. In 1983 he was named the first recipient of the Beatrice Winner Award for his contributions to SID. In 1996 Mr. Lechner was awarded the David Sarnoff Gold Medal by SMPTE for his many contributions to the technologies essential to today's television systems.

Mr. Lechner holds a BSEE degree from Columbia University and has done graduate work at Princeton University and the Harvard School of Business. Mr. Lechner holds ten U.S. patents and is widely published in the areas of displays and television systems. (June 2000).

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