Wayne Bretl2009 Lechner Award Recipient

The 2009 Bernard Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award was presented on May 11th to Wayne Bretl.

“Wayne’s participation in many aspects of ATSC activities over the years, as well as his ongoing efforts to help develop the ATSC Mobile DTV Standard, have been critically important,” said Mark Richer, ATSC president. “He is one of the original developers of VSB (vestigial side band), a key component of the ATSC DTV Standard. His continuous efforts to improve and expand on the capabilities of VSB technology are among the main reasons that the ATSC is honoring Wayne with the 2009 Lechner award.”

Wayne Bretl is a Principal Engineer in the R&D Department at Zenith Electronics. He received the BSEE from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1966, and joined Zenith in 1975. He holds over 15 patents in television technology and related areas. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, and a member of SMPTE, AES, and SID, and represents Zenith in ATSC and a number of professional and industry associations. Wayne is a co-recipient of the 2006 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award, for contributions to the development of the vestigial sideband (VSB) digital transmission system for digital television broadcasting, and is the recipient of the 2006 SMPTE David Sarnoff Medal Award for contributions to television engineering.