Richer Medal
Named for the legendary former ATSC president who led the organization for two decades spanning both ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0, the Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal recognizes an individual or team that demonstrates exemplary leadership in advancing the mission of ATSC and epitomizes the vision, tenacity and leadership qualities that were the hallmark of his leadership.
2025 Recipient – Clarence Hau
Hau has been unanimously recognized by the ATSC Board of Directors for his outstanding contributions to the progress and implementation of NEXTGEN TV powered by ATSC 3.0 standards.
“Clarence’s passion, determination, and deep technical insight have made a lasting impact,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland. “His efforts are not only helping to shape the future of television but are also directly enhancing the viewing experience for audiences everywhere – including me. With this honor, we’re recognizing Clarence’s bold, forward-looking leadership and also NBCUniversal’s key role in the NEXTGEN TV rollout.”
– Madeleine Noland, ATSC President
His leadership within NBCUniversal and across the industry has played a pivotal role in bringing audiences the very best of ATSC 3.0, delivering better picture quality, immersive sound, and award-winning interactivity that is driving real-world adoption of the technology.
2024 Recipient: Sung-Ik Park
"Sung-Ik Park has the vision to understand how to move technology forward. He has the tenacity to overcome obstacles in his path. And he has the leadership to build great teams to successfully execute on his plans, furthering the broadcasting ecosystem, and ATSC 3.0 in particular. You may think of Dr. Park as a person tirelessly supporting the ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer proposal in Brazil. Together with his colleagues at ETRI and CleverLogic, this is a major ongoing effort. But it’s important to understand that his contributions to ATSC span many years and many projects. In addition to the Brazil project, Sung-Ik has been very influential for ATSC’s efforts in the International Telecommunications Union,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland.
As a leader within ETRI, Dr. Park and his team have been continually developing ATSC prototypes, running field experiments, organizing exhibits at the NAB Show and other venues. “In fact, he is just back from Delhi where he demonstrated the efficiency of ATSC 3.0 as a mobile service choice,” Noland added that “he has made multiple trips to Brazil, sent countless correspondences to the labs in Brazil, stayed up many late nights with his team to support the equipment – all to ensure ATSC 3.0 performs to its fullest potential. ATSC is grateful and it is our pleasure to recognize Sung-Ik with the 2024 ATSC Richer Leadership Medal.
2023 Recipient: Saankhya Labs
Established in 2007, Saankhya Labs is India’s first fabless semiconductor solutions company whose products and solutions include award-winning, fully programmable Software Defined Radio chipsets powering their Direct To Mobile (D2M) Broadcast and Converged 5G Broadband Broadcast connectivity solutions among and other 5G products and services.
“Saankhya Labs is honored to be recognized by ATSC with the 2023 Mark Richer Industry Leadership Medal. Video traffic occupies more than 70% of mobile network traffic. Much of this data is being simultaneously consumed across multiple mobile devices. With 1.2 billion cell phones in India, Direct To Mobile (D2M) Broadcast makes efficient use of the traditional broadcasting spectrum. We are pleased to be developing revolutionary technology to fulfill this need and opportunity,” said Parag Naik, CEO Saankhya Labs.
2022 Recipient: Sony Electronics
“Recognizing that Sony is one of three television manufacturers that have made substantial contributions, Sony is the first to integrate ATSC 3.0 into every new Sony television model for the U.S. market. This development was instrumental in driving 2021 U.S. television industry sales to exceed initial sales estimates by nearly 300%,” said Noland.
“Sony’s commitment to include 3.0 across the full product line sends an incredibly positive message to the broadcast industry and is helping to drive station launches. And Sony is not resting on this achievement. It is continually developing its television platform along with new capabilities for mobile reception and the automotive industry. ATSC further recognizes and deeply appreciates Sony’s Luke Fay’s exemplary and continuing leadership as Technology Group 3 Chair,” she added.
2021 Recipient: The Hon. Senator Gordon Smith, National Association of Broadcasters
Sen. Gordon Smith, the President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, was recognized by ATSC President Madeleine Noland for his outstanding leadership as a “steady advocate for the broadcasting industry who has taken every available opportunity to promote ATSC 3.0 since we first started this important work on next-generation broadcast standards.”
2020 Recipient Phoenix Model Market
The Phoenix Model Market program was recognized as a leading collaborative single-market effort to plan for and implement a transition to next-generation over-the-air broadcasting.
2019 Recipient Mark Richer
Former ATSC President Mark Richer accepted the first Richer Medal, with congratulations from ATSC Board Chair Lynn Claudy and President Madeleine Noland.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Subscribe to The Standard, our monthly newsletter, to stay up-to-date with ATSC news and events around the world.
