2010 ATSC Annual Meeting & Bernard J Lechner Award

Posted on May 21, 2010 in Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ATSC honors J. Patrick Waddell of Harmonic at the 2010 Annual Meeting

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2010 – J. Patrick Waddell of Harmonic Inc. has been honored by the Advanced Television Systems Committee Inc. (ATSC) as the recipient of the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award for 2010. The presentation was made during the ATSC Annual Meeting at the Pentagon City Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Thursday May 20, 2010.

The Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award is bestowed once a year to an individual representative of the membership whose technical and leadership contributions to the ATSC have been invaluable and exemplary. The title of the award recognizes the first recipient, Bernard Lechner, for his outstanding services to the ATSC. The award is made by the Board of Directors and presented at the ATSC Annual Meeting.

“Pat’s enthusiasm and dedication combined with his extensive knowledge of broadcast technology and operations has made him an outstanding contributor to our organization,” said Mark Richer, President of the ATSC. “He is distinguished by his ability to identify technical issues that require attention and address them with formidable drafting and editing skills.”
Mr. Waddell is a Technical Marketing Manager at Harmonic Inc., the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based leader in delivering live and on-demand video to TVs, PCs and mobile devices. Responsible for Harmonic’s compliance with industry standards and government regulations, Mr. Waddell is a Fellow of the SMPTE. He has held a variety of industry and standards-body positions for more than 30 years, and is a recognized expert on audio and video coding.

He is the long-time Chair of the ATSC Specialist group responsible for the Audio and Video Coding activities of the ATSC. Under his leadership, A/72 was created, which standardized carriage of H.264 in ATSC transmissions. He was a driving force behind Recommended Practice A/79, Conversion of ATSC Signals for Distribution to NTSC Viewers. He also played a leading role in the ATSC’s endeavors in the critically important topic of audio loudness, which resulted in a recent recommended practice, A/85, which is recognized as a significant contribution to the industry.

Mr. Waddell earned a BSEE degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and did graduate studies in Technical Production for Live Performance at San Jose State University.

“Pat’s extensive participation in many aspects of ATSC activities over the years and, most recently, his leadership on audio loudness activities have been vital to the ATSC and the television industry,” said Wayne C. Luplow, Chairman, ATSC Board of Directors. “On behalf of the ATSC board and membership, congratulations to Pat as this year’s Lechner award honoree.”

Past recipients of the ATSC Lechner Award:

• 2000 – Bernard Lechner, Consultant
• 2001 – Rich Chernock, Triveni Digital
• 2002 – Regis Crinon, Microsoft
• 2003 – Glenn Adams, Extensible Formatting Systems, Inc
• 2004 – Graham Jones, National Association of Broadcasters
• 2005 – John Henderson, Hitachi
• 2006 – Art Allison, National Association of Broadcasters
• 2007 – Mark Eyer, Sony
• 2008 – Michael Dolan, TBT
• 2009 – Wayne Bretl, Zenith/LG Electronics

The 2010 Annual Meeting was a full day program, tackling issues of Mobile DTV, Non-Real Time, 3D Television, and the formation of new ATSC Planning Teams. Sponsors of the event included Harris, IEEE BTS, LG Electronics, Ericsson, Roundbox, Dolby, ETRI, Grass Valley, and Rohde & Schwarz.

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Contact
Lindsay Shelton-Gross, ATSC (202) 872-9160

Posted in Press Releases