Someone You Should Know – Joe Winograd

Posted on August 3, 2015 in ATSC News

Joe Winograd
Chief Technology Officer, Verance Corporation

Joe Winograd is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Verance Corporation, where he has been directing the company’s development of watermarking technologies and solutions since 1995.

Winograd led Verance’s efforts to create the world’s first open architecture system for first-screen audio-based Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), which has been selected for inclusion in the ATSC 3.0 next-generation terrestrial TV broadcast standard. What’s more, he has led Verance’s partnership with the Hollywood studios to create a watermarking standard that is being used in hundreds of major motion pictures and in hundreds of millions of consumer electronics and software products to address movie piracy.

Winograd represents Verance in standards bodies and consortia and has been a featured presenter at numerous industry events. In January 2014, when ATSC issued its call for watermarking technologies for ATSC 3.0, Winograd saw an opportunity for technologies his company had been working on to play a role in the next-generation television broadcast stancdard.

“We received the ATSC watermarking Call for Proposals on January 18 and applied for membership on January 28! I’ve really enjoyed getting to know and learn from the incredibly diverse ATSC membership as we brought our proposal through the presentation, evaluation and selection process. ATSC is now developing a working draft based on our proposal and we look forward to advancing it through the ATSC process,” he says.

Collaboration is Key

In order to maximize the benefits of the ATSC with his company and for everyone involved with the ATSC, Winograd believes that collaboration and face time is the key to building relationships and the process.

“Attending events such as the ATSC’s annual Broadcast TV Conference and the quarterly in-person meetings, and really getting to know the other members has been critical. We all have our own unique expertise to offer, so by getting to know the participants as individuals allows you to find the sources of expertise that you’ll need to help solve the problems, as well as create opportunities to make contributions based on your own unique knowledge,” Winograd explains.

Technology is always evolving. Every year sees new software and hardware making the electronics and broadcasting industries run smoother and faster than ever before. For Winograd, that is one of the reasons he decided to become an engineer.

Watermarking in ATSC 3.0 enables an open ACR architecture for discovery and launch of the broadband capabilities of the new broadcast standard, which will work for content received through any distribution path.

 “A key part of the ATSC 3.0 vision is to bring all of the personalization, interactivity and measurability of Internet video to the broadcast television experience. These capabilities will be powered by an HTML5 engine in the ATSC 3.0 receiver that can enhance and customize the onscreen presentation using software delivered as part of the broadcast service,” Winograd says.

“ATSC 3.0 broadcasts will be able carry this software but a mechanism was needed to make it available to receivers that get ATSC 3.0 broadcast content through redistribution services like cable, satellite and OTT,” he adds.

That’s where the watermarking comes in. Watermarking enables an open ACR architecture for discovery and launch of the broadband capabilities of the new broadcast standard, which will work for content received through any distribution path.

Verance’s audio watermarking solution was chosen to be a part of ATSC 3.0., ”We’re heavily engaged with the ATSC experts on drafting the Candidate Standard, and we’re working with the ATSC implementation team on performing field trials to enable rapid deployment when the standard is completed.”

Getting to Know Joe

While he has been involved with television and communications projects since the late ‘90s, there is a life outside for Winograd. After a long week of work meetings he enjoys the fresh air of Southern California, and enjoys growing exotic fruit trees from around the world, of which he has had many successes.

“My successes include bananas, figs, pomegranates, loquats, blackberries and avocados. Next up are mangos, miracle fruit and grapes.”

Winograd earned his bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from Georgia Tech, and went on to receive his masters and doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering from Boston University.

Posted in ATSC News