NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., July 23, 2009 – The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has announced the recipients of the 61st Primetime Emmy® Engineering Awards. Recipients will receive their awards during the Engineering Awards ceremony on Saturday, August 22 at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles.
The Philo T. Farnsworth Award will be given to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), commemorating the 40th anniversary of the technological innovations that made possible the first live broadcast from the lunar surface by the crew of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969.
The Philo T. Farnsworth Award honors an agency, company or institution whose contributions over a long period of time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.
Four Engineering Emmys will be awarded at the August 22 ceremony. Presented to an individual, company, or organization for engineering developments so extensive an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television, this year’s Engineering Emmy recipients are:
Henson Digital Puppetry Studio (Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™)
The Henson Digital Puppetry Studio is an animation system that allows performers to puppeteer and voice digital characters in real time on a soundstage setting with multiple virtual cameras and a real time viewer, generating a high yield per minute and cutting both animation time and costs exponentially.
Fujinon Precision Focus Assist (Fujinon, Inc. and NHK)
Fujinon’s Precision Focus Assist enables camera operators the ability to ensure fast accurate focusing of high definition images under varying conditions.
Litepanels LED lighting products (Litepanels, Inc.)
Litepanels’ products are low-voltage, low-wattage, energy efficient, LED lighting fixtures that allow for a wide range of applications of LED technology to a variety of image capture situations.
Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer (Dolby Laboratories, Inc.)
The Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer is an innovative audio platform that provides a file-based automated work-flow solution for faster-than-realtime encoding, decoding, conversion, transcoding, loudness correction, audio creation, and upmixing.
One Engineering Plaque also will be awarded. The Engineering Plaque honors achievements that exhibit a high level of engineering and are important to the progress of the industry. The Engineering Plaque is not a “consolation” prize, but a positive recognition of engineering achievements on a different level of technology and industry importance than the Emmy.
Grip Trix Electric Motorized Camera Dolly (Grip Trix) will be awarded this year’s Engineering Plaque. This special equipment camera dolly is virtually silent and is adaptable to accommodate just about any moving camera shot.
The 61st Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards are overseen by Stephen Jones, Chair and Philip Angerhofer, Vice-Chair, of the Technology and Convergence Committee. Members of the committee are Stuart Bass, Russell Calabrese, Brian Seth Hurst, Geoff Katz, Don McCuaig, John Nachreiner, John O’Brien, Michael Olman, Lowell Peterson, Jason Rosenfield, Brian Sheesley, Cristy Trembly and Steven Venezia.
Contact: Robin Mesger/Lauren Kelcher
The Lippin Group
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The Jim Henson Company has remained an established leader in family entertainment for over 50 years and is recognized worldwide as an innovator in puppetry, animatronics and digital animation. Best known as creators of the world famous Muppets, Henson has received over 50 Emmy Awards and nine Grammy Awards. Recent credits include the Emmy® nominated “Sid the Science Kid,” “Dinosaur Train,” “Wilson & Ditch: Digging America” and “Pajanimals.” Features include “The Dark Crystal,” “Labyrinth,” “MirrorMask,” and “Unstable Fables” and television productions include “Fraggle Rock” and the sci-fi cult series “Farscape.”
With additional locations in New York and London, The Jim Henson Company is headquartered in Los Angeles on the historic Charlie Chaplin lot, complete with soundstage and postproduction facilities. Independently owned and operated by the five adult children of founder Jim Henson, the Company is also home to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™, a pre-eminent character-building and visual effects group with international film, television and advertising clients, as well as Henson Recording Studios, one of the music industry’s top recording facilities known for its world-class blend of state-of-the-art and vintage equipment. The Company’s Henson Alternative brand has recently launched the national tour of “Stuffed and Unstrung,” a live puppet improvisational show named one of the top 10 “Best Stage Shows of 2010” by Entertainment Weekly.
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