The Primetime Engineering Emmy is presented to an individual, company or organization for engineering developments so significant an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television. The award is determined by a jury of highly qualified, experienced engineers in the television industry. In addition, since 2003 the ATAS also bestows in most years the Philo T. Farnsworth Award, which is a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award given to honor companies and organizations that have significantly affected the state of television and broadcast engineering over a long period of time, and the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, which has been given in most years since 1991 to one or more individuals whose contributions over time have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.
The Primetime Emmy Awards have been given since 1949 to recognize outstanding achievements in primetime television for performance, for the Creative Arts, and for Engineering. The Primetime Engineering Emmys have separately been given annually since 1978 (the year that ATAS and the NATAS agreed to split ties), although Special Emmys for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development were occasionally bestowed in prior years. The awards which have been given include the Engineering Emmys, which are accorded the Emmy Statuette, and two other levels of recognition, the Engineering Plaque, and the Engineering Citation
Awards
1978
Engineering Emmy Award: Petro Vlahos for the ULTIMATTE Video-Matting Device
Engineering Emmy Citation: David Bargan for the '409' and 'TRACE' Computer Programs used for Off-line Videotape Editing
Engineering Emmy Citation: Vital Industries for its Pioneering Development of Digital Video Manipulation Technology
Engineering Emmy Citation: Convergence Corporation for the ECS-100 Video Tape Editing Systems
1981
Engineering Emmy Award: Rank Cintel for the Mark III Flying Spot Telecine
1982
Engineering Emmy Award: Hal Collins for Contributions to the Art and Development of Videotape Editing (posthumous)
Engineering Emmy Award: Dubner Computer Systems, Inc., and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) for the Dubner CBG-2 Electronic Character and Background Generator
Engineering Citation: Chapman Studio Equipment for the Development of Crane Systems
1983
Engineering Emmy Award: Eastman Kodak for the Development of High Speed Color Film 5294/7294 Color Negative Film
Engineering Citation: Ikegami Electronics for the Development of the EC-35 (a camera used for electronic cinematography)
Engineering Citation: Ampex Corporation for Digital Effects Displaying Capabilities with Improved Picture Quality
1984
Engineering Emmy Award: None given
Engineering Citation: Corporate Communications Consultants Inc. for the 60XL Color Correction by Armand Belmares Sarabia
1985
Engineering Emmy Award: Auricle Control Systems (ACS) for the Auricle Time Processor
1986
Engineering Emmy Award: Nagra, Inc., for the Nagra Recorder
Engineering Emmy Award: CBS, Sony and Cinedco for Design and Implementation of Electronic Editing Systems for Film Programs
1987
Engineering Emmy Award: Spectra Image, Inc. for D220 Dual Headed Video Disc Player
1988
Engineering Emmy Award: Optical Disc Corporation for the Recordable Laser Videodisc System
Engineering Emmy Award: Sony for the DVR-1000 Component Digital VTR
1989
Engineering Emmy Award: Pacific Video Inc. for the Electronic Laboratory
Engineering Emmy Award: Brian Critchley of Digital Projection International and Larry Hornbeck of Texas Instruments' for the Digital Micromirror Device POWER Displays Projector
Engineering Emmy Award: Tiffen for the Design and Manufacture of State-of-the-art Camera Lens Filters
Engineering Emmy Award: Philips Digital Video Systems and Eastman Kodak for the Design and Manufacture of the Industry-Standard High-definition Digital Telecine
Engineering Plaque: Avid for the Real-Time Multicamera System
Engineering Plaque: Tektronix for the Lightworks 'Heavyworks' Multistream Editing Systems
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Yves Faroudja
1999
Engineering Emmy Award: Sony for the HDCAM HDW-500 Digital HD Studio VTR
Engineering Emmy Award: George Hill and Derek Lightbody for Optex UK., for the Aurasoft Soft Light
Engineering Plaque: Videotek for the VTM-200 Series Multi-Format, On-Screen Monitoring
Engineering Plaque: Spectracine, Inc., for the Spectra Professional IV-A Digital Exposure Meter
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Charles A. Steinberg
2000
Engineering Emmy Award: The Dorrough Loudness Meter
Engineering Emmy Award: The Panavision Lightweight Camera
Engineering Emmy Award: Clairmont Camera for the MovieCam Superlight
Engineering Plaque: Lipsner-Smith Company and Consolidated Film Industries (CFI) for their joint development of the Model CF-8200 Ultrasonic Film Cleaning Machine
Engineering Plaque: TEAC America, Inc. for the MMR-8 and MMP-16 Recorders
Engineering Plaque: Soundmaster Group for the Integrated Operations Nucleus ION Operating Environment
Engineering Plaque: Cooke Optics for Cooke Prime Lenses
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Charles Mesak
2001
Engineering Emmy Award: Vari-Lite for the VARI*LITE Virtuoso Console
Engineering Emmy Award: Cast Lighting, Ltd. for WYSIWYG
Engineering Emmy Award: Da Vinci Systems for 2K Color Enhancement System
Engineering Emmy Award: Joint Video Team Standards Committee (JVT) for the development of the High Profile for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
Engineering Emmy Award: Glenn Sanders and Howard Stark of Zaxcom, Inc. for the Deva Location Sound Recorder.
Engineering Plaque: Scott Leva for the Precision Stunt Air Bag
Engineering Plaque: Sebastian Cramer and Andreas Dasser of P+S Technik GmbH for the Skater Dolly Product Family
Engineering Plaque: Craige Bandy and Ed Bandy of Tricam Video Productions Company for the 360 Overhead Jib
Engineering Plaque: Georg Dole, Swen Gerards, Jan Huewel and Daniel Schaefer of Coolux Media Systems for Pandoras Box Real-Time Compositing Media Server
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Woo Paik
Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Evertz Technologies Limited
2009
Engineering Emmy Award: Dolby Laboratories for the Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer
Engineering Emmy Award: Fujinon and NHK for the Fujinon Precision Focus Assistance System
Engineering Emmy Award: Jim Henson's Creature Shop for the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio
Engineering Emmy Award: Litepanels, Inc.for Litepanels LED Lighting Products
Engineering Plaque: Herb Ault, Aaron Hammel and Bob Anderson of Grip Trix, Inc., for the Grip Trix Electric Motorized Camera Dolly
Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In commemoration of 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.
2010
Engineering Emmy Award: Stagetec for the NEXUS Digital Audio Routing
Engineering Emmy Award: Intel Corp for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)
Engineering Emmy Award: Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) for its Recommended Practice on Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Laurence J. Thorpe
Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
2015
Engineering Emmy Award: Mark Franken for EdiCue
Engineering Emmy Award: Michael Sechrest, Chris King, and Greg Croft for SpeedTree
Engineering Emmy Award: Zhou Wang, Alan Bovik, Hamid Sheikh and Eero Simoncelli for the Structural Similarity (SSIM) Video Quality Measurement Model
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Garrett Brown
Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: Grass Valley USA, LLC
The 67th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards Ceremony took place on October 28, 2015 at Loews Hollywood Hotel.
2016
Engineering Emmy Award: SyncOnSet software application for production design
Engineering Emmy Award: Ncam Technologies for camera tracking technology
Engineering Emmy Award: Sony for the Sony 2/3" 4K Imaging System
Engineering Emmy Award: Saunders Electric for Saunders Mobile UPS Power Station
Engineering Emmy Award: Zaxcom Inc for innovations in digital wireless technology.
Engineering Emmy Award: Group It For Me! cloud-based software
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: John C. Malone
Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: NHK's Science & Technology Research Laboratories
The 68th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards Ceremony took place on October 26, 2016 at Loews Hollywood Hotel.
2017
Engineering Emmy Award: Arri for ARRI Alexa Camera System
Engineering Emmy Award: Canon Inc and Fujifilm (Fujinon) for 4K Zoom Lenses
Engineering Emmy Award: Geoffrey Crawshaw and William Brinkley for the Leostream Remote Access Software
Engineering Emmy Award: Shure Incorporated for the Axient Digital Wireless Audio System
Engineering Emmy Award: Sohonet for the ClearView Pivot Remote Collaboration Tool
Engineering Emmy Award: Stype Cajic, Andrija Cajic, Daniel Kruselj, and Ivica Antolkovic for the stYpe Suite of Optical/Camera Tracking Tools
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Paul Debevec
Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Engineering Award: ARRI
The 74th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards Ceremony took place on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 at the Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills
2023
Engineering Emmy Award: Chris Deighton, Richard Mead, Adrian Jeakins, and Evangelos Apostolopoulos for the Brompton Technology Tessera SX40 LED video processor
Engineering Emmy Award: Steve Rosenbluth, Thomas E. Burgess, Konstantin Smola, and Glen Winchester for the Concept Overdrive Motion System
Engineering Emmy Award: International Telecommunication Union – Radiocommunications – Study Group 6 for the Standardization of High Dynamic Range Television (HDR-TV)
Engineering Emmy Award: Raymond Drewry and Jim Helman for the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR)
Engineering Emmy Award: David Eubank for the pCAM Pro
Engineering Emmy Award: Thomas Riedel, Jake Dodson, Wolfgang Fritz, and Jiou-Pahn Lee for the Riedel BOLERO Wireless Intercom
Engineering Emmy Award: Jeffrey Gray, Russell Hocken, Barrett Phillips, and Greg Smokler for the SmallHD Monitor Platform
Engineering Emmy Award: Meir Shashoua, Yaniv Alon, and Shai Fishman for the Waves Clarity Vx Pro
Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award: Birney Dayton