NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang and Adobe were two of the big winners of the 76th Engineering, Science and Technology Emmys. While Huang was the recipient of the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, Adobe will be receiving both the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award and an Emmy for its Substance Painter product. The ceremony will be held on Oct. 23.
The Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to an individual whose contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. Huang was awarded the honor due to NVIDIA, a company he founded and where he has served as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors over the course of his career. NVIDIA was the company behind the GPU (graphics processing unit) in 1999, which sparked the growth of the modern PC gaming market, forever changed computer graphics and led to the modern era of AI. Currently, NVIDIA is focusing on accelerated computing and generative AI.
In addition to being awarded this honor, Huang was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and is a recipient of the Semiconductor Industry Association’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award. He’s also been a recipient of the IEEE Founder’s Medal, the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award and holds honorary doctorate degrees from Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University, National Taiwan University and Oregon State University.
Emmy Awards Reveal Full Production Team
As for Adobe, the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award is given to an agency, company or institution whose contributions over time have significantly impacted television technology and engineering. The company, which has been a leader in their space for 40 years, was recognized for Adobe Acrobat, its Creative Cloud suite, the Substance 3D collection, its collaboration tools like Frame.io and its Experience Cloud enterprise solutions. Shows like NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” FX’s “The Bear” and HBO’s “Ramy Youssef: More Feelings” were credited as 2024 series and specials that used Adobe products.
The company also received an individual Emmy for its Substance Painter tool, a non-destructive 3D texture painting application.
Other Emmy recipients include Tom Ohanian, Ken Goekjian, Joel Swan and Victor Young for the development of the Avid Multicamera System. Introduced in 1994, the Avid Multicamera System replaced systems that utilized videotape and laserdisc players to become the dominant player in the industry.
Paul Pan, Yanchong Zhao, Tie Su and Shimeng Bei were honored for the development of the DJI Ronin Series. This line of professional camera stabilization systems is specifically designed for filmmakers and videographers
Stuart Geman, Kevin Manbeck, John Mertus and Michael Braca were honored for the development of the DRS Nova Film and Video Restoration Software. The offering helps combine the workflows of film labs, post-production houses and archival facilities.
Benjamin Graf won for the development of Accentize’s dxRevive Pro. The speech-restoration plugin was created to enhance the fidelity of dialogue recordings across a range of scenarios. In addition to filtering the signal, it also identifies and reintegrates missing frequency components.
Jeremy Hochman, Chris Byrne, Colin Cook and Justin Nicolaides were recognized for the development of Megapixel’s HELIOS LED Processing Platform. A video processing system designed for LED walls, the company has helped to revolutionize LED screens, making them a reliable and repeatable tools for filmmakers. HELIOS supports video sources up to 8K resolution.
Craig Seidel was honored for the development of the MovieLabs Digital Distribution Framework. Over the years, the company has transformed into a collection of data standards that helped drive online streaming.
Finally, The Tiffen Company was awarded for the development of the Steadicam Volt. Using electronic stabilization, the Steadicam helps camera operators achieve and maintain smooth, consistent and level camera shots.
“The Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards are a testament to the incredible ingenuity and creativity that power our industry,” Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to honor these innovators who have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible, shaping the future of television for generations to come.”
“This year we honor a diverse group of technologies that enable and advance the storytelling process for television production,” committee co-chairs Barry Zegel and Wendy Aylsworth said in a statement. “Electro/Mechanical Camera Stabilization systems, software programs that aid the editing and creation process, support for LED Volumes production, the MDDF (MovieLabs Digital Distribution Framework) Standard and the use of generative artificial intelligence tools are all included in this year’s awards. This wide range of technologies demonstrates the amazing achievements throughout our industry.”
