Microsoft Corp. and Sony celebrate the Joint Video Team Committee’s receipt of a 2008 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award for its work on the development of the High Profile of the H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC video compression standard.

Both Microsoft and Sony, as members of the JVT, were contributors to the High Profile of H.264/MPEG-4AVC, a standard specification that enables High Definition images in the H.264/AVC video coding technology used by a variety of companies today to deliver high-definition video over satellite, broadcast and cable television as well as Blu-ray Disc, mobile phones and Internet Protocol television.

The JVT is a standardization team composed of members from the International Organization for Standardization, the International Electrotechnical Commission, and the International Telecommunication Union. The group was formed in 2001 by the ITU Video Coding Experts Group and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group.

Nine companies, including Microsoft and Sony, were specifically recognized as key contributors to this work within the JVT. The award was presented at a ceremony in Hollywood, California, on Aug. 23, and was received by Malcolm Johnson, director of ITU’s standardization bureau, and Scott Jameson, chair of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology, together with representatives of the JVT management team.

The Emmy Engineering Award goes to an individual, company or organization for developments in engineering that are either so extensive an improvement on existing methods, or so innovative in nature, that they materially affect the transmission, recording or reception of television.

Shalini Ale/ITvoir Network