LOS ANGELES—Following a 31-year career with Sony, Hugo Gaggioni, who currently serves as the company’s chief technology, is being recognized by the Television Academy with the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award at the 71st Engineering Emmy Awards.
The Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. In its announcement, the Emmys describe Gaggioni as an individual who “has achieved many scientific and technical accomplishments and is widely known for his unique ability to present and explain complex technical concepts to professionals and civilians alike.” Gaggioni has spent his career researching digital video image processing, information theory, audio/video bandwidth compression, HDTV devices and systems, digital filter banks and multidimensional signal processing.
Another special award to be presented is the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award, which this year will go to the American Society of Cinematographers. The Emmys praised the ASC as a society that has provided informed counsel on technological standards and advances for its entire existence.
Six additional Emmy Awards will be awarded during the ceremony:
- Boris FX Saphire is being recognized for its development of a suite of visual effects plug-ins that are used in documentaries, news, reality and scripted television and features.
- iZotope RX 7 is an audio repair company that created innovations in machine learning and advancements in noise reductions.
- FabFilter Pro-Q3 is a device that can be used on a professional mixing stage and processes the broad range of frequencies in the home stereo tuner’s treble and bass controls into 24 frequency bands of dynamic EQ.
- Silhouette is used to streamline tasks of rotoscoping, keying and matting with a portfolio of rotoscoping tools.
- Boris FX Mocha Pro helps manipulate existing pictorial content; insert new backgrounds and foregrounds; build set extensions; overly digital makeup; protect witness identities in news segments; blur and remove logos; stabilize and improve shaky handheld footage; and more.
- And JPEG will be recognized as it has universally been adopted to preserve high-quality imagery in television production and essential workflows.
The 71st Engineering Emmy Awards will be handed out at a ceremony on Oct. 23 at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. Kirsten Vangsness of Criminal Minds will host.
