Text of MPEG-2 Systems Emmy related Speeches
David Pogue (Master of Ceremony Emmy Award Presentation January 2014)
(Text slightly edited for accuracy and clarity) Actually, MPEG-2 Systems really was a stroke of genius. It was built on MPEG-1 and powers digital TV, satellite TV, DVD, BluRay with a magic trick of squeezing an HDTV signal with 1.5 billion bits down to 19 million bits for transmission and then reconstructing the image when the signal comes to the home. Accepting the Emmy for the development, standardization, and productization of the Transport Stream format on behalf of the Moving Picture Experts Group, is Sandy MacInnis, Senior Technical Director and Fellow at Broadcom and former MPEG-2 Systems Committee chair.
Sandy MacInnis (Former MPEG-2 Systems Committee Chair)
It’s really an honor for the MPEG-2 Transport Stream to receive an Emmy award. On behalf of everyone who worked on the MPEG-2 Systems standard - which specifies the Transport Stream - I want to thank the Academy.
We created the Transport Stream in the early 1990s. The best part of this standard is not the technical elegance but the amazing effort of so many people from so many companies and universities around the world who came together to create one systems standard that everyone would use. Many of the companies were fierce competitors, and still are, and the debates were at times very heated!
The Transport Stream was very widely deployed across the full range of cable, satellite, terrestrial, IP and BluRay disc distribution media. Its use is not just historical – it is used now with the latest video and audio compression specs, and the number of devices using this standard is still increasing. It is projected by IHS to sustain approximately 650 million units shipped per year.
Several of the people who were key to the creation of this standard are here tonight and share in the honor. Please welcome them; I won’t name them all. Two who could not be here tonight are Leonardo Chiariglione, the MPEG convener, and Pete Schirling, the original document editor, and we want to recognize them as well.
Thank you.
David Pogue
I actually do love that. These fierce competitive rivals came together and made a standard that works, and the whole world uses it. I wish it could be more like that.