NEW YORK—The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the “Excellence in Production Technology” Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leighton, co-founder of Akamai, received Lifetime Achievement Honors at the 76th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards held on Dec. 4th at the Prince George Ballroom in New York.
During the ceremony, hosted by David Pogue, Dr. Leighton’s Lifetime Achievement Honors reflected a career where he patented more than 50 developments surrounding content delivery, internet protocols, algorithms for networks, cryptography and digital rights management, and he created the largest distributed computing platform, which today delivers and secures tens of millions of requests per second to billions of users around the world.
Prior to the ceremony, Adam Sharp, president & CEO, of NATAS shared: “It is a privilege to celebrate the individuals and companies who continue to redefine how technology can deliver communications to consumers around the world. I applaud Dr. Leighton’s many years of development and leadership, plus the countless technological achievements he has realized as co-founder and now CEO of Akamai.”
Joe Inzerillo, Chair of the NATAS Technology & Engineering Committee said: “As the technological landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the pioneering work that has come from this year’s class of honorees is astounding. Congratulations to all this year’s Technology & Engineering Emmys winners.”
“Every time you stream content to your viewers, every time you shop online or check your bank balance, or hold a virtual meeting with colleagues at work, chances are very good that you’re using Akamai or the technology that Akamai employees pioneered,” added Dr. Leighton. “Our goal today is the same as it was in the beginning – to power and protect life online by making the internet fast, reliable, and secure today, for billions of people a trillion times a day.”
NASA+ won the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy for its “2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA”. This was a live broadcast and streaming event for the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse, featuring expert commentary, multiple telescope feeds (including a dedicated one for the corona), and coverage from across North America, offering science, stunning visuals, and citizen science opportunities like Eclipse Soundscapes, allowing everyone to experience this rare cosmic event even if not in the path of totality.
Other 2025 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards Honorees at the Dec. 4 ceremony included:
- Pioneering Standardization of VOD Asset Metadata Distribution Specifications: CableLabs
- 360 Degree Consumer Video Capture, Editing and Presentation Technologies: GoPro; Insta360; Google; Adobe; Apple; ByteDance
- Specification for AV1: Alliance for Open Media
- SMPTE ST 2067 — Standardization of Interoperable Master Format (IMF): SMPTE/IMF USER GROUP; Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA); Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI); University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center (USC-ETC)
- Pioneering Mastering HDR Display: Dolby Labs
- AI Image/Video Enhancement for High Quality TV Catalog Restoration: MTI Films; Topaz Labs
- Standardization of Common Media Application Format (CMAF): MPEG Systems (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 3)
Also celebrated at the December 4th ceremony are the following Technology Pioneers:
- For the pioneering concepts of the light valve: Michael Faraday and John Kerr
- For the pioneering development of the photocell: Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, Julius Johann, Phillipp Ludwig Elster, and Hans Friedrich Karl Geitel
- For the pioneering development of optical-input facsimile transmission, Carlo Mario Perosino, Édouard Belin, and Arthur Korn
For more information, please visit the website at http://www.theemmys.tv/
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