Canadian company wins Emmy for HDTV innovation

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Gennum Corporation - a Burlington, Ontario-based company - has received a Technical Emmy Award for more than a decade of technological innovation that allows television studios to produce high-definition (HD) broadcasting.

Gennum manufactures semiconductors and semiconductor-based products for the global data communications markets, including chip sets for television studio cameras, monitors, mixers, and recorders, enabling broadcasters to route audio/video data without compressing the data, meaning the signal remains at maximum bandwidth throughout the process, for maximum quality.

Gennum's chip set technology - called Serial Digital Interface (SDI), allows TV broadcasting studios to transmit uncompressed, unencrypted digital signals extremely quickly within the studio's production facilities. As increasing number of television studios produce in HD, they need to move enormous amounts of data around the studio to produce and edit content efficiently.

"Without the ability to manage vast amounts of data, it would have been impossible for TV studios to make the jump to HDTV ..." said Franz Fink, President and CEO, Gennum Corporation.

Previous winners of the illustrious award include: the BBC, Xerox Corp., Panasonic Corp., and Sony Corp.

The Technical Emmy Award ceremony will be held at the International Consumer Electronics Show, January 8, 2007, in Las Vegas.