2012 NAB Technology Innovation Awards
NAB is currently accepting nominations for the 2012 NAB Technology Innovation Awards. First presented at the 2009 NAB Show, NAB presents the award to organizations that bring advanced technology exhibits and demonstrations of significant merit to the NAB Show. The nominated exhibit should present advanced research and development projects in communications technologies that have not yet been commercialized.

Candidates for the Technology Innovation Awards must be organizations who are currently exhibiting at the NAB Show. The size of the organization is not a determining factor. Nominated projects may not be commercial products that have been offered for sale prior to or at the NAB Show. The merit of the technology exhibit is the sole factor to be taken into account. The entry deadline is March 2, 2012. The awards will be presented at the NAB Technology Luncheon on April 18, 2012 at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

Here is a summary of past award winners:

2011 Winners:

Communications Research Centre Canada - The Communications Research Centre (CRC) is the Canadian government's primary laboratory for research and development in advanced telecommunications. The organization received its award for a range of developments it displayed at the 2011 NAB Show, which were also found among the International Research Park exhibits.

CRC's demonstrations included its audio loudness metering scheme that has become the basis for the ITU BS.1770 loudness measurement algorithm, along with a proposed system for audio-quality metrics, and a 2D-to-3D video conversion technology generating high-quality 3D video at low cost. CRC also showcased the first FM-RDS radio application that can be distributed through the Android market, which also enables "hybrid" radio broadcasts converging on-air and online radio services. Other exhibits from CRC presented high-quality video frame-rate conversion, software-defined radio for broadcast applications and the COVLAB broadcast coverage prediction system. Shown in the photo to the right is NAB President and CEO, Gordon Smith, presenting the award to Yiyan Wu, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Television Networks and Transmission, Communications Research Centre.

NPR Labs - As one of America's few not-for-profit broadcast technology research and development centers, NPR Labs is engaged with technical research projects supporting the interests of U.S. public radio stations. The organization received its award for a range of developments which were also found among the International Research Park exhibits at the 2011 NAB Show. NPR Labs presented its results to date on three current projects.

The first was a proposed system for providing "captioned radio" (i.e., the display of text on a radio receiver's screen presenting transcription of the current audio broadcast), for use by the 23 million hearing-impaired Americans unable to directly access live radio programming and emergency alerts. A second exhibit demonstrated a new Personalized Audio Information Service (PAIS), the primary application of which is the capture of over-the-air radio reading-service transmissions and the organization of individual stories for indexed, on-demand playback by blind and low-vision listeners, utilizing HD Radio technology. Finally, NPR Labs presented its advanced IBOC interference propagation mapping application, intended to produce highly accurate coverage maps for HD Radio stations. Shown in the photo to the right is Executive Director, Technology Research Center and NPR Labs Mike Starling accepting the 2011 award from NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith.

2010 Winners:

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) - ETRI is Korea's largest government-funded research institute specializing in information and communications technology. In the NAB Show International Research Park area, ETRI demonstrated technologies that enhance the ATSC DTV system, including increasing the total data capacity of the system.

Georgia Institute of Technology - the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) is one of the United States' top research universities, distinguished by its commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. GT developed a hand gesture-based, wireless, touch-free human-TV interface that uses a standard webcam. At the 2010 NAB Show in Research Park, GT showed the gesture control in the International Research Park area.

2009 Winners:

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) - NICT is a national telecommunications research organization in Japan. The NAB Show was the first venue outside of Japan where NICT demonstrated some of the advanced imaging and sound technologies being developed in their labs. Working with their partners in the industry, the NICT demonstrations included holographic television, 3D displays without special glasses, 3D television programming being transmitted via broadband from Japan and a multisensory interaction system that explores human interface to communications media.

NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories - NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories (STRL) is the research and development arm of NHK, Japan's public broadcaster. Since its establishment in 1930, NHK Labs has been creating new broadcasting systems and devices in pursuit of its mission to research and develop next-generation broadcasting systems. NHK STRL demonstrations at the 2009 NAB Show included an ultra-HDTV theater, with picture resolution 16 times that of HDTV and 22.2 channels of surround sound, and new technologies that reproduce 3D in HDTV and mobile DTV services based on Japan's digital broadcasting system, ISDB-T.

Participation in the International Research Park is limited to the display of technologies that are not currently commercially available and represent new technology development in media-related areas. NAB will provide suitable exhibit space free of charge. The participating organizations will be responsible for all other booth-related costs, including shipping, material handling, electricity, etc.

If your organization is interested in participating in the 2012 International Research Park, please contact Skip Pizzi, Director, Digital Strategies at spizzi@nab.org.