The Advanced Television Systems Committee has honored Adam Goldberg as the 2019 recipient of the organization’s highest technical honor, the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award.
Goldberg chairs the S36 Specialist Group on ATSC 3.0 Security, where he led the development of the A/360 ATSC 3.0 Security and Service Protection Standard. A/360 defines methodologies to secure content and data flows described in ATSC 3.0 specifications.
“Security has been of paramount importance in ATSC 3.0 from the outset, and Adam has been a key technical contributor on ATSC 3.0 security,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland. “By facilitating consensus, Adam helped ensure that strong ATSC 3.0 security not only helps keep our data and content safe, but also enables new business models, such as subscription or pay-per view services, while opening doors to new industry sectors like automotive.”
Goldberg, currently Director of Technical Standards at Sony, has been working in television for a quarter century. He was a key player in the analog-to-digital transition a decade ago and has been active in cable television, terrestrial broadcasting and virtually every aspect of the ever-evolving home entertainment landscape.
His career includes key technology and standards roles in various leading companies over the years – Sony, Pioneer, Sharp, Harmonic and DiviCom, among them. For a decade, he led his own consulting firm, AGP LLC, representing NAGRA, Pearl TV and others.
At ATSC, in addition to leading S36, Goldberg has been active in other specialist groups, including Management & Protocols (S33), Applications & Presentation (S34) and Interactive Environment (S38).
The Lechner Award is bestowed annually to a representative of ATSC’s membership whose technical and leadership contributions to ATSC have been invaluable and exemplary. Now in its 20th year, the award is named for its first recipient in 2000, Bernard Lechner, for his outstanding services to ATSC. Lechner died in 2014 after a long career in TV technology. Selected by the ATSC Board of Directors, Lechner award winners are:
- 2000 – Bernard Lechner, Consultant
- 2001 – Rich Chernock, Triveni Digital
- 2002 – Regis Crinon, Microsoft
- 2003 – Glenn Adams, Extensible Formatting Systems, Inc
- 2004 – Graham Jones, National Association of Broadcasters
- 2005 – John Henderson, Hitachi
- 2006 – Art Allison, NAB
- 2007 – Mark Eyer, Sony Electronics
- 2008 – Michael Dolan, TBT
- 2009 – Wayne Bretl, Zenith/LG Electronics
- 2010 – Pat Waddell, Harmonic
- 2011 – Jim Starzynski, NBC Universal
- 2012 – S. Merrill Weiss, MWG Group
- 2013 – Mark Aitken, Sinclair Broadcast Group
- 2014 – James Kutzner, PBS
- 2015 – Luke Fay, Sony
- 2016 – Madeleine Noland, LG Electronics
- 2017 – Skip Pizzi, NAB
- 2018 – Mark Corl, Triveni Digital
- 2019 – Adam Goldberg, AGP/Sony
