2004 ABU Distinguished Service Award
The first ABU Distinguished Service Award was presented to Professor Mark Krivocheev of the Russian Federation and Chairman Emeritus of the ITU Study Group on Broadcasting Services for his contribution and long devotion to international broadcast development.
The long-standing Chairman of the CCIR Study Group II (Television broadcasting service) and, later of ITU-R Study Group 6 (Broadcasting services) has contributed to building many television avenues.
Professor Krivocheev was one of the orginators of the 625-lines (50Hz) TV standard was developed in the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the early 1940s.
In the early 1970s, when digital modulation techniques appeared on the scene, Professor Krivocheev was on the key strategists that oriented the CCIR studies towards the adoption of a study programme dealing with bit-rate reduction in digital coding of television signals.
The programme also served to demonstrate that technical solutions were possible which would allow, with substantive modulation compression, to use conventional channel widths (6 MHz, 7MHz or 8MHz), for transmitting the digital terrestrial TV signal, including high-definition television (HDTV).
Professor Mark I Krovocheev, who in 1992 celebrated his 70th birthday, has had a career that must correspond very closely to an engineer’s dream. He has had the merit of working both as a practical and as a research engineer, with a great many publications and dozens of patents to his name.
Professor Krivocheev himself claims to have been lucky in his career, in the sense that he entered the broadcast profession right at the heart of “modern” television in his country and has had a hand in every major development through to the present day – and beyond.
The presentation was held during the ABU Technical Committee Meeting hosted by Khabar Agency in Almaty in 2004.
Professor Mark Krivocheev
2010 ABU Distinguished Service Award
The second ABU Distinguished Service Award was awarded to Mr Kenji Nagai, Executive Director General of NHK, who was selected for vastly contributing to the development of broadcasting over his long and distinguished career in NHK.
Mr Nagai joined NHK in 1973 after graduating from Keio University with a Master’s degree in Engineering. We are honoured to have Nagai-san among us this morning.
In 2008, Nagai-san was appointed Managing Director of NHK, responsible for all areas of NHK’s engineering. Prior to this he served as the President and CEO of the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT).
Mr Nagai has greatly contributed to the development of broadcasting. He has made distinguished contributions in the field of SNG and implementation of transition from analogue to digital for terrestrial and satellite broadcasting.
Mr Nagai played a pivotal role in the adoption of terrestrial and satellite ISDB digital broadcasting systems which currently provide services like HDTV, high quality sound, data broadcasting and services to mobile terminals.
He has also been contributing to fulfilling NHK’S role as a public broadcaster in offering new services in the coming era of the fusion of broadcasting and communication media, and by developing new services in the post Hi-Vision era.
Mr Nagai has served as the Vice-Chairman of an ITU Working Party and has also served as the Vice-Chairman of the ABU Technical Committee.
The presentation was made during the ABU Technical Committee Meeting in 2010 which was hosted by NHK-Japan.
Mr Kenji Nagai
2011 ABU Distinguished Service Award
The Distinguished Service Award for 2011 was awarded to David Wood, Deputy Director, Technology and Development, European Broadcasting Union. The ABU award has been bestowed on him for his outstanding contributions to the development of broadcasting technology system standards.
David was a leading light in preparing the famous ITU Recommendation 601, which has become the basis for the world’s digital television standards.
Among other prominent contributions that he has made are in the areas of the EBU/AES digital audio interface, the DVB digital TV project, his role in mentoring the International Academy of Broadcasting in Montreux and his persistence in setting up methods of evaluating television picture quality.
David was presented the award during the ABU Technical Committee Meeting hosted by Prasar Bharati in New Delhi in November 2011.
Mr David Wood
2014 ABU Distinguished Service Award
Dr Keiichi Kubota was presented with the ABU Technology’s highest accolade, the ABU Distinguished Service Award.
Dr Kubota, President & CEO of NHK Integrated Technology Inc, was recognised at the opening day of the ABU Technical Committee meeting which took place during the 2014 ABU General Assembly and Associated Meetings in Macau, China.
The ABU Distinguished Service Award recognises the outstanding achievements and contribution by an individual to the broadcasting industry. During his 38-year career in broadcasting, Dr Kubota has made significant contributions in the area of HDTV standardisation. He was instrumental in advances in the areas of satellite and terrestrial transmission systems, as well as in signal processing for HDTV.
Dr Kubota also played a leading role in the rollout of NHK’s digital satellite broadcasting service and the coverage of the 2012 London Olympics in Super Hi-Vision.
In his speech Dr Kubota said he had spent a major part of his career at NHK’s laboratory developing the HDTV and Ultra-HDTV systems. During this period he had made many friends in Asia and around the world through various engineering projects and standardisation activities.
Dr Kubota said he was happy to witness the huge changes in the broadcast industry during his 38-year career, and felt lucky that he could overcome all sorts of difficulties during the transition with his colleagues around the world. Dr Kubota promised to continue working as a bridge between the Japanese broadcast industry and the broadcast industry in Asia and the Pacific.
Dr Keiichi Kubota
2016 ABU Distinguished Service Award
Mr Yasuto Hamada was presented with the ABU Technology’s highest honour, the ABU Distinguished Service Award.
Mr Hamada, President of NHK Gakuen (NHK Academy of Distance Learning), was recognised during the ABU Technical Committee meeting held in Bali, Indonesia which was hosted by RRI-Indonesia.
The ABU Distinguished Service Award recognises outstanding individual achievements in, and contributions to, the broadcasting industry. During his 36-year career in broadcasting, Mr Hamada has made significant contributions in the nationwide transition of terrestrial broadcasting from analogue to digital and also performed a leading role in the roll-out preparations for 8K Super Hi-Vision broadcasting.
Broadcasting has evolved from radio and television through HDTV, digital broadcasting, hybrid broadcasting and UHDTV with the endless incorporation of the very latest technologies. Television realised the human dream of viewing things happening in distant places and, with UHDTV, the newest technologies are now adding the extreme video and audio realism of not only ultra-high resolution but also HDR (High Dynamic Range), a wide colour gamut, HFR (High Frame Rate), and 22.2 multi-channel sound.
Japan commenced test 4K and 8K UHDTV broadcasts, in August this year, and further technical developments are advancing rapidly to be ready in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The evolution of broadcasting must continue in this manner to satisfy ever more human dreams.
Mr Hamada promised to continue working as a bridge between the Japanese broadcast industry and the broadcast industry in Asia and the Pacific.
Mr Yasuto Hamada
2019 ABU Distinguished Service Award
The 2019 ABU Distinguished Service Award was conferred on Mr Atsushi Haruguchi during the ABU Technical Committee Meeting hosted by NHK-Japan in Tokyo on 18 November.
Mr Haruguchi was the Director of the Engineering Administration Department from 2014 and the Deputy Chief of Engineering from 2016, contributing to the launch of the world’s first 8K television from December 2018.
The award is being bestowed on Mr Haruguchi in recognition of his important contributions to the development of television broadcasting, including the launch of 8K television.
Mr Haruguchi contributed greatly to the development and installation of the play-out system for radio, terrestrial and satellite television broadcasting at NHK’s Engineering Administration Department.
He oversaw the technical planning of the entire department and contributed to promotion activity for the digitalisation of terrestrial television broadcasting in developing countries.
A senior NHK engineer, Mr Atsushi Haruguchi, has said the Distinguished Service Award conferred on him by the ABU was an honour for the broadcaster’s entire engineering team.
He told the Technical Committee he believed all his NHK colleagues were being honoured for their work in developing broadcasting technology.
“In this sense, I am here as a representative of the entire engineering team of NHK.”
Mr Haruguchi is the former Deputy Chief of Engineering and Director of the Engineering Administration Department at NHK. Since June 2019, he has been the Senior Executive Officer of NHK Technologies, Inc.
He contributed greatly to the development and installation of the play-out system for radio, terrestrial and satellite television broadcasting at NHK’s Engineering Administration Department.
Mr Haruguchi told the meeting he felt fortunate to have been involved in assisting the digitalization of terrestrial television broadcasting in several Asian and Central American countries by applying the ISDB-T system.
He said he had spent 38 years as a broadcast engineer, during which time the industry had seen dramatic changes, from analogue to digital, tape system to server system, SDTV to HDTV, and HDTV to UHDTV.
“We faced various difficulties at these changes, but we managed to overcome the obstacles.
“Then we accomplished the digitalization and the analogue switch off in terrestrial and satellite television broadcasting, and the launch of the world’s first 8K broadcasting last December.”
Mr Haruguchi pledged to continue working to help advance broadcasting technologies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr Haruguchi joined NHK in 1981 and is now the Senior Executive Officer of NHK Technologies.
