CALIFORNIA: Former president of Bell Labs, Arun Netravali, has been named winner of the 2017 Marconi Prize as announced by the Marconi Society on June 15. The prize includes a $100,000 honorarium and a work of sculpture. “Few things have had a greater impact on communications in recent years than the digital video revolution led by Arun,” said Vint Cerf, chairman of the Marconi Society and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google.
“Everywhere you look, video is transforming the way we communicate on mobile devices and how we consume entertainment and news. Movies, YouTube, live streaming - it is literally transforming how people interact. The next generation of video based on this technology, including virtual reality, promises to revolutionise video consumption, delivery and business models once again.” Netravali's career at Bell Labs saw him launch research in video coding and compression in the early 1980s, helped convince the organisation to undertake big system initiatives like HDTV and Softswitch, and, his research team proved the viability of HDTV, earning the company a trial with TV manufacturer Zenith.
Netravali also promoted a highly collaborative approach to research. The Marconi Society wrote, “Bell Labs cultivated the brightest minds across many different science and engineering disciplines; it is this diversity that really enables large-scale system development.” Netravali led the Bell Labs when it had 22,000 employees, a budget of $3.5 billion, launched 35 ventures, turned out an average of four patents per day, and developed leading edge products in wireless, optical and data communication at record speeds.
The Marconi Society is dedicated to furthering scientific achievements in communications and related technologies. It cited the Indian American digital video pioneer's commendable work on video compression standards that served as the key base technology for MPEG 1, 2, and 4, and enabled a wide range of video services including digital TV, HDTV, and streaming video.
