SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC), which since 1993 has been the world’s leading industry organization promoting and facilitating the development and use of interoperable, real-time, multimedia telecommunication products and services, today announced the presentation of its Lifetime Leadership Award to Dr. Istvan Sebestyen for his contributions to the development of open international multimedia standards.
Throughout his long and storied career, Dr. Sebestyen has been leading the standardization of multimedia technologies, from still image and video codecs to transport and applications. Dr. Sebestyen has authored over one hundred publications, including two books, has been awarded 15 patents, and delivered over one hundred conference speeches.
Dr. Sebestyen was a founding group member of JPEG, JBIG and MPEG, the groups that brought us the well-known image and video compression standards that have laid the foundations for the entire digital content distribution industry, from cable and satellite to Internet streaming. From 1987-2000 he was Rapporteur in CCITT’s Study Group 8 for “New Image Communications” (CCITT became ITU-T in 1993). At the same time he also became member of the original development team of ISO’s Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) and from 1988 also of the Joint Bi-level Image Group (JBIG). After the creation of the joint ISO/IEC committee JTC1 SC29 in 1991, Dr. Sebestyen joined SC29’s Management Advisory Group as Germany’s Head of Delegation. Starting from 2004, he also served as Vice Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16 (Multimedia terminals, systems and applications) and Co-Chair of Working Party 2/16 (Multimedia terminals, systems and applications).
Dr. Sebestyen served as a Director on the Board of IMTC, and from 2001 until 2006 was the President of IMTC and a Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Rights Activity group. Currently, Dr. Sebestyen serves as Secretary General of Ecma International, an industry association dedicated to the standardization of ICT and consumer electronics in Geneva, Switzerland.
“On behalf of the IMTC’s Board of Directors, Officers, Activity Group Leaders and its members, I am very pleased to take this opportunity to recognize Dr. Sebestyen for his pioneering work in the areas of JPEG, JBIG and MPEG standardization, as well as leadership and outstanding contributions in the development of multimedia communication standards”, said Anatoli Levine, IMTC president. “It is through the dedication and accomplishments of leaders like Dr. Sebestyen that innovation and the success of the multimedia industry are driven, and we are happy to present him with this well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award for a long and outstanding career in the multimedia industry!”
About IMTC
The IMTC is an industry-leading, non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and facilitate the development and use of interoperable, real-time, multimedia telecommunication products and services based on open international standards. The IMTC hosts interoperability testing events and demonstrations throughout the world. IMTC has hosted numerous events to test WebRTC, IoT, SDN, IMS, VoLTE, SIP, H.323, TIP, and many other Voice over IP products and services. The IMTC Board of Directors includes representatives from Cisco Systems, LifeSize Communications, Polycom, Qualcomm, Softil, Unify and Vidyo. Membership is open to any interested party, including vendors of audio, document, and video conferencing hardware and software; academic institutions; government agencies; and non-profit organizations. The IMTC is making “Rich Media happen Anywhere, Anytime.”
