December 9, 2011

Scientists of the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute receive Karl Heinz Beckurts Award 2011 for significant contributions for video coding solution

Innovations for open and international standards – Karl Heinz Beckurts Award 2011 for high-efficiency video coding solution

For scientific research and contributions in the field of video coding, and for their participation in developing and establishing the internationally well known video-codec H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, Prof. Dr. Thomas Wiegand, Dr. Detlev Marpe and Dr. Heiko Schwarz of the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute and the Technical University Berlin have received the Karl Heinz Beckurts Award 2011. The highly efficient codec H.264/MPEG-4 AVC is currently being used in more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide. For their scientific efforts in elaborating technological solutions and their creative ideas as well as their participation as editors and as heads of the standardization committee, Prof. Dr. Thomas Wiegand, Dr. Detlev Marpe and Dr. Heiko Schwarz have a significant share in H.264's global success.

"With this year's Karl Heinz Beckurts Award we are paying tribute to a team of researchers who have consistently turned their scientific ideas into great practical advantage. Through a series of cooperation projects with major manufacturers, they have succeeded in establishing their innovations as an internationally accepted open standard for the whole industry,” said Prof. Dr. Günther Wess, director of the Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation.

The awards ceremony, followed by a gala reception, will be held on Friday December 9 at 17:00 hrs in the Max-Joseph-Saal of the foundation's Munich Residence.

The H.264/AVC standard is a particularly efficient form of video compression which now features in practically all mobile and stationary end devices with video capability.

The Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation gives the 30,000 euro award on an annual basis in honor of scientific and technical achievements of particular merit which provide key impulses for industrial innovation in Germany. The Karl Heinz Beckurts Award is given by the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.