South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) said on Oct. 30 that senior researcher Park Sung-ik (박성익) was named an Emmy Innovator Honoree in the United States. It said he was recognised for contributing to the development and international standardisation of key transmission technologies for ATSC 3.0, a next-generation terrestrial broadcasting standard.

The Emmy awards are highly regarded in U.S. broadcasting and television and are also called the Academy Awards of broadcasting. The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards honour technological innovation and engineering achievements that have had an important impact on the development of the broadcasting and video industry. The ceremony was held on Oct. 14 in Los Angeles.

ATSC 3.0 is a next-generation terrestrial broadcasting standard that supports ultra-high definition (UHD) broadcasting, indoor and mobile reception, interactive services and converged broadcasting-telecommunications services. South Korea began the world's first commercial terrestrial UHD broadcasts based on ATSC 3.0 in 2017.

Park has taken part in research on core transmission technologies and international standardisation since the early development stage of ATSC 3.0. In 2022, he was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 2024, he received the ATSC Richard Medal for contributing to the advancement and global spread of ATSC 3.0 technology.

ETRI has taken part in developing core technologies for next-generation digital broadcasting and international standardisation since 2010. It researched and developed key physical-layer technologies including layer division multiplexing (LDM), which enables simultaneous transmission of multiple signals on a single broadcast frequency, multiple input multiple output (MIMO), which uses multiple antennas to increase transmission capacity and reception performance, and transmitter identification (TxID).

ETRI said LDM-MIMO combined technology, which it led in development and international standardisation, was adopted in Brazil's next-generation broadcasting standard, DTV+ (TV 3.0). Brazil began DTV+ broadcasts this year.

Park said, "ATSC 3.0 is a technology developed through long-term cooperation among many researchers and experts around the world, and I am glad that ETRI's research achievements were able to contribute to this Emmy award." He added, "I will continue to work for the development of next-generation broadcasting technology and its global expansion."