by , 12:00 PM EDT, August 22nd, 2001
Apple will be awarded a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award tonight by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The award will be granted tonight in a ceremony that will not be televised, as near as The Mac Observer can tell. Apple's contribution to Digital Video in the form of FireWire is reason for the award. According to a press release by Apple:
Apple's FireWire® technology will be honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in an awards presentation held tonight at the academy's Goldenson Theatre in Hollywood. Apple® will receive a 2001 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award for FireWire's material impact on the television industry.
Apple invented FireWire in the mid-90s and shepherded it to become the established cross-platform industry standard IEEE 1394. FireWire is a high-speed serial input/output technology for connecting digital devices such as digital camcorders and cameras to desktop and portable computers. Widely adopted by digital peripheral companies such as Sony, Canon, JVC and Kodak, FireWire has become the established industry standard for both consumers and professionals.
"Apple enabled the desktop video revolution with its invention of FireWire," said Jon Rubinstein, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. "Today, Apple builds FireWire into every computer it sells, and it is a key component of Apple's 'digital hub' strategy."
FireWire combined with Apple's award-winning Final Cut Pro® and iMovie(TM) video editing software has catapulted Apple to become the world's largest supplier of video editing solutions for both the professional and consumer markets. In addition, Apple's PowerBook® G4 Titanium notebook, with its built-in FireWire, together with low-cost, high-quality DV camcorders, has sparked a mobile DV-editing phenomenon that has revolutionized video editing within the television and film industry.
Transferring data at up to 400Mbps, FireWire delivers more than 30 times the bandwidth of the popular USB peripheral standard. With its high data-transfer speed and ``hot plug-and-play'' capability, FireWire is the interface of choice for today's digital audio and video devices, as well as external hard drives and other high-speed peripherals.
You can find more information about FireWire at Apple's Web site:
Seriously though, we offer our congratulations to Apple for being recognized for something that it certainly deserves to be recognized for.
The awards being issued tonight shouldn't be confused with the main Emmy Awards that will be taking place on September 16th. It is still a pretty cool honor for Apple and FireWire alike.