USL, Inc. is proud to announce our own Harold
Hallikainen as one of two recipients of the Samuel L. Warner Memorial
Medal Award. This award recognizes outstanding contributions in the design and
development of new and improved methods and apparatus for motion picture sound,
including any step in the process.
The 2015 award will be presented to Sripal
Mehta of Dolby Laboratories, Inc., and Harold Hallikainen in recognition of
their collaborative work in the development of closed caption communication
protocol standards for digital cinema. Their accomplishments include the
development of an Ethernet-based synchronization protocol with associated
resource presentation list, and a content essence format by which content
owners can create and package up to six languages of interoperable closed captions
in a single distribution. Their joint effort enabled the introduction of competitive closed
caption systems in motion picture exhibition,
providing improved means by which deaf and
hearing-impaired individuals may universally enjoy the cinema
experience.
Hallikainen served
as a chair of the SMPTE committee writing the standard
as it evolved. Mehta was the
document editor and provided much of the structure and technical details of the
standard. Hallikainen was the first to implement the client side of the
standard and provided test hardware to all digital cinema manufacturers, facilitating testing their
implementation of the server side of the standard. In addition, Hallikainen has further
tested interoperability at every ISDCF (
http://www.isdcf.com) Plug Fest and works with users to ensure continued
interoperability. Hallikainen wrote the ISDCF documents "Language Codes," and
"Closed Caption Authoring Best Practices" to further ensure
interoperability of closed captioning from content creation through server
playback to captioning equipment.
Hallikainen studied electronic
engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. From 1974 to 1995, he served as
president of Hallikainen and Friends, a manufacturer of audio and telemetry
equipment for the broadcast industry. From 1995 to 2007, he designed television
and theatre lighting control equipment for Dove Systems. Since 2007, he has
been an engineer at Ultra Stereo Labs specializing in analog and
microcontroller hardware and software design. He also taught analog and digital
circuitry, programming, and mathematics part time at Cuesta College, San
Luis Obispo
CA for 25 years. He is co-inventor of the Light and Sound sensor, a cinema
quality control device. He has written over 100 articles and two books on
broadcast regulation,
National Association of Broadcasters Chief Operator Guide and
National
Association of Broadcasters Guide to Unattended Station Operation. Other published works cover circuit analysis
and radio spectrum allocation. He has also written chapters in three editions
of the National Association of Broadcasters Engineering Handbook. While at USL,
he has been very active in several SMPTE standards committees, serving as chair
of the committee that developed the Auxiliary Content Synchronization Protocol
and secretary of the Cinema Sound Systems committee. He and his wife Louise
live with their two Shih Tzus in San Luis Obispo, CA.
[For further information and product
specifications contact USL Inc., Director of Marketing and Sales, Clint Koch at
[email protected].]