Canon’s Larry Thorpe Honored for Lifetime Achievement at Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards

Larry Thorpe, senior fellow, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Professional Engineering & Solutions Division, Canon U.S.A., and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, received the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award last night as part of the 66th Primetime Emmy Engineering Awards ceremony, held in Las Vegas. The award honors an individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering.

Larry Thorpe

“Larry’s contributions to the overall advancement of broadcast-, HD-, and now 4K-image capture and technology have truly shaped the way in which we all view the world and the creative content that is produced,” says Yuichi Ishizuka, president/COO, Canon U.S.A. “We are honored to continue to work with Larry as he guides not only Canon but the industry toward incredible new horizons in resolution, distribution, color science, and optics. His talent and intuitive insight are exceeded only by his good nature, strong heart, and witty humor. He is a true asset to Canon and the entire imaging community.”

Thorpe says he has indeed had an extended and rich professional life that has seen some of the most exciting developments in video imaging.

“It is a particularly special privilege to have the final phase of my career coincide with the truly exciting rise of Canon as a major global player in high-end content creation,” he adds.

Thorpe joined Canon U.S.A. in 2004 as national marketing executive for the Broadcast & Communications Division. He was promoted to senior fellow in 2012. A renowned industry expert in the field of video acquisition, he spent more than 20 years at Sony Electronics pioneering development of HDTV and digital production technologies in the U.S. broadcast and motion-picture industries. Prior to that, Thorpe worked for RCA’s Broadcast Division in Camden, NJ, from 1966 to 1982, developing a range of color television cameras and telecine products. From that work, he holds 10 patents in broadcast development. He has published more than 60 papers on camera technology and the topic of HDTV imaging. He is a Life Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). A graduate of the College of Technology in Dublin, he began his career as a design engineer with the BBC in London.

In 1981, Thorpe won the David Sarnoff Award for his innovations in automatic studio color cameras. He received the Montreux 2000 Gold Medal Award for Digital Cinematography, the NAB 2001 Television Engineering Achievement Award, the Society of Television Engineers (STE) 2001 award, and, in 2004, the Broadcasting & Cable Technical Leadership Award.