John Ross To Be Awarded With Presidential Proclamation Award from SMPTE

John Ross, the founder of Ross Video, will receive a Presidential Proclamation Award from SMPTE — The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers — later this year. The Awards Gala will be held in downtown Los Angeles on October 25th, during which John will be recognized for his work in the development of production switchers, signal processing, chroma keying, and analog and digital systems design. As well as building the world’s first entirely solid-state production switcher, John was also granted a fundamental patent for the first chroma keyer to enable remote selection of any background color, rather than just blue. This invention directly led to the use of the green screen.

“Awards like these are never achieved by oneself alone,” says Ross. “I’ve been very fortunate that some extremely kind people have opened doors for me throughout my career, and I have been blessed to have worked with many fine engineers along the way”.

“Anyone who knows my Dad or has been part of his career understands what a profound impact his work has had on the broadcast industry internationally,” says David Ross, Ross Video’s current CEO and John’s son. “I’m delighted that this body of work is being recognized by SMPTE and he’s a very worthy recipient. Congratulations, Dad!”

John Ross founded Ross Video in 1974 and retired from the company in 2006. As well as this award, John has also received the Order of Canada at the Officer level and is an Honorary Member of The International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers (IABM).