Digital Processing Medal

The Digital Processing Medal honors the recipient by recognizing significant technical achievements related to the development of digital processing of content for motion picture, television, games or other related media.

In recognition of leading the development of several widely successful MPEG and ITU video compression standards. Ohm has been an active member of MPEG since 1998, serving as chair of the MPEG Video Subgroup for the past 16 years. He was the co-chair of the Joint Video Team (JVT), which developed the H.264/MPEG AVC standard. As co-chair of the Joint Collaborative Team (JCT), he oversaw the development of the H.265/HEVC standard. He also co-chaired and eventually chaired the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET), which developed and continues to improve the H.266/VVC standard. AVC and HEVC have received three Emmy Awards for their wide adoption in video content delivery. Ohm is widely recognized as a world-class expert and thought leader in video compression and image processing.

Jens-Rainer Ohm holds the chair position at the Institute of Communication Engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Germany since 2000. His research and teaching activities cover the areas of multimedia signal processing, analysis, compression, transmission and content description, including 3D and VR video applications, bio signal processing and communication, application of deep learning approaches in the given fields, as well as fundamental topics of signal processing and digital communication systems. Since 1998, he participates in the work of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). He has been chairing/co-chairing various standardization activities of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 (MPEG) in video coding, namely the MPEG Video Subgroup 2002-2018, the Joint Video Team (JVT) of MPEG and ITU-T SG16/Q6 (VCEG) 2005-2009, the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) 2010-2020, as well as the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET) since 2015. In 2020, after disbanding of WG11, he was appointed convenor of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG5, and since then, he is chairing JVET on behalf of both ISO and ITU-T parent bodies. Beyond Emmy Awards acknowledging the standards developments conducted by JVT and JCT-VC, Prof. Ohm received the Eduard Rhein Technology Award and the VDE Ring of Honor for his contributions to the field of video coding.