The David Sarnoff Medal

The David Sarnoff Medal, sponsored by SRI International, recognizes the recipient's outstanding contributions to the development of new techniques or equipment which have contributed to the improvement of the engineering phases of television technology, including large-venue presentations.

In recognition of his role in promoting the adoption of the SMPTE 2110 standard for Carriage of Media over IP, not just through SMPTE but also through industry organizations such as AMWA, AIMS, and the VSF. Since graduating from MIT in 1988, Mailhot has been a leader in the broadcast and media industry. Beginning with his work in the development with AT+T Bell Labs on the HDTV Grand Alliance system for over-the-air HDTV distribution and the migration of media carriage on IP networks, he has been an authority figure driving the deployment of innovative change in the industry.

John Mailhot has worked in the field of digital high-definition (HD) television systems since 1990. He began as part of the AT&T-Zenith team, responsible for system architecture and integration of the digital spectrum compatible high-definition television (DSC-HDTV) system prototype, and then served as technical lead for the Grand Alliance encoder at Lucent Technologies. He subsequently held engineering manager and general manager roles at Lucent Digital Video, Aastra Digital Video, and the Harris Broadcast Video Networking Group. Today, Mailhot is the Senior VP of Product Management for Playout and Infrastructure at Imagine Communications. He has dual bachelor's degrees in computer science and electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has been recognized as a SMPTE Fellow. He also serves on the boards of the Video Services Forum (VSF) and the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA).