IMTC Recognizes Technology & Industry Leaders

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) is delighted to honor the leadership and lifetime achievements of two eminent multimedia pioneers and their contributions to the IP Video Telephony industry. The awards presentation will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland on March 3, 2010.

“The IMTC is making Rich Media happen Anywhere, Anytime.”

“In order to be eligible for this award, candidates must have contributed to the development and advancement of telecommunication standards specifically addressing IP Video services, products, software, communication protocols, video, data and audio encoding or decoding technologies. A candidate is considered eligible based on their overall contributions,” explained Anatoli Levine, IMTC President and Director, Product Management for RADVISION. “IMTC is pleased to recognize the extraordinary caliber of these individuals who have significantly influenced our industry, especially in multimedia research, development, standardization, education and management.”

IMTC will present its prestigious Leadership Award to Pierre-André Probst, former Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16 (SG16) and Executive Vice President of Swisscom, for his long and outstanding career in CCITT and ITU standardization. For over 30 years, Mr. Probst participated in standardization work as delegate, Rapporteur, Working Party and Study Group Chairman. During his ITU career, Mr. Probst was instrumental in the creation of SG16 reuniting the "conferencing" subjects dispersed in SG8, SG14, and SG15 into a single multimedia study group, and he served as the first Chairman of ITU-T SG16 (Multimedia Systems, Services and Terminals) from 1997 to 2008.

In parallel with his ITU-T participation, Pierre-André Probst led a very active professional life at Swisscom with a full range of responsibilities; starting as an Engineer, he retired a few years ago as Member of the Management Board and Executive Vice President for Corporate Operations. His professional career started as a Research assistant at the High Frequency Institute of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in the early seventies. Mr. Probst holds a Master of Sciences in electrical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ).

An IMTC Fellowship award will be presented to Mr. Jim Polizotto, former IMTC Secretary and Vice President of Global Inventures, for his many years of outstanding service to IMTC, for his numerous contributions to the industry and for, more recently, running the IMTC Secretariat with ‘engineering precision’. Mr. Polizotto’s association with IMTC spanned almost 15 years. He served on the IMTC Board of Directors, was Treasurer from 1995 to 2000 and Secretary from 2001 to September 2009. Mr. Polizotto has extensive experience in networking, video streaming and standards based systems technology. From 1994 until October 2001, Jim Polizotto held several engineering director level positions for CLI and VTEL, and he was instrumental in the delivery of several H.320 and H.323 video conferencing solutions. Mr. Polizotto holds a BA degree from the University of Rochester in New York.

“I am deeply honored to receive the IMTC Fellowship award. I have served IMTC since 1995 in various capacities as Director, Treasurer and finally as IMTC Secretary, and I have developed many close friendships during that time. IMTC has been a leader in the telecommunications industry, especially ensuring interoperability of products, and I am certain that the organization will continue to fulfill that role in the future,” announced Jim Polizotto upon hearing of his award from IMTC.

Information on all IMTC fellows can be found at our website http://imtc.org/about/fellows.asp.

IMTC will also present Service Awards to four long-standing Board Members and Officers: Masashi Tonomura, Senior Software Engineer, Sony; Pablo ‘merkur’ Kohan, CEO, XIMPO; Jim Polizotto, Vice President, Global Inventures and Susan Lowe, Executive Director, Global Inventures. They all have provided outstanding service to the IMTC during their terms on the IMTC Board and have been enthusiastic supporters of IMTC Forums, SuperOp’s and other IMTC activities.

“These individuals are video telephony pioneers who’ve provided the forum and platform to allow for the creation and adoption of new and ever changing IP Video communications standards,” said Matt Collier, IMTC Director and Vice President with LifeSize Communications. “LifeSize is pleased to be working with the IMTC community because they are focused on advancing IP-based video telephony and conferencing capabilities, and IMTC provides the opportunity to test applications across mixed platforms and architectures. Also, the IMTC Forum and SuperOp are excellent opportunities to keep in touch with emerging trends and technologies that will advance multimedia capabilities.”

About the International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC)

The IMTC is an industry-leading, non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and facilitate the development and use of interoperable, real-time, multimedia telecommunication products and services based on open international standards. The IMTC hosts interoperability testing events and demonstrations throughout the world. IMTC has hosted more than 20 such events to test H.323, 3G-324M, 3G-PSS, SIP, Nat/Firewall Traversal, T.120, H .320, and Voice over IP products and services with each other. The IMTC Board of Directors includes representatives from Cisco Systems, Dilithium Networks, Ericsson, LifeSize Communications, Nokia, Polycom, RADVISION, and TANDBERG. The San Ramon, California-based consortium comprises approximately 40 member organizations from around the globe. Membership is open to any interested party, including vendors of audio, document, and video conferencing hardware and software; academic institutions; government agencies; and non-profit organizations. “The IMTC is making Rich Media happen Anywhere, Anytime.” Further information on IMTC can be found at http://www.imtc.org.