Joseph Antony Flaherty, Jr. (December 25, 1930 – August 7, 2018) was the Senior Vice President for Technology at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. He is the inventor and co-inventor of many television technologies including the miniature color camera, and off-line videotape editing, and co-inventor to Raymond D. Schneider of

Electronic news-gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape techn ...

. Flaherty was Chairman of the Planning Subcommittee of the U.S.

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

's (FCC) Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service that developed the ATSC

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

standard.

Biography

Joseph A. Flaherty, Jr. is the son of a television engineer. He earned a degree in physics from Rockhurst College. From 1953 to 1955 Flaherty served at the

United States Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...

Photographic Center. As Technical Director and Design Engineer of the U.S. Army's first television station, Flaherty designed the studio wherein training films were made through

kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 194 ...

. Flaherty's career at CBS began in 1957 when he joined as a Design Engineer. Flaherty moved up in the ranks due to his innovations, and in 1977 he became Vice President for Technology. At CBS, he played an integral role in the development of such technologies as Electronic news-gathering, the miniature color camera, one inch videotape, off-line videotape editing, and high definition television. High definition television was one of Flaherty's chief areas of interest; he presented many papers on the subject. Flaherty served as Chairman of the Planning Subcommittee of the FCC's Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service that developed the ATSC HDTV standard. Flaherty has also served as a Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. He was a fan of Clarke's work and has referenced the science fiction author in speeches. Joe Flaherty died on August 7, 2018, at the age of 87.

Honors and awards received

* Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers David Sarnoff Gold Medal (1974) * Emmy for development of Electronic News Gathering (1975) * National Association of Broadcasters Engineering Award (1983) * Chevalier de l'Ordre National de la Légion d'honneur (1985) * Emmy for electronic editing systems for programs produced on film (1986) * Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1989) * Emmy for the first Digital Computer Automation System for television (1989) * Member of the Broadcasting and Cable Magazine Hall of Fame (1991) * Personal Achievement Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in Contributions to the Development and Improvement of the Science and Technology of Television (1994) * Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award (1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flaherty, Joseph A. American engineers CBS executives 1930 births 2018 deaths