M. Georges Valensi (1889–1980) was a French telecommunications engineer who, in 1938, invented and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

ed a method of transmitting color images via

luma Luma or LUMA may refer to: Arts * La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia * LUMA Projection Arts Festival, an annual event featuring building-scale projection mapping and light installations in Binghamton, NY * LUMA Foundation, ...

and chrominance so that they could be received on both color and black & white

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

sets. Rival color television methods, which had been in development since the 1920s, were incompatible with monochrome televisions. Valensi was an official of CCIF serving first as

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

(1923–1948) and then as Director (1949–1956). All current widely deployed color television standards –

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

, SECAM,

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

and today's digital standards – implement his idea of transmitting a signal composed of separate luminance and chrominance. Because his invention pre-dated the actual introduction of color television by so long, his patent was exceptionally extended to 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valensi, Georges French telecommunications engineers 20th-century French inventors Television pioneers 1889 births 1980 deaths