Bernard J. Lechner

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Bernard J. Lechner
honor societies Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi
Thesis "Testing HDTV terrestrial broadcasting systems"
"Scanning the issue-Special issue on consumer electronics"
"The ATSC Transport Layer, Including Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP)"
"It's a High-Definition World",
"History Crystallized: A First-Person Account of the Development of Matrix-Addressed LCDs for Television at RCA in the 1960s"

Bernard J. Lechner (25 January 1932 – 11 April 2014) was an electronics engineer and formerly vice president, RCA Laboratories, where he worked for 30 years covering various aspects of television and information display technologies.

Biography

Lechner was born in

New Rochelle, New York. According to his oral history recollections,[1]
he was already very interested in radio and TV receivers during his high school years. He built sets with commercially available kits.

Then, he studied electrical engineering at the

U.S. Army Signal Corps
in the US and Germany. He received the B.S.E.E. degree in 1957.

In 1957, he joined the

TV tuners
and TV broadcast cameras. He headed various RCA research groups working on these developments.

While already working at RCA, he did graduate work at

Harvard School of Business
.

Bernie died on April 11, 2014.[2]

Active matrix addressing

CMOS 4000 series). At a press conference at RCA Headquarters in New York, a demonstration of such an LC matrix display with 36 pixels, using discrete components, took place in 1968 and showed the feasibility of the concept for TV panels.[4] A corresponding publication followed in 1969.[5]

RCA reduced the efforts on LCDs and sold the remaining operations in 1976. Lechner concentrated his work on advanced video systems. He became RCA staff vice president for these activities. In this capacity he was a member of the US delegation to the Comité Consultatif International pour la Radio (CCIR, now

HDTV
standard from 1989 to 1990.

Lechner distance

The Lechner Distance chart illustrates the optimal viewing distances at which the human eye can best process the details an HDTV resolution has to offer.[6] For example, the optimal viewing distance for a 42 inches (110 cm) Full HD TV (1080p) is 5.5 feet (170 cm).

Lechner researched the typical distance between a viewer and their television screen by taking measurements in many American homes. The median distance compiled from all his data came out to 9 feet (2.7 m). Given this distance, a Full HD TV (1080p) with a screen size of 69 inches (180 cm) would deliver the optimal viewing resolution.[7]

When GE acquired RCA and gave the David Sarnoff Research Center to SRI International in 1987, Lechner took early retirement. Lechner continued his work as independent consultant serving on standard committees and in related organizations as well as an expert witness in patent cases.

Memberships and awards

Lechner was a Fellow of the

honor societies Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi
.

In 1971, he was named the first recipient of the SID Frances Rice Darne Award for his outstanding contributions to matrix displays and in 1983, he was named the first recipient of the Beatrice Winner Award for his contributions to SID. He was awarded the David Sarnoff Medal in 1996 and the Progress Medal in 2001 by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) for his many contributions to the technologies essential to today's television systems.[8] Lechner received two RCA Laboratories Outstanding Achievement Awards and a David Sarnoff Team Award in Science. In 2000, the

AMLCD)[10]

Selected publications

Lechner has widely published in the areas of displays and television systems. He also holds ten United States patents.

  • Lechner, B.J.: Testing HDTV terrestrial broadcasting systems, IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, Vol. 37 (1991), No. 4, pp. 148–151
  • Kressel H. and Lechner, B. J. (guest editors): Scanning the issue-Special issue on consumer electronics, Proc. IEEE, Vol. 82 (1994), No. 4, pp. 445–458
  • Lechner, B.J.; Chernock, R.; Eyer, M.K.; Goldberg, A.; Goldman, M.S.: The ATSC Transport Layer, Including Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP), Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 94 (2006), No. 1, pp. 77–101
  • Lechner, B.J.: Guest Editorial, It's a High-Definition World, Information Display, Vol. 23, No. 11, November 2007
  • Lechner, B.J.: History Crystallized: A First-Person Account of the Development of Matrix-Addressed LCDs for Television at RCA in the 1960s, Information Display, Vol. 24, No. 1, January 2008

See also

References

  1. ^ Interview with Lechner on July, 28, 2012
  2. ^ Obituary in NJ Times, April 22, 2014
  3. ^ "Description of the invention of Active Matrix Addressing, Society for Information Display (SID), 2011". Archived from the original on 2013-10-21. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  4. ^ Benjamin Gross, "How RCA lost the LCD," IEEE Spectrum, Bd. 49, 11, November 2012, S. 49-53
  5. ^ B. J. Lechner, F. J. Marlowe, E. O. Nester and J. Tults: "Liquid crystal matrix displays", Dig. Tech. Papers, 1969 IEEE Int. Solid-State Circuits Conf., S. 52-53
  6. ^ "How Far Should You Sit From Your HDTV". Archived from the original on 2009-06-10. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  7. ^ "Lechner Distance: The Number You Need to Know Before Buying an HDTV". Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  8. ^ "SMPTE Progress Medal Past Recipients". Archived from the original on 2009-01-05. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  9. ^ Lechner Award Archived October 20, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal". Archived from the original on 2013-09-12. Retrieved 2013-10-17.

External links

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