i3 - November/December 2017 - 47

Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione
PUBLISHER,
CO-FOUNDER,
TWICE MAGAZINE
MPEG (1943
(1947-)-0000)

DTV has many parents,
but the efforts to birth
the next-generation
TV standard started with the
necessity of compressing thick
high-resolution digital video
signals into seemingly impossibly
narrow broadcast delivery pipes.
The solution was the MPEG-2
video compression standard,
one result of MPEG - the Motion
Picture Experts Group - goaded
into existence and guided by Dr.
Leonardo Chiariglione, known
today as "the father of MPEG."
Chiariglione's leadership of
MPEG resulted not only in MPEG2, but MPEG-1, which includes the
MP3 music compression format,
and MPEG-4, now the de facto
video compression standard
for digital video recording in
smartphones, camcorders and
digital cameras. Versions of
MPEG are included in nearly
every digital media device extant,
resulting in an industry worth
several billions of dollars.
Chiariglione was born on
January 30, 1943, in a village near
Turin, Italy. His father, Giuseppe,
was a carpenter, and his mother,
Teresa, a shopkeeper. Chiariglione
earned his electronic engineering
master's degree from the
Polytechnic of Turin (1967), then
his Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo
(1973). Before he left Italy, he
learned Japanese, the last of the
five languages he has mastered.
This linguistic dexterity proved
invaluable in his drive toward
a global video compression

H

C TA . t e c h / i 3

In 1988, Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione
persuaded Dr. Hiroshi Yasuda to
help him convene a group to formulate
universal digital video compression
standards - MPEG.

standard produced in the multicultural MPEG environment.
In March 1971, Chiariglione
took a job at CSELT, the Turinbased corporate research center
of the Telecom Italia group, now
known as the Telecom Italia
Lab. His work on a "videophone"
project triggered his interest in
global video standards.
Chiariglione convened the
International Workshop on
HDTV, targeted at promoting
the technical aspects of
HDTV, in 1986. In May 1988,
Chiariglione persuaded Dr.
Hiroshi Yasuda, then heavily
involved with JPEG (Joint
Photographic Experts Group),
to help him convene a group
to formulate universal digital

video compression standards
- MPEG. MPEG meetings soon
began to attract 300 members
from 25 countries and from
more than 100 companies
in consumer electronics,
computers, broadcasting and
telecommunications.
Initially, MPEG work focused
on the video storage capabilities
of the CD, which led to the
development of the draft
MPEG-1 standard in September
1990. Even before the standard
was finalized in November 1992,
software, multimedia boards
and chips implementing
MPEG-1 were already available,
establishing a technology
that took off in Asia, especially
in China, where hundreds of

millions of MPEG-1 video CD
decoders have been sold.
At an MPEG meeting in
Sydney, Australia, in April 1993,
MPEG's "main profile" for digital
TV coding - MPEG-2 - was
adopted. Three months later,
MPEG-2 was recommended as
the compression scheme by
the Grand Alliance standard for
HDTV, then mandated by the
FCC as part of the completed
HDTV standard in December
1996. Numerous additional
MPEG standards soon followed.
While acknowledged as
a visionary for his attention
to detail and his ability to
keep collaborators focused,
Chiariglione also stressed that
MPEG has been a collective effort,
and its success is due largely
to MPEG's expert "horsepower"
and charismatic leaders in many
MPEG activities.
MPEG's work has been
awarded four Emmys and
Chiariglione has received several
other awards including the
IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer
Electronics Award (2012). In 1999,
Chiariglione was named one
of the most important people
shaping technology by Time
Magazine's Digital 50.
Chiariglione rose to vice
president of multimedia at
CSELT/Telecom Italia Lab before
leaving the company in 2003.
He still leads MPEG and several
other entrepreneurial multimedia
companies and non-profits from
his home near Turin, Italy, where
he lives with his wife.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017

47
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