Audio Video News

Two of the biggest names in sound are going to get two of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'s highest honors next week. Ray Dolby and Amar Bose will respectively receive the IEEE Edison Medal and the IEEE/Royal Society of Edinburgh Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award at an awards ceremony on June 26.

The Edison Medal is akin to the Nobel Prize for Technology. Since its creation in 1904 it's been awarded to inventors and engineers like Alexander Graham Bell, William Pickering, and Vladimir Zworykin, pioneers in telephony, space exploration, and television technology. Dolby is receiving the medal for the work he's done over the last 50 years in noise reduction technology, starting with the algorithm he created in 1960 to reduce hissing on analog recordings. Since 1965, Dolby Labs has been one of the biggest names in sound engineering.

The Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award isn't nearly as old as the Edison Medal, but it's still a prestigious award. It was established in 2006 as a way of recognizing people or groups whose work has significantly advanced electronics or electrical engineering. Amar G. Bose, chairman and technical director of the Bose Corporation, will receive the award for his work in consumer electronics and engineering education. Over his career, he's researched everything from sound technology to automotive suspensions, and he spent over 45 years teaching engineering at MIT.

The awards ceremony will be televised live over IEEE.tv on June 26.

— Will Greenwald