Bernard J. Lechner (1932-2014) was a member of the RCA Laboratories Technical Staff from 1957 to 1987. Lechner's work focused on television research, particularly HDTV, and he received awards for his expertise in several areas of electronics.

During his school years, Lechner showed interest in radio and TV receivers by building them from kits. While studying electrical engineering at Columbia University, he was drafted into the U.S. Army Signal Corps, spending two years stationed in the U.S. and Germany. Upon completing his B.S. in 1957, Lechner went to work for RCA Laboratories in Princeton where, encouraged by colleague George H. Heilmeier, he assisted in the development of liquid crystal displays (LCD). Lechner later concentrated his work on advanced television systems, aiding in the development of HDTV.

Lechner was famous for creating a distance chart which detailed the optimal distance or "Lechner Distance" for viewing television, given a specific TV screen size.

He was appointed Director of the Video Systems Research Laboratory in 1977 and was promoted to Staff Vice-President, Advanced Video Systems in 1983. Stepping down from a leadership role in 1986, Lechner retired the following year. He continued his extensive work on standards committees and began consulting with various companies on television development. He also served as an expert witness in patent disputes.