Renville McMann (1927-2015) was an inventor of television technology and a long-time employee of CBS Laboratories and Thomson-CSF.

Renville Hunfel McMann Jr. was born in New York City on August 20, 1927, the son of Helen M. McMann (1899-1982) and Renville H. McMann (1895-1976). McMann received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Yale University in 1950. He worked for the National Broadcasting Company as a project engineer on color TV studio and broadcasting equipment, as well as TV receiver design. He was an instructor in communications at New York University and a consultant to the U.S. Forest Service on Project Skyfire.

At CBS Laboratories, which he joined in 1955, McMann was instrumental in developing the Minicam Mark VI Portable Color TV Camera System and, as a result of his work, was a coholder of the first "Emmy Citation" for development from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

McMann held several executive posts with CBS Laboratories, including director of engineering in 1960. He was promoted to vice president in 1965 and became executive vice president in 1971 and president the following year. In April of 1975, CBS reached an agreement with Thomson-CSF, a major French electronics company, to sell the Professional Products Department of CBS Laboratories to Thomson-CSF, which shifted the focus of CBS research and development to the Company's own technological interests in broadcasting, recording and related areas. This led to McMann, who was President of CBS Laboratories at that time, leaving that post and becoming President of Thomson-CSF Laboratories.

Inventor of the electronic Image Enhancer – a device used throughout the broadcasting industry to sharpen the quality of pictures on home viewing screens – and the magnetic scan conversion technique used by NASA to convert color television pictures transmitted from the moon for standard broadcasting to homes, McMann played a key role major development activities of CBS Laboratories.

He was a major participant in such projects as the "starlight" television camera for transmitting color pictures from inside the human body for medical diagnosis and education, a color correction device used by television broadcasters to provide better color television picture reproduction, and the CBS Minicam Marl VI hand-held electronic television camera system. The Minicam system in 1969 won the Laboratories the first Emmy citation from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for engineering development. The color corrector also earned a television Emmy for CBS in 1971 for engineering advancement and excellence.

McMann is recognized for his pioneering contributions in the application of CBS Laboratories' technological developments by the United States Government to the nation's space and defense programs. Among these are the Photoscan image transmission systems used by the military to transmit reconnaissance photographs from air to ground, and a system that transmits high-quality photographs via satellite from Saigon to Washington.

McMann was a member and president of the Radio Club of America, Fellow Yale Engineering Society, Fellow Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, International Radio and Television Society, Royal Television Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Society of Broadcast Engineers, Society for Information Display, American Rocket Society, Soaring Society of America, and the Armstrong Memorial Research Foundation.

Renville H. McMann Jr. died on August 31, 2015.