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Television

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Glenn A. Reitmeier papers, 1989-2003

 Series
Accession: 2464-09Identifier: 2464-09-7.-I.
Scope and Content:

The Glenn Reitmeier papers are a digital collection of emails, scans of memos and faxes, meeting notes, agendas, presentations, data tables, and even press clippings related to Reitmeier’s activities, forwarded by email or gleaned from the internet.

The collection follows Reitmeier’s role in creating commercially viable digital high definition television technology, standards, and hardware. The papers begin with materials from the Advanced Television Research Consortium (ATRC), which he led from his position at Sarnoff from 1989 until 1993. The bulk of the Reitmeier papers come from his time in the Grand Alliance from 1993 to 1996. Finally, there are materials from the immediate aftermath of the Grand Alliance including marketing plans for making HDTV profitable and business deals with Japanese manufacturers. The papers do not just represent the technical activities of Reitmeier’s career, however; there are also materials tracking the extensive political debates about standardizing and developing HDTV technology (for example, an email responding to Martin Scorsese's public critiques of the GA) and presentations given at various conferences and technology summits.

The Reitmeier papers are especially important for the inside look they offer into the regulatory process as a collaboration between government and various industries: electronics, consumer electronics, broadcasters, Hollywood, computing and other industries are all players in this story. Historians of technological development and path-dependency might be especially interested in the debate over interlace versus progressive scanning and transmission in HDTV. The co-creation of MPEG standards along with HDTV, told in both the first and second subseries, is another important story for those looking at the relationship between engineering, innovation, policy, and standardization.

One of Reitmeier's lab notebooks (1977-1979) can be found in Record group 26.

Dates: 1989-2003