Ami Miron () is an American Israeli entrepreneur and technology developer specializing in consumer electronics, the Internet, and television. He developed and patented the first commercially successful Picture In Picture (PIP) for

Philips Electronics Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

. Miron also worked to solve the problem of ghost images on television and led the development of the first

high-definition television High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

(HDTV) system in the U.S. He received two

Technology and Engineering Emmy Award The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...

s for these last two innovations.

Early life and education

Miron was born and grew up on Kibbutz Ruhama in southern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Following service in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

(IDF) during the 1973

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

, he earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

(BSc) in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology He went on to receive a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in electrical engineering (MSEE) from the

Polytechnic Institute of New York University The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United St ...

and a professional degree in electrical engineering from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He later completed an executive management program at

Babson College Babson College is a Private university, private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his We ...

Career

Philips Electronics

After working for Dutch electronics company Philips in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, in 1981 Miron came to the U.S. in 1981 to work for them. Miron developed and patented the first Picture in Picture (PIP) system for Philips. He subsequently developed a system to solve the problem of ghost images on television. The

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...

selected this Ghost Canceling System as the U.S. standard, which won Miron a

. Miron won his second Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for leading the development of the first

(HDTV) system in the U.S., which the FCC then selected as the U.S. standard.

General Instrument Corporation

In 1993, Miron joined

Horsham, Pennsylvania Horsham is a census-designated place in Horsham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 15,193 at the 2020 census. It is home to the Biddle Air National Guard Base at the former site of Naval Air Station ...

-based

General Instrument Corporation General Instrument (GI) was an American electronics manufacturer based in Horsham, Pennsylvania, specializing in semiconductors and cable television equipment. They formed in New York City in 1923 as an electronics manufacturer. During the 1950s, ...

(later part of Motorola and now Google) as vice president to lead advanced technology and new products for the cable television, consumer and telecommunication markets.

MoreCom

In 1997, Miron left General Instrument to found MoreCom Inc., a software networking company based in Horsham that provided digital entertainment and Internet content to televisions. In 2000, Liberate Technologies acquired the privately held firm in an all-stock deal.

Current ventures

Miron is the founder and president of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

-based AM Partners, which works with entrepreneurs, start-ups, venture capital, and universities. He serves on the board of Ben Franklin Technology Partners and on the advisory board of Emerald Stage2 Ventures. Miron also serves as a senior advisor at the Wharton Small Business Development Center and an advisor to the Columbia University Entrepreneurship program.

Personal life

Miron resides in

Dresher, Pennsylvania Dresher (previously Dreshertown) is a community in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The population was 5,610 at the 2000 census. Because Dresher is neither an incorporated area nor a census-designated place, all statis ...

and is the father to four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miron, Ami Living people American technology company founders Israeli emigrants to the United States Philips employees Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Year of birth missing (living people) People from Ruhama