Gary Joseph Sullivan (born 1960) is an American

electrical engineer 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 ...

who led the development of the AVC,

HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In co ...

, and VVC video coding standards and created the DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA)

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

/ DDI video decoding feature of the

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

operating system. He is currently Director of Video Research and Standards at

Dolby Laboratories Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (Dolby Labs or simply Dolby) is a British-American technology corporation specializing in audio noise reduction, audio data compression, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and high-dynamic-range television (H ...

and is the chair of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 (Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information – the committee that oversees

JPEG JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degr ...

and

MPEG The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by International Organization for Standardization, ISO and International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC that sets standards for media coding, includ ...

standardization) and of the

ITU-T The International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is one of the three Sectors (branches) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is responsible for coordinating Standardization, standards fo ...

Video Coding Experts Group The Video Coding Experts Group or Visual Coding Experts Group (VCEG, also known as Question 6) is a working group of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) concerned with standards for compression coding of video, images, audio ...

(VCEG). He was the chairman and a co-founder of the Joint Video Team (JVT) standardization committee that developed the H.264/AVC standard, and he personally edited large portions of it. In January 2010, he became a founding co-chairman of the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding ( JCT-VC) and an editor for developing the

High Efficiency Video Coding High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In compa ...

(HEVC) standard. In October 2015, he became a founding co-chairman of the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET) that developed the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard. He has also led and contributed to a number of other video and image related standardization projects such as extensions of

H.263 video coding, multiview and 3D video coding for AVC and HEVC, and JPEG XR image coding. He has also published research work on various topics relating to video and image compression.

Biography

Sullivan was born and raised in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

, and attended the Ascension and St. Margaret Mary elementary schools and Trinity High School, graduating in 1978. He received B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in electrical engineering from the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

J. B. Speed School of Engineering, Kentucky, in 1982 and 1983, respectively. He received Ph.D. and

Engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

degrees in electrical engineering from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, in 1991. Sullivan joined Dolby Labs as Director of Video Research and Standards in 2023. From 1999 to 2022, Sullivan was a Video and Image Technology Architect at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Corporation. At Microsoft he also designed and remains lead engineer for the DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) API/DDI video decoding feature of the

operating system platform. His DXVA designs include decoding acceleration schemes for H.261,

MPEG-1 Part 2 MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to about 1.5 Mbit/s (26:1 and 6:1 compression ratios respectively) without excessive quality loss, m ...

, H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2, H.263,

MPEG-4 Part 2 MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual (formally International Organization for Standardization, ISO/International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC 14496-2) is a video encoding specification designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). It belongs to ...

, H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10: AVC,

Windows Media Video Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: the original video compression technolog ...

versions 8 and 9,

VC-1 SMPTE 421, informally known as VC-1, is a video coding format. Most of it was initially developed as Microsoft's proprietary video format Windows Media Video 9 in 2003. With some enhancements including the development of a new Advanced Profile, ...

Scalable Video Coding Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is a video compression standard developed jointly by the ITU-T and the ISO/IEC. The two organizations formed the ''Joint Video Team'' (JVT) to create the H.264/ MPEG-4 AVC standard (ITU-T Rec. H.264 , ISO/IEC 14496- ...

, Multiview Video Coding, and

. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was the manager of communications core research at PictureTel Corporation, the former world leader in videoconferencing communication. He was previously a Howard Hughes Fellow and member of technical staff in the Advanced Systems Division of

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes H-4 Hercules air ...

, and a

terrain-following radar Terrain-following radar (TFR) is a military aerospace technology that allows a very-low-flying aircraft to automatically maintain a relatively constant altitude above ground level and therefore make detection by enemy radar more difficult. It is ...

system software engineer for

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

Awards

Recognitions and awards for Sullivan and the projects he has led in the standardization community have included the following: * Fellow of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

(ACM), "for contributions to video and image compression and leadership in its standardization", 2022 * Fellow of the

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded by Charles Francis Jenkins in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and e ...

(SMPTE) for "individuals who have, by proficiency and contributions, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives, in the motion-picture, television or related industries", 2022 * Digital Processing Medal of SMPTE for innovation and industry leadership in image and video compression, 2019 * Primetime Emmy Engineering Award – awarded to the JCT-VC standards committee by the

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. A 501(c)(6) non-profit or ...

for development of the

(HEVC) standard, 2017 * Best Paper Award of ''IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology'', 2017 (together with Thiow Keng Tan, Rajitha Weerakkody, Marta Mrak, Naeem Ramzan, Vittorio Baroncini, and Jens-Rainer Ohm) * Best Paper Award of ''IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology'', 2013 (together with Jens-Rainer Ohm, Woo-Jin Han, and

Thomas Wiegand Thomas Wiegand (born 6 May 1970 in Wismar) is a German electrical engineer who substantially contributed to the creation of the H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, and H.266/VVC video coding standards. He has been elected to the German National Academy of ...

) * IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award (together with Gisle Bjøntegaard and Thomas Wiegand), 2012 * Fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (

SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

) for achievements in video and image compression technologies, 2009 * J. B. Speed Professional Award in Engineering, 2009 * Paired

Technology & 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 – one awarded to VCEG and one to MPEG by the

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...

for development of the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard, 2009 * Primetime Emmy Engineering Award – awarded to the JVT standards committee by the

for development of the High Profile of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, 2008 * International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) Leadership award, 2008 *

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

(IEEE) Consumer Electronics Engineering Excellence Award, 2008 * Fellow of the IEEE for contributions to video coding and its standardization, 2006 * The video coding work of the

led by Sullivan for the preceding ten years was voted as the most influential area of the standardization work of the

CCITT The International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is one of the three Sectors (branches) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is responsible for coordinating standards for telecommunicat ...

and ITU-T in their 50-year history, 2006 * Technical Achievement award of the

International Committee for Information Technology Standards The InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), (pronounced "insights"), is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization composed of Information technology developers. It was formerly known as the X3 and NCIT ...

(INCITS) for his work on H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and other video standardization topics, 2005

Leadership

Sullivan has held the following chairmanships in video coding standardization organizations: *

Rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

/chairman of the

(VCEG) of

ITU-T Study Group 16 The ITU-T Study Group 16 (SG16) is a statutory group of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) concerned with multimedia coding, systems and applications, such as video coding standards. It is responsible for standardization of ...

– since 1996 * Chairman and co-chairman of the video part of the

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

/ IEC

Moving Picture Experts Group The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by ISO and IEC that sets standards for media coding, including compression coding of audio, video, graphics, and genomic data; and transmission and ...

(MPEG) – chairman March 2001 to May 2002, co-chairman January 2005 to January 2018 * Chairman and co-chairman of the Joint Video Team – chairman for the development of the next generation H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video coding standard and its fidelity-range extensions (FRExt), and co-chairman for the development of the

(SVC) and Multiview Video Coding (MVC) extensions – founded December 2001 (group closed November 2009) * Co-chairman of Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) for developing the

(HEVC) standard – founded January 2010 (group closed July 2020) * Co-chairman of Joint Collaborative Team on 3D Video Coding (JCT-3V) for developing 3D extensions of video coding standards – founded July 2012 (group closed June 2016) * Co-chairman of the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET) for the development of the Versatile Video Coding standard – founded October 2015, served until July 2021 * Chair of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 – selected as chair-elect in June 2020, chair since January 2021 * Liaison representative to

and

from ITU-T on video and image coding topics The JVT, JCT-VC, JCT-3V, and JVET have been joint projects between the VCEG and MPEG organizations.

References

External links

Video coding standardization organizations

Joint Video Experts Team (JVET)Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC)Joint Collaborative Team on 3D Video (JCT-3V)ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG)ITU-T Study Group 16 (SG16)

Video coding standards

ITU-T Rec. H.266
also standardized a

(also known as VVC) * ttp://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.265 ITU-T Rec. H.265 also standardized a
ISO/IEC MPEG-H Part 2
(also known as HEVC)
ITU-T Rec. H.264
also standardized a

(also known as AVC)

* ttp://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.263 ITU-T Rec. H.263br>ITU-T Rec. H.262
also standardized a

* ttp://www.iso.org/iso/search.htm?qt=11172-2&published=on&active_tab=standards ISO/IEC MPEG-1 Videobr>ITU-T Rec. H.261

DirectX Video Acceleration

DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA)DXVA for Video DecodingDXVA for VP8 and VP9DXVA for HEVCDXVA for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC

DXVA for H.264/MPEG-4 MVC extensions

DXVA for H.264/MPEG-4 SVC extensionsDXVA for Windows Media Video v8, v9 and vA (Including SMPTE 421M "VC-1")DXVA for H.261, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (H.262), H.263, and MPEG-4 Part 2

DXVA for MPEG-4 Part 2 Off-Host VLD Modearchive link

DXVA for MPEG-1 Off-Host VLD Mode
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Gary 1960 births Living people American electrical engineers Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of SPIE 2022 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Microsoft employees Primetime Emmy Engineering Award winners Engineers from Louisville, Kentucky Trinity High School (Louisville) alumni UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of Louisville alumni