M. Georges Valensi (1889–1980) was a French telecommunications engineer who, in 1938, invented and

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

ed a method of transmitting color images via luma and

chrominance Chrominance (''chroma'' or ''C'' for short) is the signal used in video systems to convey the color information of the picture (see YUV color model), separately from the accompanying Luma (video), luma signal (or Y' for short). Chrominance is usu ...

so that they could be received on both color and black & white

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

sets. Rival color television methods, which had been in development since the 1920s, were incompatible with monochrome televisions. Valensi was an official of CCIF serving first as

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

(1923–1948) and then as Director (1949–1956). All current widely deployed color television broadcast standards –

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''sequential colour memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, Russia and some other countries or territories of Europe and Africa. ...

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

and today's digital standards, and importantly digital image data compression – implement some form of his idea of reducing a signal to a separate

luminance Luminance is a photometric measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction. It describes the amount of light that passes through, is emitted from, or is reflected from a particular area, and falls wit ...

with

encoded separately. The original patents expired in 1962.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valensi, Georges French telecommunications engineers 20th-century French inventors Television pioneers 1889 births 1980 deaths