Zenith’s Wayne Luplow Retiring After 53 Years

In a letter to Zenith staffers, Jong G. Kim, president of Zenith R&D Lab and SVP of

LG Electronics Office of the CTO, expressed his thanks to the television engineering icon.

He wrote: “Wayne Luplow’s incredible 53-year Zenith career is winding down. Wayne has informed me that, now that the FCC has adopted Next Gen TV powered by ATSC 3.0, he plans to retire in early January to spend more time with his family. Zenith and LG are fortunate that Wayne has agreed to stay on as a consultant and that he will stay involved in the Advanced Television Systems Committee, representing IEEE on the ATSC Board of Directors in 2018.

“Perhaps best known throughout the industry for his long-time leadership in digital television technology and standards work, Wayne’s five decades of experience span the transitions from black-and-white to color TV, monophonic to stereo TV, standard-definition to HD TV, analog to digital TV, and now to 4K and Next Gen TV.

“Wayne started at Zenith as a research engineer in 1964 and held many key technology positions over the years. Among many other responsibilities, Wayne was Zenith’s primary technical representative for the “Digital HDTV Grand Alliance” research consortium, and led Zenith’s HDTV research program, including development of the original “Digital Spectrum Compatible” HDTV system.

“In recent years, he has made major contributions primarily to developments related to ATSC 3.0 Next Gen TV and AWARN emergency alerting.

“Zenith has benefited significantly for many years from Wayne’s leadership in key industry organizations, including the ATSC, the Consumer Technology Association and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers:

• For three decades, he has been involved with numerous ATSC activities and its Board of Directors, and he served as Chairman of the ATSC Board in 2010.

• He has chaired CTA’s R4.0 Video Systems Committee since 1998.  He also has been active in the CTA Video Division Board, TV Manufacturers Caucus and Government Affairs Council, to name a few.

• A Life-Fellow of the IEEE, he is an elected member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society and has also served on the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. He served for more than 30 years as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics. 

“I have been honored to know Wayne for more than two decades, both as a strong advocate for our company and as my friend. I know I can count on the entire Zenith team to support Wayne in his consulting role going forward. And please join me in thanking Wayne for his many many contributions to Zenith and our industry.”