Apple picks up an Engineering Emmy Award for its Apple ProRes video codec

Final Cut Pro on iMac (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

There's such a thing as an Engineering Emmy Award.
Apple picked one up for its ProRes video codec.
The codec is particularly great for HDR workflows.

Apple has picked itself up a new Emmy Award, but it's nothing to do with TV content. Instead, this is an Engineering Emmy Award, given to Apple for its impressive ProRes video codec.

Did you know there was such a thing as an Engineering Emmy Award? No, me either.

Engineering Emmys are presented to an individual, company or organization for developments in engineering that are either so extensive an improvement on existing methods or so innovative in nature that they materially affect the production, recording, transmission or reception of television. This year the Academy is recognizing nine companies and five individuals with the prestigious award.

The 72nd Engineering Emmy Awards presentation saw Apple pick up a gong for the codec that has been around since 2007. It's been expanded since then and is now heavily used throughout the TV and movie industry.

Here's how Apple describes ProRes.

Apple ProRes codecs provide an unparalleled combination of multistream, real-time editing performance, impressive image quality, and reduced storage rates. Apple ProRes codecs take full advantage of multicore processing and feature fast, reduced-resolution decoding modes.All Apple ProRes codecs support all frame sizes (including SD, HD, 2K, 4K, and 5K) at full resolution. The data rates vary based on codec type, image content, frame size, and frame rate. Apple ProRes includes the following formats.

Congratulations to all at Apple, especially those who work on the Final Cut Pro team. You know who you are.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.