In January 2009, the Communications Research Centre (CRC) received an Emmy award for its contribution to the standardization of the ATSC DTV Standard at the National Academy of Arts & Sciences annual Technology & Engineering Awards.

CRC's contributions to the ATSC Standard helped define the way HDTV is broadcast to homes in the U.S. and Canada. Its Advanced Television Evaluation Laboratory (ATEL) conducted two rounds of extensive subjective tests and produced results that were critical in the adoption of the ATSC standard in North America.

"I can still recall how startlingly detailed those HDTV images looked to me when I joined CRC almost 20 years ago. I had no doubt that I was seeing the future of television. I feel quite privileged to have been part of such a talented team of researchers, and involved in such a landmark project. Winning an Emmy is wonderful recognition of our work," says Ron Renaud, the remaining founding member of the subjective evaluation team at CRC's Advanced Television Laboratory (ATEL).

In 1989, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) created the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service (ACATS) to address terrestrial broadcast standards for advanced television systems. The FCC received over 20 proposals from various companies proposing their version of an HDTV system. The ACATS turned to the ATEL and its sister laboratory in the U.S., the ATTC, for independent system evaluations.

In 1991-92, CRC tested six proponent HDTV systems, four of which were all-digital. All of the systems were tested against subjective evaluation of picture quality and assessed for transmission impairments. CRC conducted 40 subjective tests involving more than 1000 participants.

By 1993 the ACATS decided on an all-digital technology, although they could not choose a clear-cut winner among the four digital systems. Instead, the ACATS encouraged the proponents to merge their systems and include the best features of the formerly proposed systems. This system materialized as the Grand Alliance system created by AT&T, General Instrument Corp., MIT, Philips, Sarnoff, Thomson, and Zenith, which was again tested rigorously by CRC in a second round of testing in 1995. Based on these tests, the ACATS recommended the Grand Alliance system (ATSC DTV System) for standardization.