Fraunhofer IIS researcher Siegfried Fößel receives the "Technical EMMY" for the development of JPEG XS

The Innovation Award, granted by the Academy of Television Arts & Science (ATAS) in North Hollywood, will be presented on October 14, 2025, to Prof. Dr. Siegfried Fößel, Head of the Moving Picture Technologies Department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. The award recognizes the development of JPEG XS and the implementation of the video codec in products for forward-looking workflows in the media industry.

© Fraunhofer IIS
The Fraunhofer IIS team that won the Emmy® Award for JPEG XS, from left: (back row) Prof. Dr. Siegfried Fößel, Dr. Thomas Richter, Marcus Freisleben, Christian Minuth (middle row) Herbert Thoma, Wolfgang Heppner, Dr. Joachim Keinert, (front row) Dominik Prütting, Bilal Ahmed, Andy Regensky, (on vacation at the time the photo was taken) Christian Scherl, Maseeh Habibzay

JPEG XS is an image and video coding system for professional production environments with very low latency, yet requiring only minimal computing power. "XS" stands for "extra speed" and "extra small."

With JPEG XS, video experts can check off many boxes on their requirements lists:

  • The format offers visually lossless quality with compression rates of up to 10:1. It supports resolutions of up to 8K and frame rates from 24 to 120fps.
  • As a so-called mezzanine codec, JPEG XS is intended for post-processing video data. In contrast to playout formats with high compression, such as H.265 (HEVC), data encoded with the new format can be easily edited in post-production software.
  • JPEG XS is optimized for IP-based transmission, which means that even longer transmission distances are not a problem.
  • The codec is very well suited for applications that require very low latency. These include, for example, the processing of image sensor data in autonomous driving or VR/AR applications.

This versatility enables a wide range of applications, from virtual reality and gaming to industrial and mobility applications, broadcast and digital cinema workflows. In all these areas, JPEG XS can replace uncompressed video. The new image compression method, which is being co-standardized by Fraunhofer IIS in the ISO JPEG group, enables interoperability and simple, cost-effective integration into IP-based infrastructures.

The JPEG XS standard was developed by various members of the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG). Fraunhofer IIS made numerous significant contributions to this, such as the implementation of 8K video streaming over IP networks for the Japanese broadcaster NHK. The institute has been running a joint licensing program with the Belgian solution provider intoPIX since 2021.