Georges Valensi
M. Georges Valensi was a French telecommunications engineer who, in 1938, invented and patented a method of transmitting color images via luma and chrominance so that they could be received on both color and black & white television 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 and then as Director.
All current widely deployed color television standards – NTSC, SECAM, PAL and today's digital standards – implement his idea of transmitting a signal composed of separate luminance and chrominance. Because his invention pre-dated the actual introduction of color television by so long, his patent was exceptionally extended to 1971.
