Henri Georges de France (7 September 1911 Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 – 29 April 1986 Paris) was a pioneering French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 inventor. His inventions include the 819 line French standard and the SECAM

SECAM

SECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....

 color system. He was also apparently behind the HD-MAC

HD-MAC

HD-MAC was a proposed broadcast television systems standard by the European Commission in 1986 . It was an early attempt by the EEC to provide High-definition television in Europe. It was a complex mix of analogue signal , multiplexed with digital sound...

 high-definition standard.

On December 6, 1931, De France founded the Compagnie Générale de Télévision in Le Havre

Le Havre

Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...

, making television sets with a vertical definition of 60 lines. In February 1932, De France made several transmissions over a distance of 7 km from the "Radio-Normandie" station in Fécamp

Fécamp

Fécamp is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:Fécamp is situated in the valley of the river Valmont, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, on the Albaster Coast...

. These signals were received by a few people located over 100 km away. In October 1932, he achieved a definition of 120 lines. In 1956, he patented the SECAM color television system. On October 1, 1967 at 2:15pm CET

Central European Time

Central European Time , used in most parts of the European Union, is a standard time that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time . The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00...

, la deuxième chaîne

France 2

France 2 is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô...

 switched from black and white to color using SECAM.

De France is interred at Jarnac

Jarnac

Jarnac is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France.It is the site of the Battle of Jarnac in 1569.-Geography:Jarnac is situated on the right bank of the river Charente between the towns of Angoulême and Cognac...

, the same town where former president François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

 is buried.

The public passage near France Télévisions

France Télévisions

France Télévisions is the French public national television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the bringing together of the public television channels France 2 and France 3 , later joined by the legally independent channels France 5 , France Ô , and France 4 France Télévisions ...

 buildings in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

is named Esplanade Henri de France.