Latest from Next TV in Smpte

SMPTE Elects Renard Jenkins First Black Board President

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 16:57:57 +0000

Renard Jenkins (Image credit: SMPTE)

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has elected new board officers, including the first Black SMPTE board president, all of whom will begin serving in January 2023.

Renard Jenkins from Warner Bros. Discovery has been elected president; Richard Welsh of Deluxe Media is executive VP; Michael Zink, also of Warner Bros. Discovery, is education VP; and Lisa Hobbs will be secretary-treasurer.

All are for two-year terms.

"I look forward to respecting the Society's past while working with my colleagues to build a sustainable future. As we focus on cutting-edge technology, innovative tools, and diverse perspectives and ideas," said Jenkins following his election. "[W]e will create a forward-leaning organization to increase participation and our influence throughout the media and entertainment space. By partnering with our peers across the technology and standards sectors and being inclusive of all groups through all of our global offerings, we are laying the foundation for a more collaborative future. All these elements are essential if the Society is to continue to thrive, remain relevant, and provide a welcoming and supportive environment for professionals and students across our industry."

Other 2022-2023 officers are Hans Hoffmann, past president; Sally Hattoris, standards VP; Paul Stechly, finance VP; and Rose Lockwood, members VP. ■

SMPTE/USC Team on Virtual Production Research

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 14:28:15 +0000

SMPTE, the society of motion picture and television--and digital--engineers, is teaming with the University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) to study on-set virtual production (OSVP).

SMPTE defines OSVP as where "physical and digital worlds interact in real-time using traditional production tools plus virtual and augmented reality, CGI, and game-engine technologies."

The two are partnering to collaborate on prototypes, demonstrations and lab testing, given what SMPTE has said are the challenges in "knowledge, interoperability, and lack of resources" in the OSVP space. ETC will be the lead researcher and the results will be shared with the wider media entertainment industry to help alleviate those "known pain points."

The goal is to come up with, among other things, "curated education, interoperability guidelines, benchmarks, workflows, naming conventions and technical solutions," and SMPTE said it is looking to produce some results in those areas within a year.

It is the first in a series of a Rapid Industry Solutions (RIS) initiatives launched last June to "address quickly evolving technologies and their application across the media and entertainment industry." ■

SMPTE Executive Director Lange Exiting

john.eggerton@futurenet.com (John Eggerton) — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 13:41:07 +0000

SMPTE executive director Barbara Lange will be exiting that post at the end of the year.

SMPTE, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, is both a society for media professionals and engineers and an internationally recognized standards body.

Its members run the gamut form Amazon, CBS and Disney, to Google, IBM and Netflix.

Lange will step down after a dozen years atop SMPTE, during which time she oversaw the setting of numerous standards, the launch of a digital library, and the completion of a successful fundraising campaign, as well as the celebration of the society's 100th birthday.

"Under Barbara's leadership, SMPTE has become a truly international society committed to facilitating industry interoperability through industry standards, making relevant education accessible to all industry members, and fostering a vibrant and inclusive membership community," said SMPTE president Hans Hoffmann in a statement.

No replacement has been named, but Lange will help with the transition.

Hoffman said the candidate must "embrace" a diverse and inclusive society.

SMPTE HDR Report Recommends Standards

George Winslow (Broadcasting & Cable) — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 15:00:00 +0000

With producers paying closer attention to the improved quality of high-dynamic-range images, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has published a SMPTE study group report on the HDR imaging ecosystem that covers a number of important issues, including workflows and the creation of standards for HDR.

The organization says that about 170 top international experts worked on the report.

The report is being released at a time when there is growing interest in HDR, which greatly improves image quality by offering much more vibrant colors and truer blacks. Those visual improvements are so striking that a number of experts have argued they will have greater impact on viewers than improvements of resolution from HD to UHD or 4K.

But consumer electronics manufacturers have taken a number of different approaches to HDR amid a great deal of interest in the creation of standards for HDR imaging.

"HDR is a rapidly emerging and much-debated technology with the capacity to make a greater impact on viewer experience than can higher-resolution formats," said Alan Lambshead, vice president of standards for SMPTE in a statement. "Recognizing the remarkable potential of HDR and the media industry's growing interest in this technology, SMPTE created an HDR ecosystem study group and — within just 12 months — delivered a valuable consensus report on implementation of HDR and the creation of efficient HDR workflows."

Wanted: Cross-Platform Ad Measurement Gauge

MCN Staff — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 20:00:00 +0000

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers said it is searching for a technology for an open standard for binding Ad-IDs to commercials and Entertainment ID Registry metadata into programming content. Ad-ID is a joint venture of the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (or 4A’s). EIDR is a coalition promoting the use of a unique, global identifier for digital entertainment assets, including films and television episodes.

The SMPTE Technology Committee on Television and Broadband (24TB) drafting group on open binding of IDs released a request for proposals seeking responses from organizations that want to submit their technology for consideration as a solution that can dramatically improve how video advertising and content are identified, tracked and measured.

SMPTE drafting group chair Chris Lennon said in a release: “With this RFP, we will identify the technology that can be the basis for an open industry standard so that our industry can finally identify what content or ad is being viewed no matter what device is being used.”

SMPTE is introducing the RFP following a yearlong study group that identified the technical solution to bind EIDR and Ad-ID identifying metadata as a critical next step toward establishing an interoperable standard for all professional video throughout the entire media ecosystem. The study group recommended an open standard watermark with embedded EIDR and Ad-ID metadata. The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, a coalition of media buyers and sellers, collaborated with SMPTE on the study group and is continuing to participate in the Drafting Group.

“The Drafting Group has taken on an extremely important project for our industry,” Jane Clarke, CEO and managing director, CIMM, said in the release. “There is no open binding technology standard such as watermarks or fingerprints for content identification in audio and video. This RFP will identify the technology that can be developed into a solution for content creators and distributors to effectively and reliably bind IDs to media assets.”

The RFP process aims to identify a technology for watermarks that can form the basis of an open standard to be developed and published by SMPTE. Notification of intent to respond is due to the Drafting Group by April 17, with the RFP closing on May 4. The Drafting Group will conduct an online, open Q&A session for respondents on April 20. To attend, please contact Lennon at clennon@medianswers.tv.

The RFP is accompanied by a draft test plan that can be accessed here for an overview of how submissions will be evaluated. The RFP and draft test plan may be accessed here. The drafting group may be contacted at 24TB-binding@lists.smpte.org.