Setting the
stage for lively discussions, music of The Beatles pumped through room S222.
Then, SMPTE Education Vice President, Pat Griffis took the floor to welcome the
crowd. Griffis was impressed with the full house, “for a Saturday morning in
Vegas” and introduced SMPTE President Wendy Aylsworth.
Aylsworth’s
first remark was, “I love the Beatles.” She then explained some background on
SMPTE remarking on the Society’s Oscar and 6 Emmy awards. Aylsworth remarked
that SMPTE has more than 6,000 individual members and 230 corporate sustaining
members. She explained that SMPTE will be celebrating its Centennial in 2016
and the Society embarking on a fundraising effort to support its three pillars:
Membership, Standards, and Education. A surprising announcement was that SMPTE
and the Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) have established a closer relationship.
SMPTE
Executive Director, Barbara Lange, said that SMPTE is a “vibrant organization,”
with a growing membership base, particularly internationally. Lange discussed
SMPTE’s expanded educational offerings, including new webcasts for SMPTE
Executive Members and a series focused on Emerging Technologies. These are in
addition to the Society’s firmly established series for Educational and
Standards Update Webcasts. Lange announced that 3 SMPTE Technology Committee
Study Groups just have released reports that are now available on the SMPTE
website:
·
Report of the Study
Group on Immersive Audio Systems: Cinema B-Chain and Distribution
·
Beyond the Digital
Conversion: The Integration of Information Technology and Professional
Media
·
Report of the UHDTV
Ecosystem Study Group
In
addition, Lange introduced the new SMPTE mobile app available for iOS, Android,
and web based operating systems and invited all delegates to stop by the SMPTE
Booth L30 in the South Hall.
Griffis
once again took the stage with the Chinese proverb, “may you live in
interesting times.” Remarking that these are interesting times indeed for the
cinema industry referring to the convergence of media. He discussed the
upcoming Entertainment Technology in the Internet Age Conference (ETIA 2014) at
Stanford University in June and announced the the Early Bird Rate has been extended through the NAB Show: http://www.etia2014.org. In addition, Griffis announced The SMPTE Forum 2015,
in collaboration FKG, which will take place in Berlin, Germany 7-8 May 2015.
Technology
Summit on Cinema Program Chair, Dave
Schnuelle, was next up. He thanked the entire program committee, staff, as well
as NAB. He highlighted the sessions for the weekend, noting, “We love all our
sessions equally.”
- Aimée Ricca
