Saturday, April 5, 2014

The 2014 NAB Show’s Technology Summit on Cinema, produced in partnership with SMPTE Opens with Standing Room Only

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

All the reports are available for free on the SMPTE website:

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