Tag: SMPTE

National TeleConsultants’ Peter Adamiak Honored as SMPTE Fellow

Posted on by contentntek in News, People

National TeleConsultants (NTC) is proud to announce that its co-founder and managing partner, Peter Adamiak, has been named by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®) as a 2019 SMPTE Fellow. Adamiak will be recognized at the SMPTE Annual Awards Gala on Thursday, Oct. 24 in Los Angeles, California.

The SMPTE Fellow is a distinguished honor extended only to industry leaders with a strong commitment to the advancement of motion imaging and allied technologies whose work, throughout the course of their career, has resulted in significant contributions to improve the industry.

“We extend heartfelt congratulations to our colleague and friend on receiving this esteemed recognition,” says NTC Managing Partner Eliot Graham. “Peter, through his dedication and expertise, has always embraced and delivered the latest innovations, which have enhanced the art of television production and distribution.”

During his near-50-year career in broadcast engineering, Adamiak has been instrumental in implementing cutting-edge technologies for many of the biggest players in the game.

After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Peter went to work for the school as a video systems engineer helping to pioneer the advanced use of television for educational purposes.

His next career stop took him to ABC, where he held several positions including manager of engineering for ABC’s O&O TV stations. After eight years, Peter departed from ABC to help found the company that would become his legacy in the broadcasting industry, NTC. NTC is widely regarded as an industry leader in new media technology solutions. The company has been at the forefront of every major transition in the industry, including custom software integrations, format transitions, cloud computing, and new distribution platforms.

Leading the Services Delivery Group at NTC, Adamiak has spearheaded major projects, including the ground-up development of ESPN’s broadcasting headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut and Telepictures’ TMZ facility, the first fully tapeless facility capable of going direct to air from a server. Other major projects he has overseen for NTC include groundbreaking facilities for ABC, AT&T, DIRECTV, Disney, Fox, Voice of America, Warner Bros, and Viacom.

“Peter’s ability to design and implement successful, innovative facilities is a testament to his singular ability to shape technologies to the needs of varied business models,” says NTC Managing Partner Chuck Phelan. “His methodology has been instrumental in growing our business.”

For over 35 years, NTC has been at the forefront of solving the most vexing technological problems in the media space, and, with Adamiak’s leadership, the company continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in broadcasting.

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SMPTE’s Latest IMF Plugfest Makes Significant Progress Toward Interoperability

Posted on by contentntek in Distribution & Delivery, News

IMF is the family of standards for the exchange of component-based audio-visual masters intended for worldwide distribution — from movies to TV shows to advertisements. The format is specifically designed to efficiently handle multiple-territory distribution and advanced content such as high dynamic range (HDR), wide color gamut (WCG), immersive sound (object-based audio), and access services (subtitles, captions). Organized by the SMPTE Technology Committee 35PM (Media Packaging and Interchange), IMF plugfests provide implementers with opportunities to interchange test content with the objective of improving interoperability and identifying areas of improvement in the standard.

“Following the publication of SMPTE TSP 2121-1 last year, the DPP is committed to supporting the adoption of IMF more widely across the broadcast and online content communities,” said Rowan de Pomerai, DPP head of delivery and growth. “Participation in the IMF plugfest forms an important part of that commitment, and we’re thrilled to see so many vendors testing their support for our specification.”

The SMPTE IMF plugfest included the following areas of focus:

  • Packaging of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) Profiles for Internet Media Subtitles and Captions 1.1 (IMSC1.1), which is the subtitle and caption format in IMF that enables worldwide and accessible experiences.
  • SMPTE ST 2067-50:2018 (IMF Application #5 ACES), which is intended for long-term archive of uncompressed Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) image essence.
  • SMPTE RDD 45:2017 (Registered Disclosure Document IMF Application ProRes), which adds support for ProRes image essence and is intended to test HDR ProRes IMF packages.
  • SMPTE TSP 2121-1:2018 (IMF Application DPP), which creates a profile of IMF designed for broadcast and online content use cases, meeting requirements expressed by DPP member companies.

“IMF is an essential standard for the exchange and archiving of movie productions that use ACES,” said Wolfgang Ruppel, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. “Plugfests are a great opportunity to work with manufacturers and the SMPTE community on interoperability.”

Implementers included Amazon, Dalet, Visible Light, Fraunhofer, Marquise, MTI, Ownzones, Rohde & Schwarz, and Venera Technologies. Test content was provided by Paramount, Universal, Turner, the BBC, and 20 Century Fox. Amazon hosted the event at its UK headquarters.

“SMPTE IMF plugfests are the cornerstone of bringing immediacy and relevance to our standards. They remind us that standards are living examples of technology being used to build global platforms upon which agile applications are developed,” said Bruce Devlin, SMPTE standards vice president. “The lively discussions of real implementers and users solving multivendor business problems in real time show that standards can be relevant and dynamic in today’s disruptive technology world.”

SMPTE is currently organizing the next IMF plugfest, scheduled for the first half of 2020, and the Society encourages interested parties to join the effort by contacting Thomas Bause Mason at SMPTE.

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SMPTE Announces Annual Award Recipients for 2019

Posted on by contentntek in Awards, Event, News

SMPTE® announced the group of industry leaders and innovators who will be honored at this year’s SMPTE Awards Gala. Scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 24, the gala and afterparty will serve as the concluding events of the SMPTE 2019 Annual Conference (SMPTE 2019) at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles. SMPTE Fellow elevations will be conferred at the SMPTE 2019 Fellows Luncheon on Tuesday, Oct. 22.

“The SMPTE Awards Gala is a significant annual event because it recognizes industry leaders of the past, present, and future,” said SMPTE President Patrick Griffis, vice president of technology in the Office of the CTO at Dolby Laboratories. “Every person who will be honored at the gala has in some way made a substantial contribution to the ongoing advancement of media and entertainment technology. It’s always exciting to share the room with such a remarkable and accomplished group of individuals.”

Awards Gala guests will receive red carpet treatment as they make their way to the reception, which will be followed by dinner and the awards presentation in the California Ballroom. Of these awards, Honorary Membership is the Society’s highest accolade. It recognizes individuals who have performed distinguished service in the advancement of engineering in motion pictures, television, or the allied arts and sciences.

This year, SMPTE will bestow two such honors. The Society will recognize Paul Kellar for being the leading inventor of a wide range of technologies and products in the areas of digital video processing, digital image storage, electronic graphics creation, still-image storage and processing, and image manipulation. SMPTE also will recognize Roderick Snell for his contributions and leadership, with more than 40 years as an author, broadcast engineer, and international consultant.

The Progress Medal is the most prestigious SMPTE award, and it recognizes outstanding technical contributions to the progress of the engineering phases of the motion-picture, television, or motion-imaging industries. SMPTE will present the 2019 Progress Medal to Cristina Gomila Torres for her leadership and ongoing contributions to the motion-picture and media industry.

The Camera Origination and Imaging Medal recognizes significant technical achievements related to inventions or advances in imaging technology, including sensors, imaging processing electronics, and the overall embodiment and application of image-capture devices. Paul K. Weimer (1914–2005) will be recognized for his career, which spanned modern electronic imaging and sensor development.

The David Sarnoff Medal, sponsored by SRI International, recognizes outstanding contributions to the development of new techniques or equipment that have improved the engineering phases of television technology, including large-venue presentations. The award will be presented to Michelle Munson for the co-invention and development of the Fast and Secure Protocol (FASP) technology for media acceleration, which has greatly affected the distribution and transmission of digital media through high-speed file transfer.

The Excellence in Education Medal, sponsored by William C. Miller and Ellen Sontag-Miller, recognizes outstanding contributions to new or unique educational programs that teach the technologies of motion pictures, television, or other imaging sciences, including emerging media technology. Elizabeth Daley will receive the award in recognition of her three decades of pioneering leadership as dean of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

The Digital Processing Medal recognizes significant technical achievements related to the development of digital processing of content for cinema, television, games, or other related media. Gary J. Sullivan will receive the award in recognition of his innovation and industry leadership in image and video compression.

The James A. Lindner Archival Technology Medal, sponsored by James A. Lindner, recognizes significant technical advancements or contributions related to the invention or development of technology, techniques, workflows, or infrastructure for the long-term storage, archive, or preservation of media content essence. The 2019 award will be presented to Ralph Sargent in recognition of his more than four decades of contributions to the preservation of motion pictures.

The Samuel L. Warner Memorial Medal, sponsored by Warner Bros., recognizes outstanding contributions in the design and development of new and improved methods and/or apparatus for motion-picture sound, at any step in the process. The award will be presented to Walter Murch in recognition of the meticulous level of research and development that he brings to the science of human perception, enabling his art to take full experiential advantage of new technology.

The Workflow Systems Medal, sponsored by Leon D. Silverman, recognizes outstanding contributions related to the development and integration of workflows, such as integrated processes, end-to-end systems, or industry ecosystem innovations that enhance creativity, collaboration, and efficiency, or novel approaches to the production, postproduction, or distribution process. The award will be presented to Anne Aaron in recognition of her leadership, research, and pioneering work in the field of cloud-based video coding for streaming.

The Journal Award is presented to the author of the most outstanding paper originally published in the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal during the preceding calendar year. This year’s award will be presented to Elizabeth Pieri and Jaclyn Pytlarz for their article “Hitting the Mark — A New Color Difference Metric for HDR and WCG Imagery,” published in the April 2018 issue of the Journal.

The Journal Certificate of Merit will be presented to Kenichiro Masaoka, Kazuyuki Arai, and Yoshiro Takiguchi for their article “Realtime Measurement of Ultrahigh-Definition Camera Modulation Transfer Function,” published in the November/December 2018 issue of the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal.

The Presidential Proclamation recognizes individuals of established and outstanding status and reputation in the motion-picture, television, and motion-imaging industries worldwide. Peter A. Dare will receive the award in recognition of his longtime dedication to the Society and more than 40 years of service to the standards community.

The Excellence in Standards Award recognizes individuals or companies that have been actively involved in advancing the Society’s standards, activities, and processes. Paul Gardiner will receive this award in recognition of his long and outstanding service to the standards community. He has used his broad knowledge of technology, procedures, and global activities along with his pragmatic, common-sense approach to problem-solving to help foster the Society’s outstanding reputation among standards bodies.

The Citation for Outstanding Service to the Society, which recognizes individuals for dedicated service for the betterment of the Society over a sustained period, will be conferred upon five SMPTE Members:

Allan Schollnick, in recognition of more than 30 years of service to the Hollywood Section, including multiple terms as section manager, secretary/treasurer, and chair.

John Wesley Shike, in recognition of his efforts to recruit and engage SMPTE Student Members and young professionals.

Rick Singer, in recognition of his contributions to the production and growth of the Washington, DC, Section’s Bits by the Bay conference.

Andrew King, in recognition of his contributions to the SMPTE Australia Section, in particular, the biennial conference.

John Lock, in recognition of his contributions to the SMPTE Australia Section and his proactive approach to section management over the past five years.
The Student Paper Award recognizes the outstanding paper prepared and submitted by a Student Member. The 2019 award will be presented to Oscar Eduardo Estrada Torrejon and Nicholas Peretti, students at Rochester Institute of Technology, for their paper “Rotoscope Automation with Deep Learning,” which will be published in the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal.

The Louis F. Wolf Jr. Memorial Scholarship is designed to assist students in furthering their undergraduate or graduate studies in motion pictures and television, with an emphasis on technology. The 2019 scholarship will be awarded to SMPTE Student Member Adam C. Burke, who attends Rochester Institute of Technology.

Fifteen new SMPTE Fellows will also be recognized during the Annual Awards Gala. This honor is conferred on individuals who have, through their proficiency and contributions to the motion-picture, television, or related industries, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives in media and entertainment. The new SMPTE Fellows are:

Peter T. Adamiak
David Crawford
Patricia Keighley
Gary Mandle
Sean T. McCarthy
Michael Overton
Julian Pinn
Andrew Rayner
Jeffrey Charles Riedmiller
Michael Douglas Smith
James Patrick Snyder
John J. Turner
Brian A. Vessa
Raymond Yeung

Tickets for the SMPTE Annual Awards Gala are limited. Those registering for SMPTE 2019 may elect to purchase tickets to the Annual Awards Gala as an add-on to their conference packages or as a stand-alone purchase.

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SMPTE 2019 Line Up Now Available

Posted on by contentntek in Event, News, People

SMPTE®, the organization that is defining the future of storytelling, today announced the full event lineup for the Society’s annual technical conference and exhibition, the world’s premier forum for the exploration of media and entertainment technology. SMPTE 2019 will be held Oct. 21-24 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles. Complete information about SMPTE 2019, including a detailed schedule and registration, is available at 2019.smpte.org.

SMPTE Vice President of Education Sara J. Kudrle will co-chair the SMPTE 2019 technical program committee along with Thomas Edwards, vice president of engineering and development at Fox.

A redesigned conference schedule this year features concurrent sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Over those three days, 40 papers will address topics including machine learning and artificial intelligence technology in professional content creation; new compression techniques and implementations; putting SMPTE ST 2110 into practice; leveraging SMPTE ST 2110 for live production; cinema processing and projection technology; the cloud; advances in audio; standards-based security in collaborative media spaces; 8K, 4K, UHD, HDR, and high frame rates; perceptual color quality metrics; new production workflows; and access and the global community of technology. Thursday, the final day of the conference, will be “Space Day.”

In addition to a wealth of technical sessions and exhibitions of advanced technologies, SMPTE 2019 will include special events, including sponsored “pop-up” happy hours that offer numerous opportunities for face-to-face interaction between attendees, exhibitors, and speakers.

SMPTE Names Frank Kunkle Director of Marketing

Posted on by contentntek in News, People

Kunkle, who officially assumed his new role on July 22, is guiding development and implementation of a robust marketing strategy, including campaigns, events, digital marketing, and public relations, while supporting SMPTE’s ongoing implementation of its three-year strategic plan.

“Frank joins the SMPTE team with valuable experience working within similar organizations, and he has both the expertise and the drive to help us achieve our strategic targets in all areas of our business,” said SMPTE Executive Director Barbara Lange. “Informed and effective communications across all variety of marketing platforms will be critical to SMPTE’s ongoing success in driving the quality and evolution of motion pictures, television, and professional media, and I’m confident that Frank is prepared to take on this challenge. We are very pleased to welcome him on board.”

Kunkle joins SMPTE having most recently served as marketing manager at the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). At ANSI, he developed and executed marketing plans with a focus on growing the institute’s subscription-based product for access to standards, stimulating membership, developing lead acquisition tactics, managing the brand of the institute’s standards platform, driving market analysis, mining data to inform future marketing campaigns, coordinating trade show representation with colleagues, and overseeing advertising opportunities and media placement.

Earlier, as marketing strategy manager at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Kunkle designed and managed marketing, social, and digital media campaigns for 50 products; unified the marketing strategy across all of SIAM’s program areas; and leveraged data and metrics across these platforms to drive and evolve marketing tactics. He also managed product and web development for custom systems designed to facilitate SIAM’s M3 Challenge (delivered to 50,000+ students online to date), led improvements of data management systems, served on the staff committee responsible for an overhaul of siam.org, and curated content and media across m3challenge.siam.org with an emphasis on encouraging young people to pursue careers in mathematics and science.

Kunkle earned dual bachelor’s degrees in strategic communication (public relations concentration) and psychology from Temple University and subsequently began his career working in public relations, press relations, and event planning with several Philadelphia-based agencies. In his new position with SMPTE, Kunkle is based at the Society’s White Plains offices and reports directly to Lange.

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SMPTE Accepting Technical Manuscripts for Publication Consideration in SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal

Posted on by contentntek in News

Published 10 times per year, with nine print/online editions and one online-only edition, the award-winning Motion Imaging Journal gives readers a window into the technical world of motion-imaging science. Each issue covers a particular topic, and past issues have focused on themes such as file-based workflow, compression, UHD/HDR, audio, distribution formats, machine learning, cloud technologies, content management, display, over-the-top, and digital cinema.

All manuscripts published in the Journal undergo an extensive peer-review process, and the SMPTE Editorial Board ultimately determines if a paper will be published and in which issue. If selected, the benefits include:

  • Demonstration of author’s expertise and technical knowledge
  • The opportunity to take a deep dive into a specific topic
  • A chance to be published in SMPTE’s well-respected, award-winning journal known for thought leadership, timely perspectives on critical topics, and identified by SMPTE Members as the No. 1 member benefit

Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Journal must be informational and well-crafted, and they must address technical theory, research, innovation, application, or practice specific to any of the evolving technologies associated with the media and entertainment industry. Preference will be given to forward-thinking papers and particularly to research-based manuscripts addressing cutting-edge technology. Manuscripts that are of a commercial or promotional nature will not be considered.

SMPTE is accepting manuscripts now for review, and the process typically takes five months. The Society does not charge a fee for publishing, but it does retain the copyright to the paper. (SMPTE grants the author certain rights in the referencing and reuse of the published paper.)

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Theatre Presentation Lineup Announced for IP Showcase at METExpo 2019 in Sydney

Posted on by contentntek in Event, IP Showcase, News

The IP Showcase will feature a full slate of theatre presentations covering all aspects of the industry transition to IP, with an emphasis on technology tutorials and case studies.

Sponsored by the Australia Section of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers® (SMPTE®), the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), and the IABM, the IP Showcase at METExpo is an education and demonstration pavilion highlighting the benefits of and momentum behind the move to standards-based IP for real-time professional media across an extensive range of applications and users — from television and film to ProAV, small facilities, and independent operations.

Some of the specific topics to be covered by presenters at the IP Showcase Theatre include:

  • SMPTE ST 2110 Basics
  • Rise of IP in Remote Production
  • Scalable IP Architectures for Media and Broadcast
  • Timing for IP Video Networks (Beginner and Advanced)
  • Case Study: Telstra
  • Case Study: CBC/Radio Canada

The preliminary list of speakers is currently available on the IP Showcase website: http://www.ipshowcase.org/theatre-schedule-metexpo-2019/.

“In many ways, Australia has been at the forefront in the transition to IP for media applications with the ST 2110 standard already widely adopted,” said John Maizels, SMPTE Fellow and Producer for the SMPTE Australia Section’s IP Pavilion. “Hosting the IP Showcase this year at METExpo gives us the opportunity to take IP to the next level in our market, exploring not just the applications for broadcast, but also where it fits into the broader industry and showing a future in which the open ST 2110 standard will serve the ProAV market, smaller facilities, and independents.”

The presentation stages at previous IP Showcase Theatres have been visited by hundreds of attendees each day at major industry shows since 2016, often with standing-room-only crowds. The significant early adoption of SMPTE ST 2110 products and architectures by broadcasters and Outside Broadcast providers in Australia is paving the way for uptake by the audiovisual industry segment and other adjacent industries globally. Presentations at the METExpo 2019 IP Showcase Theatre will offer unique viewpoints on IP video and audio for production using SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67, as well as the latest developments in the AMWA NMOS technology stack (IS-04, IS-05, IS-07, and IS-08) and the JT-NM TR-1001-1 framework for installing, configuring, and interconnecting equipment.

The IP Showcase will take place on the show floor of the International Convention Centre in Sydney as part of the IP Pavilion at METExpo 2019 and will be open to all attendees.