9am: Welcome and Introductions from SMPTE, Baylor University, NASA, and our Title Sponsor, Blackmagic Design.

9:15am:  Background on color science with a focus on multi-primary technology.
Dr. David Long, RIT, will present a historical review of color science with a view of color representations of electronic imagery including multi-primary approaches.

9:45a.  Covering the needs of the Creatives
Our speakers will cover how color is important to the creative communities such as Cinema, Animation, Gaming, Visual Effects, Live TV, as well as in scientific endeavors, and the limitations of current color gamuts.

Use Case 1:  Cinema —Steven Poster  

Use Case 2:  Animation  - Dominic Glynn (Pixar)

Use Case 3:  Gaming and Visual Effects — Aaron Thibault 

Use Case 4:  Live TV —Dave Evans, Fox Sports SW (Bally Sports) 

Use Case 5:  NASA and Scientific  —Dr. Caldwell Dyson (Astronaut), Rodney and Dylan 

Use Case 6:  Color in Post — Corrine and Jill B.  

10:55 - Session ends

What are the colorimetric challenges in displays, cameras, special effects?  Is there a fundamental limit to RGB based color spaces?  How can multiprimary approaches be developed to answer these challenges?

Use Case 1:  Displays.  — Gary Feather  

Use Case 2:  Cameras & Special Effects.  — Dave Stump, ASC. 

Use Case 3:  The Challenges of RGB Color Systems  — Richard Salmon, BBC ret’d 

Use Case 4:  Why Multi-primary color  — Dr. David Long 

Use Case 5:  Research efforts on MP systems   — Dr. Mitch Bogdanowicz  

• Potential multi-primary systems 
• Workflow in post 
• Transmission 
• Potential displays 
• Colorimetric approach  
• Problem of converting from 3 primary to multi-primary color spaces 
• Evaluation for expanded color spaces {ACES AP1/AP0, XYZ, xyY} 

Panel Discussion. Moderator: Debra Kaufman

Panelists: 

• Steven Poster ASC
• Dylan Mathis NASA
• Mitch Bogdanowicz
• Dave Stump,
• Aaron Thibault
•  Mike Zink WB  

Wrap up. Dr. Carbonara and Dr. Korpi  

Color  Calibration

During this wrapup after the program you'll be randomly put into small groups to better get to know your fellow attendees.  We'll also switch up the groups halfway through to give you an opportunity to meet even more of your colleagues!  Afterwards, you'll be able to continue the conversation by contacting fellow attendees via private chat or by scheduling a meeting with them.

Media & Entertainment’s linear value chain has become more iterative. Business verticals are merging and data, digital, and broadcast groups are less separated. This session is intended to examine where cloud migration stands now, what advantages (or disadvantages) have emerged, and what new tools and technologies are involved?Live QA to follow.

Who said you need a pub to play pub trivia? Industry questions will be asked on the "Main Stage" and attendees can answer the question in the chat area.  

Technology and infrastructure are not the only things that change when committing to a cloud-based strategy. New accounting and financial models are needed. Security concerns stand front and center. In addition, issues such as cost containment, resourcing, and more require focus and forethought. You must attend this session to hear more about the specific business implications from those who know and have experienced them. Live QA will follow.

For all the advantages of cloud-based workflows there are still technical challenges to overcome, including latency and live production. In this SMPTE+ session you will learn what specific challenges exist and how likely are they will be overcome. Against what timeline might you expect to see these challenges solved? You will also find out what issues have become more important (e.g. consistent metadata for automation, asynchronous workflows and orchestration)

During our second break you'll be randomly put into small groups to better get to know your fellow attendees.  We'll also switch up the groups halfway through to give you an opportunity to meet even more of your colleagues!  Afterwards, you'll be able to continue the conversation by contacting fellow attendees via private chat or by scheduling a meeting with them.

There is an old saying, “Never say never!” Though it is unlikely the entire Internet will fail, if you are not planning for a failure at your end of the Internet, at least, you are inviting trouble to have a seat at your table. So what are best practices when it comes to content preservation and business continuity? How does one ensure resilience?

The cloud is rapidly becoming the home of media, a migration that has been fueled by the pandemic. Organizations of all shapes and sizes are using cloud-based services to create, process, manage, and distribute content. This has brought challenges along with many opportunities, as workflows and business models are re-made. What then is the future? This panel will consider that question, and provide a vision of where the movement of media to the cloud may lead us in the short and longer term.

Although the internet is perceived as an invisible cloud that delivers information from A to B, in reality the carriage is complex. When designing the delivery of video over IP networks, it’s important to understand the internet’s topology and where pitfalls, like congestion and latency, are probable. Delivering contribution circuits is challenging and demands expert knowledge and access to the multitier network that makes the internet. Highly experienced telecommunication companies, like Telstra, specializing in internet connectivity to deliver a reliable, scalable and flexible network that can transfer data and feeds from one side of the planet to the other. Join Carl Petch, Head of Architecture and Integration at Telstra Broadcast Services, and Bernhard Pusch, Head of Global Internet Strategy at Telstra Corporation, as they discuss the technologies used for carrying video on the internet.

Broadcasters are migrating production workloads to cloud seeking efficiency, flexibility, scalability, and the opportunity to re-invent their business.  In this roundtable, panelists from Fox, Alpha Video, and AWS will discuss the trends and considerations around moving to the cloud while meeting the requirements of the unique broadcast applications, and shedding light on the future of live broadcast video processing in the cloud.

Welcome and Introductions  

Why we are here 

This short session sets the stage for the rest of the event.  We provide a quick overview of the days’ agenda, present “the arc of the story”, and highlight some things to be keeping an eye on as we move through the day.  This session begins the conversation, that will continue throughout the entire session, because that is what this is – an industry conversation about where we have got to, and where we are going on our journey towards an IP future.

 IP Facilities: The Big Picture

This session presents the “IP Facilities: The Big Picture” as an introduction to the topic of IP Facilities and infrastructure used for professional media applications.  It presents a global, generic view of IP media facilities, using a diagram that gives attendees a frame of reference as they think about the rest of the sessions in this event.  Attendees will also hear from a national broadcaster regarding the business drivers behind their conversion to IP.

The Stories (Panel) Discussions

‘The stories’ section takes a look at several of the largest IP production deployments to-date across various parts of the world – possibly the biggest global insight in one event!

In a dynamic and interactive conversation, we will explore some of the smooth, not quite so smooth and future aspirations of the technology with some of key people involved in making these solutions happen. All of this will be served with a dash of humour and a fair bit of fun!

During our break you'll be randomly put into small groups to better get to know your fellow attendees.  We'll also switch up the groups halfway through to give you an opportunity to meet even more of your colleagues!  Afterwards, you'll be able to continue the conversation by contacting fellow attendees via private chat or by scheduling a meeting with them.

Ongoing evolution- How Standards and Specifications work together

In this session, you will hear how user requirements and feedback from early implementation projects have shaped the evolution of live IP standards and specifications. Key contributors to the standardization process and end-user participants in the JT-NM will describe how good governance of specifications enables them to stay relevant in the context of a changing technology landscape.

How JT-NM Partners can help you.

We all need to know what we don’t know; and understanding these somewhat intangible components in our emerging IP-facilities has never been more important. This session brings together experts from the leading industry organizations who will explain how they are working to help both users and manufacturers adopt to the new IP-based media technologies.  Areas of focus include where and how to get the most up-to-date educational elements; what programs, tools and testing utilities are being developed to support both users and manufacturers get up and running; and how our industry’s organizations are working together to ensure that audio, metadata, control, and management elements are harmonized into a total IP environment.  Attendees will also learn about advanced applications in IP including how the JT-NM Partners are working together on such applications as ground-to-cloud, wide area networking and transport for ST 2110, NMOS directions, and how compression plays in the media networking ecosystem

Roundtable Discussion- Education 

Roundtable Discussion: Things you’ve always wanted to know about IP Production Facilities (basics)

Roundtable Discussion: Business rationale and  business considerations 

Roundtable Discussion:  Bridging strategy: How to transition now to an IP facility

Streaming Video Alliance Progress Report

Jason Thibeault

• With members from across the video ecosystem, the Streaming Video Alliance is a global association which works to solve critical streaming video challenges to improve end-user experience and adoption at scale. This organization focuses on three main activities. The first is to educate the industry on challenges, technologies, and trends through informative, publicly available resources such as whitepapers, articles, and e-books. The second is to foster collaboration among different video ecosystem players through working groups, quarterly meetings, and conferences. The third is to define solutions for streaming video challenges by producing specifications, best practices, software code, and other technical documentation.

Update from the Advanced Media Workflow Association, Video Services Forum, and Joint Task Force on Networked Media

Brad Gilmer
Over the past year, Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) activities have fallen largely into three areas.

• To improve industry understanding of where our work fits into the implementation of IP-based systems.
• To extend and evolve the range of Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS) specifications and best practices for these infrastructures.
• To provide tools which make the adoption of NMOS as easy as possible.
   

European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Update 2021

Judy Parnall

• The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has had an unusual year, like everyone, adapting to the changed circumstances. Though this caused some restrictions as we have not been able to meet in person since February 2020, there are many other opportunities.

DVB’s Internet-Centric Vision Comes Into Sharper Focus

Emily Dubs

• Having favored online meetings for many years now, the DVB Project was well placed to adapt to life during a global pandemic. There was no let-up in pace over the past year as our members continued their consensus-based work to build new internet-centric solutions for the future of media delivery.

Recent Activities of the Ultra HD Forum

Nandhu Nandhakumar

• The Ultra HD Forum was established in 2015 to accelerate Ultra HD deployment by bringing together market leaders from all parts of the industry. Broadcasters, service providers, consumer electronics, and technology vendors collaborate on solving real-world obstacles in deploying advanced media formats and publishing these solutions for broad adoption. The Forum’s Guidelines Working Group has published guidelines that describe a uniform set of characteristics for Ultra HD content and consistent methods for creating and delivering Ultra HD content.

World Broadcasting Unions Committees—A 2021 Status Report

John Lee, Morwen Williams

• The World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) Technical Committee is addressing an increased number of issues as broadcasting, on a worldwide basis, has entered into a more complex, challenging era, exemplified by massive spectrum competition, rapid regulatory and technology changes, and a more threatening cyber environment.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Media Ops Industry Comments to SMPTE

Kyle Rose

• The transition of the media industry to Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking protocols and workflows is well underway. Millions of users streaming audio and video daily believe that the transition and the hard work evolving to IP-based network transports is done and behind us, while the reality is that the revolution is far from over. Ongoing is the retooling of the entire content workflow of creation, editing, post-production, archiving, and delivery of professional media to leverage IP-based networks and protocols. This ongoing retooling handles networking situations and user demands that go well above the now seemingly mundane (but still surprisingly complex) task of reliably delivering prerecorded video on demand (VOD) content over well-behaved, reliable broadband that was seen as the “big” streaming challenge to achieve just a few years ago.

Networking Team Challenge

Join us for a 20 minute break to meet and mix with your fellow attendees! Get to know one another through a little friendly team competition. SMPTE's Director of Education, Joel Welch, will host this fun session during which attendees will be randomly assigned to small groups to solve problems and complete challenges.  Winning teams will win fabulous SMPTE swag prizes!

2021 High-Dynamic Range (HDR) Progress Report

Timo Kunkel, Patrick Griffis

• Since its introduction to the consumer market in 2015, high-dynamic range, better known by its acronym “HDR,” has established itself as a foundational component when looking at the aspects defining today’s image fidelity. This three-letter acronym “HDR” has become synonymous with brighter, more colorful pixels also known as (aka) “better pixels” enabled by a larger color palette that can better utilize the perceptual capability of human vision. SMPTE played a key role in enabling the HDR ecosystem with the standardization of an electro-optical transfer function (EOTF) based on the contrast sensitivity of the human visual system (HVS). This standard, ST 2084:2014, or more commonly “PQ” (for perceptual quantizer) establishes a practical maximum luminance range of 0–10,000 cd/m² for entertainment purposes much like 20 Hz to 20 kHz defines a practical frequency range for audio reproduction. Note that candelas/m² is a technical term for the perceived luminous intensity of light weighted by the HVS spectral response and is often colloquially referred to as “nits”—a term believed to come from the Latin word nitēre, “to shine.”

Reports from the SMPTE Technology and Task Force Committees

Bruce Devlin, Florian Scheich, Paul Gardiner, Fred Walls, Dean Bullock, Brian Long, Steve Llamb and Leigh Whitcomb

• SMPTE sets the standards that drive the professional media industry. This session allows you to hear the voices behind the documents as we talk to the people that lead SMPTE standards efforts. There are a lot of voices and they each get about 3 minutes to explain why their work is vital to the industry. Join and ask your own questions in this lively and brisk journey through the world of SMPTE technology.

Report from IDEA—The Immersive Digital Experiences Alliance

Austin Pahl, Thomas Alder 

• The past 12 months saw significant progress in the emerging world of immersive media. We saw myriad developments across all aspects of the immersive media landscape, ranging from new immersive displays announced by Looking Glass Factory, Sony, Avalon Holographics, Dimenco, and others to strides made in light field capture research. All of this brings us closer to widespread access to immersive media that will transform the way we live and work. To prepare for this future, the Immersive Digital Experiences Alliance (IDEA) recently published updated specifications, papers, and presentations during the last year, raising awareness about immersive media and how we will handle it.

An Update from the Entertainment Technology Center

Kenneth Williams

• The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) is a think tank and research center, funded by major studios and leading technology companies, which brings together senior executives, innovators, thought leaders, and catalysts from the media, entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and supporting services industries along with the academic resources of USC to explore and act upon topics and issues related to the creation, archiving, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencs (AMPAS)

Andy Maltz

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, is composed of more than 10,000 accomplished professional men and women working in cinema. The Academy’s Science and Technology Council leads the organization’s motion picture science and technology initiatives, and had a very active agenda over the last year despite the global situation. This session will highlight the Council’s work in virtual production education, the new Academy Digital Preservation Forum, advances in the Academy Color Encoding system, and anything else session attendees found interesting in this year’s Progress Issue article and what’s happened since its publication.

American Society of Cinematographers Motion Imaging Technology Council Progress Report 2021 

Curtis Clark Chair, ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC)

Jesse Korosi, Greg Ciaccio, Jay Holben, Joachim Zell, Timothy Kang, David Morin and David Stump

• As we reflect on the disruptive impact that the pandemic has inflicted upon our personal and professional lives, I marvel at the resilience of our Motion Imaging Technology Council’s determination to continue addressing the rapidly evolving digital imaging technology challenges that are confronting filmmakers. Since its formation in 2002 as the ASC Technology Committee, our agenda over the years has consistently identified the critical technology developments driving the evolution of digital production workflows. The unique nature of our mission has always been the fusion of a solid scientific and engineering knowledge base with a laser focus on how these technologies can best benefit the cinematographer’s ability to utilize them to enhance their creative vision.

European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Update 2021

Judy Parnall

• The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has had an unusual year, like everyone, adapting to the changed circumstances. Though this caused some restrictions as we have not been able to meet in person since February 2020, there are many other opportunities.

DVB’s Internet-Centric Vision Comes Into Sharper Focus

Emily Dubs

• Having favored online meetings for many years now, the DVB Project was well placed to adapt to life during a global pandemic. There was no let-up in pace over the past year as our members continued their consensus-based work to build new internet-centric solutions for the future of media delivery.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Media Ops Industry Comments to SMPTE

Kyle Rose

• The transition of the media industry to Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking protocols and workflows is well underway. Millions of users streaming audio and video daily believe that the transition and the hard work evolving to IP-based network transports is done and behind us, while the reality is that the revolution is far from over. Ongoing is the retooling of the entire content workflow of creation, editing, post-production, archiving, and delivery of professional media to leverage IP-based networks and protocols. This ongoing retooling handles networking situations and user demands that go well above the now seemingly mundane (but still surprisingly complex) task of reliably delivering prerecorded video on demand (VOD) content over well-behaved, reliable broadband that was seen as the “big” streaming challenge to achieve just a few years ago.

World Broadcasting Unions Committees—A 2021 Status Report

John Lee, Morwen Williams

• The World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) Technical Committee is addressing an increased number of issues as broadcasting, on a worldwide basis, has entered into a more complex, challenging era, exemplified by massive spectrum competition, rapid regulatory and technology changes, and a more threatening cyber environment.

Recent Activities of the Ultra HD Forum

Nandhu Nandhakumar

• The Ultra HD Forum was established in 2015 to accelerate Ultra HD deployment by bringing together market leaders from all parts of the industry. Broadcasters, service providers, consumer electronics, and technology vendors collaborate on solving real-world obstacles in deploying advanced media formats and publishing these solutions for broad adoption. The Forum’s Guidelines Working Group has published guidelines that describe a uniform set of characteristics for Ultra HD content and consistent methods for creating and delivering Ultra HD content.

Update from the Advanced Media Workflow Association, Video Services Forum, and Joint Task Force on Networked Media

Brad Gilmer
Over the past year, Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) activities have fallen largely into three areas.

• To improve industry understanding of where our work fits into the implementation of IP-based systems.
• To extend and evolve the range of Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS) specifications and best practices for these infrastructures.
• To provide tools which make the adoption of NMOS as easy as possible.
   

Streaming Video Alliance Progress Report

Jason Thibeault

• With members from across the video ecosystem, the Streaming Video Alliance is a global association which works to solve critical streaming video challenges to improve end-user experience and adoption at scale. This organization focuses on three main activities. The first is to educate the industry on challenges, technologies, and trends through informative, publicly available resources such as whitepapers, articles, and e-books. The second is to foster collaboration among different video ecosystem players through working groups, quarterly meetings, and conferences. The third is to define solutions for streaming video challenges by producing specifications, best practices, software code, and other technical documentation.

European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Update 2021

Judy Parnall

• The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has had an unusual year, like everyone, adapting to the changed circumstances. Though this caused some restrictions as we have not been able to meet in person since February 2020, there are many other opportunities.

DVB’s Internet-Centric Vision Comes Into Sharper Focus

Emily Dubs

• Having favored online meetings for many years now, the DVB Project was well placed to adapt to life during a global pandemic. There was no let-up in pace over the past year as our members continued their consensus-based work to build new internet-centric solutions for the future of media delivery.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Media Ops Industry Comments to SMPTE

Kyle Rose

• The transition of the media industry to Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking protocols and workflows is well underway. Millions of users streaming audio and video daily believe that the transition and the hard work evolving to IP-based network transports is done and behind us, while the reality is that the revolution is far from over. Ongoing is the retooling of the entire content workflow of creation, editing, post-production, archiving, and delivery of professional media to leverage IP-based networks and protocols. This ongoing retooling handles networking situations and user demands that go well above the now seemingly mundane (but still surprisingly complex) task of reliably delivering prerecorded video on demand (VOD) content over well-behaved, reliable broadband that was seen as the “big” streaming challenge to achieve just a few years ago.

World Broadcasting Unions Committees—A 2021 Status Report

John Lee, Morwen Williams

• The World Broadcasting Unions (WBU) Technical Committee is addressing an increased number of issues as broadcasting, on a worldwide basis, has entered into a more complex, challenging era, exemplified by massive spectrum competition, rapid regulatory and technology changes, and a more threatening cyber environment.

Recent Activities of the Ultra HD Forum

Nandhu Nandhakumar

• The Ultra HD Forum was established in 2015 to accelerate Ultra HD deployment by bringing together market leaders from all parts of the industry. Broadcasters, service providers, consumer electronics, and technology vendors collaborate on solving real-world obstacles in deploying advanced media formats and publishing these solutions for broad adoption. The Forum’s Guidelines Working Group has published guidelines that describe a uniform set of characteristics for Ultra HD content and consistent methods for creating and delivering Ultra HD content.

Update from the Advanced Media Workflow Association, Video Services Forum, and Joint Task Force on Networked Media

Brad Gilmer
Over the past year, Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) activities have fallen largely into three areas.

• To improve industry understanding of where our work fits into the implementation of IP-based systems.
• To extend and evolve the range of Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS) specifications and best practices for these infrastructures.
• To provide tools which make the adoption of NMOS as easy as possible.
   

Streaming Video Alliance Progress Report

Jason Thibeault

• With members from across the video ecosystem, the Streaming Video Alliance is a global association which works to solve critical streaming video challenges to improve end-user experience and adoption at scale. This organization focuses on three main activities. The first is to educate the industry on challenges, technologies, and trends through informative, publicly available resources such as whitepapers, articles, and e-books. The second is to foster collaboration among different video ecosystem players through working groups, quarterly meetings, and conferences. The third is to define solutions for streaming video challenges by producing specifications, best practices, software code, and other technical documentation.

Networking Team Challenge

Join us for a 20 minute break to meet and mix with your fellow attendees! Get to know one another through a little friendly team competition. SMPTE's Director of Education, Joel Welch, will host this fun session during which attendees will be randomly assigned to small groups to solve problems and complete challenges.  Winning teams will win fabulous SMPTE swag prizes!

Utilizing Machine Learning for Video Processing

Liam Morrison

• The demand for media content in the form of audio, video, and images is growing at an unprecedented rate. To meet this demand, media content production is increasing rapidly. However, the process of producing, distributing, and monetizing content is often complex, expensive, and time consuming. Applying machine learning (ML) capabilities can allow for media companies to augment the work their teams are doing and provide capabilities that were previously prohibitively expensive or not even possible. ML capabilities are made available in one of three ways—built into software as a feature, consumed as an artificial intelligence (AI, of which ML is a subset) service [application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be consumed without ML expertise], and custom-trained models (which require data science expertise to train and deploy models)

Remote Innovations on the Cloud

Matt Herson 

• 2020 was a year of change in many ways. One of these aspects of change was the acceleration and adoption of remote workflows, leveraging collaboration tools for motion picture and television, born from the mandate to work from home virtually in every corner of the world. While COVID-19 had changed the industry in 2020, it accelerated moving these core production workloads to the cloud. Per Bob Chapek (CEO, Disney), “I would say COVID-19 accelerated the rate at which we made this transition, but this transition was going to happen anyway.” Cloud has helped customers navigate this new terrain, and we have witnessed technology providers and content creators collaborating like never before to push the art of the possible. People turned to entertainment to keep their spirits high, consuming content via streaming providers or broadcasters and the media and entertainment industry delivered. This is the story of a few companies that came together to contribute to that progress, adapting to the flexibility of modular design, while focusing on the end goal of a holistic post-production workflow anywhere in the world.

2021 High-Dynamic Range (HDR) Progress Report

Timo Kunkel, Patrick Griffis

• Since its introduction to the consumer market in 2015, high-dynamic range, better known by its acronym “HDR,” has established itself as a foundational component when looking at the aspects defining today’s image fidelity. This three-letter acronym “HDR” has become synonymous with brighter, more colorful pixels also known as (aka) “better pixels” enabled by a larger color palette that can better utilize the perceptual capability of human vision. SMPTE played a key role in enabling the HDR ecosystem with the standardization of an electro-optical transfer function (EOTF) based on the contrast sensitivity of the human visual system (HVS). This standard, ST 2084:2014, or more commonly “PQ” (for perceptual quantizer) establishes a practical maximum luminance range of 0–10,000 cd/m² for entertainment purposes much like 20 Hz to 20 kHz defines a practical frequency range for audio reproduction. Note that candelas/m² is a technical term for the perceived luminous intensity of light weighted by the HVS spectral response and is often colloquially referred to as “nits”—a term believed to come from the Latin word nitēre, “to shine.”

Standards

Bill Mandel and Bill Redmann

• This session explores what SMPTE has done in regards to standards for HDR in the past, how the Society influenced the industry and what is next. Industry experts will discuss HDR standards and technology and will answer questions.

American Society of Cinematographers Motion Imaging Technology Council Progress Report 2021 

Curtis Clark Chair, ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC)

Jesse Korosi, Greg Ciaccio, Jay Holben, Joachim Zell, Timothy Kang, David Morin and David Stump

• As we reflect on the disruptive impact that the pandemic has inflicted upon our personal and professional lives, I marvel at the resilience of our Motion Imaging Technology Council’s determination to continue addressing the rapidly evolving digital imaging technology challenges that are confronting filmmakers. Since its formation in 2002 as the ASC Technology Committee, our agenda over the years has consistently identified the critical technology developments driving the evolution of digital production workflows. The unique nature of our mission has always been the fusion of a solid scientific and engineering knowledge base with a laser focus on how these technologies can best benefit the cinematographer’s ability to utilize them to enhance their creative vision.

Reports from the SMPTE Technology and Task Force Committees

Bruce Devlin, Florian Scheich, Paul Gardiner, Fred Walls, Dean Bullock, Brian Long, Steve Llamb and Leigh Whitcomb

• SMPTE sets the standards that drive the professional media industry. This session allows you to hear the voices behind the documents as we talk to the people that lead SMPTE standards efforts. There are a lot of voices and they each get about 3 minutes to explain why their work is vital to the industry. Join and ask your own questions in this lively and brisk journey through the world of SMPTE technology.

Report from IDEA—The Immersive Digital Experiences Alliance

Austin Pahl, Thomas Alder 

• The past 12 months saw significant progress in the emerging world of immersive media. We saw myriad developments across all aspects of the immersive media landscape, ranging from new immersive displays announced by Looking Glass Factory, Sony, Avalon Holographics, Dimenco, and others to strides made in light field capture research. All of this brings us closer to widespread access to immersive media that will transform the way we live and work. To prepare for this future, the Immersive Digital Experiences Alliance (IDEA) recently published updated specifications, papers, and presentations during the last year, raising awareness about immersive media and how we will handle it.

An Update from the Entertainment Technology Center

Kenneth Williams

• The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) is a think tank and research center, funded by major studios and leading technology companies, which brings together senior executives, innovators, thought leaders, and catalysts from the media, entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and supporting services industries along with the academic resources of USC to explore and act upon topics and issues related to the creation, archiving, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencs (AMPAS)

Andy Maltz

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, is composed of more than 10,000 accomplished professional men and women working in cinema. The Academy’s Science and Technology Council leads the organization’s motion picture science and technology initiatives, and had a very active agenda over the last year despite the global situation. This session will highlight the Council’s work in virtual production education, the new Academy Digital Preservation Forum, advances in the Academy Color Encoding system, and anything else session attendees found interesting in this year’s Progress Issue article and what’s happened since its publication.

Utilizing Machine Learning for Video Processing

Liam Morrison

• The demand for media content in the form of audio, video, and images is growing at an unprecedented rate. To meet this demand, media content production is increasing rapidly. However, the process of producing, distributing, and monetizing content is often complex, expensive, and time consuming. Applying machine learning (ML) capabilities can allow for media companies to augment the work their teams are doing and provide capabilities that were previously prohibitively expensive or not even possible. ML capabilities are made available in one of three ways—built into software as a feature, consumed as an artificial intelligence (AI, of which ML is a subset) service [application programming interfaces (APIs) that can be consumed without ML expertise], and custom-trained models (which require data science expertise to train and deploy models)

Remote Innovations on the Cloud

Matt Herson 

• 2020 was a year of change in many ways. One of these aspects of change was the acceleration and adoption of remote workflows, leveraging collaboration tools for motion picture and television, born from the mandate to work from home virtually in every corner of the world. While COVID-19 had changed the industry in 2020, it accelerated moving these core production workloads to the cloud. Per Bob Chapek (CEO, Disney), “I would say COVID-19 accelerated the rate at which we made this transition, but this transition was going to happen anyway.” Cloud has helped customers navigate this new terrain, and we have witnessed technology providers and content creators collaborating like never before to push the art of the possible. People turned to entertainment to keep their spirits high, consuming content via streaming providers or broadcasters and the media and entertainment industry delivered. This is the story of a few companies that came together to contribute to that progress, adapting to the flexibility of modular design, while focusing on the end goal of a holistic post-production workflow anywhere in the world.

2021 High-Dynamic Range (HDR) Progress Report

Timo Kunkel, Patrick Griffis

• Since its introduction to the consumer market in 2015, high-dynamic range, better known by its acronym “HDR,” has established itself as a foundational component when looking at the aspects defining today’s image fidelity. This three-letter acronym “HDR” has become synonymous with brighter, more colorful pixels also known as (aka) “better pixels” enabled by a larger color palette that can better utilize the perceptual capability of human vision. SMPTE played a key role in enabling the HDR ecosystem with the standardization of an electro-optical transfer function (EOTF) based on the contrast sensitivity of the human visual system (HVS). This standard, ST 2084:2014, or more commonly “PQ” (for perceptual quantizer) establishes a practical maximum luminance range of 0–10,000 cd/m² for entertainment purposes much like 20 Hz to 20 kHz defines a practical frequency range for audio reproduction. Note that candelas/m² is a technical term for the perceived luminous intensity of light weighted by the HVS spectral response and is often colloquially referred to as “nits”—a term believed to come from the Latin word nitēre, “to shine.”

Standards

Bill Mandel and Bill Redmann

• This session explores what SMPTE has done in regards to standards for HDR in the past, how the Society influenced the industry and what is next. Industry experts will discuss HDR standards and technology and will answer questions.

American Society of Cinematographers Motion Imaging Technology Council Progress Report 2021 

Curtis Clark Chair, ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC)

Jesse Korosi, Greg Ciaccio, Jay Holben, Joachim Zell, Timothy Kang, David Morin and David Stump

• As we reflect on the disruptive impact that the pandemic has inflicted upon our personal and professional lives, I marvel at the resilience of our Motion Imaging Technology Council’s determination to continue addressing the rapidly evolving digital imaging technology challenges that are confronting filmmakers. Since its formation in 2002 as the ASC Technology Committee, our agenda over the years has consistently identified the critical technology developments driving the evolution of digital production workflows. The unique nature of our mission has always been the fusion of a solid scientific and engineering knowledge base with a laser focus on how these technologies can best benefit the cinematographer’s ability to utilize them to enhance their creative vision.

Reports from the SMPTE Technology and Task Force Committees

Bruce Devlin, Florian Scheich, Paul Gardiner, Fred Walls, Dean Bullock, Brian Long, Steve Llamb and Leigh Whitcomb

• SMPTE sets the standards that drive the professional media industry. This session allows you to hear the voices behind the documents as we talk to the people that lead SMPTE standards efforts. There are a lot of voices and they each get about 3 minutes to explain why their work is vital to the industry. Join and ask your own questions in this lively and brisk journey through the world of SMPTE technology.

Report from IDEA—The Immersive Digital Experiences Alliance

Austin Pahl, Thomas Alder 

• The past 12 months saw significant progress in the emerging world of immersive media. We saw myriad developments across all aspects of the immersive media landscape, ranging from new immersive displays announced by Looking Glass Factory, Sony, Avalon Holographics, Dimenco, and others to strides made in light field capture research. All of this brings us closer to widespread access to immersive media that will transform the way we live and work. To prepare for this future, the Immersive Digital Experiences Alliance (IDEA) recently published updated specifications, papers, and presentations during the last year, raising awareness about immersive media and how we will handle it.

An Update from the Entertainment Technology Center

Kenneth Williams

• The Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) is a think tank and research center, funded by major studios and leading technology companies, which brings together senior executives, innovators, thought leaders, and catalysts from the media, entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and supporting services industries along with the academic resources of USC to explore and act upon topics and issues related to the creation, archiving, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencs (AMPAS)

Andy Maltz

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, is composed of more than 10,000 accomplished professional men and women working in cinema. The Academy’s Science and Technology Council leads the organization’s motion picture science and technology initiatives, and had a very active agenda over the last year despite the global situation. This session will highlight the Council’s work in virtual production education, the new Academy Digital Preservation Forum, advances in the Academy Color Encoding system, and anything else session attendees found interesting in this year’s Progress Issue article and what’s happened since its publication.

Let's raise a glass of champagne or your favorite cocktail as we say "Thank You" to Barbara for her leadership and countless significant contributions to SMPTE over the past 12 years.  

Let's raise a glass of champagne or your favorite cocktail as we say "Thank You" to Barbara for her leadership and countless significant contributions to SMPTE over the past 12 years.