The recent HPA Tech Retreat was a gathering of industry professionals to discuss many different aspects of the broadcast and video industries, including NextGen TV and how new technologies are assisting with productions.

Mark Schubin, the HPA program maestro, took time during the retreat to look back at the last year in technology. Take a look at Schubin's presentation in the video below, courtesy of HPA.

For more information about HPA or HPA Tech Retreat, please visit www.hpaonline.com.

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF.—The 25th anniversary edition of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Tech Retreat got underway here with a “first”—a complete motion picture “short” that was shot, assembled and “premiered” all in a single day.

Although some of the production’s scenes had been recorded earlier, a large portion of the action was captured during the Feb. 18 conference’s opening day program that interspersed the filmmaking with presentations about the various technologies that were used to put the 11-minute comedy together. 

Shooting took place at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa—where the four-day HPA Tech Retreat is taking place—as well as on the hotel grounds, and some additional action being captured by drone in a nearby southern California desert. The interior scenes featured action both on stage and off, with conference attendees interacting with actors at one point in the script.

“The Lost Lederhosen” was the brainchild of Joachim “JZ” Zell, vice president of technology at EFILM, a Los Angeles-based company specializing in digital imaging. Zell developed the movie’s storyline and served as the project’s host and producer. He explained that this “instant movie” was all about demonstrating technologies now available to moviemakers—including the use of cloud storage and playout—that make it possible to greatly shorten production time for cinematic productions, allowing operations that formerly took days and weeks of post-production effort to be done in near-real time.

The HPA cinematic production featured a mix of professional and volunteer actors, including SMPTE’s executive director, Barbara Lange. It was directed by Hollywood veteran Steven Shaw, with another television and motion picture notable, Roy Wagner, serving as director of photography.

To achieve the extremely quick turnaround time, the production utilized “virtual production stage” technology, in which prepared video backgrounds and scenery are inserted into the live action in real time through the use of large LED video display screens, rather than being done in post-production via the more conventional, but time-consuming, greenscreen process for montaging such footage.

As explained by conference presenter and chief executive officer at Stargate Studios, Sam Nicholson, a large degree of realism is achieved in virtual production stage scenes through the use of on-camera “trackers,” which allow computers to precisely follow camera movement and adjust the video being inserted into the scene accordingly to mimic what would be experienced in a real-world situation. Even the brightness and color temperature of the background display screens can automatically track changes to match what would happen in a real-world environment.

“If you kill all of the lights on the set, everything will adjust day-to-night,” said Nicholson. “So you save a tremendous amount of time on set because all lights are slaved to a virtual environment. If you go into a tunnel the lights go out. As daylight changes, lights track these changes. Again, everything comes back to what we’ve learned in post-production. That expertise is now being applied to photography.”

The short incorporated all elements of a “real” Hollywood production, including an ACES workflow; color correction; even delivery of “dailies” and an “outtake” reel. Editing was done on three Avid Media Composers located in a Hollywood facility, all cloud-connected to the previously ingested footage. Sound effects and audio “sweetening” operations were performed by Skywalker Sound at the Skywalker Ranch in northern California. The services of a number of other companies were employed, ranging from Amazon Web Services to Frame.io and Red Bee, to handle such production tasks as color grading and even minimizing the appearance of facial blemishes on some cast members. 

In addition to demonstrating how cinematic production time can be drastically reduced by performing tasks on set as the shooting occurs—instead of in post-production—the HPA “Lederhosen” project illustrated how cloud technology can allow multiple entities operating from a number of widely spread geographic locations to collaborate on post-production.

Five loaned cameras were used in the shooting of “The Lost Lederhosen:” an ARRI Alexa, a Sony Venice, a RED Monstro2, Blackmagic Design URSA mini pro and a Panavision DXL2.  

Reaction to the full day of movie production interwoven with technical presentations about various aspects of the project was very positive as judged by applause and cheers that followed the screening of the short. HPA organizers are promising similar events at future Tech Retreats.

A “Lost Lederhosen” trailer is available for viewing at https://vimeo.com/387515173. 

PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.—The HPA Tech Retreat turns 25 this year, though there is an asterisk or two when it comes to nailing down its age. The industry-gathering event started in 1995 with the International Teleproduction Society serving as the headlining sponsor until 2001, when the Hollywood Professional Association took up the mantle. There was also a missed year following a schedule change.

However it arrived, the 2020 HPA Tech Retreat rolls along once again in the Palm Springs desert, Feb. 17–20, and there appears to be no quarter-life crisis, even as the broadcast industry heads into a new decade and is on the edge of revolutionary changes.

AN ACCELERATING WORLD

It’s not just one thing about the industry that is currently evolving; all of the new technology designed to move broadcasting forward is on its way or already here and the Tech Retreat will try to address the challenges of technology adoption in its kick-off session, TR-X.

Titled “Stop the Technology World, I Want to Get Off!,” produced by Mark Chiolis, director of business development, Mobile TV Group, and Craig German, head of post management of series at Amazon Studios, the half-day session taking place on Monday, Feb. 17, takes a close examination at some of the most disruptive changes and how it will directly impact industry practices.

The session will be bookended with what Chiolis describes as “two different viewpoints” on just where the future is going from Mark Turner of MovieLabs and Josh Stinehour of Devoncroft. In between, it will offer specific looks at topics such as video over IP, the introduction of betting (and how it could gamify entertainment), artificial intelligence, augmented reality and a session from NASA’s Rodney Grubbs, who will explain how the agency plans to have UHD imaging live from the Moon by 2024.

With things changing so fast, Chiolis and German said they took a personal approach to planning this TR-X program, the third one they’ve organized.

“We build it for us and then we share it with the rest of the audience,” Chiolis said. “Because it’s really of interest to us, and we’re part of the larger media and entertainment industry over multiple aspects of it, we believe that by doing that it’s going to be of interest to everybody and everybody is going to benefit; everybody is going to participate.”

THE NEXTGEN ASPECT

While there are many elements pushing broadcast forward, likely nothing is as important in 2020 than the planned launch of NextGen TV, which will be a huge point of focus during the Broadcasters Panel on Wednesday.

“We’ve been talking about the coming of ATSC 3.0 on the panel over the last decade,” said Matthew Goldman, senior vice president of technology at MediaKind and the producer of the Broadcasters Panel. “And this year, wham, we’re going to air. This is the big, big launch this year.”

Despite the initial plans regarding NextGen TV from those in the industry—ATSC has said it intends to rollout to at least 40 markets by the end of the year, and TV manufacturers have announced that they are developing up to 20 TV models that will be able to receive NextGen TV (see cover story)—one of the most interesting aspects Goldman intends to dive into is the fact that, unlike the switch from analog to digital, transitioning to ATSC 3.0 will be voluntary. “How successful is it going to be given that it’s all voluntary?” he mused.

Other broadcast issues will also be on the table, including the rise of OTT, bandwidth, next-generation audio and 8K, with a number of industry experts participating as panelists, including Del Parks, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s senior vice president and CTO, Richard Friedel, executive vice president of engineering, operations and technology at Fox Television Stations Group and NAB’s Skip Pizzi.

MAKING MOVIES

Those are just a taste of what the 2020 HPA Tech Retreat has planned for its attendees from the schedule organized by HPA “program maestro” Mark Schubin.

Some of the other highlights include the full-day Supersession on Tuesday, “HPA Makes a Movie.” In a single day, HPA will shoot, edit and show a short-film with the help of HPA Engineering Award winners and a number of Hollywood professionals to highlight new techniques and technology.

There will also be a heavy focus on cloud technology at this year’s show, which Schubin said was the most submitted topic with HPA’s open call for presentations. As a result, most of the sessions on Thursday morning will explain how the cloud impacts things like production, security and distribution.

The jam-packed four-day slate is a testament of how the HPA Tech Retreat has grown over the years.

“The first one that I attended, which I was not in charge of but I did some presentations at, we had about 60 people and it was maybe 30% tech stuff and 60% what was considered important at the time, like team-building exercises,” said Schubin. It has since turned into a massive gathering featuring the latest technology, he said.

But even after all these years, Schubin believes it has stayed true to what has been its biggest success. “The one thing that we’ve always had since the very beginning is what I say is the unofficial motto of the Tech Retreat: Someone will be there who knows the answer, no matter what your question is.”

The 2020 HPA Tech Retreat takes place from Feb. 17–20 at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, Calif. For more information, visit hpaonline.com.

BURBANK, Calif.—The Hollywood Professional Association is now calling for presentation proposals for its 2020 HPA Tech Retreat that is scheduled to take place in February. These presentations will be for the retreat’s main program and its breakfast roundtables.

Interested presenters may choose to focus on any topic that is related to moving images and associated sounds, per HPA. This can include AI, blockchain, esports, knob-free TV, LED lighting spectra, next-generation sound, wireless broadcasting, zoom antennas and more.

Presentation proposals must come from the proposed presenter. Otherwise, no formal submission is required, a one- to two-sentence description can suffice; if more information is required HPA will ask.

Presentations in the main program are designed to be 30 minutes, including set-up and a Q&A, though longer or shorter presentations can sometimes be accommodated if requested. Panel proposers need to provide both the moderator and panelists. Main program presentations cannot be marketing presentations.

The breakfast roundtables, meanwhile, are given during breakfast on Wednesday and Thursday of the retreat starting at 7:30 a.m. Presentations can be on any topic, and can also be marketing based. There is no vetting process for breakfast roundtables, and is instead filled out in a first-come, first-served basis. There will be a max of 32 tables available over the two days.

To submit a proposal for either the main program or breakfast roundtable series, email Mark Schubin at TVMark@EarthLink.net or Media.Mark.Schubin@gmail.com. Received proposals will get an acknowledgement. The deadline for submitting proposals for the main program will be end of day on Oct. 25. Decisions are expected by early December.

The 2020 HPA Tech Retreat will take place from Feb. 17-20 at the Westin MIssion Hills Golf Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, Calif.

For more information, visit www.hollywoodprofessionalassociation.com.