HOLLYWOOD, CALIF.—A simple look at the numbers reveals the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition last week in Hollywood, Calif., was a success. More than 2,500 registered attendees (a record); 105 exhibitors, and 70 presentations on some of the most important technical issues facing the motion picture and television industry adds up to another high mark for the standards body.

More than 100 exhibitors showcased their latest technology at the SMPTE 2017.

However, there was a far more important number for the industry in general and SMPTE in particular being discussed at the event. That number is 30.

On the last day of the conference (Oct. 26), John Footen, a leader in Deloitte’s Technology Strategy and Architecture Practice for Technology, Media & Telecoms asked those attending his “The Future of Technology in the Future of Broadcasting” to stand up if they were younger than 30 years old. Of the estimated 200 people in attendance, two said they were younger than 30. One was a scientist, not an engineer, and the other declined to identify her role in the industry.

YEP PROGRAM

While certainly not a scientific survey, a casual observation of those attending other sessions—wandering the aisles from booth to booth in the two exhibit halls and participating in after-hour events like the SMPTE Oktoberfest and Spooktacular—indicates Footen’s poll wasn’t too far off the mark.

SMPTE has recognized the need to attract younger professionals for some time. On the creative side of the business, the organization—along with HPA, which consolidated with SMPTE two years ago—has attracted young filmmakers with the annual SMPTE-HPA Student Film Festival. Likewise, on the technical side—where SMPTE has made its bones for just over 100 years—the pair are tackling the dearth of young blood as well, according to Matthew Goldman, SMPTE president.

SMPTE President Matthew Goldman talks with attendees at SMPTE’s Young Entertainment Professional day-long conference.

“I just came from an all-day event here [at the Loews Hollywood Hotel] that is actually the HPA’s event—sponsored along with SMPTE—called the ‘Young Entertainment Professional,’ or the YEP, program,” said Goldman, who is also senior vice president of technology at Ericsson. YEP is a yearlong program for young engineers five to seven years into their careers, he said.

In Hollywood, the daylong YEP event was focused on mentorship for the “huge crowd” of YEP participants in attendance, Goldman added. “In broadcast in general, it’s the aging of the population. If you look at professional media as a whole, it’s not that way,” he said. “We are looking to strengthen our programs to be more relevant to people in the early part of their carriers, which is usually when you are in your 20s.”

VISION 2020

To that end, SMPTE is on a mission as part of its Vision2020 strategic plan to have 30 percent of its members under 30 years of age, according to Goldman. Back in Salon 2 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom where Footen was making his presentation, the conversation turned to changes in areas where television engineers and tech personnel work and what that may hold for the future. To illustrate the diminishing role for R&D engineers at broadcast organizations, Footen invited Bob Seidel, vice president of engineering and advanced technology at CBS and past president of SMPTE, to the microphone to talk for a few minutes about the CBS Technology Center in Stamford, Conn.

In its heyday, the lab, which closed in 1986, employed as many as 150 engineers tackling R&D projects in areas like videodisc, high definition television, color cameras, image processing and tape, he said. Today, there are five CBS R&D engineers, one of whom previously worked at the tech center.

While HPA has YEP and SMPTE its 30-under-30 goal, the industry at large must find a way to make television attractive to younger people, said Footen. “Our industry is not considered sexy anymore,” he said. “A TV station in the ‘60s or ‘70s was like a startup. It was the hot place to work. It was a place you wanted to go work.”

Footen sees the situation eventually working itself out with a large number of engineers retiring over the next several years and wages becoming more competitive with the IT industry. The approach to management must also change, he said. “I need to be able to walk into a TV station and see the ping-pong table and latte machine,” he said. “Make it sexy. Make it that the next generation will want to work in our field. Make it like it was before.”

LOS ANGELES—The book is officially closed on the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, and according to SMPTE it was the most attended year in the event’s run.

More than 2,500 registered attendees took part in the week’s festivities that included 70 expert presentations, 105 exhibitors, the IP Showcase, Broadcast Beat’s Live! Studio and symposiums on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

During the conference, SMPTE Executive Director Barbara Lanage announced the dates for the 2018 conference, which will take place from Oct. 22-25. There will be a new location for the 2018 conference, due to the reported continued increase in attendance, with festivities moving to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles. The 2018 conference will be chaired by SMPTE Fellows Thomas Edwards, vice president engineering and development at Fox, and SMPTE Education Director Sara J. Kudrle, product marketing manager for playout at Imagine Communications.

SMPTE 2017 concluded on Thursday, Oct. 26, with the Annual Awards Gala, where SMPTE Honorary Membership was bestowed posthumously on Renville “Ren” H. McMann Jr. The organizations Progress Medal was presented to Paul E. Debevec.

See more of TVT’s SMTPE coverage here.

LOS ANGELES—Ultra HD is coming of age and with maturity its treatment at industry gatherings, such as the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition in Hollywood, Calif., is changing.

Hans Hoffmann, session chair of the UHD, Bigger, Better conference track and senior manager of the EBU Technology and Innovation Department, may have said it best at the opening of the second day of the SMPTE conference.“UHD TV really came a long way. Years ago, we were talking of very fundamental research topics,” said Hoffmann as he introduced the morning UHDTV sessions. “Today what you are going to see and hear in the sessions is actually that we have reached now practical, operational questions.”

CLOSED CAPTIONING

First up was how Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) has deployed closed captioning as part of the nation’s deployment of over-the-air ATSC 3.0-based 4K television. YunHyoung Kim, a research engineer at KBS, described a practical implementation of next-gen TV closed captioning that leverages the same captioning information generated by a stenographer for its ATSC 1.0 broadcasts. KBS can take this approach because it simulcasts its programming in HD and UHDTV, he said. However, the work of the stenographer is the only common element between the two standards.

YunHyoung Kim ATSC 3.0 relies on the A/343 captions and subtitles standard. Unlike CEA-708 used in ATSC 1.0 in which captioning information is delivered as a bitstream contained in the picture header, A/343 delivers the information in XML language as a separate service, he said, adding that the ATSC 3.0 captioning standard is based on IMSC1, or the TTML profile for Internet Media Subtitles and Captions 1.0.

As a result, timing becomes a critical piece of the ATSC 3.0 closed-captioning puzzle to ensure closed captions are synchronized with the video, he said. That requires timing information to be inserted with the closed captions so they can be synced up with the video in consumer receivers. For KBS, accomplishing this goal requires a two-set process.

The first involves a caption converter, which converts DTV captions into IMSC1 captions. The converter buffers the incoming DTV captions, inserts timing information, which Kim characterized as being incomplete, and periodically generates TTML captions. The second step is caption generation. The KBS UHD caption generator completes the timing information needed in the display to sync captions and video by inserting UTC time, he explained. Finally, the caption generator generates ROUTE/MMT caption streams.

THE USE OF SUBTITLES

Simon Thompson, a BBC project engineer working on next-generation video systems, also tackled the topic of closed captions in his “Access Services for UHDTV: An Initial Investigation of W3C TTML2 Subtitles” paper.

Subtitle use is increasing in the United Kingdom for several reasons, such as an aging population, their popularity among children learning a second language and the increased viewership of foreign-language series, he said. The British government also has mandated their use since 2003, he added.

“TTML subtitles are the way forward for UHD,” said Thompson. W3C [the World Wide Web Consortium] developed the TTML subtitle specification, and various organizations, including SMPTE, the EBU and CableLabs, have their own profiles of the spec, he said. TTML files contain the text of the subtitle, as well as on-screen placement, timing and color information, which enables the TV to render closed captions.

The color of closed captions is important to BBC because it assigns one of four colors—white, lime (green), yellow and cyan—to identify different speakers on screen, he said. Thompson discussed the process BBC uses to arrive at those TTML colors for captions used on an HDR display. “We can’t just use the sRGB signal on an HDR screen because, if you use whites, then you stick your subtitle out at peak luminance of the display,” Thompson said. “We tried that. It’s not very nice. You can actually see the text for about 30 seconds [after it was presented on the display].” This requires a transform from sRGB to hybrid log gamma (HLG), which necessitates a transform of BT.709 primaries to BT.2100, he said. Thompson pointed out that color fidelity is not the objective in this captioning application. It just has to be good enough to identify the speakers.

A TTML working group developed a method for converting sRGB to PQ, but after evaluating it for use with HLG, BBC decided to write its own, said Thompson. The BCC method undoes the sRGB transfer function, performs a color space conversion and applies a simplified HLG Opto-Optical Transfer Function.

Thompson said the BBC wanted to answer three questions related to this transfer to HLG: How accurate was the color after the transfer to HLG? Does background brightness affect the perceived brightness of the subtitle? And do background changes in brightness create perceived changes in brightness of the subtitles? The broadcaster presented test subjects with four individual video sequences as well as two with cuts between clips—bright to dim and vice versa—to get the answers.

To conclude, Thompson made four points. First, fewer than 5 percent of viewers said they were very annoyed by the variation in subtitle brightness when a screen is forced into power-saving mode by the brightness of the background video. Second, content producers should be aware that scenes with rapid, repeated changes in brightness level will cause some viewers to perceive that the brightness of subtitles change when the monitor’s power-saving mode is not triggered. Third, when displaying subtitles on a dim background, dimmer subtitles should be used. Finally, subtitlers should have access to a bigger color palette and should choose the appropriate subtitle brightness levels within a scene, Thompson said.

LOS ANGELES—As dwindling theatrical attendance continues to alarm the industry, it certainly seems like a good time for a body such as SMPTE to explore issues related to enhancing the cinema experience. Wednesday’s Cinema Processing and Projection Technology track, held in the TCL Chinese Theatres’ VR Theatre, addressed these issues in a series of presentations: one on multiscreen content; one on variable frame rate projection; and one about factors that must be considered when quantifying high dynamic range (HDR) projection.

The history of multiscreen presentations goes back to Cinerama and the triptych format used for portions of Abel Gance’s 1927 epic “Napoleon.” More recent digital incarnations include Barco’s Escape format. Instead of installing a single, wider screen, the use of extra screens to expand the effective width of the image is more adaptable to the layout of different theaters exhibiting the same content.

This process can be complex and might have discouraged some theaters from adapting for multiscreen content. Sungmin Cho and Kyunghan Lee presented their research introducing the concept of VR Theater, which uses VR technology to map an auditorium’s specific characteristics, including height, width and angle of view for individual seats, to simplify what is now quite an elaborate process.

VR Theater uses the Unity game engine, HTC VIVE media encoder and Oculus Rift. The idea is to be able to generate an XML file that can retain information about where additional screens can and cannot be placed, the angles, and the effect in a specific room of light reflection from additional screens on the center or main screen. The work on the VR Theater concept is ongoing and the speakers noted that they intend to track additional parameters. They believe that solving these issues for presentation venues could be a key to seeing greater adoption of multiscreen cinema.

VARIABLE FRAME RATE PROJECTION

The next presentation concerned variable frame rate projection and was given by Tim Ryan, software system architect, DLP Cinema at Texas Instruments. Ryan explained that while current DLP technology is capable of projecting at up to 120 fps, factors such as throughput capacity make achieving that frame rate at 2K or 4K impractical or impossible for current theaters. (Although Ang Lee’s multi-frame rate feature “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” was never mentioned by name, it presents a perfect example of this problem, as only a handful of people were ever able to see it in all its multi-frame rate glory.)

Furthermore, Ryan pointed out that there is currently no easy way to build multiple frame rates into a single DCP (Digital Cinema Package). Altering the standard to do so, he said, could be a simple process and would represent a significant advancement, allowing filmmakers—such as Lee, James Cameron and others who have expressed interest—to explore the possibilities of having some scenes run at 24 fps, others at 60 and others perhaps at 120 within a single film.

Applications wouldn’t be restricted to future projects. Ryan discussed communications he’s had with film archivists about movies from the silent era that frequently came with notes to the projectionist about the ideal speed to crank the projector for specific scenes. The people who restore and remaster films from this era have sometimes been able to approximate this effect, but Ryan’s suggested changes could actually allow audiences to see these films projected at the frame rates those accompanying notes suggest.

Ryan said he and the TI team that has been working on this MFR project have come up with a way to add instructions to a revised version of a DCP, which would communicate changes in frame rate to a digital cinema projector such that it would have enough time to make the shift seamlessly.

The work is still in progress, and Ryan acknowledged the generally poor audience reaction to films that use frame rates other than the 90-year-old 24 fps standard dating to the introduction of sound. He also responded to a question about the ramifications for sound encoding in a MFR feature still needed study. But he noted that there is continued interest in MFR by major directors and believes that if people build the technology, the filmmakers will come.

CONTRAST RANGE FOR HDR THEATRICAL SYSTEMS

The final presentation came from Martin Richards of Dolby, representing work he and Dolby colleagues Barret Lippey, Peter van Kessel and Dave Schnuelle have done in measuring the factors involved in determining a true contrast range for HDR theatrical systems such as their Dolby Vision, which is capable of 108 nits, rather than the 48 of standard dynamic range D-cinema.

Looking at theaters equipped with the laser projectors used for Dolby Vision projection, he and his team examined real luminance values from actual motion picture scenes of varying APL (average picture level) with the intention of quantifying, or at least defining, the real-world impact offered by Dolby Vision.

While Richards reported having measured contrast ratios of up to 400,000:1, he acknowledged that the number itself is not as definitive a measurement as some might think because there are so many variables—from actual shooting and mastering, which often uses that available brightness sparingly, but also based on extraneous factors in the theater itself, from ambient light in the theater to filthy port glass, to the color of the walls and seats. All this and more can affect the real displayed dynamic range significantly, especially in scenes with a low APL.

The three presentations certainly demonstrated that scientists and engineers are working hard to develop, refine and implement new types of cinema presentations. If intrepid artists find ways to use the technology and audiences embrace what they do with it, the movie-going experience might soon look very different.

LOS ANGELES—The on-going roll-out of IP connectivity in the broadcast plant is featured in a big way at SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, with a demonstration of the technology in action.

Paul Briscoe and Luann Linnebar

The IP Showcase was set up in the show’s Centennial Hall. According to Luann Linnebar, Nevion’s director of business development, and one of the SMPTE Conference IP Showcase hosts, the concept for the demonstration had its roots in IP-connected equipment “Plugfests” or compatibility testing performed by a number of equipment manufacturers.

“We brought 50-some companies together in Texas this past August, and tested everything including cameras, microphones, production switchers, ingest, playout servers and routers to prove that a complete television production could be done with IP,” Linnebar said. She added that such IP interoperability testing has been going on for about two years.

“It started with a just handful of companies, and now we’ve grown to more than 50,” she said.

This large equipment package from the latest round of testing was assembled into a complete all-IP television facility and demonstrated in September at IBC 2017 in Amsterdam.

The SMPTE IP-Showcase equipment setup featured gear from multiple vendors.

Paul Briscoe, principal consultant with Television Technology Consulting, and another IP demo host, noted that the SMPTE IP Showcase—although scaled-down from 19 racks at the IBC Show to eight—even included the “theatre” area for IP-related presentations featured at the September conference.

“The only thing we didn’t include was the IP-connected production studio,” he said.

LOS ANGELES—With its integration with the NDI IP video standard, Pebble Beach Systems is now able to provide low-latency confidence monitoring for its virtualized Orca software-defined integrated channel solution. This development removes objectionable monitoring delays that can be inherent to real-time video over IP virtualized workflows and increases Orca’s suitability for the playout of high-value live, reactive channels and latency-sensitive applications.

NDI provides a low-latency, light-weight, frame accurate video protocol, giving Pebble’s customers less than one frame of delay when confidence monitoring channel-in-a-box or virtualized playout systems over an IP network.

The company is also demonstrating its Lighthouse web-based remote management and monitoring dashboard for the Marina automation platform. Lighthouse extends Marina’s functionality to business users, operational staff and engineers both inside and outside the broadcast facility. It offers a series of interfaces, which deliver configuration and deployment functionality for Orca virtual channels. Using the new design and deployment tools, Lighthouse users can quickly and design, edit, launch and decommission virtual IP channels on the fly.

It also offers control, monitoring, media management and system configuration tools via an array of widgets on configurable web-based dashboards, with the ability to aggregate data across multiple sites.

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Shortly before the start of SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Thierry Fautier, vice president of video strategy, Harmonic, about his Thursday session “State-of-the-Art Virtual Reality Streaming: Solutions for Reducing Bandwidth & Improving Video Quality.”

TV TECHNOLOGY: Tiling seems like an interesting solution to the bandwidth problem VR streaming faces. Could you describe the problem and how VR tiling offers a solution?

THIERRY FAUTIER: First let us look at the limitations of a classical system, where a 4K video is sent to an HMD after stitching and only 1/10 can be watched and therefore creates a fuzziness effect on HMD.

Tiling is solving two problems:

· Increases the resolution of VR video as the sent video is the native resolution of the HMD, vs. 1/10 is watched in classical method

· Decreases the bitrate of the transmitted video, as only the viewport of the watched video is sent, resulting in a saving of up to 80 percent, we have measured 50-75 percent in our experiments

We show the system diagram of a tiling system to HMD.

TVT: How can tiling anticipate which way a VR viewer will look in order to make sure the correct image information is present to enable a seamless experience?

FAUTIER: There areltiple techniques used: mu

· First, the full viewport video is sent in lower resolution in case the tiles are not refreshed instantly

· Second, the client can request a larger window than the one watched (pre fetch)

· Last, we can do some prediction of where the user will move it head next, this works well for Live video. Of course for VoD we can also build analytics.

TVT: Is VR tiling strictly a solution for head-mounted displays, or is it appropriate for tablet and smartphone use regardless is whether the device is swiped or used in magic window mode?

FAUTIER: At IBC, we were showing how tiling is used on a tablet. The same principle applies vs HMD for any 2D device (phone, tablet, PC, TV, etc.)

We show the system diagram of a tiling system to 2D device.

TVT: What about 4K and 8K VR? Do these present a more difficult challenge for VR tiling given the larger amount of data required?

FAUTIER: There are two approaches:

· By saving, in that case we encode in tiling 4K, transmit HD and therefore get a similar quality as legacy at 50-75 percent bitrate saving

· Quality increase, in that case we encode in tiling 8K, transmit 4K and therefore get a much better quality than legacy same at the same bitrate

One very important aspect: 8K VR tiling works on legacy devices. This is a key feature of tiling.

See diagram and measurements. 

LOS ANGELES—At the Telestream booth, Lightspeed Live Stream and Capture for enterprise streaming, processing and distribution is being featured, along with a new joint solution with IBM Aspera FASPStream that enables high-quality streaming to remote production teams for near real-time editing and production over standard IP networks.

SMPTE attendees will be able to see the latest version of Wirecast Live Streaming Production Software and the Wirecast Gear companion hardware unit (v8) featuring Rendezvous, which the company says is a peer-to-peer remote conferencing and multi-site production feature that supports multiple simultaneous remote streams from any internet-connected computer or smart device.

The Vantage Media Processing Platform will also be on display; as well as the latest Vidchecker QC and correction software; and Timed Text Speech, Telestream’s new file-based auto-transcription service for subtitling and captioning workflows with MacCaption and CaptionMaker.

Shortly before the start of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Darren Gallipeau, Zenium Program Director at Imagine Communications about his Thursday session “Microservices: Building Blocks to New Workflows and Virtualization?”

TV TECHNOLOGY: Microservices has become a buzzword in the industry when it comes to virtualizing media workflows. What are microservices and why are they important?

DARREN GALLIPEAU: Microservices, or a microservice-based architecture, is an approach to software development and deployment that isolates functionality into discrete and independent services. Where a traditional software approach may attempt to provide a given set of functionality inside of a large, bundled, monolithic application (or several large monolithic applications), a microservices approach isolates each of those monolithic application’s features into isolated services. To achieve an end-to-end workflow, these microservices are then chained together, each performing a discrete, isolated function.

The goal is lighter-weight, easier- to-deploy and easier-to-maintain services - not applications. This applies both to how software developers would approach a solution design, as well as how it impacts a larger enterprise deployment methodology. At both ends of the spectrum, there is a conscious and active intent to separate functionalities into their smallest reasonable elements —so when developers implement a solution, they will do so in such a way that the functionalities can be compartmentalized; and when an operations team architects and deploys a larger solution, they will leverage the exact same principals in their deployment.

Microservices offer a number of benefits over traditional software approaches, the most notable of which include greater flexibility, isolation, efficiency and collaboration. The granularity offered by microservices is the primary reason behind these benefits: a larger monolithic application is constrained by its initial application design, and can be very difficult to extend or modify its functionality without software development changes; whereas a microservices approach permits both more flexible end-to-end workflows, as well as easier modification or addition of new functionality.

The isolated nature of these microservices also serves to limit the risk or difficulty in making these modifications—unlike a larger, complicated, monolithic application, where any change has potential negative impact on the entire application. This granularity also means only the functionality required to fulfill the end-to-end workflow need be deployed (and purchased), compared with the inefficient (and costlier) use of larger applications where only a portion or subset of the application’s larger feature set is utilized.

Finally, microservices permit easier integration of new technologies or functionality into the larger workflow, perhaps from multiple vendors, as they do not have large portions of their workflow obscured by large, opaque “black boxes” typically associated with monolithic applications.

TVT: Is it possible to mix and match microservices from different vendors to create the workflow and performance characteristics desired—sort of like mixing and matching black boxes in a best-of-breed system architecture?

GALLIPEAU: Yes; this is a very important feature of a microservices approach. Microservices are typically designed to leverage standards-based interfaces and protocols. For control and monitoring, RESTful APIs and web services are typically used, and standardized IP-based protocols, such as SMPTE ST 2110, ensure multiple microservices can be used for the content itself, including those from disparate vendors.

The granularity of microservices, and departure from large monolithic applications, permits a more malleable and configurable workflow, as they give an opportunity for various vendors to be used for those isolated functionalities—rather than having a significant portion tied into a larger, rigid application.

TVT: Have microservices lived up to their billing as an enabler of customized media workflows? If so, what is a good example? If not, why not?

GALLIPEAU: I think the majority of the media and broadcast industry is still investigating and educating themselves about microservices. However, microservices have been leveraged very successfully in various other industries, including big data, social media and IT. It’s not a coincidence that we are seeing increasing disruption in our industry from nontraditional companies like Netflix, Facebook, Amazon and Google—these companies have been leveraging microservices for years, which have enabled them to spin up competitive offerings much quicker than we would typically see in our industry.

That said, there are companies who have invested substantially in microservices, to great benefit. A major content provider recently transitioned its entire broadcasting infrastructure to the cloud by leveraging Zenium platform, which is the pure microservices platform powering many of Imagine Communications next-generation product offerings.

TVT: You have written that “microservices bring a whole new level of potential collaboration to the broadcast industry.” Can you elaborate?

GALLIPEAU: In software development, there have been various attempts to facilitate better collaboration among organizations that are often competitive. Some popular examples used in our industry include service-oriented architectures (SOA), where separate monolithic applications communicate over a common service bus, and “plug-in” architectures, where small, isolated functionality can be created for use inside of a monolithic application, usually via a software-development kit specifically designed for the application.

These approaches do offer a decent level of interoperability, and by extension potential for collaboration, but are still limited by the large, monolithic applications used. Microservices can allow for the smallest piece of functionality to be updated or replaced, usually without disrupting or affecting other microservices in the workflow, and mean that at any part of the processing chain a new or updated microservice can be used.

Shortly before the start of SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Tom Ohanian, vice president of product development and marketing at Vitec Group, about his Thursday session “How Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Will Change Content Creation Methodologies.”

TV TECHNOLOGY: Is there a specific type of content you see being edited without the aesthetic input of a person? Are there types of content that you think will benefit most by this type of AI editing?

TOM OHANIAN: Most logically, content types that lend themselves to templates will benefit from the automated methodologies of AI. For example, take television promos. A primetime network show may have anywhere between 200-2,000 promos for each episode. I know it sounds like a ridiculously high number, but when you factor in the permutations for language, length and distributor, the numbers climb. Once a promo template has been initially created by a human, the variants can be easily addressed and assembled without further human intervention.

TVT: What would you say are the primary advantages to AI editing over human editors?

OHANIAN: This is always the gut-wrenching, face-tightening, teeth-clenching question. But let’s put those emotions aside. It is natural to think of AI as a threat to human editors, but that is not my point of view. We have to carefully consider that there are consumption outlets that require content, but those outlets do not have the same ad model or revenue support as primetime television programming. 

AI editing can also lend assistance to the human editor. Editing constructs and the rules of cinematography can provide us with rulesets for AI systems to utilize. For example, given a scene of master shot, over the shoulders and close-ups, AI can assemble variants of the scene that the human editor can then finesse.

Why is this necessary? Well, it has to do with the fact that not all content is equal—and therefore, we have to find more streamlined and automated ways of either pre-assembling or assembling that content. 

TVT: Is there work being done this way now? If so, what kind of work is it?

OHANIAN: AI is already being used to reduce human transcriptionists. We’ve seen great success in that area. We’ve also seen more frequent examples of movie trailers being created via AI. We are very quickly moving to a point where pre-assemblies and work types that can be templates will be done in this fashion.

TVT: Of the points mentioned – image recognition, natural speech processing, language recognition, cognitive metadata extraction, tonal analysis and interactive game engine technologies for creation of content – which is furthest along today and which is in the most rudimentary stages?

OHANIAN: Image and natural speech have progressed enormously in the last two years—we’ve experienced this in so many facets of our everyday lives. Making educated and learned extrapolations is just beginning, but will be enormously powerful.

TVT: Machine learning presumably continues to receive input, whether through developers or crowd sourcing or something similar, to correct mistakes and “teach” the system how to improve. If AI editing is being used for content creation on a professional level, what sorts of information would such a system use to continue to improve? And also, what would count as a “mistake” or an “improvement” in what is ultimately a creative field?

OHANIAN: You’re absolutely correct. Vocoders depend upon large libraries. And they get better with having more data. What can AI and ML routines learn from the human editor who tweaked and adjusted an AI-created pre-assemble? A lot. How does the human editor choose who to emphasize and showcase in a two-person dialogue scene? Isn’t it based on the script, the kernel of the scene, the dialogue and the meaning of the dialogue, and, of course, the looks and beats? These are among the many things that the human editor considers, and the why and the how of those decisions can be taught.

Shortly before the start of SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Kylee Peña, president at Blue Collar Post Collective, and Meaghan Wilbur, editor and executive committee member at Blue Collar Post Collective, about their Wednesday session “Why Diversity Programs Fail—and How to Fix Them.”

TV TECHNOLOGY: Who should attend this session?

Kylee Peña

KYLEE PEÑA/MEAGHAN WILBUR: There will be plenty to take in for anyone who works in entertainment engineering, whether they’re hiring managers, executives, managers or entry-level to mid-career workers. For those in positions of influence or hiring, we’ll present actionable solutions an organization can begin to implement right away. It’s especially important that people who think there’s no issue with diversity attend this session. We need people who are already present in the industry to hear the stories of underrepresented individuals and become allies for them.

TVT: How would you characterize the current industry challenges/obstacles in building a more diverse workforce?

Meaghan Wilbur

PEÑA/WILBUR: The current challenges and obstacles that exist in the industry are extremely complex issues with many layers, and we take a deep dive into them in our paper. At the highest level, diversity remains an issue because we keep trying to do the same things repeatedly without acknowledging the lack of impact: over two decades of data, increased awareness and initiatives have led to no significant change in the experiences of underrepresented working professionals in our industry.

Many of the current programs and initiatives do not account for the differences that exist in people from different socioeconomic backgrounds (for example). Many programs require significant unpaid time off, provide no living stipend or travel assistance, and invite very few people to take part. They also focus on higher level or above-the-line roles, trying to place underrepresented people into environments where they historically have not been able to thrive, and provide little preparation and support to those in these positions.

The obstacles that exist are almost entirely in the way we think about diversity: through a haze of single-issue activism, implicit bias and privilege, which affect our assumptions about what prevents different kinds of people from being able to succeed in mid-career. The programs are not acknowledging that the biggest barriers exist in the path that leads to the top.

TVT: What are alternatives to existing diversity initiatives?

PEÑA/WILBUR: Instead of a “diversity program” that finds a few “diverse people” and places them into an organization, a diversity initiative should expand its focus to the entire organization’s approach to hiring and developing talent. Instead of unpaid internships as entry points to the company, provide entry-level jobs. Instead of blind résumé hiring, provide tools and training on implicit bias. Make connections to universities and groups where emerging talent is beginning to network in the working world. Seek out people who aren’t applying to positions and figure out what it is that makes job descriptions unwelcoming to them.

Our research demonstrates that the first five years of a person’s career is most likely to determine how far their career will go. It is in this first five years that the complex and nuanced system of “privilege” has the greatest impact on their long-term success. Instead of focusing on people who have already made it to mid-career, focus on people who are still in the first five years of their working life where a strong foundation is critical and data has shown high exit rates.

TVT: What are some examples of changes that companies/institutions/associations have made that can lead to more diversity?

PEÑA/WILBUR: There are some organizations who are leading the charge toward moving diversity efforts away from compartmentalized initiatives and making it a priority for the entire organization. For example, Deloitte has completely done away with “affinity groups” —such as women’s committees or advisory groups made up of black employees. Instead of separating these groups from networks of influence and putting the burden on them to come up with solutions alone, the focus has shifted toward making inclusiveness everyone’s priority—most notably, a priority for the white men who typically dominate leadership and decision-making roles in STEM and entertainment organizations. To make real change happen, these individuals need to see and hear the stories and challenges of underrepresented individuals and become invested in making the workplace more inclusive to everyone.

TVT: How can/should companies make investments towards being more inclusive?

PEÑA/WILBUR: Companies should redirect resources they’ve already placed into diversity programs toward the entire organization, and they should understand that these investments in inclusive leadership strategies often have a direct impact on their bottom line. For example, a 2015 study from Bersin by Deloitte showed that companies with established and successful strategies for inclusion and diversity reported 2.3x higher cash flow per employee. Another 2013 study from McKinsey found that gender diverse companies were 15 percent more likely to outperform other companies, while ethnically diverse companies were 35 percent more likely.

But most of all, making an organization more inclusive is the right thing to do. Women and people of color are good at STEM and entertainment roles, they’re interested in the positions, and they’re graduating from college at increasing rates only to find a workforce that is hostile to them. That hostility is often not intentional. It’s the result of decades of the workplace being shaped and dictated by people who aren’t at all like them. As our industry becomes more globalized and democratized with many new perspectives, the future of the entertainment engineering field is going to depend on whether we’re able to open the door wider today.

LOS ANGELES—Although Andrew Shulkind's SMPTE keynote was titled “The Immersive Future: Broaden Your Horizons,” it was clear that Shulkind was really considering the immersive present (or imminentness).

Andrew Shulkind delivering his SMPTE keynote, "The Immersive Future: Broaden Your Horizons"

A co-founder of HeadcaseVR and an expert on virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality (VR, AR and MR) content capture and creation, Shulkind emphasized that he loves visual storytelling and "spends a lot of time thinking about the nuts and bolts of how images communicate emotion."

Acknowledging the power of cinema, Shulkind marveled at how “the writer, director, visual effects supervisor, cinematographer, actor all align on this single vector to teleport us to another place... another reality.” He cited a number of cinematic moments, including the first five minutes of Pixar's “Up,” “Tom Hanks shipwrecked on an island and confiding in a volleyball [in ‘Castaway’], Denzel Washington's stoic resistance in ‘Glory’... Denzel Washington embodying ‘Malcolm X’... Denzel Washington in anything.”

But, Shulkind warned, “What traditional films did well doesn't work necessarily any more,” identifying business changes within the film industry, primarily that with the “bottom-line model... the blockbuster system is broken."

The Age of Accelerations

"We live in an age of acceleration, as Tom Friedman likes to say," Shulkind explained. "And we may be reaching the asymptote as it steeply heads to infinity. In his new book, ‘Thank You for Being Late,’ Friedman identifies 2007 as the moment in time when the charted course of technological advancement changes. Here's a reminder he gives us. In 2007, IBM launched Watson; GitHub launched as an archive of open source software; Google launched Android; Google bought YouTube; Amazon launched the Kindle; internet usage crossed the billion users mark; cloud computing took off; Airbnb was created.

"2007 was also the year that ‘300,’ ‘Transformers’ and ‘Beowulf’ were released, three benchmarks that set a new bar for visual effects in film. Canon released the 5D Mark II, the camera that combined full HD in a DSLR for a low cost. RED delivered the RED ONE, which brought 4K to the masses.

"Netflix started streaming. 3ality shot U2 3D, a concert film, one of the best examples of live action stereo 3D for non-exclusive theatrical use. Dropbox was founded. Paramount Vantage closed its doors. The WGA went on strike from November 2007 for five months because of an impasse about new media residuals from streaming and online sales. Oh yeah, and Apple released the iPhone.

"You can see a profile of what's afoot. Friedman calls 2007 'the single most influential inflection point since Gutenberg.'" His story goes on to say that we were distracted because 2008 happened next. But back to 2007. That year is when technology in our world began changing the course of entertainment, which has, in turn, fundamentally changed how we photograph the stories that we tell.

"The pace of acceleration in every sector continues, from computer vision photography, volumetric capture, high dynamic range, wide color gamut imaging, light field imaging, six-stop deliverables, depth maps to replace greenscreen, virtual viewpoints. These advances in capture are consistently at the core of the future of this changing industry."

“Making movies as we know them,” he said, “has become kind of an impossible proposition." He recognized, however, that this “has set the stage for the outstanding diversity of [projects from broadcast] television and streaming sites: the small screen has become the big screen... with so many options at our disposal, the modern viewer doesn't really have to go to the theater at all.”

Citing the capabilities of web-enabled devices and the growing consumption of materials on multiple screens, Shulkind said, “The future of content is decidedly mobile first.”

“The intersection of traditional content, mobile devices and gaming,” Shulkind continued, “is where immersive content is found.” Noting that while new technologies are making immersive content possible, “the technology is timed to a growing appetite for the experiential... Audiences and artists are looking for active ways of consuming content in a more engaged way than simply watching a flat screen.”

With that in mind, he explained, this new generation of immersive content is “a natural successor... 360 video has removed a frame from our content experiences.” Shulkind then defined each type of emerging content: “360 video is a passive experience; VR is an active one. Using the same 360-degree canvas, virtual reality adds a layer of interactivity, choice and engagement. Augmented reality brings those elements from the virtual world into ours. Mixed reality combines those layers by augmented VR experiences with layered elements and allowing users to transition between environments.”

Shulkind sees that “the latent opportunity in the near future of entertainment is unprecedented in scale, between the hunger for content, diversity of tastes, buyers for ideas, products to innovate, a global mobile audience and the ability to laser in on what works best for whom.

“We may have what could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reset the bar and deliberately fashion the future of content—a finely tuned balance of traditional media, immersive, gaming, e-sports and live streaming—into a new composite experience, like cinema itself.

The power of cinema, Shulkind explained, can be seen in the first five minutes of Pixar's Up.

“Between immersive media, AI and the blockchain, a tidal wave of technology is coming down the pike that stands to upend the business,” Shulkind noted. “And that's the point. But in this era, we have to be more than technicians; we have to be generalists, multi-hyphenates. The business isn't refined enough yet to have cogs in wheels.

“Let's take ownership of this new medium and rewrite the rules of the diversity of stories and the diversity of who tells them, holding this new business to the high standards we have always demanded for ourselves.”

“So this is a call to action: Don't let technology lead the story,” Shulkind concluded. “We'll be selling ourselves short and underselling what could be. We have the potential and the render power to create that kind of empathy and connections to reconnect our world and shape the future.”

LOS ANGELES—Video Clarity is showcasing the Venue Player, a video server that can be controlled to automatically play multiple uncompressed segments of high-quality content to multiple screens in the correct sequence. The ClearView Venue Player is designed for broadcast facilities, theme parks, live events, staged shows and other environments that rely on repeated, synchronized video playback for entertainment and display. The ClearView Venue Player offers several recording and playback configurations, from standard definition to 8K, with multiple storage sizes.

Venue Player users can automatically and interactively select sequences for playback in multiple video formats on up to eight screens at once using a show controller, its command line interface or a desktop control interface. These control interfaces allow segments to play from one or multiple Venue Players according to specific timing and order of recall, and synchronized with devices and effects.

The Venue Player also contains setup and control functionality through the Venue Player Manager, a web server for browser-based control on a networked computer or tablet. Venue Player users can set up, jog, shuttle, play, rewind and queue the output of each system from anywhere with an internet or internal facility network connection to one or multiple Venue Players. 

Shortly before the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition Bruce Devlin shared his thoughts with TV Technology about the SMPTE Standards process.

TV TECHNOLOGY: It seems as if SMPTE has made an effort to accelerate its standardization process, within the bounds of what is allowed for a due-process standards body. What has been driving this effort? What steps have been taken? Are there others that can be made to expedite the process further?

BRUCE DEVLIN: SMPTE is perceived to have a velocity problem with its standards, so we did a little investigation and comparison with other organizations and discovered that a large problem was the perception of how long it takes to do a standard. The fast standards that are well-prepared, non-controversial and well-managed can go from proposal to publishing in around six months and there are examples in the IMF suite of such documents. Other standards that are breaking new ground and have been subject to design discussions and prototype interoperability testing take longer.

SMPTE's process is designed to deliver a quality, stable standard that has a long life. When you're breaking new ground, this can take time for the standard's working group to reach agreement. The time taken to negotiate agreement can vary. When folks are keen to get products into the market or to get projects up and running, this can be frustrating for some people and can give the impression that SMPTE's process is slow. I believe, though, that SMPTE's process delivers good and stable standards.

Not everyone needs a full standard though. Often what's needed is a specification that constrains one or more standards for a specific need. SMPTE is introducing a new specifications process that is being trialled with the U.K.'s Digital Production Partnership. The goal here is to have a more nimble process that encourages the user community to look at the business applications of the standards to create interoperable ecosystems that deliver media and entertainment more efficiently.

TVT: What are the most important lessons you have learned from development of the MXF and IMF standards? Will you be able to apply them to the larger task of being SMPTE Standards Vice President and ensuring the standards process momentum continues?

DEVLIN: The most important lesson that I have learned is that there are different users of a standard and that SMPTE should continue moving in a direction that makes it really easy for its standards customers, if you like, to get at the data. One of the most important customer types is the developer. Most of SMPTE's standards today will result in software being written for CPUs or GPUs or TPUs or FPGAs. I hope to help SMPTE make the data in its standards more accessible for developers so that it's easier to implement compliant, interoperable products and services.

Twenty years ago the industry was battling physics to make innovative products. Today, if you can imagine it, then you can build it. So we're looking at ways in which SMPTE can help make it easier for anyone in a development team to get it right quickly. We already have projects with sample code and software schema, but I am sure that we can do more.

TVT: What one or two things are you most looking forward to in your new SMPTE role?

DEVLIN: The two things that I am looking forward to most in the new role as SMPTE Standards Vice President are actually two different takes on the same theme. Firstly, I want to make access to standards and specifications for SMPTE's customers easier. Secondly, I want to create a communications ethos where we tell the industry what we're doing and why it's relevant at both a technical and a business level. The process of making a standard might be considered rigid and boring, but the products and services that are built on those standards are exciting and game changing. I'm not sure that standards development will ever be fun, but I hope to bring a bit of "buzz" to how SMPTE tells the world what we're up to.

TVT: Can SMPTE continue to remain relevant as a standards body as media technology increasingly is gobbled up, morphed and squirted out by other larger industries and giant corporations?

DEVLIN: SMPTE is the only organization that specifies the end-to-end ecosystem for delivering photons that arrived in the movie camera to your eyeballs. In an upcoming episode of Bruce's Shorts I explain that there are around 150 SMPTE standards needed to deliver a movie to you when you sit at home and watch it on Netflix. At the conference we have speakers from Google, Microsoft and Amazon with representation from all the major broadcasters and studios. Media technology is actually fragmenting into loosely coupled software services that need to be joined up for the end-to-end multi-platform ecosystem to work. SMPTE is the only organizationwith the technical reach, geographic reach and mix of skills to do that. I believe SMPTE will become more relevant and not less.

LOS ANGELES—SMPTE 2017 attendees can visit the SMPTE Centennial Exhibit to see Grass Valley’s news production solutions in action, including: GV STRATUS Video Production & Content Management System for efficient news media workflows; the Ignite integrated and automated production solution; EDIUS Nonlinear Editing Software; GV Korona K-Frame V-series Video Production Center, a modular, scalable switcher with the ability to produce content in SD/HD, 3G/1080p and 4K UHD with a space efficient 3RU frame; and the RS-LDX Series integrated robotic camera solutions.

Grass Valley’s LDX 82 Series camera and K2 Dyno Replay System also are on display at Booth 217, Ray Dolby Hall, for attendees looking for live production solutions. The LDX 82 Series, available in studio, handheld or compact models, offers levels of operational flexibility to match HD production need, including extended color gamut, HDR/XDR and 3G/1080p; and with configurable storage, Apple ProRes support and Shareflex technology to provide fast content transfers between replay system pods.

LOS ANGELES—Utah Scientific is showing its IP/SDI hybrid solutions including multiviewing and new integrated playout offerings. Utah Scientific’s new UTAH-400 Series 3 platform is a suitable choice for high-density SDI coupled with the ability to create high- density IP signals from the same central frame. The 400 Series 3 can handle any number of IP and SDI professional video signal formats along with a number of audio and data formats.

The company’s UTAH-400 Series 2 configured with IP gateway input and output cards provides dual 10GigE SFP ports for uncompressed, baseband video using SMPTE 2022-5 or 2022-6, supporting the ongoing transition from SDI to IP. A third SFP provides a switched SDI version of the 2022 streams, simplifying the monitoring of IP streams. The input card accepts one or two encapsulated streams, automatically detecting the format and decoding up to 12 SDI video streams. Once decoded, these signals are available for use in the video matrix. The output card accepts up to 12 separate SDI streams and multiplexes them into two 10 GigE IP streams that are ready for transport over a standard 10GigE network.

Shortly before the start of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Thomas Edwards, vice president, engineering & development at FOX Networks Engineering & Operations, and Sara Kudrle, product marketing manager for playout at Imagine Communications, both SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference co-chairs along with Paul Chapman, senior vice president of technology, FotoKem.

TV TECHNOLOGY: In planning the conference, what have you learned in terms of emerging technologies?

Thomas Edwards

THOMAS EDWARDS: There are so many to choose from! But some of the major technical themes this year include SMPTE ST 2110 IP standards, immersive VR/AR, dealing with HDR and wide color gamut, and cloud.

SARA KUDRLE: Multiple technologies are emerging simultaneously to provide storytellers with new platforms and tools to advance the state of the art of the motion picture and television entertainment industry. Some of these would include the new SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards on IP, microservices, artificial intelligence (AI), VR/AR and cloud technology advancements, such as FPGAs in the cloud.

TVT: What technologies discussed in the conference do you think will have the greatest impact on SMPTE members/attendees?

EDWARDS: In the short term, cloud is affecting all businesses already, so those discussions will be immediately relevant to all attendees. SMPTE ST 2110 and IP are of most interest to those planning new video plant builds. The HDR/WCG presentations are useful to those trying to wrestle with the challenges of making UHD content for a world of heterogeneous end-user displays and the challenges of UHD live production. AR/VR is very interesting, but in early and experimental days, thus more of a glimpse into an exciting future.

Sara Kudrle

KUDRLE: The greatest impact will be made by the technologies presented that will help companies, right now, stay relevant and competitive. The new SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards for Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks, and cloud technology will be useful for attendees looking to upgrade infrastructure or build new facilities. Quality and human perception will be of interest to those trying to decide which new technologies to invest in. New emerging technologies such as microservices and AI, as well as the virtual reality sessions, provide value, excitement and direction for the future.

TVT: What are some personal highlights for you at the conference?

EDWARDS: As a long-term evangelist of live IP production, I will really enjoy seeing the SMPTE ST 2110 standards taking their “victory lap” after their approval during IBC. Of course, having the standards is only the beginning, so the presentations regarding practical use of these standards will be of most interest to me.

KUDRLE: Several people I know are being inducted as Fellows, so I am excited for them. At the SMPTE Annual Awards Gala on Thursday night, we will be honoring individuals who have provided exceptional value to our industry. And finally, I am proud of the inclusive conference my fellow chairs and I have pulled together in terms of topics, speakers, experience levels, adjacent market companies and technologies as well as the technical conference program committee itself, with their varied backgrounds and expertise. We are expanding the edges of SMPTE as it embarks on its next century.

Shortly before the start of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Julie Meghan McDonald, director of business development at Nimble Collective, about her session “Moving to the Cloud: Current Risks & Rewards... ,” presented with Nimble Collective colleague Corban Gossett and Mac Moore, vice president of sales & marketing for Conductor Technologies.

TV TECHNOLOGY: Would you say that companies, as a rule, are either too slow to take advantage of moving production to the cloud, too fast or for the most part adopting the cloud at a reasonable pace?

JULIE MEGHAN MCDONALD: There's a sweet spot for early adoption of any new technology. For moving to the public cloud this tends to be small, agile firms, with relatively low capital investment in current technology. Or a division in a large organization where risk tolerance is manageable. So, rather than saying companies, as a rule, are too slow or too fast to adopt, I would say that within the industry, the most successful early adopters are companies who can tolerate some manageable R&D experiences, for example, remote collaboration or variable streaming latency.

I expect companies will start to adopt quickly once a large studio makes a feature film entirely in the public cloud space. At that point, companies who don't shift will begin to feel left behind. Costs are going to drop significantly once the industry retools in this direction so there will be an increase in adoption as firms and marketers experience the benefits of cloud-based pipelines, and feel secure.

TVT: Do most content creation companies today have people with the necessary skillsets to fully understand the risks and rewards of moving their IP to the cloud or should they be looking at adding specialists to their staffs?

MCDONALD: Because the cloud computing environment for media is relatively new, even large and well-staffed IT departments, with decades of experience, will find some areas are new or unknown to them. Advances in streaming and technology delivery are not the only new areas. New models for billing and licensing are also emerging. So even if a company has all the IT and tech knowledge it needs, it will also need to look at its financial/enterprise model to review/grasp how moving to the cloud will change its return on investment. Adding specialists full-time isn't a requirement.

Attending conferences, reading journals and engaging with small cloud projects to test the waters is a great place to start. A specialist in a defined engagement might be best applied to a one-off experiment that educates and informs internal stakeholders, being sure to include the finance team. As a CEO I would create a cloud taskforce assigned to investigate how moving to the cloud might be part of my company's long-term strategic plan, with short-term experiments to capture and assess ROI.

TVT: Would you say that there is an advantage to moving this kind of work to the cloud that a significant segment of the industry doesn’t fully comprehend yet?

MCDONALD: Yes, absolutely. One first advantage is a vast reduction in infrastructure costs. A second advantage is access to global talent pools, and a third would be a potential explosion of creativity as collaboration across the globe increases. Once remote collaboration takes hold, companies no longer have to invest in expensive real estate footprints offshore; labor is free to work in proximity to family. The yearly costs of relocating labor are astronomical in not only media and entertainment but many other sectors as well. Lowering costs and capital investment in technology infrastructure is a significant market disruptive force and significant advantage to companies.

TVT: Aside from the obvious concerns about security, which you’ll certainly go into, is there a drawback to moving from local storage to the cloud that a significant segment of the industry doesn’t fully comprehend yet?

MCDONALD: At this time, the primary challenges are around whether public cloud-based tools are robust enough to handle significant data synchs and transfers. Also, global internet infrastructure determines how fast data can move from point to point around the world. The internet backbone is present in most locations, but not yet open and commoditized for public use. The main drawback, aside from security concerns is around "The Last Mile"—that delivery point to the end user working on their computer in their location and the latency requirements for an easy feeling to using the creative tools.

TVT: Do you see content archiving moving entirely to the cloud or do you think content owners will continue to want to hold onto physical media for the foreseeable future?

MCDONALD: As a member of the Association for Moving Image Archivists, AMIA, I can relate to folks who want to keep a local copy of everything. I think firms will want to hang on to their local storage solutions because the nature of archiving tends to be risk intolerant.

However, in the long run, yes, I think archiving and media storage, media creation, the entire process will be cloud-based. 

Why? Because of costs. Technology iteration merely is too expensive in the long term for a single company to take on and maintain indefinitely into the future. The cost of migrating archives from data storage solution to data storage solution includes maintaining the machines, skills and equipment associated with each media storage type. Eventually, not too long from now, visual media created at 4K or audio at a hit bitrate, is easily stored and accessed via the cloud.

Our industry is moving to the cloud; there's no doubt about that. Sectors will shift in line with their ability to understand, control and forecast costs. The eventual long-term costs for all media creation are going to be significantly lower than local solutions. Companies with strategic teams assigned to investigate and map out their cloud strategy will pull in front, as they lower their costs and can reallocate investment to talent and storytelling, away from a capital investment that requires long-term write-downs. Storytelling will move into the forefront—reduced labor costs, enhanced collaboration and reduced capital investment—this is what the cloud will usher in.

A few storm clouds might appear on the horizon as companies learn and as the internet backbone settles into robust global performance. Overall, organizations that educate themselves and prepare will weather those and be well prepared for this new paradigm.

LOS ANGELES—At first glance, swinging robots and ice cream sales may seem like odd topics for a media and entertainment technology symposium.

But that’s exactly what Monday morning’s speakers (Oct. 23) at this year’s kickoff technology symposium before the official start of the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Hollywood, Calif., had on their minds.

The topic of the SMPTE 2017 Symposium was machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in media. But to get where the gathering needed to go, the morning speakers—Richard Welsh, co-founder and CEO of Sundog Media Toolkit; Jeff Kember, technical director of Media in the CTO Office at Google Cloud; and Jay Yogeshwar, director of media and entertainment at Hitachi Vantara (previously Hitachi Data Systems)—set the stage by bringing attendees up to speed on an area of technology that likely is unfamiliar.

UNDERSTANDING AI

Welsh, who also serves as SMPTE Education Vice President, laid out the basics during his session “Understanding AI, Analytics and Machine Learning.”

“AI is clearly a bit of a buzzword,” he said. Calling it a marketing term, Welsh explained that the description is useful for the general public, but doesn’t really say what it is. More useful is dividing the domain into three areas: machine learning, which relies on algorithms to train a machine to do a task; deep learning, which is similar but regenerative, in other words, learns as it is does a task; and general AI, a free-learning artificial intelligence that may actually be conscious and is without constraints, he said, adding that the latter does not exist.

Driving ML are algorithms, which fall into two basic categories: classification, which aims to tell the difference between things, such as a horse and a dog; and regression, which is basically a decision tree, trees or an entire forest processing a data set, he explained.

Welsh illustrated the example with an ice cream vendor wishing to correlate sales to the ambient temperature. Other data points could be added to the model, such as time of day, location as well as economic and demographic information of customers.

“You might think this is really going to be complicated,” said Welsh. “But actually, once you have trained the network, it’s not that difficult to traverse the network.” The tools can be used to make quick decisions, he said. For example, an 80,000-node tree and 90 trees that is traversed 4,182 times will take about 0.02 seconds on a normal machine.

GETTING THE HANG OF SWINGING

Jay Yogeshwar With the AI and ML fundamentals laid out, Hitachi Vantara’s Yogeshwar discussed where their impact is being felt in media workflows. During his presentation “How Digital Transformation Is Changing Media & Entertainment With Machine Learning, Content & Data Intelligence and Heterogeneous Integrated Workflows,” he identified four areas: video compression, nonlinear editing and MAMs, OTT ad insertion and OTT e-commerce.

To illustrate how machine learning will advance media workflows, Yogeshwar showed a video of how Hitachi is using AI to enable a robot to learn how to swing using machine learning algorithms running on a laptop. The significance of the example is that the robot is using machine learning to develop its own hypothesis about how best to swing. Quickly the robot begins to get the hang of swinging, the video showed. Within a minute it has become much better. By 20 minutes into the experiment, the robot is swinging better than a human being, he said.

Running the same algorithms on a different robot suspended from a bar, the robot learns to swing and shortly swings “better than a gymnast,” said Yogeshwar. In video compression, similar machine learning will be able to generate its own hypotheses about how best to compress a clip. “I firmly believe that it is such a big optimization problem and it involves human perception that the next breakthrough is going to come from applying machine learning algorithms to compression,” he said. 

Jeff Kember

GOOGLE’S APPROACH

 The morning also featured a keynote from Google’s Kember who focused his talk on what problems ML can solve today. Google is taking a measured approach to machine learning, trying to identify what app needs there are today and problems that can be solved and where it could go in the future, he said. Kember charted advancements in machine learning, pointing to the performance of AlphaGo, Alphabet’s Google DeepMind to learn game play at a championship level, which subsequently was outdone by AlphaGo Zero, as well as in language translation from a phrase-based approach to a neural network method. 

In terms of what is possible today for media, Kember said Google has APIs for images, motion, movies, text and audio. The company also has the ML algorithms to allow users to build their own apps and Tensor Processing Units to power services. In media, Google is at work finding ways to insert machine learning into the entire production cycle from camera raw to debayering, transcoding and dailies to VFX processes like rendering and simulation to final color correction, distribution and archiving.

Doing so will enable a decentralization of the editorial process, which will allow shooting to take place in one location with the directorial staff and all the others involved in the workflow located elsewhere, he said. “What we are doing is taking the entire production pipeline, be it for episodic television, feature film or feature animation, and being able to upload it and make it available globally,” he said.

Watch the full panel here. 

Shortly before the start of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Michelle Munson, co-inventor of the Aspera FASP transport technology and CEO of Aspera until May 2017, and Yvonne Thomas, product manager of New Media for arvato Systems, about the SMPTE 2017 Symposium.

TV TECHNOLOGY: You co-chaired the SMPTE 2017 Symposium, and the topic is artificial intelligence and machine learning—relatively new concepts for the M&E industry. What are the top two or three areas where you expect to see AI and machine learning helping those in the industry? Why?

Michelle Munson

MICHELLE MUNSON: Currently, the most impactful area of innovation in AI and ML for the M&E industry is perhaps automatic video, image and audio indexing, which allows features of content to be recognized and tagged at scale, and in real time (live). This broad area has a host of applications that can dramatically help automate and scale the industry in the short/medium term:

- Automation of compliance and quality control in multi-territory distribution

- Automatic (live) editing and creation of screeners/previews and sub-clips

- “Tagging”/metadata enrichment of key elements like particular brands/faces/activities/scenes for the purposes of advertising placement or personalized recommendation; large-scale search for viewers; and content-archiving or repurposing

- Automatic scene change and keyframe detection for advanced compression techniques

- Automatic summarization of video content

- Speech-to-text translation for automating many heavy lifting tasks such as live captioning, live language translation

In benefit to the consumer, collaborative filtering techniques are widely used to providepersonalized content recommendation based on a user’s past preferences or the preferences of similar users. Deep learning neural networks are now beginning to expand these techniques to allow for dynamic content composition based on user sentiment to create dynamic, customized “choose your own story” experiences.

Additional major areas of applications are in enhancing content security and detecting piracy, e.g.:

- Anomaly detection in content security and access control systems allow for rapid discovery of potential deviant behavior in access to critical content systems based on identification of unusual events or usage patterns, and could flag breach attempts ahead of penetration.

- Deep learning techniques can be applied for highly accurate identification of low res or otherwise down-modified master content that has been pirated.

Advanced ML optimization techniques also have potential to dramatically optimize resource selection in content storage and distribution, such as compute, bandwidth, storage and internet routing to maximize user streaming and download experience and to reduce costs of content storage, exchange and distribution (see question 3).

Yvonne Thomas

YVONNE THOMAS: First of all AI is a general term, a summary for several kinds of technologies. Machine learning is part of AI, so are analytics, neural networks, cognitive computing, algorithms, deep learning, big data, linked data part of the family.

Metadata is very essential to the M&E industry and analytics services help to enrich metadata automatically and reliably, especially when it comes to huge amounts of data we humans are very inefficient in processing. However, it´s most essential that machine learning is part of those systems and evolves continously.

Second AI can be useful for predictions. Let me describe two examples here:

- A manufacturer (Thyssen Krupp) uses AI to predict when their elevators break and thus can repair them before they are out of service and avoid lengthy, costly and disappointing down-times. The same use case can be relevant to M&E technology, especially where we have 24/7.

- Another example seems pretty impressive. At the 2017 NAB Show, Banjo did a demonstration of their system in which they demonstrated all kinds of data souces (even police radio) and use this data for predictions. According to them they were the first ones in the world to report about the Paris attack. Especially for news, this is extremly essential to be the first.

TVT: Should SMPTE members be concerned they will be losing their jobs to AI and machine learning or happy that these technologies will make their work easier and them more productive?

MUNSON: I don’t believe the AI/ML era is significantly different in this respect than other big leaps in technological innovation (and that the risks are more about the ethical ramifications, see question 4). A few points:

- The automation and AI/ML can replace the “undifferentiated heavy lifting” (quoting our speaker from AWS Konstantin Williams)—in areas such as object and scene detection, facial analysis, facial recognition, face comparison, celebrity identification, image moderation.

- The sheer inventive possibility AI opens throughout the media creation and supply chain drives huge new revenue opportunities and consumer experiences.

- Success relies on new multidisciplinary expertise crossing devops, software, data science and media expertise generating new job opportunities of higher value.

- And, research has shown the most accurate models combine human analysis with machine-learned recommendations—meaning that what we are creating can largely improve the work of the human media professional rather than replace it.

THOMAS: No, I don´t think they must be afraid of AI. As said in question 1, we humans are very inefficient in processing huge amounts of data and AI can do this for us in a faster, more raliable and efficient way. It won´t take our jobs, but we will concentrate on what we are good at and we might have a shift in tasks. For example, we need new skill sets to train those systems (machine learning).

TVT: How do AI and machine learning play into more efficient resource use in media? I was thinking of tasks like closed captioning and subtitle creation, managing network traffic and storage for CDNs and also helping media companies deal with new requirements, such as delivering personalized content or channels to viewers based on their individual interests, preferences, habits, etc.? But maybe I am way off base here.

MUNSON: Many broadcasters’ media management and distribution systems still rely on brute force techniques to meet the demands of scale, which are no longer practical today—because they cost too much, fail to maintain uniform high quality of service in live and dynamic events or simply aren’t built for this era of direct-to-consumer, personalized media. Consequently, they are suffering in the face of extreme competition for OTT audiences dominated by the large Internet infrastructure companies. In content storage and distribution for example, the direct-to-consumer services today are relying largely on cloud storage and CDN architectures that use the same brute force edge storage and caching models introduced 10-20 years ago, which are often expensive and even at top dollar don't always provide deterministic, high qualities of service across all users or for live events. New machine-learning-based techniques can help make possible highly efficient storage and routing solutions that can reduce the costs dramatically, optimize high bandwidth distribution and adapt in real time.

THOMAS: It´s analytics services that are relevant for speech-to-text, face recognition, scene and concept recognition or network traffic management, etc. This metadata enrichment is extremely important to M&E to work as efficient as possible. In regard to recommendation engines I believe that what we currently use (no AI) is already pretty good, but is purely based on past data—because I watched movie X, I might be interested in movie Y. Analytics for recommendation engines will become more interesting to predict what‘s the next movie a customer will select.

TVT: What do you see as the top ethical concerns raised by the adoption of AI and machine learning in media?

MUNSON: Alan Turing, often credited as the father of modern computing, famously made the point that because it was not possible to measure the intelligence of a computing program/machine, saying that computers can be made “intelligent,” is nonsense. Another way of putting this is that much of today’s deep learning, “learns” in a way that imitates human behavior, but still heuristically, meaning that no one can explain exactly how these programs do what they do. In turn, many experts point out that the most advanced learning algorithms can neither be made fail safe or immune to manipulation by bad actors.

In media and entertainment the consequences of this are obviously not as grave as a self-driving car that “decides” to collide head on into another car, but are still concerning. For example, the very neural networks that drive high precision face and image recognition or live video editing could be manipulated by bad actors (or simply have software bugs) that cause the display of grotesque or otherwise offensive content taking advantage of viewers, advertisers or content owners. Additionally, the ability of today’s vast GPU/TPU compute power and scalable AI models could be used to manipulate news and create propaganda at scale that is undetectable or moves too fast for human detection; consider “fake news” at scale.

And finally, as an engineer I worry about the “commoditization” of AI tools such as ML programs that themselves create learning programs. These are already available to potentially unskilled users who may over-estimate their capacity or misuse their training accuracy, and could be a source of abuse—particularly when they are used to make decisions that can have clear bias or privacy consequences. Examples in media could be video surveillance and person matching that wrongly targets individuals based on profile, and security exploits that dwarf today’s worst exploits of IT negligence/ignorance.

THOMAS: I believe we must define rules and clear goals for what we would like to achieve with AI and where to use it. Think about the internet—the technology came into our lives pretty fast without any discussion about rules, and it has changed our lives drastically (positive and negative). As always technology can be misused, but let´s make something positive out of it.

LOS ANGELES—ATTO is displaying ATTO ThunderLink adapters, which offer connectivity to Thunderbolt 3 platforms, with throughput for 4K uncompressed video editing. The small form factor of Thunderbolt connectivity adapters makes them suitable for users to work on the same footage simultaneously on either 32 Gb or 16Gb Fibre Channel or 40 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet networks.

ATTO is also featuring ATTO Celerity 32 Gb and 16 Gb Gen 6 Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), which power faster data transfers and ensure data will be delivered in order with the lowest latency. With ATTO proprietary MultiPath Director technology, Celerity HBAs reduce downtime by providing uninterrupted real-time access to data due to load balancing and failover protection. ATTO provides the fast throughput speeds for 8K workflows.

LOS ANGELES—Artel recently acquired core IP switch technology from ARG ElectroDesign including the ARG Quarra 1G and 10G IP Switch family. The ARG Quarra family supports the SMPTE ST 2110-10 standard for system timing and definition and ST 2059-2 permitting interoperable use of IP-based media equipment with conventional genlocked SDI equipment. ARG Quarra switches are designed for audio/video broadcast, defense and security, finance, utilities, telecom, and enterprise IT applications in which accurate timing and control are required.

ARG Quarra

The ARQ IP Streaming System serves Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) for video applications. Because the ARQ solution is scalable in single-stream increments, broadcasters can add additional ARQ licenses to deliver multiple UDP unicast and multicast services. The ARQ system is simple to configure and suitable for the distribution of high-quality video over unconditioned IP networks, including wireless, internet and satellite.

The SMART Media Delivery Platform is a four-channel auto-sense 3G/HD/SD-SDI-over-IP multifunction gateway with an integrated nonblocking Layer 2/3 switch. The company says the SMART Platform was designed to attach to the IP network without the need for external network elements. Functionality of the platform can be added or upgraded via software download. The flexibility in function capabilities, along with greater port density, reduces power consumption and reduces size and cost.

LOS ANGELES—IHSE will demo the Draco vario SDI extender, the company’s most recent addition to the Draco vario KVM extender series. IHSE's latest SDI extender converts 3G-SDI signals for sharing serial digital video with IHSE's Draco tera KVM matrix switches. The new extender allows source and destination extensions up to 10 kilometers over single-mode fiber.

An integrated signal-conversion function uses IHSE's flex-port technology to switch SDI sources from the CPU to any other extender connected to the matrix in the digital video domain, including DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort. The extender can switch any of the DVI, HDMI or DisplayPort CPU units to the SDI CON unit. This capability allows users to view content on a range of monitors without needing dedicated SDI displays and extra cables for SDI extension.

IHSE also will unveil its Draco ultra 493 Series DisplayPort extenders, which enable CPU operation from a remotely located workstation (including a DisplayPort 1.1 monitor, a keyboard, and a pointing device) over a single fiber connection. The company says its 493 Series extenders support the transfer of fully digital video in 4K resolutions up to 4096 x 2160 and 3840 x 2160 at a real 30-hertz refresh rate and full-color depth (24-bit, 4:4:4), as well as audio transmission via the DisplayPort interface. It is also possible to integrate optional Draco vario upgrade modules for digital audio input and output, as well as data signals such as USB 2.0 and RS232.

Shortly before the start of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Bill Redmann, a Technicolor Fellow and director of standards for Immersive Media Technologies at Technicolor, about the session track he chaired on “Advances in Immersive Storytelling VR/AR/MR & 360° Video Pt1: Understanding Immersive Storytelling.”

TV TECHNONOGY: How do you see immersive storytelling evolve?

BILL REDMAN: So much about the evolution of storytelling follows a pattern that might start with an improvement in technology, but really depends on its adoption by avant garde storytellers. These are the storytellers willing to experiment, take a risk, stretch their imaginations and almost surely make some mistakes, but these are the ones who ultimately discover a new path, develop a new kind of relationship with their audience and demonstrate it for others to take up and improve on in turn. Very quickly, the technical innovation is taxed and limitations, perhaps flaws, are discovered and railed against, beginning the cycle again, perhaps even before it is completed.

Today, we see technology that can represent whole worlds that storytellers build and offer for us to inhabit—as evocative as you can make with a brushstroke or as realistic and detailed as you choose to afford.

In surveying these advances, our speakers stand in multiple roles. Some represent the avant garde themselves, showing and critiquing their own work. Some are scholars, surveying the breadth of these creations, searching for generalizations and looking for rules, useful for informing subsequent creators or the next iteration. Some represent the cycle coming full circle—technologists measuring success or reacting to discovered shortcomings, and proposing new improvements.

TVT: What are the most interesting applications/projects you've seen?

REDMANN: To me, immersive storytelling is most interesting when it's social. Looking back, visits to the multiplex or drive-in theaters were not typically solo activities. These were things you did with family or friends. My friends and I use to sit around a single Apple II, shouting out ideas while someone typed commands into some adventure game. My kids grew up playing games online, talking into headsets, and sharing adventures with good friends that they might not meet in person until years later. I just saw “Blade Runner 2049” in IMAX with my wife and four friends. We talked about it waiting in queue, and we hung out talking about it for 45 minutes afterward. Immersion works best when its shared.

In some degree, modern immersive technology lives on or near set—where actors inhabit worlds and share them with us, the audience, as they always have. But now we're being invited up on stage, onto the set. It's an advance build upon techniques that reach back past Méliès to Sophocles and their respective audiences. What we've seen developed in multi-player games is a big hint as to what is coming—when you look at what is happening with The Void or Nomadic, immersive media that you share with family and friends is upon us.

TVT: What technical challenges or constraints are most impacting creators?

REDMANN: The biggest constraint impacting creators is education. So much is so new. We're just past the point in the cycle where only the avant garde had firsthand experience. The knowledge is out there; it's spreading; and that is important. SMPTE is helping that mission through this event, as are we, with the Technicolor Experience Center. Once creators have a sense of what they want to do and how they want to do it, the biggest technical challenge becomes a lack of standards.

So many capture devices, production tools, distribution platforms and display equipment are effectively isolated from each other by mismatched formats, unfamiliar adjustments or ill-matched theories of operation. When choice of a particular camera or display is made, the ordinary difficulties of moviemaking are handled by the usual means, but that choice can constrain the reach of the work to the corresponding walled garden. Standards are going to help break down those walls and extend the artists’ skills and communicative reach, so that they apply more broadly. Or, technology is going to build doors through those walls—that can happen, too.

TVT: What are three things you want content creators to understand about using these technologies/tools?

REDMANN: Content creators are craft masters. While new media technologies are just tools, in the right hands, they are really high-quality tools. These tools aid their craft in three ways. First, there are technologies that enhance their abilities. A simple example is how a higher-resolution camera enables them to capture better images, but what about a way to meet that higher-resolution camera's increased demand for correct lens settings?

Second, there are technologies that allow the creator to operate at a higher level of abstraction. For example, rather than editing many different versions of a film to fit every screen format to be supported, capture instead a description of what's important in a scene, to describe how cropping decisions should be made, so that those decisions can be applied as needed when a specific format is needed. This extends the creative's reach and speed, yet maintains the integrity and quality of the work.

Third, there are technologies that will let them do more. Any given day only has so many hours, and those hours only allow for so many decisions to be made, so many edits, so many adjustments, so many retries. To be able to increase those limits, to try something more quickly, to have a system propose a better starting point, one that might be closer because it is informed by the artist's earlier decisions, or systems that might be able to retroactively apply a change across an entire workflow. 

TVT: What advances have been made to improve the immersive user experience?

REDMANN: You ask, "What are the biggest advances for improving the immersive user experience?" Hah! Were you expecting a technology answer? Nope. The biggest advances in user experience come from the experience gained by creatives working in the medium. Throughout the history of video game platforms, you'd see that even though hardware wouldn't change at all over a console's first five years, the games themselves got better and better, year after year. All of that improvement was due to improvements in the creative's ideas on how to use the platform and their recognition of what about their tools and workflows needed improvement. 

So today, with respect to immersive user experience, the biggest improvements come from creatives applying their experience, not only to their next work, but also to their tools, driving improvements that are a response to their earlier experiences. Oh, and more, better pixels.

Shortly before the start of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Anna Dining, a support engineer for On Location Services at Technicolor, about her Tuesday presentation “Story Presence & Perspective: A User Study of Story Presence in an Immersive Narrative Experience.”

TV TECHNOLOGY: Of the various variables—frame rate, color gamut, dynamic range visual immersion—do some succeed more in active experiences better and others in passive ones? How does that break down?

ANNA DINING: I can only really speak about the success of active and passive experiences in regard to the variable of visual immersion, as that is what I have tested and researched. Overall, for all the variables, it really depends on the story. In order for a story to be told successfully, the director must carefully select what variable formats they are going to use to tell their story. A rule I have for myself is: Don't use a new format if you can't define a way that it will enhance your story compared to if it were told with more traditional cinematic formats. I personally consider active and passive as divisions of existence in a visually immersive story where active existence can relate to actively perceiving the narrative from the perspective of a character in the story and passive existence is when the participant is simply a fly on the wall. Visually immersive stories are most successful when the participant has an enhanced sense of presence as a result of experiencing the story from a perspective inside the scene. Through my user study comparing experiences with active existence and passive existence, the results indicated that participants felt more present in experiences with active existence than with passive existence. So for visual immersion, the active experience was more successful.

TVT: Of the various variables—frame rate, color gamut, dynamic range visual immersion—would it be fair to say that the immersion aspect is the one that presents the most potential negative reaction, such as the sick feeling some people get from VR?

DINING: No, not necessarily. If, by negative reaction, you mean an objective physical reaction, yes, as I do not think variant frame rates, color gamuts or high dynamic range have any real possibility of causing a negative physical reaction. Yet, if negative reaction refers also to a person’s subjective opinion to the variable, then I think they all have equal possibility of causing a subjective negative reaction. Members of the industry and the audience of motion pictures are used to the traditional cinematic format. When any variable is altered from the traditional, there will always be skeptics, enthusiasts and a large population of indifference.

TVT: If you had to identify the one technical weak link in realizing the promise of immersive narrative experiences, what would it be?

DINING: There are numerous weak links in regard to the tools and technology currently available to create and share immersive experiences, for example display resolution in HMDs. Yet technology is constantly evolving and I do not think it is useful to dwell on its current state in regard to the promise of the format. I am confident that in some number of years, technology will get caught up to where our critical minds will be satisfied, and our creative imaginations will have fewer limitations. For now, I think the weakest link is the lack of intentional-creation and maximization of the emerging format.

Too often directors, production companies, and ad agencies are approaching this new format with little research and false expectations that it is a simple step from traditional cinematic storytelling, yet it is more like a journey to a whole new planet. Just as you can't show up to Mars and expect to breathe and walk the same as you do on Earth, you can't expect your mastery cinematic storytelling within a frame to translate to a frameless format. It takes time to understand a new format, and that is why it is important to determine what makes a good immersive narrative with the current state of technology, so that storytelling can evolve alongside technology. If there is not quality content, then I fear that the audience of consumers and developers interested in immersive narrative experiences will decrease or cease to exist, weakening the promise of immersive narrative experiences.

TVT: Do you see the tools of traditional cinema language—composition, editorial, etc.—being replaced by immersive narrative experiences? Or do you see the two different approaches to creating story presence co-existing into the foreseeable future?

DINING: Most definitely coexisting. I always like to stress that immersion is not a replacement to traditional methods of motion picture storytelling, but rather an expansion of the possibilities of storytelling. In visually immersive experiences, there is no longer a frame, yet there is perspective. Perspective-based storytelling permits the viewer or participant to exist inside the story environment where they can achieve a sense of presence in the space and story. For immersive narrative stories, the director must rely on the participant's visual exploration to grasp understanding of their story, whereas for traditional cinema, the director has more control to frame the story through composition and editorial. Different stories with variant directorial intent will benefit from visual immersion, yet others may need the story to be shown and told more directly. Thus traditional cinema and immersive narratives will continue to coexist as some stories need to be told, others need to be experienced.

Shortly before the start of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference & Exhibition, TV Technology spoke with Matthew Goldman, president of SMPTE, and senior vice president of technology, TV & Media, Media Solutions for Ericsson.

TV TECHNOLOGY: What are your top priorities for SMPTE going into your second year as the organization’s president?

MATTHEW GOLDMAN: My top priority for 2018 is to finish our business plan and accompanying roadmap so that we can meet the strategic goals we set out in our “Vision 2020” strategic planning efforts. Along these lines, we have several near-term tactical work items to complete in 2018 as well, such as defining and implementing a specification process that will address our industry’s transformation to software-defined media processing, with a more agile, DevOps style of specification creation. Specifications will exist an as adjunct to our due-process, global standards. As you know, SMPTE supports our industry in three main areas, known as our three pillars: Membership, Education, and Standards. The new business plan and road map will include strategic updates to each of the three pillars.

TVT: SMPTE has made great strides in its SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards. What’s left to do coming out of the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition and what is the timeframe?

GOLDMAN: Yes, we have! The first three parts of ST 2110—Systems (-10), Uncompressed Video (-20) and PCM Audio (-30)—became approved standards back in mid-September. Traffic Shaping and Timing (-21) is undergoing ST audit at the time of this writing, which is the final stage in due process standardization to become an approved standard. Ancillary Data (-40)—which includes items such as closed captions, subtitling, time codes, active format description, dynamic range and color space—is undergoing final committee draft comment resolution. We expect that ST 2110-21 will be an approved standard prior to the end of this year, with ST 2110-40 following in early 2018. There are other areas under development that will become part of the SMPTE ST 2110 suite in the future.

TVT: What is the thinking behind moving to a new venue for next year’s gathering? What are the benefits of doingso?

GOLDMAN: We really have enjoyed the Hollywood & Highland location. The close proximity of the conference sessions and the exhibition halls is a great plus in the atmosphere, fostering hallway social interactions, while enabling a quick return to the conference sessions or exhibits. Having access to a top-end cinema for sessions, which require the theater experience, has been great as well.

We are moving because, simply put, we are a victim of our own success. We have outgrown the Hollywood & Highland location and so we sought a venue that will allow us to expand while still providing the social networking opportunities. The new location, Westin Bonaventure in Downtown Los Angeles, allows the conference and exhibition to continue to grow. We will be able to accommodate more exhibitors and delegates.

LOS ANGELES—Organizers of the 2017 SMPTE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition confirmed today that Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute of Gender in Media, will make a keynote presentation at the annual women in technology luncheon Oct. 23 during the annual gathering.

Madeline Di Nonno

During the luncheon, which is sponsored by SMPTE and HPA Women in Post, Di Nonno will carry on a conversation with Kari Grubin, co-chair of HPA Women in Post.

The Geena Davis Institute analyzes and tracks the portrayal of women and girls in media and how gender stereotypes can influence culture and social behaviors.

Tickets for the luncheon are required. They are available as part as of registration packages for the conference or separately as a ticket-only registration.

SMPTE has made available a promo code to receive a complimentary exhibits-only pass for SMPTE 2017. The promo code is WIT2017.

More information is available on the SMPTE website.

Bolero

LOS ANGELES—Riedel Communications will arrive at this year’s SMPTE Technical Conference & Exhibition with a pair of new apps in tow, along with a new wireless intercom system.

Building on MediorNet MicroN’s ability to extend functionality through the use of apps, the MicroN IP app creates a bridge between MediorNet and future IP networks. The MicroN IP app features the same system support as the traditional MicroN IP system while turning the device into a tool for all IP interfacing needs. It supports up to four SMPTE 2110-20 inputs and outputs plus four baseband 3G-SDI signals and eight 3G-SDI outputs. There is also support for AES67 audio, two optical MADI ports, sync I/O, NMOS Device Discovery and Registration, NMOS Connection Management or manual configuration for non-NMOS devices. The device can also be fully networked with all existing MediorNet products.

Another app that Riedel will be showcasing is the MediorNet Multiviewer app, a virtual multiviewer app based on MediorNet high-density media distribution hardware that can work within the MediorNet network. Using a decentralized signal network, user can place the multiviewer hardware where it is needed. The system can take up to 18 sources from the network and output up to four multiviewer screens and be configured through a drag-and-drop editor.

Riedel will also use SMPTE to highlight its Bolero wireless intercom system. Bolero is an expandable, full-roaming, DECT-based intercom system in the 1.9-GHz frequency range that is fully integrated into Riedel’s Artist digital matrix intercom platform. The system, which runs over a standards-based AES67 IP network, can be applied as a wireless backpack, a wireless keypanel and as a walkie-talkie radio.

Riedel will be located at booth 308 during SMPTE 2017.

HOLLYWOOD, CALIF.—If the central theme of last year’s SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition was about celebrating the centennial of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, this year’s has to be about positioning the society—in terms of its technical focus and the people it seeks to attract—for a future of rapid and constant change in media technology.

Organizers of the SMPTE 2017 Annual and Exhibition, Oct. 23-26 in Hollywood, Calif., have made a concerted effort to create an event that offers a new level of diversity, not simply in the age, race and gender of its presenters, conference chairs and attendees, but also in the exhibitors its attracting and the subjects it will tackle, according to SMPTE Fellow Michelle Munson, who along with Yvonne Thomas of Arvato Systems, is co-chairing the SMPTE 2017 Symposium, which kicks off Oct. 23.

Matthew Goldman, senior vice president of technology at Ericsson and SMPTE president, echoes Munson’s observation.

“This is our pre-eminent conference for imparting knowledge,” he says. “One of the things we have tried to do—especially with the symposium—is to make it a much more open topic area, the hot topic of the day.”

FOCUS ON AI

Michelle Munson

At this year’s symposium that hot topic will be artificial and machine learning in media. “If you’ve been wondering about the technical underpinnings and the state of the art in machine learning and AI, the symposium represents the capstone of some of the best work in terms of what services you can exploit,” says Munson.

The day will begin with a keynote from Jeffrey Kember, technical director of media in the Office of the CTO at Google, and will be followed by papers exploring AI and machine learning applications for media workflows. The afternoon will examine what machine learning is, characteristics of ML algorithms and applications in media, she says.

Munson herself will present on work she has been doing in ML aimed at creating new optimized algorithms for resource location in media storage and location distribution.

Martin Wahl, principal program manager for Microsoft’s Azure Media Services, will examine a new video indexing service from Azure, and Konstantin Wilms, principal solutions architect at Amazon Web Services will discuss content intelligence on AWS.

Yvonne Thomas

The day will wrap up with a panel on the ethics of and policy issues involved with the rapid advances taking place in AI and ML, says Munson.

NEW IP TRANSPORT STANDARD & BEYOND

The SMPTE Technical Conference, which kicks off Oct. 24, also will address emerging technical issues, but ones that are a little closer to present day concerns, such as the newly approved SMPTE ST 2110-10, -20 and -30 standard for professional media.

“There will be some great papers about 2110 and IP in media,” said Thomas Edwards, vice president of engineering and development at Fox, and one of three conference co-chairs.

Those include a report from the North American Broadcaster Association on media over IP; a look at the “superpower” of the new SMPTE ST 2110 standard by Leigh Whitcomb, principal engineer at Imagine Communications; a paper on synchronization and timing issues related to the new standard by Evertz solutions architect Paul Briscoe; and an examination of control, throughput and latency in multicast-based IP routing system by John Mailhot, Imagine Communications system architect for IP convergence, according to Edwards.

There will be much more to the conference than IP, however, says Sara Kudrle, product marketing manager for playout at Imagine Communications and conference co-chair.

“We are covering topics from mentoring and change management [to] AI, cinema, VR, AR, UHD, IP, 8K, ATSC 3.0, cloud, content management [and] quality monitoring,” she said.

Pete Putman, president of ROAM Consulting, will discuss what he calls the UHD “speed bump,” which describes the challenge of interfacing higher and higher data rates with consumer displays.

Rodney Grubbs of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Sandy George of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) will discuss the challenges and solutions to broadcasting live UHD content from the International Space Station.

Next-gen TV will come under the tech conference microscope with papers on acquisition and processing, HDR production using Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG), HDR encoding parameters for streaming, 8K camera systems, and captioning and subtitling for social media.

However, there will be more to the conference this year than technology, according to Kudrle.

“There is a whole section dedicated to people, managing people, transition and change and managing diversity in the industry,” she said.

The focus on diversity is “really important,” especially because in broadcast engineering and digital cinema it’s “often been a challenge,” said Edwards.

A paper to be presented by Kylee Pena, workflow supervisor at Bling Digital and president of Blue Collar Post Collective in Los Angeles, will examine why diversity programs often fail and how to fix them.

EXHIBITORS AND MORE

There’s more to the SMPTE event than technical papers, however. “This is not just a papers’ conference,” says Goldman. “It’s also about the exhibitors.” As of Sept. 25, 100 companies have agreed to exhibit at the event, a high for the past decade, he adds. “We are at maximum capacity,” Goldman said.

Beyond the technical presentations and exhibition, this year’s conference will offer multiple opportunities to socialize and network.

HPA Women in Post and SMPTE will present the Women in Technology Luncheon, Oct. 23. The theme will be changing the status qu gender bias in media and entertainment. The luncheon will feature a speech by Madeline Di Nonno, executive director of the Geena Davis Institute.

That night, budding student filmmakers will present their work at the SMPTE-HPA Student Film Festival. The screening will take place at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres.

The SMPTE 2017 Fellows Luncheon is scheduled for Oct. 24 and the SMPTE Annual Membership Meeting will also take place Oct. 24 at 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. in the Ray Dolby Exhibit Hall. The Oktoberfest Reception will be in the Centennial Exhibit Hall upstairs from the from 6 to 8 p.m.

The following evening SMPTE will hold its Trick-or-Treat Spooktacular Cocktail Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Ray Dolby Exhibit Hall.

The conference social calendar will wrap up Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m. with the SMPTE Annual Awards Gala followed by an after party.

As the evening celebration begins to fade away, SMPTE will say goodbye to the Loews Hollywood Hotel as the venue for its annual event. The 2018 SMPTE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition will be held at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles.

“We are busting at the seams, growing and growing,” Goldman said. “As much as we like this venue, we are turning away too many people who would like to exhibit. That’s why we will be moving.”

For more information, visit smpte.org.

LOS ANGELES & WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—A point of topic for the SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition will be virtual reality, and to address that the organization has announced Andrew Shulkind, co-founder of Headcase VR, will present a keynote during the event.

Shulkind has experience as a cinematographer but it is his work with virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality content that will be his point of emphasis during his keynote, which is titled “The Immersive Future: Broaden Your Horizons.”

The presentation will look to provide a perspective on the impending media disruption that has the capability to bring exponential growth to areas like field-of-view, storage requirements, compression demands and distribution networks. Shulkind hopes to help attendees gain a sense of what immersive content is and the positives of its implementation.

SMPTE 2017 will take place from Oct. 23-26 in Los Angeles. More information is available at www.smpte2017.org.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

LOS ANGELES & WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—There will be a dozen new industry professionals joining the ranks of SMPTE’s Fellows, according to a press release from the organization. Fellow status is awarded to individuals who have “attained an outstanding rank among members of the Society.”

The 12 new Fellows are listed here:

Daniel G. Baker, chief engineer, Tektronix
David George Brooks, senior of director of technology strategy in the office of the CTO, Dolby Laboratories
Jean-Pierre Evain, principal project manager at the European Broadcasting Union
David Leitner, director, product and cinematographer, Leitner Studio
David Long, associate professor, Rochester Institute of Technology
Charles S. Meyer, chief technology officer, Grass Valley
Arjun Ramamurthy, senior vice president of technology, Twentieth Century Fox
Bill Redmann, director of standards and immersive media technologies, Technicolor
Edward Reuss, consulting engineer
Peter Storer Jr., executive vice president, MediAnswers.TV
Peter Weitzel
Leigh Alvin Myles Whitcomb, architect, Imagine Communications

The new Fellows will be officially elevated during the Fellows Luncheon on Oct. 24 as part of the SMPTE 2017 Technical Conference and Exhibition in Los Angeles. They will also be recognized during the SMPTE Annual Awards Gala.

LOS ANGELES & WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition, as well as the SMPTE 2017 Symposium, is now open for registration.

SMPTE 2017 is a billed as a forum for the exploration of media and entertainment technology. The event will take up two exhibit halls and multiple session rooms at the Hollywood & Highland Center and feature a beer garden, Broadcast Beat’s SMPTE 2017 Live! Studio and a series of special events, including the SMPTE Annual Awards Gala on Oct. 26.

Technical conference sessions this year will cover topics like advances in dynamic range; compression; content management and storage; restoration and preservation; content security; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; media infrastructure and distribution; image acquisition and processing; new techniques in audio; quality assurance and monitoring; workflow systems management; cloud technologies; and encouraging diversity in technology.

The SMPTE 2017 Symposium, which will take place the day before SMPTE 2017 officially kicks off, is titled “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning in Digital Media Creation: The Promise, The Reality, and The (Scary?) Future.”

The SMPTE 2017 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition will take place in Los Angeles from Oct. 24-26. The SMPTE 2017 Symposium will run on Oct. 23. Early-bird registration is now available through Aug. 12. More information on registration is available here.