In his keynote presentation on the second day of the SMPTE2020 conference, Paul Debevec outlined how he has been bridging what he called the gap between the real and virtual worlds. This is something Debevec, senior staff scientist with Google Research and a research professor at the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern California, has been working on for much of his career.

Debevec opened his keynote, “Light Fields, Light Stages and the Future of Virtual Production,” by outlining the various techniques that have been developed to "join the real and virtual worlds through illumination." This goes back to research into image-based lighting (IBL) at the University of California, Berkley, in late 1990. This led to Light Stage 3, which comprises 156 RGB color LEDs. Originally shown at SIGGRAPH 2002, it featured in David Fincher's 2010 film “The Social Network” to match the real and digital characters when the face of Armie Hammer, playing the Winklevoss twins, was composited on to the face of his stand-in.

REALISTIC & NATURAL

The key to making such work convincing, Debevec said, was to make the lighting on the objects or people being placed into a scene look realistic and natural. Even when this had been achieved, he continued, there was still the limitation that there was no reflection of the lighting or other things, such as scenery, that was in the original shoot. 

Fortunately the technology available to achieve this technique has advanced. In the 2013 Sandra Bullock film “Gravity,” lighting crews used 9mm LED panels to create good light reflections in the actress’s helmet visor. This was taken further still for the Chinese production “Asura” (2018), in which an enormous (85x68x27 feet) LED set was built to allow an actor to be composited into a virtual mountain scene with fully matched lighting.

DEEP VIEW VIDEO SYSTEM

The latest development that Debevec has been working on at Google is the “Deep View Video System,” which sprang from his idea of using a sphere of small cameras in a fisheye/cylindrical configuration to produce a more immersive effect. Constructed using $6,000 worth of sports action cameras 3D printed on to a $200 acrylic hemisphere, connected by synchronization cables, it records 46 different videos of a scene looking in different directions.

A neural network algorithm is trained to transform the 46 videos into about 100 spherical layers of RGB alpha channels, which replicate all the views that were shot and all the views that would be between them. Through compression and rendering, the 100 layers are reduced to approximately 16 layers of depth mapped meshes (low resolution geometry) with high resolution alpha textures that can be compressed with temporal stability and transmitted in real time on mobile VR hardware, ultimately as a 4K or 8K video stream.

The result, Debevec said, is that video can be recorded and watched in VR, with the greater feeling of really being there, with the ability to look round and move comfortably in a scene. The system can be experienced by going to http://augmentedperception.github.io/deepviewvideo. 

Debevec invites colleagues to contact him with suggestions of what else the technology could be used on (www.debevec.org).

Streaming has simultaneously changed the landscape of broadcasting and how people watch video. Demand for streamed content increased dramatically during the COVID-19 crisis, which got developers thinking about the future of delivery. As Jason Thibeault of the Streaming Video Alliance wrote in Streaming Media magazine, "the pandemic has taught us that the internet is not going to break... but we need to be proactive rather than reactive to stay in front of the curve that is coming."

This curve—the shift to more live broadcasting on platforms such as YouTube—and what could accommodate it were addressed in last week’s SMPTE2020 virtual session, “Next Generation OTT Distribution Architecture Supporting Multicast ABR (adaptive bit rate), HTTP/3 with QUIC and TLS (transport layer security) 1.3.”

During the session, Allan Hammershøj, chief operating officer of streaming technology company mediathand, and Aleksander Nowak, junior site reliability engineer with software developer Dixa, looked at new technologies for delivering more efficient and stable streamed video.

LINEAR FOR LIVE

Nowak outlined that while time shifting worked well for “genre viewing” (drama, comedy, entertainment and documentaries), linear viewing is still the main way people watched news, live sport and big events. Part of the reason for this is that cellular continues to dominate available bandwidth, with the cost per viewer at the CDN (content delivery network) rising exponentially. There are also technical problems, such as protocol ossification and head of line blocking, resulting in broken packets.

The answer, Nowak and Hammershøj said, is to find "the middle ground" between unicast and broadcast—in other words, multicast. This, they stated, could be achieved by using the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) QUIC general-purpose transport layer network protocol. The standard supports low latency transport, is backwards compatible with HTTP/2 and can be used with QAuth open standard authorization and PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) security.

To prove the concept, tests using QUIC with an IP bridge over satellite have been carried out in Denmark. ATSC 3.0/DVB-T2 signals were transmitted from CPH (Copenhagen TV) to the SES teleport in Luxembourg, to an Astra satellite at 19.2-degrees East. Signals were then received back at CPH's R&D department, where they could be played back on any device standard for OTT.

Nowak said that the technology "showed a lot of potential and was up and running." The intention is that by adding an adaptive IP layer to adaptive bitrate content, it will be possible to deliver something flexible enough for all platforms. The conclusion was that QUIC is "ideal" for content delivery on any IP network. 

There are plans in the future to implement multicast at the cloud edge (5G), which would provide opportunities for both content providers and telecoms companies. This would involve hybrid ABR for hybrid delivery over any broadband and broadcast technologies, with a multicast gateway due to be ready by the first quarter of 2021.

Television broadcasters sit on a resource of immense, untapped value that ATSC 3.0 will unlock in the form of wireless data delivery, according to two NextGen TV authorities speaking at the virtual SMPTE2020 conference.

During “How ATSC 3.0 Wireless Spectrum Will Become Broadcasters’ Most Valuable Asset,” Mark Aitken, senior vice president at Sinclair Broadcast Group, and John Hane, president of BitPath, formerly Spectrum Co, reminded broadcasters that there’s more to NextGen TV than TV.

“If you… think of ATSC 3 as a wireless IP distribution platform, suddenly, it's not just about television,” said Aitken. “There are new opportunities that align themselves well with… the rest of the IP world.” 

To illustrate his point, Aitken compared pricing of today’s wireless services to broadcasters’ cost of delivering wireless bits.

“When you look at the retail price of a gigabyte, you're looking at $12,” he said, referring to the average price charged by wireless companies.

“If you look at the wholesale price… the bulk discounting that's given to MVNOs, mobile virtual network operators, you're looking at a price valuation of about $2 per gigabyte.”

Consumers subscribing to an internet service provider pay about 1 cent per gigabyte monthly for wired delivery, he added.

“If you look at the valuation of… [broadcast] bits from the standpoint of the cash flow of a station, the valuation is like two one-hundredths of a cent per gigabyte. In other words, .02 cents per gigabyte based on… what we do today,” he said.

With ATSC 3.0’s far superior bandwidth efficiency, TV broadcasters can maintain their primary TV service while at the same time cashing in on 3.0 data delivery. To illustrate the point, Aitken laid out real-world numbers for Sinclair’s station in Cincinnati and how 3.0 data delivery could affect cash flow. 

Based on gigabytes of wireless data delivered on an annual basis, the number of homes in the market and a price of 1 cent per gigabyte, the base cash flow valuation of the Cincinnati station, which today stands at $10 million a year, leaps to $600 million a year, said Aitken.

“Maybe that’s [1 cent per gigabyte] an unrealistic expectation, but I’ll ask you the question. ‘What is the realistic expectation of the value of a broadcast bit in the world today?’” Aitken mused.

The Sinclair senior vice president of Advanced Technology urged his virtual audience to think of ATSC 3.0 as 5G broadcasting—a supplement to 5G operator’s unicast service. Based on how wireless bits are distributed today, there exists an opportunity for an interplay between unicast and broadcast delivery. “Not one versus another, but one in conjunction with the other,” he said.

Wireless services deploying 5G face a host of issues depending on the bandwidth they are using that ATSC 3.0 broadcasting can address. While sub-1GHz spectrum provides 5G operators with good reach, it is limited in available bandwidth. “Some of this is down to 1.5 MHz bandwidth that are paired in the unicast uplink-downlink fashion,” said Aitken.

In the 2GHz range, there is higher available bandwidth for 5G, but also problems having “to do with macro base stations to provide for coverage-related issues,” he said. At the higher 5G frequencies, bandwidth increases, but coverage diminishes further.

LEGACY REUSE RESTRICTIONS

To realize the full value of its spectrum for data delivery, the TV industry will need to shed legacy regulatory restrictions on the reuse of spectrum put in place to protect TV stations from harmful co-channel interference. 

In the days of analog TV, stations sharing the same channel assignment were prevented from interfering with each other by making sure the markets they served were spaced far apart. In essence, these fallow areas served as “geographical guard bands,” said Hane.

“This is a relic of a very old regulatory regime, which developed out of a specific technology [analog TV broadcasting]” he said. To which Aitken added there typically is a spectrum reuse factor of 4:1. 

The pair then began discussing what this means in terms of potential revenue. Television broadcasters in the UHF band alone occupy nearly 45 billion megahertz pops, explained Hane. [A megahertz pop is a measurement that refers to 1MHz of bandwidth passing a single person in a licensed coverage area.]

“If you use the incentive auction valuation of 93 cents… call it $1 a megahertz pop, then the broadcasters are, not the exclusive, but the primary occupants of … $45 billion worth of megahertz pops,” said Hane.

Interference mitigation available in digital broadcasting, however, offers the opportunity to provide better reuse of spectrum and “approach a reuse factor of one, where all of that becomes available,” said Aitken. “Suddenly, that $45 billion… is $180 billion in a reuse one factor.”

Hane echoed Aitken’s observation. “There’s an awful lot [of spectrum] left on the table that is not being put to productive use,” he said.

“…[W]ith new technology, particularly ATSC 3.0 and OFDM and … DTS, distributed  transmission facilities and other techniques, we can actually provide useful service … into all those areas, using those bands that are essentially just geographic preclusion zones now,” he said.

Calling the value of the bands used by broadcasters “very under appreciated,” Hanes spoke of extracting greater value in terms of public service. “The value of those bands—the intrinsic value—is so great, that we have to provide the public more service with the capacity that is allocated to broadcasters, but not all of it is used because of an old regulatory regime.”

There is a price to be paid for the multiple benefits of an IT infrastructure that supports media over IP—one not best measured in dollars but in the effort to plan for and deploy an effective way to manage the complex nature of an IT network and endpoint devices, according to Felix Poulin, director, Media Transport Architecture Lab at CBC/Radio-Canada.

“The greater flexibility that media-over-IP technology will provide us comes with a greater complexity compared to SDI,” he said Nov. 11 during the “Continuous Deployment of CBC’s Media-over-IP Data Center” presentation at the SMPTE2020 virtual event.

Poulin, joined by Alexandre Dugas, project leader for Core Systems Engineering at CBC/Radio Canada, discussed the Canadian national public broadcaster’s new IP-based production center in Montreal, which is targeted for completion in 2021, and other planned national deployments. 

“…[W]e have each endpoint that requires thousands of parameters to be configured, including IP and multicast address, PTP parameters and media specific configurations,” said Poulin.

Recognizing the tedious, error-prone nature of manually configuring or reconfiguring each piece of equipment on its network, CBC looked for and found in IT data centers the tools and strategies needed to sustain making initial and subsequent configuration changes over the long haul, he said.

CBC’s approach relies on applying “many of the concepts from continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) and Dev Ops practices that have [a] proven track record of operating [at] data centers throughout their lifecycles,” said Poulin.

Those concepts include scripted provisioning and configuration, updating and changes, performing sanity checks and monitoring. “This is indeed a major shift for broadcast operations,” he said.

THE PROJECT

The new 420,000-square-foot CBC/Radio Canada headquarters in Montreal is dedicated to the broadcaster’s French language network. It operates a continuous news channel with 10 studio floors under the control of four automated control rooms. There are also two TV studios and two multifunction studios with two control rooms, multiple radio studios and post-production facilities, according to Poulin.

The facility’s centralized master control room, which controls all the French-language stations throughout Canada, is designed to handle 20 TV channels and 80 radio stations delivered via OTA and streaming, he added.

CBC/Radio Canada is also preparing to move the machine room of its Toronto headquarters to a new data center and is at the beginning of a technology refresh for all of its facilities in Canada.

The Montreal facility is the broadcaster’s first major project to be designed around IP technology. The architecture is based on JT-NM TR-1001-1 and uses SMPTE ST 2110 (-20, -30 and -40) for transport and a dual spine-leaf COTS network with SMPTE ST 2022-7 redundancy, said Poulin.

IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol operating with the SMPTE ST 2059 profile maintains accurate timing. The broadcaster also is using AMWA NMOS, Ember+ and proprietary API protocols for control, he said.

“With this… [size] of project to deliver over the coming years, we believe that investigating and automating the deployment is the only way to achieve… [this] huge task,” said Poulin.

AUTOMATING DEPLOYMENT

Poulin laid out three steps to automating deployment, including proper network configuration, which eliminates the need for separate staging stations and the risk of errors from human manipulation; initial staging of endpoint devices, which centers on programming the minimum set of device parameters to make it possible to reach the devices’ management interfaces; and device configuration, entailing “software programming all of the media-specific parameters to make the endpoint usable and ready to be provisioned in the broadcast control room,” he said. 

While Poulin tackled the deployment from a high-level, Dugas laid out the details of the solution.

Several components make up the architecture of the solution. They include the continuous delivery pipeline, an IP address manager (IPAM), a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server to automatically provide and assign IP addresses; a firmware repository running on a file server; a network infrastructure physical path (NIPP) generator; and a sanity check pipeline that runs on a daily basis. “All of these components… [revolve] around IT automation tools,” he said. 

“The role of the continuous delivery pipeline is to organize sets of tasks into what the broadcaster calls workflows—which are involved in the initial staging process, can play a role in network configuration and “perform function calls in an organized manner with proper metadata that are fetched to the IT automation tool,” said Dugas. “Continuous delivery pipeline tools provide a level of abstraction to the end user that is not necessarily familiar with scripting language.”

The architecture has three “sources of truth” to ensure error-free automated configuration—a schematic database providing a view and clear understanding of the physical network, a source version control tool that regularly saves the state of the IT automation tool and the IPAM, which provides “a source of truth for all of the logical network components,” said Dugas.

At the heart of the automated deployment system is an agentless IT automation tool that translates staging parameters into a series of comments, synchronizes various components of the system and provides current information on endpoints and network infrastructure, he said.

An “idempotency criterion” is the other core principle of the automated deployment system. “We can say a task is idempotent if it provides the exact same results regardless of the initial stage of the IT automation tool and also regardless of the number of times it was executed,” he explained.

Closing the loop on the deployment is the automated sanity check pipeline, which runs after a new device is enrolled and then again once a day to report any differences between the current state of devices as well as the network and the IPAM, NIPP and source version control sources of truth, he said.

LESSONS TO SHARE

Poulin closed out the presentation by offering some of the lessons CBC/Radio Canada has learned during the deployment.

“We realized that media-over-IP devices take five to 10 times as long to test, stage, configure, troubleshoot… [as does the] equivalent equipment based on SDI,” said Poulin. “It became obvious that we needed automaton tools like those found in data centers to… [make deployment and continuous operation] manageable.”

Broadcasters looking to transition to IT should decide on a “single source of truth” for each aspect of the system, including IP and multicast addresses, VLAN assignments, device inventory list and network configuration, before ever beginning a deployment, he said.

“Build your deployment tools before actually building your system,” he said. “That way you can recover your investment by automating the initial deployment and avoid having to reconcile the state of your system with the configuration scripts [which would be necessary] if you waited to automate at a later stage of the project.”

Poulin also advised broadcasters to involve all key stakeholders, including architect, system designer and operation. “Using a continuity of deployment methodology is a major change of practice, and you need to bring everybody on board so they can implement efficiently the new methodologies,” he said.

The director of the CBC/Radio Canada Media Transport Architecture Lab concluded by reminding those attending the presentation that this approach isn’t business as usual for broadcasters.

“This is a major shift for a broadcast media organization,” he said. “But it is a change that is necessary to adopt the IT technology at the core of our media infrastructure and get the expected benefits of flexibility and agility promised by the complex transition.”

SMPTE 2020 content is available on-demand at 2020.smpte.org.

Even though 4K is still establishing itself with consumers, the 8K revolution is coming, with TV the likely avenue for most viewers to get their first taste of it. This was one of the key takeaways from the 8K Association panel “The Creative Perspective on 8K” during SMPTE2020.

The panel featured a group of filmmakers, including Erik Messerschmidt and Peter Mavromates, the cinematographer and post producer, respectively, for David Fincher’s upcoming Netflix movie “Mank.” The panel discussed how and why they are choosing to shoot in 8K, even though at the moment there are no simple methods to transmit 8K to large TV audiences. 

However, as Bruce Markoe, senior vice president of post-production/operations and DMR at IMAX, pointed out, filming in 8K now will make things easier when 8K becomes more readily available later.

When 8K distribution and display technology is widely available, audiences are going to demand content that can take full advantage of the available resolution. If you shoot in 4K or even 2K now, that will be more difficult to upconvert to 8K later on. As Markoe puts it, “skimping on resolution doesn’t serve you well downstream.”

While the panel discussion was largely based around the film community’s use of 8K, Markoe recognizes that home viewing of this content is crucial to its longevity. TV is well prepared to meet that eventual demand, he claims.

With most TVs now capable of displaying HDR, today’s TVs are brighter, have better contrast and are bigger than ever before, Markoe says, providing the highest-quality presentation of content. While 8K TVs are not yet prevalent on the market, they are coming, he says—even if their initial introduction to the market was slowed because of the pandemic and the postponement of the 2020 Olympics. And when the price points begin to come down, consumers are likely to begin adding them in droves.

At that point, being able to say that something was shot and mastered in 8K will help draw interest in the content, even if it is still only displayed in 4K, the panel concluded.

To register for SMPTE2020, visit 2020.smpte.org/ 

PORTLAND, Ore.—On your mark, get set, go and register for SMPTE 2020’s 4K 4Charity Fun Run that, like the conference, will take place virtually this year. Registration is now open for the event for both the 4K and 8K distances.

The 4K 4Charity Fun Run is an annual event that raises money for nonprofits that are focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the technology industry. This year’s beneficiaries include Technovation, a global tech education nonprofit for girls and families to become leaders, creators and problem-solvers, and UNICEF, working with frontline responders in more than 190 countries to keep children healthy and learning, as well as UNICEF efforts to deal with COVID-19.

As for the run, participants will sign up for either the 4K (2.49 miles) or 8K (4.97 miles) distance. Being a virtual event, they will run, walk or jog that distance at a time and place convenient for them by Dec. 16. They are encouraged to share how they are participating on social media with the tag @4K4Charity. Registrants will still receive a finishers medal via mail.

This is the final 4K 4Charity run for 2020, after having conducted virtual runs for the virtual IBC and NAB conferences. NAB’s virtual run raised $21,000.

The event is hosted by AWS Elemental.

The registration deadline, to either run or simply donate,  is Dec. 16. For more information, visit www.4k4charity.com/smpte.  

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE 2020: Game On has announced that its program will feature a full day of esports programming, adding a literal interpretation of the theme for the virtual conference. 

Penciled in for Nov. 12, SMPTE will conduct presentations and live discussions about the convergence of esports/gaming and media technology, and the unique requirements of the esports industry.

The esports series will kick off with “What It’s All About: The Heart and Spirit of Esports,” which will dive into the human and technical aspects of esports competitions.

Ian Sansavera of 1UP Studios will deliver a keynote, “Visual Storytelling in the Age of Esports,” that plans to look at the narrative opportunities within esports and the gaming industry.

“The Magical Enabler: The Esports Architecture” plans to showcase the infrastructure that helps enable these dynamic team competitions, with a mix of elements that include the technology, production crew, callers and others. Presenters will include reps from Active Blizzard Esports, Grass Valley, Ross Video and Engine Media.

Building off of “The Magical Enabler,” “Boots-on-the-Ground: Real-World Experiences” details some of the challenges and the lessons learned from real experiences, as well as innovations that could serve as potential game-changers and opportunities that esports infrastructure presents more traditional content creators.

The final session of the day will be a live stream of a Rocket League esports exhibition.

For more information on SMPTE 2020 and its program, visit 2020.smpte.org. 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE has announced its lineup of keynote speakers for SMPTE 2020: “Game On” virtual conference. The lineup for the conference features industry leaders whose research, innovation and application of new technologies and techniques are shaping the future of media and entertainment, SMPTE says.

SMPTE’s keynote speakers include:

• Anima Anandkumar, director of machine learning at NVidia and a Bren Professor at Caltech; she also was previously a principal scientist at Amazon Web Services; 
• Michelle Munson, co-founder and CEO of Eluvio, a provider of a global platform service for low-latency, high-quality content distribution, monetization and asset servicing; 
• Hanno Basse, chief technology officer for Microsoft’s Azure Media & Entertainment, who previously served as CTO for 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and as senior vice president of broadcast systems engineering at DirecTV; 
• Bradford Young, Oscar-nominated cinematographer for “Arrival” and other films including “Selma” and the Netflix series “When They See Us;” 
• Paul Debevec, a senior staff assistant in Google Research and an adjunct research professor at USC. His research includes HDR imaging, image-based lighting and photoreal digital actors; 
• Markus Gross, vice president of research at Walt Disney Studios, director at DisneyResearch|Studios and a professor of computer science and head of the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich; 
• Ian Sansavera, the director of post-production at 1UP Studios 

“The format of this year’s SMPTE conference gives us the ability to showcase more of the remarkable people whose work defines storytelling in the modern era,” said Joel Welch, director of education at SMPTE. “We are thrilled to be able to highlight their work and achievements—and to give SMPTE 2020 attendees the opportunity to learn from and engage with such notable industry leaders.”

SMPTE 2020 will be a three-day conference, with attendees able to access live and on-demand presentations, hands-on training, technology demonstrations, roundtables and virtual panels. The full program is available online.

SMPTE 2020 will take place from Nov. 10-12. For more information, visit 2020.smpte.org.  

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE 2020 is coming together, as the organization has announced the full slate of more than 60 industry professionals that are scheduled to speak during the virtual conference.

With SMPTE 2020 is going the virtual route because of COVID-19, the organization plans a customizable learning experience where people can take part in the conferencing offerings at their own pace.

The conference staple of industry speakers continues this year, with attendees able to join any session live or catch up with it via a replay.

Here is a sampling of some of SMPTE 2020’s announced speakers and the topics they are speaking on:

• Michael Bernasconi, Disney Research | Studios, “Deep Interlacing” 
• Aurora Gordon, ArsenalFX Color, “The Color Compass: A Color Navigation System in a Dynamic Deliverable World” 
• Thomas Kernen, NVIDIA, “Monitoring and Analysis of SMPTE ST 2059-2 PTP Networks and Media Devices” 
• Anil Kokaram, Trinity College Dublin, “Twenty Years of Frame Interpolation for Retiming in the Movies” 
• Yonah Levenson, WarnerMedia, “Language Metadata Table: One Stop Shop” 
• Yasuko Sugito, NHK, “A Benchmark of Objective Quality Metrics for HLG-Based HDR/WCG Image Coding” 
• Laurence Thorpe, Canon USA, “New Technologies That Further Empower Digital Cinematography” 
• Brian Vessa, Sony Pictures Entertainment, “Immersive Audio Real-World Workflows” 
• Michael Zink, Warner Bros., “Tested Perceptual Difference Between UHD-1/4L and UHD-2/8K” 

The full lineup of speakers is available here.

SMPTE 2020 is taking place from Nov. 10-12.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE is providing a preview of what the 2020 SMPTE Remote Conference experience will be like during a free webinar scheduled for Aug. 26.

Netflix's Kylee Peña and media tech innovator Chris Witmayer, the SMPTE 2020 program chairs, will host the webinar, sharing their personal experiences with past conferences and discuss what attendees can expect from this year’s technical content.

“This webinar is for anyone who is curious about participating in the 2020 edition of SMPTE’s annual conference,” said Sally-Ann D’Amato, director of events, SMPTE. “We’ve got an exciting lineup of events and opportunities presented in a polished interactive virtual setting that eliminates the usual time, cost and travel commitments. Kylee and Chris will offer their perspectives on the program content and format and then explore the many great reasons to register for SMPTE 2020.”

SMPTE 2020, because of COVID-19, is going the virtual route this year, but says that it has crafted an “interactive and immersive” experience for learning and networking.

The preview webinar will take place live on Aug. 26 at 1 p.m. ET. Registration is now open. 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE is recognizing the impact that Netflix has had on the industry by giving an honorary membership to the streamer’s founder Reed Hastings. This is just one of the many announced recipients for SMPTE 2020’s Awards Gala, which will recognize this year’s recipients during the virtual SMPTE 2020 conference.

Hastings is being given SMPTE’s highest accolade “for his momentous development and continuing leadership of Netflix,” SMPTE said. Two other individuals are being recognized this year with honorary memberships: John D. Ross, recognizing his career’s work in advancing the state of the art in television engineering, and Richard Edlund, for his work in advancing the art and science of visual effects cinematography.

As the ATSC 3.0 standard is beginning to be rolled out across the U.S., SMPTE will recognize Dr. Richard Chernock with the David Sarnoff Medal. This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the development of new techniques or equipment that have improved the engineering phases of television technology. Chernock is being honored for his contributions to the development of ATSC 3.0.

The SMPTE Progress Model, which the association calls its most prestigious award and recognizes outstanding technical contributions to the motion picture, TV and motion-imaging industries, is being posthumously presented to Natalie Kalmus, the co-founder of the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, for her pioneering contribution to motion-picture color. Kalmus helped develop the Technicolor process and worked on more than 400 films, including “The Wizard of Oz.”

In addition, Technicolor has renamed its sponsored award this year to the Technicolor—Natalie and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal, which will be presented to Beverly Joanna Wood for her contributions to the creation and development of the Color Contrast Enhancement (CCE) and Adjustable Contrast Enhancement (ACE) motion-picture processes.

“One of the many lessons we’ve learned over the past few months is just how much we rely on the media and entertainment industry to engage, inform, educate and entertain us,” said Barbara Lange, executive director at SMPTE. “The industry luminaries and next-generation leaders we recognize during SMPTE 2020 have all played an important part in shaping this industry and enabling its future evolution and success.”

Here is a rundown of the other honorees for the SMPTE 2020 Awards Gala:

• Camera Origination and Imaging Medal - Gérard Corbasson 
• Excellence in Education Medal - Corey P. Carbonara 
• Digital Processing Medal - Katie Cornog 
• James A. Linder Archival Technology Medal - James Snyder 
• Samuel L. Warner Memorial Medal - Andrew Munro 
• Workflow Systems Medal - Bruce Leak 
• Journal Award - Julien Le Tanou & Médéric Blestel 
• Presidential Proclamation - Leon D. Silverman 
• Excellence in Standards Award - John F. Snow 
• Citation for Outstanding Service to the Society - Bob Hudelson 
• Student Paper Award - Adam C. Burke 
• Louis F. Wolf Jr. Memorial Scholarship - Nicholas Hurley 

In addition to the above mentioned awards, 18 new SMPTE Fellows will be recognized during the Awards Gala. The full list is available at 2020.smpte.org/home/fellows.

The SMPTE 2020 Awards Gala is scheduled for Nov. 11 and 12 during the SMPTE 2020 remote conference. For more information visit SMPTE 2020’s website. 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—SMPTE is getting the ball rolling on its adapted 2020 conference, announcing that registration for the SMPTE 2020 remote event, which is taking place Nov. 10-12, is now open.

Forced to go virtual because of COVID-19, as every other major conference this year, SMPTE 2020 is touting this new opportunity as a customizable learning experience, where people can take part in the event at their own pace.

Among the topics that are slated to be on the agenda for SMPTE 2020 are traditional and next-generation live broadcast, cloud and infrastructure, color science, imaging and, with this year’s theme being “Game On,” there will be a special focus on the convergence of esports/gaming and media technology.

SMPTE is offering a number of different registration options that will provide different levels of access to participants. The “Sage Package” is an all-access pass for conference sessions, the on-demand content library, virtual exhibit hall, roundtable discussions and social events. There is also a “Surveyor Package” that provides full access for a single day of the conference and an “Explorer Package” that provides access to the virtual exhibit hall, roundtable discussions, the on-demand content library and social events throughout the event. Prices for each package depend on if a registrant is a SMPTE member, an educator or from developing nations, or people who may be currently unemployed or furloughed (must contact SMPTE for this designation).

In addition, SMPTE has what it calls the “Pay It Forward Package,” which offers the same benefits of the Sage Package but at a higher price, with $100 worth of the registration fee helping to subsidize the lower prices for educators, students and those experiencing hardships to attend.

For more information or to register, visit 2020.smpte.org. 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—In what it is calling a “new chapter,” the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has announced its SMPTE 2020 Annual Technical Conference will take place as a “remote experience” when it gets underway in November.

“We are thrilled to deliver an immersive, world-class experience to our community around the world and we encourage each of you to think of this as YOUR SMPTE 2020—regardless of where you live,” the announcement reads.

SMPTE continues that the remote experience is eliminating the traditional barriers of travel, accommodations and scheduling conflicts, while also offering an interactive experience with learning and networking opportunities for a “broadly accessible and truly global conference.”

This is another major conference that has opted to go the virtual route in place of a traditional physical conference this year, following in the footsteps of NAB—for both its spring Las Vegas show and fall New York event—as well as IBC and more. SMPTE made no mention of the coronavirus pandemic in its official announcement, but SMPTE Executive Director Barbara Lange mentioned it during a video on the remote experience; the other conferences cited the pandemic as a key reason to go virtual.

SMPTE did share what they will be offering during this remote experience. The theme for this year’s conference is “Game On,” and a full day will be focused on the convergence of esports/gaming and media technology.

The virtual environment that attendees will have access to is expected to include a main conference hub, meeting rooms, theater space for sessions and an exhibition hall with private meeting space. Attendees can create their schedule based on their interests and schedules, SMPTE says.

The SMPTE 2020 Annual Technical Conference will be held from Nov. 10-12. For more information, visit 2020.smpte.org.

There is also a video from Lange detailing the remote experience, which you can watch below.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers have issued a call for technical papers for the 2020 SMPTE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition, Nov. 9-12, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in Los Angeles.

The organization will use a new two-step submission and review process in an effort to enhance the quality of submissions and to increase the likelihood that selected presentations will be selected for publication in its Motion Imaging Journal, SMPTE said.

During the first phase of the new process, which runs until March 10, SMPTE will accept abstract submissions. The conference’s program committee will then review the submissions and by April 20 create a short list of works that have been preliminarily accepted. Authors will be notified after April 20.

The next phase runs from April 20 to July 10. During this time, authors of works on the preliminary acceptance list must submit full manuscripts for review. The SMPTE review committee will notify authors on or before Aug. 10 of their decisions.

All manuscripts also will be peer reviewed for possible publication in the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal.

"The SMPTE annual technical conference is an ideal venue in which to showcase research and exploration of the new and emerging technologies that will shape the motion-imaging industry—and the future of storytelling," said Sara Kudrle, SMPTE vice president of Education. "It's always exciting to dig into manuscript proposals for the upcoming conference, and we're eager to learn more about the work being done by academics, students, engineers, creatives and executives from across the industry."

SMPTE is seeking high-quality, informational papers that address technical theory, research, innovation, application or practice related to the evolving technologies associated with the media and entertainment industry, it said.

Preference will be given to what the organization describes as “forward-thinking proposals” and especially to research-based proposals addressing cutting-edge technologies.

Additionally, the program committee is seeking the perspective of the “next generation of engineers, technologies, storytellers and industry thought leaders,” SMPE said. Student papers are strongly encouraged. Promotional or commercially oriented papers will not be considered.

After the November conference, SMPTE will publish accepted manuscripts to the SMPTE Digital Library and a video of the presentation of each paper will be posted to the SMPTE YouTube channel, the organization said.

More information is available on the SMPTE website.