SMPTE appoints Wendy Aylsworth as president

The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) has named Wendy Aylsworth (also senior vice president of technology at Warner Bros.) as president. Aylsworth will serve a two-year term, succeeding Pete Ludé, who also holds a position as senior vice president of engineering at Sony Corporation.

Aylsworth is finishing up her two-year team as SMPTE executive vice president. In that role, she helped streamline and further systemize the global organization’s standards-making process and was instrumental in getting the related industries to collaborate and reach agreement on the 3-D to the Home and Broadband standards.

Other incoming SMPTE officers — who will assume office on Jan. 1, 2013 — include Robert P. Seidel, vice president of engineering and advanced technology for the CBS television network, who will serve a two-year term as executive vice president; Matthew S. Goldman, senior vice president of TV compression technology at Ericsson, who will serve as financial vice president for a one-year term; Patrick D. Griffis, senior director of technology strategy in the office of the chief technology officer for Dolby, who will serve as education vice president for a two-year term; and Ann Marie Rohaly, director of accessibility policy and standards for Microsoft Corporation, who will serve as secretary/treasurer for a two-year term.

SMPTE also named its 2013-2014 Board of Governors Elected, who will all serve two-year terms. They include: Pierre Marion, director, media engineering, productions, French services, CBC/Radio-Canada, as the Canadian regional governor; William T. Hayes, director of engineering and technology, Iowa Public Television, as the central region governor; and Peter Wharton, director of sales, Americas, file-based solutions, Miranda Technologies as the eastern region governor; Leon Silverman, general manager, Digital Studio, The Walt Disney Studios, and Clyde Smith, senior vice president technology, FOX Networks and operations, as Hollywood region governors; William C. Miller, president, Miltag Media Technology, LLC, as the New York region governor; T.J. Scott, Jr., senior account manager, Grass Valley USA, as the Southern region governor; Sara J. Kudrle, senior software engineer, Miranda Technologies, as the Western region governor; and Angelo D’Alessio, director, engineering and new media applications for the Center for Media Accessibility (CMA) as governor for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America.

A complete list of current SMPTE board members and governors is available here.

The SMPTE 2012 Annual Technical Conference is set to take place Oct. 23-25 in Hollywood, CA. A pre-conference symposium, “High Frame Rates for Digital Cinema,” will be held on Oct. 22. Registration and program information is available online.