The New SMPTE UK Region

By Bruce Devlin, SMPTE Governor for the UK Region, Chief Media Scientist at Dalet and "Mr. MXF".

"Could I have a word?" asked Chris Johns, chairman of the SMPTE UK Section and chief engineer at Sky, as we met at the SMPTE UK International Lecture held at Sky in June. Ten minutes later I was standing alone and staring into a beautiful sunset over London, wondering what I had volunteered for. (And yes, for those of you in California who may be wondering, we do actually get a couple of days of sunshine here in the UK every year!)

The one thing that I could not have predicted at that moment, 7 months ago, was the remarkable timing of that decision to stand for election as a SMPTE governor. Driven by the consummate energy of the SMPTE UK Section secretary/treasurer, Peter Weitzel, as well as outgoing SMPTE Governor for EMEA, Central and South America Region, Richard Welsh, along with the team of Section Managers whose skills define the film and television industry, the UK Section has gathered members, laid on events, and demonstrated that there is a real need for SMPTE here, in the UK. By the time the election results for the SMPTE Board of Governors had been tallied, a new SMPTE UK Region had been proposed and created. I now have the honour of serving as its first governor.

It is quite humbling to be admitted into that heady group and to have so much attention directed towards me when all the real work was done before I arrived. The UK team began small, but from the start focussed on the three pillars of membership, education, and standards that define the purpose of the Society and drive its ongoing success.

Consider membership, for a start. Although geographically small, the UK has always had a strong film and television history, with many famous names both in front of and behind the camera and microphone. It would be a mistake, however, to view the UK as one homogeneous geographical blob. The reality is that there are local groups within the UK that have their own regional identities, and one of the secrets of the SMPTE UK Section’s success is that it recognises this fact and ensures that those identities are a strength of the Section, rather than a weakness.

The Section's calendar is full of events around the country, and the goal of hosting the events on members' premises highlights the pride that member companies have in their technology, as well as in being members of SMPTE. Section meetings in coming months boast a wide variety of timely topics, including moving high-end processing into the cloud (Birmingham), the skills needed for the industry (Southampton, with a sneak-peak at Southampton Solent University students' outside broadcasting (OB)/remote truck), virtual reality (London), the future of modular hardware (Cambridge area), event television (Salford), object-based audio (London), and UHD issues (Reading). In February we will host a one-day seminar on hybrid IP infrastructure at EEF. And, in July the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA), for the first time and with the assistance of its partnership with SMPTE, is bringing its acclaimed HPA Tech Retreat to the UK – This is a must attend event for anyone working in post production.

The second pillar, education, is also core to the UK Section's activities. There have been film and television schools in the UK since the earliest days of the technology. Now that we are entering an era in which the technologies of media share a huge overlap with the technologies of software, information technology (IT), and networking, there is a greater need than ever to ensure that we train the next generation of engineers and technicians who will deliver the UHD, HDR, WCG, HFR that I look forward to watching in my retirement home when I become a grumpy old man. (For those of you new to the latest acronyms, that's ultra-high-definition, high dynamic range, wide colour gamut, and higher frame rate).

I hope that during my tenure as SMPTE UK Region governor, I can bolster SMPTE's role in educating its members about today's economy, which requires a more business-savvy approach to the technical arts than ever before. At the same time, I am confident the Section will continue to encourage participation in its many educational events by an increasingly diverse membership.

If we encourage it, enthusiastic young minds will take the knowledge that SMPTE offers and form new questions with the potential to shape creative, technological, and commercial change that will sweep through the media and entertainment industry. I also look forward to seeing a greater percentage of women join the technical side of our industry — and especially more women who take an active techno-commercial role within their businesses. I have been honoured to work with many female CEOs, CTOs, and engineers over the years and have found that only good things have come to my business and career as a result. I am sure that within the 500+ members that the SMPTE UK Region currently boasts, there are the superstars of tomorrow eager to show their skills.

The final pillar is standards. In this the centennial year for SMPTE, we are reminded that the organisation was founded so that films could be exchanged among different vendors. One hundred years later, as we wrestle with the business logistics of migrating to internet protocols (IP) that are not tightly coupled to the media that travels over them, we are back in the same position. If anything, we have too many protocols that have the word "standard" written on them. Sometimes this is in the industry's favour, and sometimes it works against the common interests of end users.

Perhaps the underlying issue is that there are few common business models in media distribution today. The flux in business models leads to the technology community leaping on sets of requirements in the hope that the "winner" will be quickly identified and we can get on with making lots of applications to fulfil those needs. Personally, I think we are entering a new phase of continual business and technical innovation that will continue apace for a great many years. Over the past 100 years, the way in which SMPTE has created standards has changed dramatically. Nevertheless, over all this time, the industry has trusted and respected the organisation and its work.

I am very optimistic that the nature of media technology will continue to transform the way in which we create, distribute, and consume entertainment. The current trends are breaking down the barriers that inhibit creativity while simultaneously making that technology available at lower prices to more people than ever before in history. I am continually surprised by the wonders created by SMPTE members, and I am especially proud of those wonders created and developed here in the UK.

Happy 100th birthday, SMPTE. You have a great Region here in the UK!

Image: Bruce Devlin received the Excellence in Standards Award from SMPTE Standards Vice President Alan Lambshead at the SMPTE 2015 Honours & Awards Ceremony in Hollywood, California.

www.smpte.org

This article is also available to read at BFV online here.