SMPTE celebrates 90th anniversary at upcoming conference

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) celebrates its 90th Anniversary this year during its annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, to be held in Hollywood at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, October 18-21 (more at www.smpte.org).
The SMPTE Conference provides its attendees with expert speakers and papers on the latest advances in motion imaging technology, in such diverse areas as film, acquisition, digital cinema, broadcasting, and a host of other technologies. The SMPTE Exhibition brings together over seventy-five companies both large and small to exhibit their latest products, services, and technologies.
SMPTE will celebrate its anniversary on the first day of the conference, with a gala celebration that evening at one of Hollywood’s top studios, followed by a special movie screening. According to SMPTE President, Edward Hobson, “The Society was founded ninety years ago to answer the need to standardize a fledgling and very disorganized technology, and the need for SMPTE’s involvement in these technologies has increased exponentially. Today SMPTE is involved in standardization of High Definition Television, Digital Cinema, compression systems, and content protection.” SMPTE also continues to produce annual conferences that teach, inform, and demonstrate to attendees the latest in motion imaging technologies, to publish the award winning SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, and to hold local section meetings worldwide that allow members to see and hear about new innovations in the art of motion imaging.
SMPTE’s Technical Conference will feature changes that are affecting the industry: the digital intermediate, the future of film archiving, and the reemergence of 3-D. Also covered at the conference will be sessions geared towards the latest in high definition for both the broadcaster and the consumer, recent advances in acquisition, IP video, and AV/IT systems to name a few. “The conference’s program chairs, Tom Scott and Bill Hogan, have put together a strong program of sessions,” says SMPTE Editorial Vice-President Peter Ludé, “with industry leaders chairing the sessions, and expert presenters demonstrating their recent work, this conference will highlight many of the very important changes that have lately affected the industry, and how these changes affect how we do our jobs.”
Another salient part of the SMPTE Technical Conference is its Exhibition, where companies demonstrate their latest technologies, products, and services. “The conference and exhibit’s central location in Hollywood is expected to draw heavy traffic to the Exhibit Hall this year,” states Ken Fuller, SMPTE Conference Vice-President. “The exhibition side of the conference complements the program side, in that much of the changes in technology discussed at last year’s conference are now on our exhibit floor, and what will be showing up at next year’s exhibition is what’s being discussed in this year’s conference.”
The SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition runs October 18-21, 2006, at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. More information about the conference can be obtained on SMPTE’s website, www.smpte.org.
(GB)