The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded by Charles Francis Jenkins in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global
professional association
A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) is a group that usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in ...
of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the media and entertainment industry. As an internationally recognized
standards organization
A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization (SDO), or standards setting organization (SSO) is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpr ...
, SMPTE has published more than 800
technical standard
A technical standard is an established Social norm, norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and producti ...
s and related documents for broadcast, filmmaking,
digital cinema
Digital cinema is the digital technology used within the film industry to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to be shipped to mo ...
,
audio recording
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording t ...
, information technology (IT), and medical imaging.
SMPTE also publishes the ''SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal'', provides networking opportunities for its members, produces
academic conference
An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an Convention (meeting), event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic jou ...
s and exhibitions, and performs other industry-related functions. SMPTE membership is open to any individual or organization with an interest in the subject matter. In the US, SMPTE is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization.
History
An informal organizational meeting was held in April 1916 at the Astor Hotel in New York City. Enthusiasm and interest increased, and meetings were held in New York and Chicago, culminating in the founding of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers in the Oak Room of the Raleigh Hotel, Washington DC on the 24th of July. Ten industry stakeholders attended and signed the Articles of Incorporation. Papers of incorporation were executed on 24 July 1916, were filed on 10 August in Washington DC. With a second meeting scheduled, invitations were telegraphed to Charles Jenkin’s industry friends, i.e., key players and engineering executives in the motion picture industry.
Three months later, 26 attended the first “official” meeting of the Society, the SMPE, at the Hotel Astor in New York City, on 2 and 3 October 1916. Charles Francis Jenkins was formally elected president, a constitution was ratified, an emblem for the Society was approved, and six committees were established.
At the July 1917 Society Convention in Chicago, a set of specifications including the dimensions of 35 mm film, 16 frames per second, etc. were adopted. SMPE set and issued a formal document reached by consensus, its first as an accredited Standards Development Organization (SDO), registering the specifications with the United States Bureau of Standards.
The SMPTE Centennial Gala took place on Friday, 28 October 2016, following the annual Conference and Exhibition;
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...
and Douglas Trumbull received SMPTE’s top honors. SMPTE officially bestowed Honorary Membership, the Society’s highest honor, upon ''
Avatar
Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...
'' and ''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
'' director Cameron in recognition of his work advancing
visual effects
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...
(VFX),
motion capture
Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...
, and stereoscopic 3D photography, as well as his experimentation in HFR. Presented by Oscar-winning special effects cinematographer
Richard Edlund
Richard Edlund, (born December 6, 1940) is an American visual effects artist and inventor. He was a founding member of Industrial Light & Magic, having already founded Pignose amplifiers, and later co-founded Boss Film Studios and DuMonde V ...
, SMPTE honored Trumbull, who was responsible for the VFX in '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...
'', with the Society’s most prestigious medal award, the Progress Medal. The award recognized Trumbull’s contributions to VFX, stereoscopic 3D, and HFR cinema, including his current work to enable stereoscopic 3D with his 120-frames-per-second Magi system.
Educational and professional development activities
SMPTE's educational and professional development activities include technical presentations at regular meetings of its local Sections, annual and biennial conferences in the US and Australia and the ''SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal''. The society sponsors many awards, the oldest of which are the SMPTE Progress Medal, the Samuel Warner Memorial Medal, and the David Sarnoff Medal. SMPTE also has a number of Student Chapters and sponsors scholarships for college students in the motion imaging disciplines.
Standards
SMPTE standards documents are copyrighted and may be purchased from the SMPTE website, or other distributors of technical standards. Standards documents may be purchased by the general public. Significant standards promulgated by SMPTE include:
*All film and television transmission formats and media, including digital.
*Physical interfaces for transmission of television signals and related data (such as
SMPTE timecode
SMPTE timecode ( or ) is a set of cooperating standards to label individual frames of video or film with a timecode. The system is defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers in the SMPTE 12M specification. SMPTE revised ...
and the
serial digital interface
Serial digital interface (SDI) is a family of digital video Interface (computing), interfaces first standardized by SMPTE (The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) in 1989. For example, ITU-R BT.656 and SMPTE 259M define digital ...
) (SDI)
*
SMPTE color bars
SMPTE color bars are a television test pattern used where the NTSC, NTSC video standard is utilized, including countries in North America. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) refers to the pattern as Engineering Guide ...
*
Test card
A test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off).
Used since the ear ...
patterns and other diagnostic tools
*The
Material Exchange Format
Material Exchange Format (MXF) is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards. A typical example of its use is for delivering advertisements to TV stations and tapeless archiving of broad ...
(MXF)
*
SMPTE 2110
SMPTE 2110 is a suite of standards from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) that describes how to send digital media over an IP network.
SMPTE 2110 is intended to be used within broadcast production and distribution fac ...
*SMPTE ST 421:2013 (
VC-1
SMPTE 421, informally known as VC-1, is a video coding format. Most of it was initially developed as Microsoft's proprietary video format Windows Media Video 9 in 2003. With some enhancements including the development of a new Advanced Profile, ...
video codec)
Film format
SMP(T)E'S first standard was to get everyone using 35-mm film width, four sprocket holes per frame, 1.37:1 picture ratio. Until then, there were competing film formats. With the standard, theaters could all run the same films.
Film frame rate
SMP(T)E's standard in 1927 was for speed at which sound film is shown, 24 frames per second.
3D television
SMPTE's taskforce on "3D to the home" produced a report on the issues and challenges and suggested minimum standards for the 3D home master that would be distributed after
post-production
Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...
to the ingest points of distribution channels for 3D video content. A group within the standards committees has begun to work on the formal definition of the SMPTE 3D Home Master.
Digital cinema
In 1999, SMPTE established the DC28 technology committee, for the foundations of Digital Cinema.
Membership
SMPTE Fellows
* Terry Adams,
NBC Olympics
''NBC Olympics'' is the commercial name for the NBC Sports-produced broadcasts of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games as shown in the United States on NBCUniversal platforms. They include the NBC broadcast network and many of the company's cabl ...
, LLC
* Andy Beale,
BT Sport
TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...
* Lynn D. Claudy,
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
The SMPTE presents awards to individuals for outstanding contributions in fields of the society.
Honorary membership and the honor roll
Recipients include:
* Renville "Ren" H. McMann Jr. (2017)
*
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...
(2016)
* Oscar B. "O.B." Hanson (2015)
*
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...
(2014)
*
John Logie Baird
John Logie Baird (; 13 August 188814 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first mechanical Mechanical television, television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the fi ...
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
George Eastman
George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he ...
(1928)
*
Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions ...
The Progress Medal, instituted in 1935, is SMPTE's oldest and most prestigious medal, and is awarded annually for contributions to engineering aspects of the film and/or television industries.
Recipients include:
* Douglas Trumbull (2016)
* Ioan Allen (2014)
* David Wood (2012)
*
Edwin Catmull
Edwin Earl Catmull (born March 31, 1945) is an American computer scientist and animator who served as the co-founder of Pixar and the President of Walt Disney Animation Studios. He has been honored for his contributions to 3D computer graphics, ...
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
Kenneth Mees
Charles Edward Kenneth Mees FRS (26 May 1882 – 15 August 1960) was a British scientist and photographic researcher.
Early life and education
Mees was born in Wellingborough, England, the son of a Wesleyan minister.
He attended the Uni ...
Charles Ginsburg
Charles Paulson Ginsburg (July 27, 1920 – April 9, 1992) was an American engineer and the leader of a research team at Ampex which developed one of the first practical videotape recorders.
Biography
Ginsburg was born on July 27, 1920, in San ...
The Eastman Kodak Gold Medal, instituted in 1967, recognizes outstanding contributions that lead to new or unique educational programs utilizing motion pictures, television, high-speed and instrumentation photography or other photography sciences. Recent recipients are
* Andrew Laszlo (2006)
* James MacKay (2005)
*Dr. Roderick T. Ryan (2004)
*George Spiro Dibie (2003)
*Jean-Pierre Beauviala (2002)
Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal
The Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal, formerly known as Technicolor - Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal, instituted in 1955, is awarded for contributions of quality innovation in motion picture post-production and distribution services. Recent recipients are:
* Beverly Wood (2020)
Audio Engineering Society
The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or product ...
Digital Video Broadcasting
Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...
*
European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...
(EBU)
*
ITU Radiocommunication Sector
The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) is one of the three sectors (divisions or units) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is responsible for radio communications.
Its role is to manage the international radio-frequency ...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines.
The IEEE has a corporate office ...
(IEEE)
*
Joint Photographic Experts Group
The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is the joint committee between ISO/ IEC JTC 1/ SC 29 and ITU-T Study Group 16 that created and maintains the JPEG, JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, JPEG XT, JPEG XS, JPEG XL, and related digital image standard ...
(JPEG)
*
Moving Picture Experts Group
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is an alliance of working groups established jointly by ISO and IEC that sets standards for media coding, including compression coding of audio, video, graphics, and genomic data; and transmission and ...
Glossary of video terms
This glossary defines terms that are used in the documen"Defining Video Quality Requirements: A Guide for Public Safety" developed by thVideo Quality in Public Safety (VQIPS) Working Group It contains terminology and explanations of concepts relev ...
*
Outline of film
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to film:
''Film'' refers to motion pictures as individual projects and to the field in general. The name came from the fact that photographic film (also called filmstock) ...
Video tape recorder
A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio signal, audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. ...