The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the media and entertainment industry. As an internationally recognized standards organization, SMPTE has published more than 800 technical standards and related documents for broadcast, filmmaking, digital cinema, audio recording, information technology (IT), and medical imaging. SMPTE also publishes the ''SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal'', provides networking opportunities for its members, produces academic conferences 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

The Motion Picture and Television Engineers was founded in 1913 by

Charles Francis Jenkins Charles Francis Jenkins (August 22, 1867 – June 6, 1934) was an American engineer who was a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies. His businesses incl ...

, who was the first president of the organization.

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 time code and the serial digital interface) (SDI) *

SMPTE color bars SMPTE color bars are a television test pattern used where the 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 Guideline ( ...

* Test card patterns and other diagnostic tools *The Material Exchange Format (MXF) * SMPTE 2110

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 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 individual program segments. The ...

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, LLC * Andy Beale, BT Sport * Lynn D. Claudy,

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...

* Lawrence R. Kaplan, CEO of SDVI

Honors and awards program

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. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...

(2016) * Oscar B. "O.B." Hanson (2015) *

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...

(2014) * John Logie Baird (2014) * Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1996) *

Ray M. Dolby Ray Milton Dolby (; January 18, 1933 – September 12, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR. He helped develop the video tape recorder while at Ampex and was the founder of Dolby Labor ...

(1992) *

Linwood G. Dunn Linwood G. Dunn, A.S.C. (December 27, 1904 in Brooklyn, New York – May 20, 1998 in Los Angeles, California) was an American pioneer of visual special effects in motion pictures and an inventor of related technology. Dunn worked on many fi ...

(1984) * Herbert T. Kalmus (1958) * Walt Disney (1955) *

Vladimir K. Zworykin Vladimir Kosma Zworykin; or with the patronymic as ''Kosmich''; or russian: Кузьмич, translit=Kuz'mich, label=none. Zworykin anglicized his name to ''Vladimir Kosma Zworykin'', replacing the patronymic with the name ''Kosma'' as a middle na ...

(1950) *

Samuel L. Warner Samuel Larkin Warner (June 14, 1828 – February 6, 1893) was a U.S. Representative from Connecticut, brother of Levi Warner. Born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, Warner attended Wilbraham Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and the law departme ...

(1946) * George Eastman (1928) * Thomas Alva Edison (1928) *

Louis Lumiere Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...

(1928) *

C. Francis Jenkins Charles Francis Jenkins (August 22, 1867 – June 6, 1934) was an American engineer who was a pioneer of early cinema and one of the inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic technologies. His businesses incl ...

(1926)

Progress Medal

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 (2011) * Birney Dayton (2008) * Clyde D. Smith (2007) * Roderick Snell (2006) * S. Merrill Weiss (2005) * Dr.

Kees Immink Kornelis Antonie "Kees" Schouhamer Immink (born 18 December 1946) is a Dutch scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, who pioneered and advanced the era of digital audio, video, and data recording, including popular digital media such as Compact D ...

(2004) * Stanley N. Baron (2003) * William C. Miller (2002) *

Bernard J. Lechner Bernard J. Lechner (25 January 1932 – 11 April 2014) was an electronics engineer and formerly vice president, RCA Laboratories, where he worked for 30 years covering various aspects of television and information display technologies. Biogra ...

(2001) * Edwin E. Catmall (1996) * Ray Dolby (1983) *

Harold E. Edgerton Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton (April 6, 1903 – January 4, 1990), also known as Papa Flash, was an American scientist and researcher, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is largely credited with ...

(1959) * Fred Waller (1953) *

(1950) *

John G. Frayne John G. Frayne (July 8, 1894 in Ireland – October 31, 1990 in Pasadena, California) was a physicist and sound engineer. Career Frayne received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Minnesota while working at the Bell Laboratories. I ...

(1947) * Walt Disney (1940) * Herbert Kalmus (1938) *

Edward W. Kellogg Edward Washburn Kellogg (February 20, 1883 – May 29, 1960) was an American inventor who invented the moving coil loudspeaker in 1925 along with Chester W. Rice at General Electric Biography He was born in Washington (state), Washington in 1883 ...

(1937) * Kenneth Mees (1936)

David Sarnoff Gold Medal

Chuck Pagano Charles David Pagano (born October 2, 1960) is a former American football coach and player. Pagano spent six seasons in the National Football League (NFL) as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts from 2012 to 2017. He also served as the defensiv ...

(2013) *James M. DeFilippis (2012) *

(1996) *Stanley N. Baron (1991) *

William F. Schreiber William F. Schreiber (1925–2009) was an American electrical engineer and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).Adrian Ettlinger Adrian Ettlinger (January 26, 1925 – October 23, 2013) was an American electrical engineer and software developer and a pioneer in television and video technology. He has been described as a "visionary" and the "legendary" "engineering father" of ...

(1976) *

Joseph A. Flaherty, Jr. Joseph Antony Flaherty, Jr. (December 25, 1930 – August 7, 2018) was the Senior Vice President for Technology at CBS. He is the inventor and co-inventor of many television technologies including the miniature color camera, and off-line videotape ...

(1974) *

Peter C. Goldmark Peter Carl Goldmark (born Péter Károly Goldmark; December 2, 1906 – December 7, 1977) was a Hungarian-American engineer who, during his time with Columbia Records, was instrumental in developing the long-playing microgroove 33 rpm phonogra ...

(1969) * W. R. G. Baker (1959) * Albert Rose (1958) *

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 ...

(1957) *Robert E. Shelby (1956) *

Arthur V. Loughren Arthur V. Loughren (September 15, 1902 – December 14, 1993) was an American electrical engineer who played a prominent role in the development of NTSC television. Loughren was born in Rensselaer, New York, and received his BA (1923) and EE (192 ...

(1953) *

Otto H. Schade Otto H. Schade (April 27, 1903 – April 28, 1981) was a television pioneer, best known for his work on evaluating the gradation, graininess and sharpness in film and television images, and his aperture theory that mathematically modeled the system ...

(1951)

Eastman Kodak Gold Medal

The Eastman Kodak Gold Medal, instituted in 1967, recognizes outstanding contributions which 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)

Related organizations

Related organizations include * Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) *

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 f ...

(MPEG) * Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) *

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 sp ...

(formerly known as the CCIR) * ITU Telecommunication Sector (formerly known as the CCITT) *

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) ...

* BBC Research Department *

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU)

References

Bibliography

* Charles S. Swartz (editor). ''Understanding Digital Cinema. A Professional Handbook''. Elsevier, 2005. {{Authority control 1916 establishments in the United States 3D imaging Broadcast engineering Economy of Westchester County, New York Film and video technology Organizations awarded an Academy Honorary Award Organizations based in New York (state) Science and technology in New York (state) Television terminology White Plains, New York