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 A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that profession, and t ...

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 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 production methods, ...

s and related documents for broadcast, filmmaking,

digital cinema Digital cinema refers to adoption of digital technology 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 s ...

, audio recording, 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 event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic or scientific journals ...

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

The Motion Picture and Television Engineers was founded in 1913 by Charles Francis Jenkins, 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 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) (SDI) * SMPTE color bars * 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 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 BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Broad ...

* 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 tha ...

* 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 ...

(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 chai ...

(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 (1984) * Herbert T. Kalmus (1958) *

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

(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 (1946) *

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the East ...

(1928) *

Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 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 invent ...

(1928) * Louis Lumiere (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 (1959) * Fred Waller (1953) *

(1950) * John G. Frayne (1947) *

(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 (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. (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 (1957) *Robert E. Shelby (1956) * Arthur V. Loughren (1953) * Otto H. Schade (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 (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 service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the Co ...

(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