The last stretch of 2020 promises more change and evolution for SMPTE and its membership than in the last several years. This year’s Annual General Membership meeting comes to you virtually. Members and non-members alike may attend the Town Hall session to hear from executive committee members about the state of the Society. The vice presidents that comprise the committee have focus areas from finance, to membership, standards, and more. They will briefly inform us about the happenings within their respective area and take questions from the audience.
Attendees of the Town Hall will learn:
This virtual Town Hall is in accordance with the Society’s bylaws which require SMPTE to hold an Annual General Membership meeting each year.
As Technology Vice President in the CTO Office at Dolby, Patrick Griffis is charged with helping define future technology strategy for the company which includes identifying and tracking key technical trends, performing technical due diligence, and supporting advanced technology initiatives for the company. He has been an active company spokesperson on the topic of next generation imaging and in particular, “better pixels” - a term he coined for High Dynamic Range plus Wide Color Gamut. Before joining Dolby, Pat spent 10 years at Microsoft leading global digital media standards strategy, including adoption of the Digital Living Network Alliance as a baseline media sharing standard in Windows 7 and standardization of Windows Media Video technology as an international SMPTE standard. Prior to Microsoft, Pat spent 15 years at Panasonic in senior management positions, including Vice President of Strategic Product Development at Panasonic Broadcast where he drove Panasonic’s HDTV strategy for the US. Pat started his career at RCA, earning eight patents in TV product design.
Matthew Goldman is Senior Vice President of Technology at MediaKind (formerly known as Ericsson Media Solutions), where he is focused on video processing and media delivery solutions. He has been actively involved in the development of digital television systems since 1992. He was a prominent participant in the Moving Picture Experts Group where he helped create the MPEG-2 Systems and DSM-CC standards, and he continues to be influential in other industry organizations including the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the Alliance of IP Media Solutions (AIMS), the Ultra HD Forum, the Digital Video Broadcasting project, the Advanced Television Systems Committee, and the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers. Four of his projects have been later recognized by Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards. Mr. Goldman received bachelor (high honors) and master of sciences degrees in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He holds six patents related to digital video transport. A SMPTE Fellow, he is also a senior member of the IEEE and an inductee of the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers.
Hans Hoffmann was born in Munich, Germany. He holds a diploma in telecommunication engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. In 2007, he completed his Ph.D. studies at Brunel University West London, at the School of Engineering and Design. From 1993 to 2000, Hoffmann worked at the Insitut fuer Rundfunktechnik in research and development for new television production technologies. In 2000, he joined the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as a senior engineer in the technical department. Hoffmann has chaired the EBU project groups P/BRRTV and P/PITV, which were both involved in standardization activities such SDTI and file formats. He has chaired the SMPTE technology committee on Networks and File Management and has served as Engineering Director, Television. He has been involved in EBU activities on high-definition television production and emission and set up the HDTV testing laboratory at the EBU. Hoffmann is a fellow of SMPTE and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), FKT (Germany), and the Society for Information Display (SID).
John Ferder is the Vice President of Broadcast Engineering for Key Code Media, based in their Centennial, CO offices. John has over thirty-five years of experience in the broadcast industry, most notably as Director of Studio and Post-Production Engineering for the CBS Television Network in New York. Together with his engineering group, he was responsible for the design, construction, and support of all production and post-production facilities in the CBS Broadcast Center, including the renovations for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, HD upgrades for “The Late Show with David Letterman”. “The NFL Today”, “60 Minutes”, “48 Hours” and the 2008 construction of the new HD Control Room 47 for the “CBS Evening News” as well as the new studio for “CBS This Morning”. John was elevated to SMPTE Fellow in 2012, chairs the David Sarnoff Medal Award Committee, and serves on the Conference Strategy Committee and Board of Editors. He is a member of IEEE and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI.
Patricia Keighley, SVP IMAX Corporation, is co-founder (1972) of IMAX POST/DKP Inc., an IMAX subsidiary since 1988. In 2008, she led the development of the IMAX digital post-production workflow by adapting the long-established IMAX film post-procedures to meet digital requirements while continuing to maintain the brand’s high-quality standards. Keighley has been an active member of the SMPTE Board of Governors, as well as the Hollywood Section Board of Managers, with terms as Sections Vice President, Hollywood Region Governor, Hollywood Section Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, and Manager. In 2008 Keighley received SMPTE's Citation of Outstanding Service to the Society in recognition of her role as Producer and writer of the Society's extensively revamped 2007 Honors and Awards event honoring esteemed technology thought-leaders and practitioners from all sections of the entertainment industry.
Peter Wharton most recently served as VP Technology at BroadStream Solutions Inc, a software company that specializes in television production, workflows and playout where he was responsible for the technical and strategic direction of the company. Prior to joining BroadStream, Peter was at Grass Valley (Miranda Technologies) where he held a wide range of roles in sales, business development, strategic account management, product management, development and engineering. He has played a role in the centralization initiatives of several station groups as well as the design and implementation of numerous specialty channel and TV network playout facilities. Prior to Grass Valley, Peter held engineering and management roles with Fox ABC Networks and PanAmSat. A SMPTE Fellow, he currently serves as SMPTE’s Secretary-Treasurer, previously served as Eastern Regional Governor and produces the “Bits By The Bay” SMPTE conference in the Washington DC area.
Sara Kudrle is the Director of Marketing for PESA, which specializes in mission critical video distribution systems. Sara received her degree in Computer Science with a Minor in Mathematics from California State University Chico. Sara's 18 plus years in the Video Broadcast industry started at Tektronix in VideoTele.com. From there, she joined Continental Electronics as a software engineer within the TV Transmitter group developing exciter control software. Next, she joined NVISION/Miranda/Grass Valley and was responsible for several projects within the Router Control group, moving on to Imagine Communications' Playout division. Sara has authored numerous papers for NAB, PBS and SMPTE conferences and has been published in Broadcast Engineering and the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, receiving the 2012 Journal Award. In 2015, Sara was named TVNewsCheck’s 2015 Technology Woman to Watch. Sara is active within SMPTE serving on several committees and in the standards community. Sara is a SMPTE Fellow, the SMPTE Vice President of Education, former SMPTE Region Governor, SMPTE Award Chair and is a SMPTE Annual Technical Conference Co-Chair.
In the late 1990s, Mr. Devlin had a dream that File Based working could be better. He started a small UK project that became a big EU project that became a global effort that became SMPTE’s MXF format. MXF was SMPTE’s first big software standard and as our media world moves towards software services and away from hardware infrastructure, Devlin feels that SMPTE’s standardization processes and procedures need to keep up with those changes. The fine balance between “Do it fast” and “Do it right” needs to be respected while simultaneously preserving SMPTE’s reputation for quality standards that meet the media industry’s needs. Bruce has served as both the EMEA, Central and South America Region Governor and the UK Region Governor of SMPTE. Working with the UK Region to deliver a huge program of quality meetings, it has become clear to him that SMPTE is primarily a membership organization whose standards activities act as a technical compass for the direction of the media industry. As Standards Vice President and participant in the recently announced SMPTE–DPP B-IMF work, Bruce hopes to show that SMPTE is not just a home for that work, it is THE home for that work.
Barbara Lange joined SMPTE as Executive Director in January 2010. Founded in 1916, SMPTE is the global professional association that supports the technical framework and professional community which makes quality motion imaging available to consumers in a variety of media formats. Ms. Lange’s portfolio includes executing on the SMPTE Board of Governors’ strategic vision and to ensure the Society’s continued relevance in an ever-evolving media ecosystem. Under Ms. Lange’s leadership, membership has grown by more than 30% globally, more than 200 leading-edge industry standards have been published -- including industry game-changers such as Interoperable Master Format (IMF), High Dynamic Range (HDR), and Video Over IP -- and the Society has educated thousands of professionals on critical technical topics. Today, Ms. Lange’s focus is implementing a 3-year strategic business plan that will further SMPTE’s visibility and relevance with an emphasis on attracting a younger and more diverse membership demographic. In 2015, Ms. Lange led the acquisition of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA), a leading trade association focused on the application of technology in the creation, distribution and consumption of professional media content; she now also serves as HPA Executive Director. Ms. Lange holds a BA in Chemistry and German from Washington and Jefferson College, and completed the Executive Development Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to joining SMPTE she held executive roles in scholarly publishing at highly respected organizations including Springer-Verlag and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Ms. Lange has been recognized by IEEE, Washington & Jefferson College, and honored with TVNewscheck’s 2020 Women in Technology Award for her role in “making a difference in the media industry”.