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The 2024 Media Technology Summit
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Rocky Mountain

Welcome to the Rocky Mountain Section of SMPTE.

Welcome to the SMPTE Rocky Mountain Section

Our mission is to provide the growing community of media and broadcast professionals in the Rocky Mountain region a resource for localized connection and development through unique regional in-person events and community building content.

 

Rocky Mountain Section Events 

7 October 2024

Welcome to The HBO Camera Assessment Series Viewing!

Come watch exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from HBO Camera Assessment Series at our event!

The HBO Camera Assessment Series, started over 10 years ago, is a one-of-a-kind project that seeks to create a rich and expansive image library, available to producers, directors, and cinematographers across the entire WarnerBros Discovery family. Twenty-five years ago, the paradigm was simple. If you were shooting a dramatic series for HBO, you were shooting it on motion picture film. Today, it appears that film is now a smaller sub-sample of the wide array of choices offered to filmmakers. This does not, however, make the choices any simpler. How would "Game of Thrones" have looked if they decided to shoot it on a RED Camera or a SONY Venice instead of an Arri Alexa? How would "The Sopranos" have looked if it had not been shot on film?

The goal of the HBO Camera Assessment Series: Season 6 (CAS2023) is to continue shooting them with the latest high end imaging tools, we can present an in-depth and thorough review of the strengths and weaknesses of each camera system. This comparison allows filmmakers to make an educated decision on what system is right for their film or show.

 

Date: Monday, October 7

Time: 6:30 - 9pm MDT

LocationSie FilmCenter

2510 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80206

 

Register now!


Upcoming Industry Events 

Looking to organize your calendar? Upcoming industry events that may interest you.



Taming the Control Planel - SMPTE Town Hall

July, 2023

One of the last frontiers in the wild west that is the cloud is how to control devices and services regardless of where they reside. We all have some things on-prem, some in public clouds, and some in private clouds. In theory, they should all work together in perfect harmony, without regard for platform or vendor. Today’s proprietary solutions don’t address this need, and the challenge is becoming more serious every day. SMPTE’s Rapid Industry Solutions has recently welcomed in the Open Services Alliance for Media (OSA), who have just begun to try to tackle this challenge with an initiative called Catena.

Introducing Your Section Officers

 

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Rocky Mt Section Leaders Headshots 3

 

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Section Chair - Sean Richardson

Sean Richardson, Source Digital. Sean Richardson is a leader in Media and Entertainment with 25 years of experience in creative technology and a focus on Next Generation Audio and Video. Current he is serving as Executive Director of Solutions Engineering for Source Digital. Sean has experience in building Post Production facilities on the ground and in the cloud. He has technical experience in both Broadcast and Streaming/OTT media distribution technology. His experience in deploying Next Generation technology has also included the deployment of 5.1,7.1, and Dolby ATMOS across Broadcast and OTT platforms. His experience within the standards community earned him a Technical Emmy for his work with in the ATSC on the CALM Act. Sean is a current member of   The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers International Telecommunication Union (FCC), Hollywood Professional Association, Audio Engineering Society and The Consumer Electronic Association."..grow interest, participation, and awareness in SMPTEs new Rapid Industry Solution (RIS) program. Provide cutting edge demonstrations, or presentations, of Next Generation Technology for Media and Entertainment. Drive new SMPTE Membership in the Rocky Mountain Region."

Secretary/Treasurer - Michael Picchetti

Michael Picchetti is an experienced media and post-production professional with more than 20 years of experience in content creation. He has spent the majority of his career working for the global network Starz, where he leads the Post Production department responsible for interstitial content across five continents. Prior to his time at Starz, Michael began his career as an editor for the Hallmark Channel. He earned a Master's degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Denver and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Media Production from the University of Iowa. Michael enjoys building and leading diverse, inclusive, dynamic teams, creating systems and processes to bring order to chaos, and finding creative ways to tackle challenges in a rapidly evolving industry."My goals for the next year at SMPTE are to provide counsel that helps individuals cut through the noise in the content creation marketplace and make informed decisions when selecting and deploying new technologies for their organizations. I will also focus on helping leaders build strong, functional teams built on trust which fosters a healthy, productive work culture. Finally, I will work to grow membership by building a diverse and inclusive section that is representative of the working population."

Manager - Daniel A. Gonzales

Daniel A. Gonzales, AWS. Daniel is an Emmy Award winning technologist with over 18 years of experience from the Media and Entertainment sector.  From starting in audio recording and production and weaving into post production and live broadcast, he’s currently operating in media and content orchestration.  Today, he’s responsible for working with customers on solving complex business challenges, creating solutions and overseeing their implementation.  He is continuously providing thought leadership to customers enabling them to grow their brands and discover new means to create their stories.    While instrumental in developing solutions for many tier 1 customers including Disney|ABC, SiriusXM and more, one of his most rewarded projects is the highly regarded solution created for FoxSports during the 2018 and 2019 Fifa World Cup, powering the “Live At Home'' project.  "... foster and increase awareness of the Section as well as engagement within the Section.  Finding and sponsoring targeted events to highlight the achievements of our production and community in the region. My goal for these types of events would serve as way to spur engagement within the Section as well as a recruiting method geared towards the generation of the industry with post-secondary students majoring in media and technology."

Manager, & Events Chair -Jeff Grazi

Jeff Grazi, Grazi Communications, LLC. Jeff Grazi joined SMPTE in late 1960 and has served the Rocky Mountain Section as Section Chairman, Secretary/Treasurer and on Board of Managers several time over the years. He has been a Fellow in the Radio Club of America for over twenty years. He worked in film production and broadcasting during his early years and changed careers when he started his communications and microwave data business in the mid 1970’s which he continues to operate today. He has been an advisor to the present SMPTE Board of Managers for the last couple of years and would like to serve on the Board of Managers again. "My goals for the Rocky Mountain Section and the entire Society are to bring younger, energetic engineers and students to our meeting to introduce them to our industry and help them get involved.  They are the future and the only way to grow our organization!"

Manager - Chris Lennon

Chris Lennon, Ross Video. Chris Lennon serves in Ross Video’s Office of the CTO as Director, Standards Strategy. He is responsible for Ross’ activities in global standards and trade organizations. Chris also serves as Executive Director of the Open Services Alliance (OSA), a global industry organization focused on interoperability among microservice oriented media systems. Chris has served on the SMPTE Rocky Mountain Section Board for many years, most recently as Chair. He has also held a variety of leadership positions at the national level of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), including Western Region Governor, Standards Director, Local Section Manager, Technology Committee Chair, and others. He is a SMPTE Fellow and recipient of SMPTE’s prestigious 2008 Citation. In his spare time, he loves to golf and is a championship winning race car driver (including the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb), author of “The Peak of Racing”, and high-performance driving coach, who also enjoys taking groups to Germany (car nirvana for him), as part of Winding Road Adventures.   "In hopes that 2023 will mean more willingness of folks to attend in-person events,  I’d like to see us get back to those as soon as practical, fostering the education and networking nature of the Section. I’d like to see us get back to visit interesting places in the area, as we used to be able to do, hopefully some which you’ll want to bring your families to, as well. I think this is key in the growth and health of the Section. Finally, I’d like to see us grow and diversify our membership. The Rocky Mountain Region has so many incredible media professionals in it, and I’d like to help make our Section the “go to” place for them to gather."

Manager, Outreach Chair - Mark Rushton

Mark Rushton, Mediaproxy Pty Ltd. Mark Rushton, VP Sales & Solution Mediaproxy Pty Ltd works as a product specialist providing consultive sales services to broadcast and cable television networks, television stations and streaming media companies. Working for broadcast manufacturers since 1990, his 6-years with PESA Switching Systems created a deep understanding of core facility routing and distribution networks. His work shifted during the Grand Alliance joining Triveni Digital for 7-years during the analog to digital transition in the television industry. There he gained a deep understanding of the underpinning of digital television that now serves him well at Mediaproxy. Here he works with indepenndent operators and world’s largest media and entertainment companies to deployment Mediaproxy LogServer compliance logging, monitoring and analysis toolsets. A long time member of industry trade organization and a participant tradeshow, he routinely presents at national, and regional venues. A student of film and television product and post-productoin Rushton holds a BA from Bard College."As an active SMPTE Section Manager, I am committed to raising industries awareness of use cases and technical topics by promoting SMPTE’s agenda through a series of Section meeting and presentations. Examples would be facility tours, and live online presentations making use of facility end-users and companies representatives that enable innovation solutions. Presentation agenda may span across enterprise to shed light on the value engineering brings to television industry."

Manager - John Wood

John Wood, IBM. Currently John Wood is a consultant for Disney Streaming. He was brought on to assist with the ad tier launch for Disney+.  He is also working to help Disney+, Star+, Hulu, and ESPN+ organize and facilitate test content and tooling for internal QA, Software Engineering teams, and partners. This has consisted of h.265, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, HDR 10, new subtitle languages, and Live SSAI and SGAI. At Starz/Lionsgate he was Head Video Architect and referenced SMPTE Standards frequently. He managed the encoding and delivery team, determined codecs and specs for North America, South America, and Europe for video, audio, captions, and subs. He worked with the leading OTT and cable companies to ensure codecs and metadata worked through their entire pipeline. John assisted the localization teams to set standards for third party labs and worked with licensors, studios, and original programing for correct Mezzanine files" I started my career working in the satellite communications industry, specifically on STB’s, then I focused on encoding and working with local TV stations across America.  I have had opportunities to learn and grow in the cable and OTT industries, while continuously expanding my knowledge. I feel fortunate to work in this industry and I avidly wish to promote it."

 

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Regional Opportunities

Broadcast Engineering