Sacramento

The TLX Project – a Successor to SMPTE Time Code?
Virtual Meeting Notice
Wednesday, 21 October, 6:30PM

Speaker: Peter Symes, Owner at Symes TV Consulting

ZOOM MEETING ACCESS INFORMATION

Meeting ID: 823 8244 9956

Passcode: 331297

Contact: Bob Hudelson – 530-615-8151

Add us to your calendar!

SMPTE Time and Control Code, to give it its full title, was initially developed in 1969. It is now represented by three parts of the ST 12 Standard, and has been updated and enhanced many times. The latest, and almost certainly the last, update was ST 12-3, published in 2016, offers limited support for higher frame rates.

ST 12 is probably the most used of all SMPTE standards. It has proved flexible and durable, but the update process has become increasingly complex and cumbersome, and it is unlikely that further backward-compatible updates will be possible. It is still a viable standard, and will continue to serve for many years to come, but the time has come to develop a successor – one that addresses the shortcomings of ST 12 and is more suited to today’s environment. 

Various projects within SMPTE failed to achieve consensus because of competing philosophies, and a “boil the ocean” approach. The TLX (Time Label eXtensible) Project set a specified set of objectives, including the requirement for an extension mechanism to address future requirements. This presentation will include a brief history, the objectives of the TLX Project, and a progress report.

About the speaker:

Symes’ early career included positions in the BBC Studio Planning & Installation Department, Philips Broadcast, and Central Dynamics Limited. From 1983 to 2007 he worked at Grass Valley, with positions responsible for product planning, strategic planning, and intellectual property management. In 2007, Symes joined the staff of SMPTE as Director of Standards & Engineering, a position held until retirement in 2016. Today, he is the owner of Symes TV Consulting, offering technical and patent related services to the industry.

Symes holds three patents and is the author of books on video compression. He is a Life Fellow of SMPTE, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a Certified Standards Professional (2013) by the Society for Standards Professionals (SES).

Non-members and guests are welcome to join. SMPTE annual memberships are available online here and start at $165 for an Individual Professional membership and $15 for students (first year is free!).

We hope you will join us!

 About our Section
Less than an hour away is Sacramento, home to many television stations, multiple cable TV head-end facilities and a wide variety of related broadcast technologies including transmitters, antennas and rental and staging equipment. The Sacramento section of SMPTE is fortunate to have many generous sponsors who help us provide opportunities for social networking while we continue to provide informative, relevant, technological presentations at our monthly meetings where members and non-members are always welcome.

The speakers that present at our meetings come from a wide variety of industry-leading companies such as Dolby Laboratories, Sony Electronics, Cisco, ILM and Semtech Corporation as well as from our local pool of experts including speakers from Telestream, Grass Valley and AJA Video.

As the Sacramento Section Officers, our mission is to provide those who are interested, access to the latest technology emerging into the broadcast and motion picture industries and perhaps even offer a glimpse into its potential future. We encourage students, retirees and professionals alike to join us at our monthly meetings as well as our once or twice annual social events. We enjoy providing the opportunity for people to reconnect with old friends and even make new ones.

We look forward to seeing you at a meeting soon!

Thank you.

Remington Maxwell                                                Mona Smothers                            
Chairperson, SMPTE-Sacramento Section             Secretary/Treasurer, SMPTE-Sacramento Section