The UK Section holds monthly evening meetings, where we get together to socialise and discuss topics impacting our industry. Below are write-ups of our meetings in 2023.
December meeting
SMPTE UK visits… Elstree Studios with SUMOLIGHT
On Tues 12 Dec 2023, 45 SMPTE members and friends met at the iconic Elstree Studios, home of some of the UK's most famous film and TV productions, for an evening with SUMOLIGHT.
We experienced an amazing display of image and space lighting, demonstrating and explaining the state of the art.
We are grateful to Sumolight for hosting us, and for providing ample refreshments.
Just like all SMPTE UK events, this meeting was open to existing professionals and students alike, and we were joined by students from Solent, Salford and Aberdeen universities, and from the Global Academy!
November meeting
SMPTE UK headlines... Andy Beale
On Weds 22 Nov 2023, 85 SMPTE members and friends met at the Global Academy in Hayes, London, to hear about the career of one of the UK Media industry's icons: Andy Beale.
Watch the event here:
What's this about? The Bill Lovell Lecture is an annual event for SMPTE UK, featuring individuals who have made a significant contribution to the media industry, and with an interesting story to tell. This year, we featured the energetic and inspiring Andy Beale, best known for his roles as Chief Engineer & Head of Innovation at BT Sport, and as Co-founder of the Rise Up Academy.
Who's Andy Beale?
Just like all SMPTE UK events, this meeting was open to existing professionals and students alike.
Ample refreshments were provided courtesy of our event sponsors, Interra and Signiant!
October meeting
SMPTE UK visits... BBC Research & Development
Where: BBC Research & Development South Lab, The Lighthouse, White City Place, 201 Wood Lane, London, England, W12 7TQ
When: Wed, 18 Oct 2023.
BBC engineers have been at the forefront of developments in broadcast technology since the founding of public service broadcasting in the UK.
Just like all SMPTE UK events, this meeting was open to existing professionals and students alike, and we were joined by students from Salford, Solent, Surrey, and York universities.
Social Gathering
SMPTE drinks on the BT stand at IBC
On Saturday 16th September 2023, 150 SMPTE members, friends and industry contacts met at the BT Media & Broadcast stand at IBC in Amsterdam for a drinks social. The sun shone, and we had a great time discussing what we had seen at the show, and catching up with friends from around the world.
We're grateful to BT for hosting the event on their outdoor stand, and providing the ample refreshments in partnership with SMPTE.
September meeting
SMPTE UK visits Amazon UK... for an evening all about Cloud for Media
On Tues 12 September 2023, 80 SMPTE members and friends including students and graduates met at Amazon UK in London for an exciting evening all about Cloud for Media.
Headlining the evening we had Dr Richard Cartwright from Matrox who told us about Asynchronous Processing for Live Media Production in the Cloud, presenting his paper: 'To Clock, or not to Clock? – Asynchronous Processing for Media'. We were also joined by Grass Valley CTO Ian Fletcher who reviewed the current status of cloud-based production, and discussed best practices for designing cloud native software applications and the importance of an integrated ecosystem. He also described some of the use cases that customers are currently using these sorts or software architectures for and discussed the pros and cons of cloud versus on prem. There were many questions asked and a good debate!
We're grateful to Amazon UK for hosting the evening in their London office at Principal Place, and for the ample refreshments!
July meeting
SMPTE UK summer evening at Deluxe UK
On Wed, 19 July 2023, 60 SMPTE UK members and friends met at Deluxe's UK HQ in Perivale to experience Dolby Atmos stages and hear all about international versioning. And enjoy a summer evening BBQ!
Deluxe makes some of the world's best-known content. We had an amazing visit to their UK HQ where vast numbers of international versions are created, and experienced their amazing Dolby Atmos stages for feature films and streaming, as well as a detailed show and tell about versioning. We also heard how AI is impacting production.
Just like all SMPTE UK events, this meeting was open to existing professionals and students alike.
We've very grateful to Deluxe who kindly hosted us for the evening at their UK Headquarters, and provided ample refreshments in the form of a summer BBQ!
Summer Conference
SMPTE UK Media Technology Conference 2023
This was amazing one-day event in partnership with Rise Up Academy, featuring the very latest in thinking in Media Technology.
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On 30 June 2023, SMPTE in collaboration with Rise Up Academy presented the SMPTE UK Media Technology Conference 2023. Featuring the very latest in media technology thinking, we brought the best of the global SMPTE community to London to talk about the Future of Contribution, the Future of Production, The future of Distribution and perhaps most importantly The Future of Education.
Who was there? This conference was attended by people working right across the media industry, including production and distribution of film, episodic and live television, as well as streaming media. And not just seasoned industry professionals. We had a track for upcoming talent and students entering our industry. On our Explainers Stage we detailed the technologies featured in the sessions, and provided the opportunity for hands-on experience of production equipment.
Where did it happen? The Global Academy in Hayes, a beacon of education for the next generation of media talent. More info here.
Read our blog post about the day here.
And here's a handful of photos to give you a flavour of this amazing day!
May meeting
Cutting through the hype: SMPTE UK and Cloud Native Media
On Thu 18 May 2023 SMPTE UK and the Cloud Native Media group joined together for an evening's meeting all about cloud.
Watch the recording of the event here.
75 of us met at Arqiva on Newman Street in London and explored what cloud and cloud native really mean and why the media industry needs it. The evening was chaired by Polly Hickling, Education Director at SMPTE.
Paul Markham, David O’Dwyer and the Cloud Native Media team took us through how broadcasting and computing went from being two distinct technology areas to being the all-encompassing environment we have today, and how broadcast media and software focused technologists increasingly need to work together and learn from each other to avoid common mistakes and maximise value. Paul leads the Digital Architecture team at Arqiva, focusing on the implementation of Arqiva’s new cloud and software products. David is Director of Livewyer, a Cloud Native infrastructure company that helps global businesses implement new technologies.
We also had Tony Orme talking about a practical application of Artificial Intelligence; improving network latency and reducing energy consumption on streams. Tony is Editor at The Broadcast Bridge, and Media Tech Research Engineer.
Just like all SMPTE UK events, this meeting was open to existing professionals and students alike. We are grateful to the Cloud Native Media group and their supporters for the ample refreshments!
April meeting
Joint meeting: SMPTE UK and Women in Streaming Media
On 27 April, 70 SMPTE members and friends met for an evening's lively discussion all about streaming media, followed by drinks on the 34th floor of BT Tower!
In this first ever UK joint meeting we heard from two female industry leaders, Ailin Tarbinian and Kate Lowe, who explored the increasing demand for OTT video services, how OTT platforms have evolved over the years and how they are delivering seamless user experiences with changing viewing technology. Ailin is Head of Streaming and Platform Capabilities at Sky, responsible for Sky’s OTT Linear Streaming Platforms which delivers the linear streams for Sky Go, NOW, Sky Sports and Sky News Apps in the UK and ROI. Kate is Head of Product for Sky’s digital identity platform, responsible for defining the strategy to unlock the value of identity capabilities whilst continuing to protect customers across Sky, NOW and NBCU’s Peacock and Showtime.
We also explored how individuals end up in these kinds of technical roles with a talk from Polly Hickling, Head of Education for Women in Streaming Media, and Education Director at SMPTE. Polly delved into the current educational pathways in streaming media and the trending topic of whether there is a skills shortage or just an unclear pipeline.
Finally we heard from Jason Thibeault of the Streaming Video Technology Alliance, who told us about an exciting education initiative they have launching soon!
Our evening ended in style with drinks and views on the 34th floor of BT Tower.
Just like all SMPTE UK events, this meeting was open to existing professionals and students alike, and we were joined by a great mix of students from Solent and Salford Universities, and several colleges.
We're grateful for the ample refreshments which were provided by our generous hosts BT Media & Broadcast.
March meeting
SMPTE UK Exclusive Screening - Disney’s 'Avatar: The Way of Water'
On 9 March, 60 SMPTE members and friends, including several students from Solent University, gathered at the famous Dolby Screening Rooms in London's Soho Square to experience James Cameron’s epic second visit to Pandora in immersive audio and high frame rate, high dynamic range 3D.
This very special meeting of SMPTE UK enabled a lucky few to see this incredible movie as the Director intended in one of the UK’s most advanced screening rooms.
Carly Brown, Disney’s Director of Motion Picture Operations, and Rich Welsh, Deluxe’s SVP of Innovation introduced the screening with an overview of some of the mind boggling statistics about how this incredible movie was released in an unprecedented multitude of formats to cinemas worldwide. Avatar: The Way of Water reached #4 of all time highest grossing box office after only 6 weeks, giving James Cameron 3 of the top 4 films of all time.
This screening was kindly supported by Disney and Dolby UK, and we're grateful for the ample refreshments, provided courtesy of our hosts Dolby UK.
February meeting
SMPTE UK showcases... Virtual Production
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On Weds 22 Feb at Garden Studios in London we showcased a mix of theatrical cinematic performances, driven by a menagerie of creative technologies within a large custom built Virtual Production LED stage.
Re-watch this amazing event here.
In the venue we had an audience of 200 SMPTE members and friends, and we were joined by an online audience of nearly 1000. Open to professionals, technicians, production and below the line crew alike, this showcase in honour of the SMPTE ‘on-set virtual production initiative’ demonstrated the latest technological features within virtual production in an immersive production setting.
Our greatest showman walked the audience through a series of environments and supporting acts performed by students of the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts, that highlighted useful applications and effects to enhance your production and how to capture realism on-set. Throughout the showcase we touched on motion capture, on-set actor performance, lighting effects, camera tracking, colour calibration, extended bit depth, and Unreal Engine 5.
After the showcase, attendees had an opportunity to discuss these key insights in more detail with our participating partners:
Anna Valley | Brompton | Creature Bionics | Cooke Optics | disguise | Epic Games | ETC | Final Pixel | Framestore | Garden Studios | London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts | Mo-Sys | Procam Take 2 | Rigger | Solent University | Target3D | Televisual
We’re thrilled to have hosted the showcase in a studio setting, celebrating the union of technical and creative talents! We're extremely grateful to all the participating partners for the enormous effort it took to put on this spectacular event.
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