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 2024.
July London meeting
SMPTE UK screening: The HBO Camera Assessment Series
On Thurs 11 July 2024, 70 SMPTE UK members and friends visited Channel 4 in London to watch a a screening of the HBO Camera Assessment Series.
Synopsis: This sixth instalment of the HBO Camera Assessment Series (CAS) is a one-of-a-kind project that seeks to create a rich and expansive image library for the Warner Brothers Discovery family. CAS 2023 features 35mm film, Alexa Mini, Venice 2, V-Raptor, Ursa 12k and Alexa 35 in environments stressed with colors, patterns, skin tones, dynamic range, image elasticity, mixed color, and available light. Our goal is not to determine what camera is "best", but what camera is appropriate for each scenario.
Watch the trailer here:
Just like all SMPTE UK events, this meeting was open to existing professionals and students alike. We're grateful to our generous sponsor for this evening, Amazon Web Services, for enabling us to provide ample refreshments, and to Channel 4 for hosting the event in their private cinema.
June meeting
SMPTE UK visits... GB News
On Weds 12 June 2024, 50 SMPTE UK members and friends including students from Salford, Solent, Surrey and Aberdeen universities met at GB News in London for a tour of their fascinating newsroom, and the opportunity to understand how the technology behind it works.
The facility is a great example of pragmatic engineering, with technology choices optimised to fit the commercial and operational model that GB News needs.
We're grateful to Stephen Wilmott, Head of Technology & Operations at GB News for hosting us, and for being a good sport as he was peppered with questions from an enthusiastic SMPTE UK group.
Following the tours, our evening was held on the spectacular rooftop terrace of The Point. We're grateful to GB News and their technology partners DiNA and Mimir for supplying the drinks and food!
UK Conference
SMPTE UK and MPTS present... The Media Technology Conference 2024
)
On 15 and 16 May 2024, SMPTE UK produced the Media Technology Conference, an industry-leading event that took place as part of the Media Production & Technology Show in a conference suite within Olympia London.
Designed to bring together senior technology leaders and experts in the field of broadcasting and innovation, the 2-day conference provided a platform for networking, knowledge sharing, and exploring the latest trends and innovations.
Attendees experienced a mix of insightful keynote presentations, interactive panel discussions, hands-on workshops, and technology business insights. It was a must-attend event for anyone in the broadcast industry looking to stay at the forefront of technological advancements.
Topics included:
And much more!
More information can be found at mediaproductionshow.com/technology-conference.
May meeting in The North
SMPTE UK North: Launch Event!
On 1 May 2024, 75 SMPTE members and friends met at Salford University's facility at MediaCity for our very first event of SMPTE UK North.
SMPTE UK's Chair, John Ellerton, opened the meeting, talking about SMPTE and the UK Section.
We were then treated to an in-depth tour of Dock 10's impressive studio facilities!
The main part of the meeting was an interactive debate about the future of SMPTE in the North of England. Lots of great ideas were shared. There is clearly a lot of energy and enthusiasm for networking and knowledge-sharing!
As ever for a SMPTE UK meeting, there were ample refreshments, this time courtesy of our kind sponsors, Dock10. Many thanks to Dock 10 for this, and for providing the studio tours. Many thanks also to Salford University for providing the meeting room.
April meeting
SMPTE UK debates... The future of media infrastructure
On Thu 25 Apr 2024, 85 SMPTE UK members and friends met at the iconic BT Tower in London.
Our evening was all about the future of infrastructure for media production and distribution. As we head inexorably towards a cloud-centric world, interoperability remains paramount to maintain inter-working between organisations. But innovation is moving at such a fast pace, is this happening or are we facing a number of closed, proprietary environments?
Andy Rayner, CTO at Appear chaired this evening's fascinating debate with his industry expert panel: Richard Hastie, Kieran Kunhya and David Atkins. Unfortunately Claire Wilkie, our 4th panellist was unable to join us.
This event was filmed, courtesy of the BT Tower events team. Enjoy!
March meeting
SMPTE UK explores: “How do I keep my skills current as everything changes?"
On Thu 21 Mar 2024, 50 SMPTE UK members and friends including students from Salford and Ravensbourne Universities met at Eviden's MidCity Place offices in London for an evening exploring what it takes to develop as an engineer in media today.
We explored career transformations from broadcast to cloud engineering and new age outside-broadcast thinking; sharing areas to focus learning on and what new broadcast systems really look like.
We heard from a number of speakers including Matt Dickinson, Cloud Engineering Manager within Sky's Origination department who looked at some of the most cutting edge cloud playout workflows and CI/CD methodologies.
From MCR operators to solutions architects, we explored where the industry is going and how to continue learning as the technology and workflows change around us!
We are grateful to Techex for funding the ample refreshments, and to Eviden for hosting the evening.
February meeting
SMPTE UK explores… The Future of Gaming
Photos credit to Wren Wood.
On 14 February 30 SMPTE members and friends met at TechUK in London for a fascinating evening as part of their season on Industries of the Future. Half of the attendees were students, including members from Aberdeen, Salford and York Universities!
We heard from Rory Daniels, TechUK's Programme Manager for Emerging Technologies as he described the emerging technologies that are set to underpin the gaming industry of tomorrow, including AI, AR/VR/XR/spatial computing, cloud computing, advanced semiconductors (GPUs), blockchain, IoT, and drones. He explained the fundamentals of the technologies themselves, how he expects these to converge in interesting and significant ways, and how the experience of game creation or gaming may change as a result. He also brought in examples from some of techUK's member organisations, such as NVIDIA, Xbox and Tencent.
Joseph Teasdale from Enders Analysis then discussed their recent Gaming Industry report, covering the business of gaming technology.
Finally we heard from Louis Arrigoni, Cinematic Video Producer and Creative Designer for Games. Louis talked about his career journey from a BSc in Audio Engineering into the world of gaming and some of the fascinating projects he has worked on along the way.
We're grateful to TechUK for hosting this evening event for us, and for providing ample refreshments!
TechUK is the UK's technology trade association, focussed on shaping policy, accelerating innovation and developing markets. Find out more here.
January meeting
SMPTE UK celebrates... Young Innovators and Emerging Talent
Photos credit to Wren Wood.
Legal Information
SMPTE LTD a company limited by Guarantee Number 8676388
Registered Office: 5 Yeoman’s Court, Ware Road, Hertford, Herts, SG13 7HJ
Staff
Officers and Board of Governors
Directors
Society Governance
Fellows
Section Officers and Managers
Overview
Benefits of Corporate Membership
Project Page 
SKN
Github
Patent Statements
Advisory Notes
Appeals
Virtual Courses
Webcasts
Wallcharts
Board of Editors
Guidelines for Submitting
Subscribe
Motion Imaging Journal
Contact Us
Newsletter
Media Kit
Get Alerts!