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 2026.
February meeting in London
The Control Plane in Modern Media Systems
On Thursday 26 February, 70 SMPTE members and friends met at Atos in London for an excellent evening discussion focused on the control plane, a critical but often under-examined layer of modern broadcast and media systems.
As media infrastructures become increasingly software-defined, distributed, and hybrid, the question of how systems are described, controlled, secured, and orchestrated has become central to scalability, interoperability, and resilience. Industry bodies such as the European Broadcasting Union have highlighted the control plane as a foundational concern alongside media transport and processing, particularly as organisations seek to move beyond tightly coupled, vendor-specific integrations. This session explored the role and importance of the control plane, including:
Within this wider context, we will look at Catena (ST 2138) — SMPTE’s recently introduced standards initiative developed through RIS (Rapid Industry Solutions) and OSA (Open Services Architecture) as one approach to addressing control-plane challenges. Catena provides a framework for describing devices, services, and workflows, with a strong emphasis on security by design, modern authentication, and interoperable control across multi-vendor environments. What is the new standard? Do we need it? How does it compare to other options?
To help us answer these questions we were be joined by the following speakers & panellists:
The session actively welcomed challenging and constructive questions, including differing views on adoption, competing solutions, security trade-offs, and whether new control-plane standards can realistically displace entrenched practices. We had an excellent open, informed discussion about the problem we are trying to solve, and what viable paths forward might look like.
As always, the evening included our usual ample supply of refreshments and time for informal discussion and networking. We're grateful to our generous hosts, Atos for the enormous quantities of food and drink they provided!
Afternoon Deep-Dive Session As this is an important and perhaps contentious topic, we also held a smaller discussion session in the afternoon, attendance to which was by invite only. Those talking in the evening session were all present so this was a chance for a smaller group to dig deeper into the arguments for and against adoptions of standards-based and proprietary control solutions. The outcomes of the afternoon discussion was summarised during the evening event and helped to guide topics discussed in the panel session.
January meeting in the South and the North
SMPTE UK Young Innovators 2026
Back again by popular demand for the fifth year! In early 2026 SMPTE UK held Young Innovators in London and in Salford. Over 200 people attended the South event, and over 100 the North.
Hosted at Sky’s Osterley campus in the South and at MediaCity in the North, we gathered students, early career engineers, and media and motion picture engineering pros… all in one space.
These were epic, hugely energetic events with very positive feedback from all who attended, but in particular from engineering managers on the hunt for sources of tech talent, and those at the beginning of their career and looking to engage in technical community.
What we covered:
We're grateful to our extremely generous sponsors (Sky for South, Techex for North) for the ample refreshments.
Our first meeting in Newcastle!
SMPTE UK visits... BBC Newcastle
On 11 February 2026, 20 SMPTE members and friends had our very first meeting in Newcastle, with a visit to the BBC English Region broadcasting centre on Barrack Road! It was a fascinating evening, seeing first-hand the innovative work the BBC is doing, with focus on the North East.
The evening looked at the BBC’s growing technology presence in the North East and at the developments in studio technology that support local broadcasting. We also heard from members of the BBC data science team whose work underpins the BBC’s digital apps and services.
The evening began with ample refreshments and networking, followed by presentations and a tour of the facility. As is SMPTE UK North tradition, post-event informal networking then continued in the Cosy Dove pub, just down the road!
We're grateful to our generous hosts, the BBC, for running the evening, and for the ample refreshments!
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