Bits By the Bay 2026 Day 2 Agenda

Bits by the Bay 2026Thursday, May 21 · Rod-N-Reel Hotel, Chesapeake Beach, MD

Registration & breakfast 8:00–9:00 AM · Lunch & Networking / Lunch & Learn 12:30–1:30 PM · Teardown 5:00–7:00 PM

Session 3 — 125 Years of Film: Protecting Our Past, Advancing the Future9:00 AM – 12:30 PM
9:00 AM	Opening Remarks — CHESA · Bruce Wahl, Mayor
9:15 AM 9:45 AM 30 min	Presentation 1 How the Dynamic Media Facility Initiative Will Re-Shape Television Production and DeliveryJohn Mailhot · Imagine CommunicationsSMPTE ST 2110 enables television production facilities to scale in a multi-vendor interoperable manner. The DMF initiative re-imagines the facility as a pure software endeavor — deploying applications into a scalable computing cluster (on-prem or cloud) connected via the Media Exchange Layer (MXL).
9:45 AM 10:25 AM 40 min	Presentation 2 Archiving and Managing Legacy Film AssetsJames SnyderThe evolving challenges of media preservation and digitizing audiovisual content for the next century — including designing an affordable preservation-quality film scanner, and creating new supply sources for spare parts for audio and video tape equipment.
10:25 AM 20 min	Break
10:45 AM 11:25 AM 40 min	Presentation 3 AI-Native Workflows Are Rewriting Archive AssumptionsJoel Lovell · SpectraLogicAI-native media workflows are turning archived assets from passive records into reusable computational states — through neural rendering, volumetric capture, 4D Gaussian Splatting, AI remastering, and training dataset retention. As recomputation becomes more expensive than storage, archive moves from the edge of the workflow into the active infrastructure layer.
11:25 AM 12:30 PM 65 min	Panel Built to Last: Preservation, Authenticity, and the Future of Film HeritageJames Snyder · Joel Lovell · Moderator: John MailhotThe tension between preservation and accessibility, how AI is changing what is possible in restoration, and what the industry owes to the archives it has inherited. Open floor Q&A.

12:30 PM

60 min

Lunch & Networking

12:45 PM
1:15 PM

Lunch & Learn — NAB 2026 ReviewNick Langan · Radio WorldFrom the renovated central hall in Las Vegas to the hallway track — metadata, station analytics, AI, all-in-one automation platforms, sports media, and the regulatory backdrop. What Nick Langan observed and what it means for broadcast.

Session 4 — The Next 100 Years (Let's Start with 10)1:30 PM – 5:00 PM · AJA
1:30 PM 2:05 PM 35 min	Presentation 1 The Lifecycle Lie: What a Decade with an NFL Franchise Taught Us About How Fast Media Systems Actually AgeJason Paquin, CEO · Chesapeake Systems (CHESA)In 2018, CHESA built a system for the Philadelphia Eagles handling 10,000+ workflows during NFC Championship week. By 2024, nearly every component had been replaced. A case study in lifecycle compression — from on-prem MAM and LTO tape to cloud-native platforms — and the design principles that survived both generations.
2:05 PM 2:40 PM 35 min	Presentation 2 Built to Evolve: Navigating the Shift to Software-Defined, AI-Augmented BroadcastTawfiq Rahman, VP System Design & Engineering · Broadcast Management GroupBroadcast has moved from rigid baseband to IP-driven workflows. The next phase: ST 2110, NDI, MXL, and hybrid production alongside AI moving into daily operations. The next 10 years will be defined by broadcast engineering's reinvention into a networked, automated, data-driven discipline.
2:40 PM 20 min	Break
3:00 PM 3:25 PM 25 min	Presentation 3 Student Perspectives: What the Next Generation Sees That the Industry MissesHoward University Students & Early Career TalentEmerging voices share their read on where the industry is going, what excites them, what frustrates them, and what they think the current generation of practitioners is getting wrong. Honest, occasionally uncomfortable, and genuinely useful.
3:25 PM 3:55 PM 30 min	Presentation 4 State of the Industry and How to Adapt to the ChangesKarl Kuhn, Founder · SMPTE Fellow · Sherwood Insights LLC45 years of perspective on surviving and thriving through industry disruption. Case studies of pitfalls and fast tracks to success from mentoring early, mid, late, and transitioning professionals. A framework for identifying and overcoming your own roadblocks.
3:55 PM 4:50 PM 55 min	Panel · Closing The Next 10 Years: A Cross-Generational ConversationKuhn · Rahman · Paquin · Howard University students · Industry veterans · Moderator: Jason Pepino (CHESA)What does the industry owe to the people entering it? What are the non-negotiable skills for the next decade? What will be unrecognizable in ten years — and what will still matter? Open floor, no prepared remarks.
4:50 PM	The Last Word: What We Learned, What's Coming, and Why This Community MattersJon Solomon

SMPTE Spotlight: Philip Courtney

AI and the New Media Landscape: Navigating Change and Building Together

ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp for IP Networking Professionals

Introduction to IP Networks (ITIPN)

SMPTE Spotlight: Philip Courtney

AI and the New Media Landscape: Navigating Change and Building Together

ST 2110 Intensive Boot Camp for IP Networking Professionals

Introduction to IP Networks (ITIPN)

Agenda Day 2