Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

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The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers or SMPTE, (pronounced /ˈsɪmpti/ and sometimes /ˈsʌmpti/), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in the United States of America, of engineers working in the motion imaging industries. An internationally-recognized standards developing organization, SMPTE has over 400 standards, Recommended Practices and Engineering Guidelines for television, motion pictures, digital cinema, audio and medical imaging. In addition to development and publication of standards documents, SMPTE publishes a journal, provides assistance to members with employment, and performs other industry-related functions.

Membership is open to any individual or organization with interest in the subject matter.

SMPTE standards documents are copyrighted and may be purchased from the SMPTE website, or other distributors of technical standards. Standard documents may be purchased by the general public. Significant standards promulgated by SMPTE include:

• All film and television transmission formats and media, including digital.
• Physical interfaces for transmission of television signals and related data (such as SMPTE time code and the Serial Digital Interface)
• The SMPTE color bar test pattern and other diagnostic tools
• The Material eXchange Format, or MXF

SMPTE's educational and professional development activities include technical presentations at regular meetings of its local Sections, annual and biennial conferences in the US and Australia and the SMPTE Journal. SMPTE also has a number of student Sections and sponsors scholarships for college students in the motion imaging disciplines.

Related organizations include

• National Television System Committee
• Moving Picture Experts Group
• Pro-MPEG
• The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (formerly known as the CCIR)
• BBC Research Department
• European Broadcasting Union

[edit] Awards Program

The SMPTE presents awards to individuals for outstanding contributions in fields of the society.

• The Progress Medal, instituted in 1935, is SMPTE's oldest and most prestigious medal, and awarded annually for technical contributions to the progress of engineering phases of the motion picture and/or television industries.
• Roderick Snell (2006)
• Dr. Kees Schouhamer Immink (2004)
• Stanley N. Baron (2003)
• William C. Miller (2002)
• Bernard J. Lechner (2001)

• The Eastman Kodak Gold Medal, instituted in 1967, recognizes outstanding contributions which lead to new or unique educational programs utilizing motion pictures, television, high-speed and instrumentation photography or other photography sciences. Recent recipients are
• Andrew Laszlo (2006)
• Dr. Roderick T. Ryan (2004)
• George Spiro Dibie (2003)
• Jean-Pierre Beauviala (2002)

[edit] See also

List of motion picture-related topics (Extensive alphabetical listing)

• SMPTE D10
• SMPTE D11
• SMPTE 259M: the Serial Digital Interface
• SMPTE 292M: High Definition Serial Digital Interface
• SMPTE 372M and SMPTE 424M: twice the resolution of HD-SDI
• SMPTE 291M
• DPX
• MXF

[edit] External links

• SMPTE's official website

• SMPTE defines the standard for many VTR standards:

v • d • e Industrial & home video media
Magnetic tape	Analog VERA (1952) • 2 inch Quadruplex videotape (1956) • 1 inch type A videotape (1965) • 1/4 inch Akai (1967) • U-matic (1969) • EIAJ-1 (1969) • Cartrivision (1972) • Video Cassette Recording (aka VCR) (1972) • V-Cord (1974) • VX (aka "The Great Time Machine") (1974) • Betamax (1975) • IVC 2 inch Helical scan (1975) - 1 inch type B videotape (1976) • 1 inch type C videotape (1976) • VHS (1976) • VK (1977) • SVR (1979) • Video 2000 (1980) • CVC (1980) • VHS-C (1982) • M (1982) • Betacam (1982) • Video8 (1985) • MII (1986) • S-VHS (1987) • Hi8 (1989) • S-VHS-C (1987) • W-VHS (1994) Digital D1 (1986) • D2 (1988) • D3 (1991) • D5 (1994) • Digital Betacam (1993) • DV (1995) • Digital-S (D9) (1995) • DVCPRO (1995) • DVCAM (1996) • HDCAM (1997) • DVCPRO50 (1998) • D-VHS (1998) • Digital8 (1999) • DVCPRO HD (2000) • D6 HDTV VTR (2000) • MicroMV (2001) • HDV (2003)• HDCAM SR (2003)
Optical disc	Analog Laserdisc (1978) • Laserfilm (1984) • CD Video (1986?) Digital VCD (1993) • MovieCD (1995?) • DVD-Video (1995) • MiniDVD • CVD (1998) • SVCD (1998) • FMD (2000) • EVD (2003) • HVD (2004) • FVD (2005) • UMD (2005) • VMD (2006) • HD DVD (2006) • Blu-ray Disc (BD) (2006) • DMD (2006?) • AVCHD (2006) • Tapestry Media (2007) • Total Hi Def (2008) • HVD (TBA) • PH-DVD (TBA) • SVOD (TBA) • Protein-coated disc (TBA) 3D disc (TBA)
Grooved Videodiscs	Analog Baird Television Record aka Phonovision (1927) • TeD (1974) • Capacitance Electronic Disc aka CED (1981) • VHD (1983)

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