Although eSports seemed to come out of nowhere to become a new driving force in year-round live events, it has been around for decades in one form or another. Find out from industry leaders why you need to pay attention to how video game publishers, eSports leagues, and live streaming services are transforming the live sports arena.

Registration for TR-X is included in the All-Access HPA Tech Retreat Package, and can also be purchased independent of the Tech Retreat.

• Mark Chiolis, Mobile TV Group
  

  Mark Chiolis

  Mobile TV Group

  Mark Chiolis is the Director of Business Development for Mobile TV Group (MTVG), which provides facilities for over 4,000 live professional and college sports and entertainment events annually, with more than 35 mobile units, and dozens of remote Cloud Control facilities, based throughout the U.S.  MTVG has been leading the 4K/UHD/HDR/Cloud live event production with key broadcasters, networks and distribution companies.

  Mark is currently working to interface with customers and partners to develop and support MTVG’s entertainment, awards, corporate, concerts, egames, and esports events with current and new trucks, using both broadcast and cine workflows.

  Prior to MTVG, Chiolis worked in marketing, business development, and sales for Grass Valley, Thomson, Technicolor, Philips, and BTS as well as at television stations KMUV, KRBK and KVIE.

  Chiolis is an active board member of the HPA, an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, member of the NAB Cine Consortium, member of the SciTech group at the Television Academy (Emmys), member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), member of International Association of Aviation Photographers, past section manager of SMPTE, member of STE, SBE and California Broadcasters Association.

• Craig German, HPA
  

  Craig German

  HPA

For many of us, eSports snuck up to become a new driving force in year-round live events.  But eSports has been around for decades in one form or another. Find out from an industry leader why you need to pay attention to how video game publishers, eSports leagues, and live streaming services are evolving the live sports arena.

• Yvette Martinez, ESL North America
  

  Yvette Martinez

  ESL North America

  Yvette Martinez-Rea is Chief Executive Officer at ESL North America, where she leads the strategy and operations of the region. ESL, a part of the international digital entertainment group MTG, is the world’s largest independent esports company. Previously, Martinez-Rea served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at ESL North America, where she oversaw business operations for the region.

  Prior to ESL, Martinez-Rea served as Chief Operating Officer at Violet Grey, a venture-backed luxury beauty content and commerce company based in Los Angeles, where she oversaw the company’s growth, as well as business initiatives and the development of the company’s fulfillment, e-commerce systems and retail operations.

  Before joining Violet Grey, Martinez-Rea was a Vice President of Change Management for Yahoo!’s Global Products organization, responsible for leading the cross-functional change efforts to improve engineering quality and overall organizational effectiveness for a 6,000-person global division. Previous roles at Yahoo! include Senior Director of Strategy and Business Management, Global Products, and Senior Director of Strategy and Business Operations and Chief of Staff to EVP Yahoo! North America. She also acted as the executive sponsor for the Southern California chapter of Women in Technology.

  Formerly, Martinez-Rea was the Vice President of Operations at United Online Inc., a publicly traded internet services provider, responsible for business and sales operations for multiple brands including NetZero, Juno, Classmates, Photosite, and UOL Web services.

  Martinez-Rea was recognized by Sports Business Journal as a 2018 Game Changer. ​She also serves on the board of Young & Healthy, a non-profit dedicated to providing healthcare to underserved children. She holds dual undergraduate degrees in English Literature and Gender Studies from the University of Southern California.

eSports is exploding and is poised to establish a real place on the main stage, with vibrant interest from the entire spectrum of participants, from individual gamers and leagues, to the world’s largest sports and media companies. It’s estimated that by 2020, the eSports market will be $1.5B from sponsorships and advertising, with an estimated global audience of just over 600 million fans. Listen to an industry thought leader as they share their insights on where technologists should be playing.

• Josh Rizzo
  

  Josh Rizzo

  Multi-disciplinary problem solver, Josh assists clients in workflow design and implementation, creating hardware and software solutions for modern digital workflows. He has assisted with the lead the engineering of large-scale facility deployments and workflow design for feature film and television clients. He enjoys exploring the edges of where technology and culture meet, preparing to address the challenges of tomorrow

From what we call state of the art today, take a look forward to what tomorrow will bring. While advances in technology continue to power the rise of eSports as a global entertainment sports phenomenon, players, leagues, and the technology industry are aggressively pushing its evolution into even more exciting directions. Trends like immersive play with AR and VR, upgraded venue and stadium technologies, advanced display technologies, and crossover with mainstream sports put the onus on manufacturers, designers, system integrators, and the entire industry ecosystem to collaborate. Growth, innovation, and execution: Where are they headed?  Are you ready to play?

• Moderator: Mark Chiolis, Mobile TV Group
  

  Mark Chiolis

  Mobile TV Group

  Mark Chiolis is the Director of Business Development for Mobile TV Group (MTVG), which provides facilities for over 4,000 live professional and college sports and entertainment events annually, with more than 35 mobile units, and dozens of remote Cloud Control facilities, based throughout the U.S.  MTVG has been leading the 4K/UHD/HDR/Cloud live event production with key broadcasters, networks and distribution companies.

  Mark is currently working to interface with customers and partners to develop and support MTVG’s entertainment, awards, corporate, concerts, egames, and esports events with current and new trucks, using both broadcast and cine workflows.

  Prior to MTVG, Chiolis worked in marketing, business development, and sales for Grass Valley, Thomson, Technicolor, Philips, and BTS as well as at television stations KMUV, KRBK and KVIE.

  Chiolis is an active board member of the HPA, an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, member of the NAB Cine Consortium, member of the SciTech group at the Television Academy (Emmys), member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), member of International Association of Aviation Photographers, past section manager of SMPTE, member of STE, SBE and California Broadcasters Association.

• Thomas Burns, Dell
  

  Thomas Burns

  Dell

  Thomas Burns, Dell Technologies CTO for Media & Entertainment, has re-engineered global post-production workflows and developed HDR imaging solutions for episodic and feature projects. He has built a boutique VFX facility in Shanghai, a feature animation studio in Toronto, and was the architect of Oxygen Media’s storage and networking infrastructure in Manhattan’s Chelsea Market. Burns began his career at Silicon Graphics, Inc., developing Maya animation software and managing digital disk recorder products.

• Eliot Sakhartov, Microsoft
  

  Eliot Sakhartov

  Microsoft

  Eliot has over 20 years of professional technology experience in Media and Entertainment. At Microsoft he is a Business and Technology Strategist for Media and Entertainment, matching business problems with technology solutions. Before joining Microsoft, Eliot was the Director of Technology for Funny or Die, Director of Technology at Endemol Shine North America and Manager of TV Production Technology at NBCUniversal. During his time at NBCUniversal he delivered technology solutions from digital workflows to unified communications to all in-house produced shows like The Tonight Show, The Office, House, Jerry Springer, SNL, Battlestar Galactica and more. Eliot has founded 2 startups in the media space, and holds patents in digital advertising. Has been a mentor to startups throughout Los Angeles working with Launchpad and WeWork.

• Josh Rizzo
  

  Josh Rizzo

  Multi-disciplinary problem solver, Josh assists clients in workflow design and implementation, creating hardware and software solutions for modern digital workflows. He has assisted with the lead the engineering of large-scale facility deployments and workflow design for feature film and television clients. He enjoys exploring the edges of where technology and culture meet, preparing to address the challenges of tomorrow

• Adam Myhill, Unity
  

  Adam Myhill

  Unity

  Adam Myhill has spent two decades in film and video game worlds, working as a Director of Photography and CG supervisor at Electronic Arts and Blackbird Interactive.

  Using his experience on multiple titles and as a film DP on a number of feature length movies, Myhill created a ground-breaking procedural cinematic and in-game camera system called Cinemachine, which is now an integral part of Unity’s offering where he now works to empower creators.

  He is also the designer of CineCast, an AI cinematography system for esports and any3D content which begs the question “How do you film something when you don’t know what’s going to happen next?”

  He also holds a number of technology patents around virtual cameras and procedural cinematography.

5 people in the know have EXACTLY 2:30 (exactly) to say where the industry is today in a variety of key areas.

• Moderator: Mark Chiolis, Mobile TV Group
  

  Mark Chiolis

  Mobile TV Group

  Mark Chiolis is the Director of Business Development for Mobile TV Group (MTVG), which provides facilities for over 4,000 live professional and college sports and entertainment events annually, with more than 35 mobile units, and dozens of remote Cloud Control facilities, based throughout the U.S.  MTVG has been leading the 4K/UHD/HDR/Cloud live event production with key broadcasters, networks and distribution companies.

  Mark is currently working to interface with customers and partners to develop and support MTVG’s entertainment, awards, corporate, concerts, egames, and esports events with current and new trucks, using both broadcast and cine workflows.

  Prior to MTVG, Chiolis worked in marketing, business development, and sales for Grass Valley, Thomson, Technicolor, Philips, and BTS as well as at television stations KMUV, KRBK and KVIE.

  Chiolis is an active board member of the HPA, an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, member of the NAB Cine Consortium, member of the SciTech group at the Television Academy (Emmys), member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), member of International Association of Aviation Photographers, past section manager of SMPTE, member of STE, SBE and California Broadcasters Association.

• Tom Sahara, Media Technologist, Tom Sahara LLC
  

  Tom Sahara

  Media Technologist, Tom Sahara LLC

  A technology manager and operations executive with four decades of extensive live production experience, from the smallest of digital social media activations to the largest of international sports events.

  Previously, Tom was the Vice President of Operations and Technology for Turner Sports where for over twenty years, he was responsible for the production operations such as NBA on TNT, MLB on TBS, Inside the NBA with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, Inside March Madness and other sports productions.

  Prior to Turner Sports, his experience includes serving as the Sr. Technical Manager for three Olympics, (2002 Salt Lake Winter, 2000 Sydney Summer, 1996 Atlanta Summer).  Tom started his career as the technical director for “The Don Ho Show” the renown Hawaiian entertainment star.

• Darrell Wenhardt, CBT Systems
  

  Darrell Wenhardt

  CBT Systems

  45 year veteran of Video Production and Television Broadcast industry. Founding Principal with two industry stalwart companies; Centro Corporation and CBT Systems, Inc. Instrumental in facility and mobile unit designs that focused on Operator – Production environments and Work Flows over that of the traditional Engineering oriented spaces. Designed and Managed the installation and operation of numerous complex Production and Broadcast Facilities located around the world that included: Olympic Games, World Cup Soccer, Goodwill Games, America’s Cup, NFL Network, MLB Network, and most recently Google-YouTube Space Studios and Allied Esports Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

• Michael Little, Artistic Resources Corp
  

  Michael Little

  Artistic Resources Corp

  Michael Little is the Chief Executive Officer for the Los Angeles based Consulting and Systems Integration company, Artistic Resources Corporation for over 30 years. He has been responsible for leading creative and technical teams charged with development and innovation across varied and complex applications. Some examples include; the world’s first 24P High Definition mobile vehicles, Stereo (3D) screening rooms, studio production campus architectures, and remote production. Recently his efforts have been focused on eSports use cases and business modeling development. With eSports recent dynamic growth as a motivator, his current work centers on fan engagement mechanisms and methods. Additionally, he is involved with several Cloud based production services for privately held companies pushing the boundaries of a connected world. Michael has also held roles in facilities management and production supervision which motivated his passion for efficient, flexible tools and processes. In constant pursuit of excellence and efficacy, he believes that no technology or premise is to be spared consideration. Many of his product and technology innovations have shaped how early HD television production workflows were developed and re-imagined. Mr. Little is an active member of SMPTE – Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, HPA – Hollywood Professional Association, as well as STE – Society of Television Engineers.

• Adam Myhill, Unity
  

  Adam Myhill

  Unity

  Adam Myhill has spent two decades in film and video game worlds, working as a Director of Photography and CG supervisor at Electronic Arts and Blackbird Interactive.

  Using his experience on multiple titles and as a film DP on a number of feature length movies, Myhill created a ground-breaking procedural cinematic and in-game camera system called Cinemachine, which is now an integral part of Unity’s offering where he now works to empower creators.

  He is also the designer of CineCast, an AI cinematography system for esports and any3D content which begs the question “How do you film something when you don’t know what’s going to happen next?”

  He also holds a number of technology patents around virtual cameras and procedural cinematography.

• Jay Tucker, UCLA Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports
  

  Jay Tucker

  UCLA Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports

  Jay Tucker is the Executive (Managing) Director for the Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports (MEMES) at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. In that role, Tucker regularly brings c-suite executives and industry leaders together with the business school community to explore the future of entertainment through thought leadership, educational offerings and conferences. He has launched partnerships with Hollywood studios, device makers, service providers and professional organizations – facilitating the exchange of ideas and development of new initiatives. His current areas of focus include monetization, business analytics, emerging technologies, immersive content, and diversity and inclusion. Previously, Tucker served as a Director at the Institute for Communication Technology Management at USC. He founded Silicon Beach @USC, a massive initiative featuring a venture competition that awarded $50K per year and a conference focused on startups, technology and digital content. Tucker also curated, and taught in, a series of executive education courses focused on leadership frameworks for the digital age. Tucker is passionate about entrepreneurship and serves as an advisor to the Hollywood Post and other early stage ventures. He holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MA in Instructional and Learning Technologies from Columbia University, and a dual BA from Stanford University in Political Science and African & Afro-American Studies. He resides in Santa Monica, CA.

Sponsored by Dolby

We’ve assembled a top ranked group of eSports business and operations executives to talk about today’s workflows, what’s working and what can be improved, and what thoughts are dancing in their heads ready to be unleashed on their technology teams for the benefit and enjoyment of the next generation of eSports players and fans.

• Moderator: Jason Dachman, Sports Video Group
  

  Jason Dachman

  Sports Video Group

  Dachman oversees all aspects of SVG’s North American editorial operations – including all news on sportsvideo.org, the daily SVG Insider newsletter, and SVG’s annual print publications – and is one of the primary contributors to SVG’s coverage of the sports-video-production industry. A member of the SVG team since 2009, Dachman also serves as Program Director for SVG’s Esports Production Forum, RSN Summit, Sports Content Management Forum, Sports Graphics Forum, and TranSPORT conference. Prior to joining SVG, he covered local sports for The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, MA, and served on the production staff of SiriusXM’s The Ron & Fez Show. Dachman began his career in the Sports Information department at Northeastern University in Boston, where he earned a BA in Media Communications and Cinema Studies. A native of Denver, CO, Jason currently resides in Queens, NY, with his wife Alyson and daughter June.

• Tom Sahara, Media Technologist, Tom Sahara LLC
  

  Tom Sahara

  Media Technologist, Tom Sahara LLC

  A technology manager and operations executive with four decades of extensive live production experience, from the smallest of digital social media activations to the largest of international sports events.

  Previously, Tom was the Vice President of Operations and Technology for Turner Sports where for over twenty years, he was responsible for the production operations such as NBA on TNT, MLB on TBS, Inside the NBA with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, Inside March Madness and other sports productions.

  Prior to Turner Sports, his experience includes serving as the Sr. Technical Manager for three Olympics, (2002 Salt Lake Winter, 2000 Sydney Summer, 1996 Atlanta Summer).  Tom started his career as the technical director for “The Don Ho Show” the renown Hawaiian entertainment star.

• Mitch Rosenthal, Riot Games
  

  Mitch Rosenthal

  Riot Games

  Mitch Rosenthal has been in the television industry for the last 15 years, working on everything from entertainment news, reality, live sports, and now Esports. Rosenthal has been with Riot Games for the last four years, starting as a line producer and advancing to the Head of Production and Operations. He oversees all production and operations in studio and remote for esports in North America and Central events globally.

• Marc Scarpa, Simplynew
  

  Marc Scarpa

  Simplynew

  Simplynew​ founder and executive producer/director ​Marc Scarpa ​has created ​​innovative programming for digital and traditional live broadcasting for the past 20 years. His artist collaborations include Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Beastie Boys, Elton John, Moby, Steve Aoki, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and Imagine Dragons among many others. Additionally, he produced and directed several pioneering “firsts” for the live participatory programming genre including ​The X-Factor Pepsi Digital Pre-Show and second screen experience, Incubus HQ Live,Grammy Live!, Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day & Earth Day 40th anniversary ​from the National Mall​, MySpace LIVE!, Townhall with President Clinton, Woodstock ’99, HSX/Excite Rocks the Oscars featuring Beck​ and the historic ​Tibetan Freedom Festivals. ​He ​​is ​​currently executive producing an original new ​​series for​ AXS TV, ​entitled ​“Breaking Band”​ hosted by​ Donovan Leitch ​featuring rock legends​ Dave Navarro, Sebastian Bach, MOBY, Robin Zander, Belinda Carlisle and Mark McGrath.

  Additional accomplishments include ​Time Warner Cable SportsNet’s Second Screen App​ for the ​Los Angeles Lakers​, ​Covered CA ​in conjunction with the White House 6-hour live health-a-thon ​‘Tell A Friend Get Covered’ ​from Youtube Space LA​, ​social TV network ​Vidblogger Nation ​for ​Comcast, season one of​ League of Legends ​national Semi-Finals, Finals & World Championships for ​Riot Games and five seasons during NY Fashion week for ​Marc Jacobs​.

  His productions have been recognized by the ​Telly Awards​, ​Webby Awards​, ​Streamy Awards​, ​Social TV Awards​ and the ​Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity​. Scarpa is a national board member and founding New York committee chair for the ​Producers Guild of America New Media Council ​and is a voting member of ​The Recording Academy​.

  Personally, he serves on the ​Global Advisory Committee for Earth Day Networks, ​a partner with Lifebeat – The Music Industry Fights AIDS​, and a member of the ​Gate Leadership Council.

• Marc Genin, Gearhouse Broadcast CORP
  

  Marc Genin

  Gearhouse Broadcast CORP

  Marc Genin is a founding member of Gearhouse Broadcast Corporation and opened their Australian and US businesses. He currently serves as Executive Vice President of the organization. Gearhouse is known for its award winning technical excellence and expertise at rolling out large scale live events.

  Marc is a 32 year veteran in the Film And Television Business specializing in live sports and entertainment. He has worked on Olympics, World Cup Soccer and multiple live music events and did his first E Sports live event in 2009.

  Marc headed up Tandberg/NDS COFDM based technology winning several industry awards. He holds a Technical Oscar from his time at Lee Electric Lighting.

  He enjoys harsh environment broadcasts and motorcycling.

How will we realize this future vision for eSports? Representatives from leagues, teams, and industry thought leaders share an insider’s look at what technologies are in development, what is almost here, and what the cornerstones of today’s live eSports events are. We’ll hear how these companies work as a team to design and build today’s workflows and tomorrow’s new showcase arenas to attract the new breed of sports enthusiast.

• Moderator: Jason Dachman, Sports Video Group
  

  Jason Dachman

  Sports Video Group

  Dachman oversees all aspects of SVG’s North American editorial operations – including all news on sportsvideo.org, the daily SVG Insider newsletter, and SVG’s annual print publications – and is one of the primary contributors to SVG’s coverage of the sports-video-production industry. A member of the SVG team since 2009, Dachman also serves as Program Director for SVG’s Esports Production Forum, RSN Summit, Sports Content Management Forum, Sports Graphics Forum, and TranSPORT conference. Prior to joining SVG, he covered local sports for The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, MA, and served on the production staff of SiriusXM’s The Ron & Fez Show. Dachman began his career in the Sports Information department at Northeastern University in Boston, where he earned a BA in Media Communications and Cinema Studies. A native of Denver, CO, Jason currently resides in Queens, NY, with his wife Alyson and daughter June.

• Ray Panahon, Riot Games
  

  Ray Panahon

  Riot Games

• Lowell Kay, LJK Consult
  

  Lowell Kay

  LJK Consult

  Lowell Kay is a Broadcast Engineer with 20 years of experience. His latest design was installed at the Arlington eSports Arena, the largest permanent arena in North America. Prior to this installation, Lowell designed and installed Microsoft’s eSports arena in downtown Manhattan. He spent 2 years at Fox Sports overseeing their international division facility in Los Angeles, and has owned and operated The DR Group, a rental and post production facility in Los Angeles. Kay began his career selling motion picture film in 1993 and was well known in the independent film world.

• Mike Ulaky, ESL
  

  Mike Ulaky

  ESL

• Shawn Hendrix

A growing number of top universities and colleges offer established programs in eSports/eGaming, and many more have it on their list of things to do, sooner rather than later. Faculty and students from top eSports schools will share the eSports curriculum of the future and the novel ways in which instructors, players, and “scouts” are incorporating this burgeoning industry into today’s new course lineup.

• Moderator: Dakota Maysonet, Yellowpike Media
  

  Dakota Maysonet

  Yellowpike Media

  Dakota Maysonet, a graduate of University of Iowa with a degree in Creative Writing, has worked in marketing and video games for 7 years with the goal of becoming a Narrative Designer. Currently working with YellowPike Media as a Creative Content Strategist, Maysonet hosts a livestream show dedicated to the discussion of eSports and video games amongst other industry topics while also writing social posts, pitch decks, scripts and more. Maysonet has also interviewed filmmakers and cast members on the red carpets of AFI Fest for the past 3 years. Maysonet currently resides in Los Angeles, though will always be a Hawkeye.
• Keanu Concepcion, USC
  

  Keanu Concepcion

  USC

  Keanu founded and currently operates as Director for USC’s Esports program managing the vision and health of the program to succeed. Keanu graduates in May 2019 with a B.A. in Interactive Entertainment from University of Southern California.

• Arnold Ha, USC
  

  Arnold Ha

  USC

  Arnold is an aspiring research professional in biotechnology, with demonstrated excellence in laboratory and fund management. He has worked with interdisciplinary teams—joining professors, physicians, and administrative staff—to produce an efficient and encouraging academic research environment. Over the last three years, Arnold has focused on career exploration in biotechnical, medical, and entertainment industries, with excellent mentorship at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Having selected to pursue entertainment, Arnold is developing leadership techniques alongside a concrete understanding of entrepreneurship, administration, innovation, and management through the Marshall MBA. With these skills, Arnold aims to transition his experience in biotechnology management into his passion for interactive entertainment.

• Jay Tucker, UCLA Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports
  

  Jay Tucker

  UCLA Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports

  Jay Tucker is the Executive (Managing) Director for the Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports (MEMES) at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. In that role, Tucker regularly brings c-suite executives and industry leaders together with the business school community to explore the future of entertainment through thought leadership, educational offerings and conferences. He has launched partnerships with Hollywood studios, device makers, service providers and professional organizations – facilitating the exchange of ideas and development of new initiatives. His current areas of focus include monetization, business analytics, emerging technologies, immersive content, and diversity and inclusion. Previously, Tucker served as a Director at the Institute for Communication Technology Management at USC. He founded Silicon Beach @USC, a massive initiative featuring a venture competition that awarded $50K per year and a conference focused on startups, technology and digital content. Tucker also curated, and taught in, a series of executive education courses focused on leadership frameworks for the digital age. Tucker is passionate about entrepreneurship and serves as an advisor to the Hollywood Post and other early stage ventures. He holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MA in Instructional and Learning Technologies from Columbia University, and a dual BA from Stanford University in Political Science and African & Afro-American Studies. He resides in Santa Monica, CA.

Our 5 experts from Round 1 have EXACTLY 2:00 each to give us their closing observations on the thought leadership of the day, as well as one parting thought for us to take away as we prepare to become eSports players.

• Moderator: Mark Chiolis, Mobile TV Group
  

  Mark Chiolis

  Mobile TV Group

  Mark Chiolis is the Director of Business Development for Mobile TV Group (MTVG), which provides facilities for over 4,000 live professional and college sports and entertainment events annually, with more than 35 mobile units, and dozens of remote Cloud Control facilities, based throughout the U.S.  MTVG has been leading the 4K/UHD/HDR/Cloud live event production with key broadcasters, networks and distribution companies.

  Mark is currently working to interface with customers and partners to develop and support MTVG’s entertainment, awards, corporate, concerts, egames, and esports events with current and new trucks, using both broadcast and cine workflows.

  Prior to MTVG, Chiolis worked in marketing, business development, and sales for Grass Valley, Thomson, Technicolor, Philips, and BTS as well as at television stations KMUV, KRBK and KVIE.

  Chiolis is an active board member of the HPA, an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, member of the NAB Cine Consortium, member of the SciTech group at the Television Academy (Emmys), member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), member of International Association of Aviation Photographers, past section manager of SMPTE, member of STE, SBE and California Broadcasters Association.

• Tom Sahara, Media Technologist, Tom Sahara LLC
  

  Tom Sahara

  Media Technologist, Tom Sahara LLC

  A technology manager and operations executive with four decades of extensive live production experience, from the smallest of digital social media activations to the largest of international sports events.

  Previously, Tom was the Vice President of Operations and Technology for Turner Sports where for over twenty years, he was responsible for the production operations such as NBA on TNT, MLB on TBS, Inside the NBA with Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, Inside March Madness and other sports productions.

  Prior to Turner Sports, his experience includes serving as the Sr. Technical Manager for three Olympics, (2002 Salt Lake Winter, 2000 Sydney Summer, 1996 Atlanta Summer).  Tom started his career as the technical director for “The Don Ho Show” the renown Hawaiian entertainment star.

• Darrell Wenhardt, CBT Systems
  

  Darrell Wenhardt

  CBT Systems

  45 year veteran of Video Production and Television Broadcast industry. Founding Principal with two industry stalwart companies; Centro Corporation and CBT Systems, Inc. Instrumental in facility and mobile unit designs that focused on Operator – Production environments and Work Flows over that of the traditional Engineering oriented spaces. Designed and Managed the installation and operation of numerous complex Production and Broadcast Facilities located around the world that included: Olympic Games, World Cup Soccer, Goodwill Games, America’s Cup, NFL Network, MLB Network, and most recently Google-YouTube Space Studios and Allied Esports Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

• Michael Little, Artistic Resources Corp
  

  Michael Little

  Artistic Resources Corp

  Michael Little is the Chief Executive Officer for the Los Angeles based Consulting and Systems Integration company, Artistic Resources Corporation for over 30 years. He has been responsible for leading creative and technical teams charged with development and innovation across varied and complex applications. Some examples include; the world’s first 24P High Definition mobile vehicles, Stereo (3D) screening rooms, studio production campus architectures, and remote production. Recently his efforts have been focused on eSports use cases and business modeling development. With eSports recent dynamic growth as a motivator, his current work centers on fan engagement mechanisms and methods. Additionally, he is involved with several Cloud based production services for privately held companies pushing the boundaries of a connected world. Michael has also held roles in facilities management and production supervision which motivated his passion for efficient, flexible tools and processes. In constant pursuit of excellence and efficacy, he believes that no technology or premise is to be spared consideration. Many of his product and technology innovations have shaped how early HD television production workflows were developed and re-imagined. Mr. Little is an active member of SMPTE – Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, HPA – Hollywood Professional Association, as well as STE – Society of Television Engineers.

• Adam Myhill, Unity
  

  Adam Myhill

  Unity

  Adam Myhill has spent two decades in film and video game worlds, working as a Director of Photography and CG supervisor at Electronic Arts and Blackbird Interactive.

  Using his experience on multiple titles and as a film DP on a number of feature length movies, Myhill created a ground-breaking procedural cinematic and in-game camera system called Cinemachine, which is now an integral part of Unity’s offering where he now works to empower creators.

  He is also the designer of CineCast, an AI cinematography system for esports and any3D content which begs the question “How do you film something when you don’t know what’s going to happen next?”

  He also holds a number of technology patents around virtual cameras and procedural cinematography.

• Jay Tucker, UCLA Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports
  

  Jay Tucker

  UCLA Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports

  Jay Tucker is the Executive (Managing) Director for the Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports (MEMES) at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. In that role, Tucker regularly brings c-suite executives and industry leaders together with the business school community to explore the future of entertainment through thought leadership, educational offerings and conferences. He has launched partnerships with Hollywood studios, device makers, service providers and professional organizations – facilitating the exchange of ideas and development of new initiatives. His current areas of focus include monetization, business analytics, emerging technologies, immersive content, and diversity and inclusion. Previously, Tucker served as a Director at the Institute for Communication Technology Management at USC. He founded Silicon Beach @USC, a massive initiative featuring a venture competition that awarded $50K per year and a conference focused on startups, technology and digital content. Tucker also curated, and taught in, a series of executive education courses focused on leadership frameworks for the digital age. Tucker is passionate about entrepreneurship and serves as an advisor to the Hollywood Post and other early stage ventures. He holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, an MA in Instructional and Learning Technologies from Columbia University, and a dual BA from Stanford University in Political Science and African & Afro-American Studies. He resides in Santa Monica, CA.

• Mark Chiolis, Mobile TV Group
  

  Mark Chiolis

  Mobile TV Group

  Mark Chiolis is the Director of Business Development for Mobile TV Group (MTVG), which provides facilities for over 4,000 live professional and college sports and entertainment events annually, with more than 35 mobile units, and dozens of remote Cloud Control facilities, based throughout the U.S.  MTVG has been leading the 4K/UHD/HDR/Cloud live event production with key broadcasters, networks and distribution companies.

  Mark is currently working to interface with customers and partners to develop and support MTVG’s entertainment, awards, corporate, concerts, egames, and esports events with current and new trucks, using both broadcast and cine workflows.

  Prior to MTVG, Chiolis worked in marketing, business development, and sales for Grass Valley, Thomson, Technicolor, Philips, and BTS as well as at television stations KMUV, KRBK and KVIE.

  Chiolis is an active board member of the HPA, an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, member of the NAB Cine Consortium, member of the SciTech group at the Television Academy (Emmys), member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), member of International Association of Aviation Photographers, past section manager of SMPTE, member of STE, SBE and California Broadcasters Association.

• Craig German, HPA
  

  Craig German

  HPA

As HDR, UHD and cloud based workflows converge, is the industry heading to a more predictable way to make high quality content?  This year’s Supersession will explore how filmmakers, content creators, tool developers and service providers are pushing the boundaries to streamline the production, post and delivery of unprecedented amounts of content at unprecedented levels of quality and complexity. Get deep in the drift about what’s happening now and a forecast for the winds of change.

• Seth Hallen, Pixelogic

Opening Keynote

• Sean Cooney, Netflix
  

  Sean Cooney

  Netflix

  Sean Cooney serves as Director of Post Production at Netflix. In this role, he oversees a global team of post production executives across 6 content verticals: Series, Film, Documentaries & Comedy, Unscripted & Talk, Kids & Family and International. Netflix Post Production spans Post Management, Operations, Dubbing, Creative Services, Technology and Vendor management – delivering ground breaking content to a growing audience of 138M global subscribers. In 2018 the Post org established regional teams in EMEA, Asia, Spain and Latin America. From 2015 – 2017 Sean was Senior Vice President of Post Production at Legendary Entertainment, overseeing all aspects of Post Production. At Legendary, he managed a team responsible for advising on, budgeting, staffing and delivering content ranging from tentpole feature films such as Duncan Jones’ “Warcraft,” Zhang Yimou’s “The Great Wall,” Jordan Vogt Roberts’ “Kong: Skull Island,” Steven DeKnight’s “Pacific Rim 2, and the soon to be announced “Godzilla 2” — to documentaries such as Kobe Bryant’s “Season 20” and special projects such as an upcoming VR effort by Alejandro Iñárritu. In addition, Cooney’s team managed an in-house post production facility with 25 cutting rooms, 30 offices, VFX critical review room and 49-seat theatre. Cooney’s team was responsible for theatrical delivery to China on all features including Warcraft, which achieved the biggest debut for a foreign release in Chinese history – and advised on the technical build-out of China-based post production facilities. In this role, Cooney worked closely with filmmakers and studio partners to ensure films were completed and delivered on time and on budget. Prior to his work at Legendary, Cooney was SVP, Production & Post Technology, Warner Bros. From 2013 – 2015, Cooney oversaw production and post technology strategy for WB Pictures. In this role he managed a team of post production, VFX and technology professionals with the aim of improving and innovating production pipelines in collaboration with filmmakers and preserving the integrity of the Warner archive. Cooney and his team were responsible for optimizing production and post technology pipelines and workflow on feature films such as David Ayers’ “Suicide Squad,” Zach Snyder’s “Batman vs. Superman,” David Yates’ “The Legend of Tarzan,” Dean Devlin’s “Geostorm,” Joe Wright’s “Pan,” Glenn Ficarra & John Requa’s “Focus,” and New Line’s “San Andreas.” From 2010 – 2013, Cooney was Vice President of Advanced Production Technology for Warner Bros., where his responsibilities included approving capital budget requests across studio business units such as Post Production Services, Feature Post Production, Telepictures, Technical Operations and TV Production and Post. In this role, Cooney lead a number of industry-wide R&D efforts such as the 2011 Next Generation Production: Workflow study – which evaluated 40 production technology vendors and was presented at the Hollywood Post Alliance, ASC and SMPTE. This was followed in 2012 with Next Generation Production: the Metadata Project – a proof-of-concept exploration of production in the cloud using Salesforce as a backbone. In 2013 Cooney oversaw a similar comprehensive evaluation of 16 different platforms for asset management and review entitled Next Generation Production: Media Review & Collaboration. From 2006-2010, Cooney was Vice President of Feature Post Production for Miramax Films, based in NYC. From 2006-2010, he oversaw post production on original feature films and acquisitions such as “The Queen,” with Helen Mirren in an Academy Award-winning role; “Doubt,” featuring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman; “Diving Bell & the Butterfly” directed by Julian Schnabel; “Everybody’s Fine,” starring Robert DeNiro; and “The Debt” with Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington, and “Adventureland,” starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. In this role, Cooney was integrally involved with all of Miramax’s productions and acquisitions from early budgeting and planning phases through production implementation on locations—from Budapest and Tel Aviv, to London and New York—to final distribution via parent company Walt Disney Studios. From 2003-2006, Cooney was Manager, Distribution and Operations for

  Showtime Networks, where he oversaw post production, delivery and worldwide servicing of over 100 television shows, documentaries and movies. He was also instrumental in moving the Network’s archives toward a digital platform and facilitated some of the earliest digital deliveries to iTunes and Netflix. Before Showtime, he worked at the independent film studio of Roger and Julie Corman, which was known as a launching ground for new talent—including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and James Cameron. The company produced 25-30 films per year and managed a library of 400 titles that were actively distributed worldwide. As Director of Development, Cooney optioned and developed manuscripts and screenplays as well as structured finance and talent deals for the studio. As Production Manager and Post Production Supervisor, he negotiated hundreds of deals on productions across Los Angeles, India, the Philippines and Egypt. He also advised on overall strategy for post production operations and film library archives. Prior to joining the Cormans’ studio, Cooney worked as a freelance production manager and assistant director in Los Angeles as well as an editor and producer of commercials, independent features and short films in the San Francisco Bay Area. In September, 2012, Cooney was named one of the “Hollywood 50” by the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) highlighting global Irish-American executives making a significant impact within their field of technology. He has been recommended for an associate membership of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and is a member of the Entertainment Technology Council (ETC). An entertainment professional with 26 years of experience in the industry, Cooney holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television from the University of California, Los Angeles.

HDR and wide color gamut open an exciting new frontier in storytelling. With a vast selection of HDR devices available, more productions are looking to leverage those capabilities and the creative opportunities they offer—both on-set and throughout the post production process. This panel brings together creative talent from two productions as they discuss how color management is changing and offer different approaches to HDR color grading workflows.

• Moderator: Barry Goch, AJA Video Systems
  

  Barry Goch

  AJA Video Systems

  Barry Goch, Product Marketing Manager, AJA Video Systems, supports the company’s global marketing efforts by contributing to AJA’s website, product marketing across a range of platforms, trade show product roll outs and other go to market items as well as being an AJA evangelist in the LA area.

  Previously Barry was a feature film and television finishing editor in Hollywood with credits including Spiderman: Homecoming, Passengers, Money Monster, Eye in the Sky, and Game of Thrones. He is also a creative editor, cutting the SXSW 2020 Award Winning Short, Stucco. Barry was also a journalist for many years reporting for Post Perspective and Post Magazine.

  Barry is a member of the Television Academy, the Visual Effects Society, The Hollywood Professional Association and the current Chair of SMPTE Hollywood.

• Tom Graham, Dolby Laboratories
  

  Tom Graham

  Dolby Laboratories

  Tom is a 30-year veteran of the post production industry working for Digidesign, Avid & Dolby and a variety of consulting/freelance work. He was one of the first to use Pro Tools to record and edit the orchestra on Hollywood scoring stages on over 40 feature films, including Collateral, Ice Age, Star Trek Nemesis, Solaris, and Serenity. He also produced and co-wrote a short film in 2011 called Agent MX-Z3RO for Avid that is still used in training curriculums. He is excited to be at Dolby for the last five plus years evangelizing Dolby Vision technology for content creators, post production and mastering.

• Lisa Rodgers, Bird Box
  

  Lisa Rodgers

  Bird Box

  Lisa Rodgers has been a freelance Post Production Supervisor for the past 8 years, prior to going freelance she was the Vice President of Feature Post Production at Universal Studios for 10 years where she supervised over 70 films including MAMMA MIA!, FAST AND FURIOUS 1-5 and all of JUDD APATOW’s films. Lisa graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Telecommunications and Film from San Diego State University, where she was voted most valuable student her junior year. The day after she graduated she headed to Hollywood and landed a Production Assistant job with Stephen J. Cannell Productions. She gravitated to Post Production immediately and has been working in post ever since. Lisa is a real farmer’s daughter. She was raised in San Jose, California on an apricot orchard with over 500 trees and for 14 years, her family produced the best dried apricots Del Monte ever received. Fun Fact: Lisa was the very first intern for “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”.

• Marcus Taormina, Bird Box
  

  Marcus Taormina

  Bird Box

  Marcus Taormina has had the fortune of serving as Visual Effects Supervisor on Bird Box, directed by Academy Award winning director Susanne Bier. His role as Visual Effects Supervisor began in the pre-production stage, where he collaborated with her and his fellow department heads to design and execute the best and most effective methods to shoot the film through the use of visual effects. In post production, he served as the principal architect both creatively and technically for all five-hundred and twenty visual effects shots in the final cut of the film, which involved supervising and directing five different facilities to execute complex character design and development, 3D set extensions and matte paintings, as well as myriad complex simulations and effects that populate almost every scene in the film.

• Sean Coleman, Company 3
  

  Sean Coleman

  Company 3

  Sean Coleman is a versatile and talented colorist who has worked with some of the most talented and respected filmmakers, both in short- and long-form projects, in his 15-year tenure at Company 3. He recently colored Netflix’s viewer-record-setting thriller, Bird Box; he completed two seasons Amazon’s popular espionage drama, Patriot; and he colored the entirety of HBO comedy series, Crashing. He has worked with some of the world’s most respected commercial directors on hundreds of spots for dozens of major national and international brands, including Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” campaign, which turned into a viral sensation and received Adweek’s Brand Genius Award. Coleman has also colored a large number of major music videos for artists including Kanye West, Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake and Sigur Ros. In addition to a keen eye and unique vision, Coleman brings an enormous wealth of experience coloring a wide variety of different kinds of projects, workflows and filmmaking styles.

• Don Burgess, ASC
• Corinne Bogdanowicz, Light Iron
  

  Corinne Bogdanowicz

  Light Iron

  Corinne Bogdanowicz joined Light Iron in 2010 after working as a colorist and digital compositor for Post Logic/Prime Focus, Pacific Title, and Dreamworks Animation. Some of Corinne’s recent feature credits include The Kissing Booth, Set It Up, and I Feel Pretty. On the episodic side, Corinne has colored Amazon’s Emmy-winning series Transparent, as well as Baskets (FX), and Facebook Watch’s Sorry for Your Loss.

• Mike Morgan, Netflix
  

  Mike Morgan

  Netflix

  Mike Morgan has been leading industry efforts in post-production management, visual effects and production technology within Feature Films for 25 years. Currently a Post Production Executive for Studio Feature Films at Netflix, Mike manages a slate of approximately 10 feature films per year. Prior to Netflix, Mike held post-production and technology leadership roles at 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, Avid and NFL Films.

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Avid
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

Object based audio is driving immersive storytelling across all types of content. Embraced by cinema for several years, support have proliferated across televisions, soundbars, and mobile devices, providing new opportunities for immersive experiences in the home. What does this mean for the creative process? How do advances in sound formats further the creative vision of directors? This panel of talent and industry experts will discuss their work on Netflix’s ROMA, including the techniques used on-set, their workflows in the studio and how they are creating more compelling storytelling through sound.

• Moderator: Randi Altman, Editor in Chief, postPerspective
  

  Randi Altman

  Editor in Chief, postPerspective

  An editor and journalist, Randi Altman has been a sought after source of insight in the ever-changing industry of post and production for over two decades. Covering companies, trends and filmmakers, she’s an authority on how technology is used in service to creative vision. As founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective, she works as a bridge between the post and production communities and the companies that serve them. She is committed to telling the stories of creative talent and technical innovation and their impact on our industry.

• Carlos A. Morales, ROMA
  

  Carlos A. Morales

  ROMA

  With broad experience in the film industry in the postproduction of feature films, shorts, documentaries and television series. Born in Mexico City, he studied Communication at the Monterrey Technological Institute, taught Film Production at the Iberoamericana University and has given seminars in Postproduction. In 2010, he founded the e post company together with Vanessa Hernandez, specializing in coordinating postproduction, and, in 2014, AG POST was created to strengthen postproduction for the group of companies forming AG STUDIOS. His most recent work is ROMA feature film directed by Alfonso Cuarón. He was an Associate Producer for ROMA Dir. Alfonso Cuarón (2017) Espectáculos Fílmicos El Coyul, LA REGIÓN SALVAJE Dir. Amat Escalante (2016) Mantarraya Films, and Executive Producer in MATRIA. Documentary. Dir. Fernando Llanos (2014) – Best Documentary – Morelia International Film Festival, MEJOR ES QUE GABRIELA NO SE MUERA. Feature. Dir. Sergio Umansky (2007) – Tercer mundo producciones and LOS HOMBRES Y EL TIEMPO. Documentary. Dir. Arturo Ripstein. Morales has acted as Postproduction Supervisor in a vast number of projects.

• Skip Lievsay, ROMA
• Sergio Diaz, ROMA
  

  Sergio Diaz

  ROMA

  In the beginning of his career in the universe of sound, he develops as a DJ involved in the electronic music genre for 13 years, ten of which he collaborated in the prestigious CHRISTINE CLUB (1989-1999), obtaining in that period several world class acknowledgements and awards.

  Born in Mexico City, Sergio Díaz is today an important ‘Sound Designer and Supervising Sound Editor’, with more than 19 years of experience in the film industry.

  In the year 2000 he works as “supervising dialog and adr editor”. Throughout his career, he has managed to consolidate trough more than 70 movies, 33 of them as “Sound designer and Supervising Sound Editor”, with ten world class nominations, and winning the “GOLDEN REEL AWARD” for best sound editing in 2007, awarded by the “Motion Pictures Sound Editors” in Los Angeles, California, for his collaboration in “Pan’s Labyrinth”.

  Sergio Díaz has collaborated alongside renowned directors, such as Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth – Hell boy II), Alejandro González Iñarritu (21 gramos – Babel), Sean Penn (Into the Wild), Mel Gibson (Apocalypto), Carlos Reygadas (Battle in heaven, Silent Light, Post Tenebras Lux), Jonás Cuarón (Año Uña – Desierto), Amat Escalante (Sangre – Heli – La Región Salvaje/ The untamed), among others.

  His most recent collaboration as ‘Sound Designer and Supervising Sound Editor’ was for “ROMA”, the latest film by Alfonso Cuarón.

  The last year, and for the fourth time, he has been nominated for an ARIEL award for best sound editing, awarded by the “AMACC”, for his work in Amat Escalante’s film, “La Región Salvaje/ The untamed”.

• Scott Kramer, Netflix
  

  Scott Kramer

  Netflix

  Scott joined Netflix in July 2017 following 15 years in sound post production. At Technicolor, Warner Brothers and Wildfire Post, he worked primarily in creative capacities as a Re-Recording Mixer and Supervising Sound Editor. At Netflix, he is tasked primarily with researching emerging sound technologies, writing the Netflix technical spec and internal/external education.

• David Gould, Dolby
  

  David Gould

  Dolby

  In his role at Dolby, David is responsible for creating products and solutions that will enable and inspire the audio post production community to create content in the Dolby Atmos format.

  Prior to joining Dolby in early 2012, David was a Senior Product Manager at Avid Technology, where he was responsible for Pro Tools software – the industry standard Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). David started his career in London as a recording engineer at Abbey Road Studios, specializing in orchestral film scoring; he joined Avid in 2005 where he held various positions in technical sales before moving into product management.

Each type has developed unique approaches to workflow. Before quoting specific metrics from 3 sample productions (Broadcast, Cable & OTT) we will point out a number of basic differences that help to define these three type of productions. We will, then, review the specific types of creative talent that tend to gravitate to each type of production and how those experiences and tendencies can influence aspects and the workflows of each type. Finally we will show specific metrics (schedules, storage needs, & tendencies towards certain practices) comparing and defining how each type has a workflow that differs from the other.

• Phil Squyres, Sony Pictures TV
  

  Phil Squyres

  Sony Pictures TV

  Phil Squyres is Senior Vice President of Technical Operations for Sony Pictures Television, overseeing technical aspects of production & post production on all SPT shows. After converting production and post-production of all SPT scripted shows into 4K, currently being utilized on SPT shows such as The Blacklist, SWAT, The Good Doctor, Sneaky Pete, and others, he’s focused his efforts on advanced workflows required for the ever-changing camera formats being used in production. He is a graduate of the University of Houston with a B.S. Mathematics/Physics, and a past manager and governor of SMPTE. Squyres currently is on the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Professional Association, a non-profit organization devoted to initiatives in the fields of production, post production and technology utilized in creative media.

Snowflakes are process driven. Harnessing better automation and cleverer robots doesn’t signal the end to creativity. Looking at the opportunities new technologies such as cloud and AI afford us, we’ll hopefully see a bright future for the creative process.

• Rich Welsh, Sundog Media Toolkit
  

  Rich Welsh

  Sundog Media Toolkit

  Richard Welsh is co-founder and CEO of Sundog Media Toolkit Ltd. Based in the UK, Richard has worked in the cinema industry since 1999. He has been involved in various technology development work during this time, primarily in digital cinema and is named on patents in the area of visual perception of 3D. He set up Sundog in 2013 and along with colleague Christian Ralph created the Sundog cloud platform. Sundog specialise in versioning automation, hyperscale processing and AI applications for media. Sundog works with several major Hollywood studios and broadcasters and contributed to feature films, broadcast series, documentaries as well as supporting student films from universities around the world.

  Richard has previously held positions as Head of Digital Cinema Operations at Technicolor, Director of Digital Cinema at Dolby Laboratories and has served on the board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

  Richard holds a BSc (Hons) in Media Technology and an honorary Doctor of Technology degree from Southampton Solent University.

It’s always hard to separate the hype from the reality with any technology, and cloud is no different.  Come see live demonstrations of how content workflows have actually migrated to the cloud – no mirrors, no sleight of hand.  First, you’ll see how Teradici overcomes the cloud latency challenge to put remote computing in the hands of creative professionals.  Next, you’ll get an up-close look at what Nimble Collective has done to revolutionize the animation community in a way they could only accomplish in the cloud.  But that’s not all!  For those in our community who have developed their entire careers on Avid or Adobe, BeBop will demonstrate how you can keep using the tools you know and love while leveraging the power of cloud compute, storage, and distribution.  And finally, you’ll see what Avid has up their sleeve when it comes to collaboration. For everyone who is stuck on the myth that your kit has to live in your post suite, this session is for you!

• Eliot Sakhartov, Microsoft
  

  Eliot Sakhartov

  Microsoft

  Eliot has over 20 years of professional technology experience in Media and Entertainment. At Microsoft he is a Business and Technology Strategist for Media and Entertainment, matching business problems with technology solutions. Before joining Microsoft, Eliot was the Director of Technology for Funny or Die, Director of Technology at Endemol Shine North America and Manager of TV Production Technology at NBCUniversal. During his time at NBCUniversal he delivered technology solutions from digital workflows to unified communications to all in-house produced shows like The Tonight Show, The Office, House, Jerry Springer, SNL, Battlestar Galactica and more. Eliot has founded 2 startups in the media space, and holds patents in digital advertising. Has been a mentor to startups throughout Los Angeles working with Launchpad and WeWork.

• Ian Main, Teradici
  

  Ian Main

  Teradici

  Ian has over 10 years of experience at Teradici, involved in performance benchmarking, architectural aspects of PCoIP design and customer requirements analysis, with particularly focus on the media and entertainment industry.

• Kevin Ottomeyer, Teradici
  

  Kevin Ottomeyer

  Teradici

  Kevin Ottomeyer is a seasoned strategic technologist with years of experience working in all facets of data, content and media distribution. As a Solutions Architect at Teradici, his current focus aligns with determining innovative software integration strategies for remote consumption and interaction of high graphics workloads. His passion lies in the ability to push the envelope on improving pipeline efficiency and transforming the way we develop, secure and distribute content.

• Jason Schleifer, Nimble Collective
  

  Jason Schleifer

  Nimble Collective

  Jason Schleifer has over 25 years of experience in the animation industry as an animator, character technical director, and entrepreneur. As a co-founder of Nimble Collective, Jason leads up the Creator Artistic Success Team, ensuring every customer has an incredible experience on the cloud-based animation platform. Jason started his career at Alias/Wavefront where he was a product specialist during the development of Maya. His technical expertise in character rigging led him to work as a character technical director and eventually animation lead at Weta Digital where he helped create and animate the character, Gollum for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2003 Schleifer moved back to the U.S. to work at PDI/DreamWorks in Redwood City, CA where he became Head of Character Animation and worked on feature films including Madagascar, Over the Hedge, Megamind, and Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

• Mike Walsh, Nimble Collective
• David Benson, Bebop Technology
  

  David Benson

  Bebop Technology

  David is one of the Media & Entertainment industry’s most innovative technologists and foremost cloud experts. He has spent more than 20 years on the cutting-edge, developing groundbreaking technology solutions. He created numerous transformative data, cloud and workflow solutions for film studios, television networks, digital content developers and distributors, including Deluxe, Sony Pictures Television, Sony New Media Services, Movielabs, and Final Draft. He has held senior technology executive positions at several post-production companies, including leading Technicolor’s R&D division and serving as CTO of Sample Digital and Secure Path. In 2010 he founded DSB Consulting, which initially incubated the BeBop platform and is now integrated as BeBop Managed Services.

• Craig Dwyer, Avid
  

  Craig Dwyer

  Avid

  Craig heads up the worldwide Strategic Solutions and Presales teams for Avid. Craig’s team have been involved in many of the large-scale transformation projects with Avid clients as they modernize media operations and introduce the Avid Everywhere™ platform. These solutions focus on enhancing the efficiency and supporting creativity in the rapidly changing media and information management environment. As Avid enters its next phase of innovation powered by the Azure cloud, Craig will look at the evolving ecosystem and highlight a number of innovations occurring across Journalism, Post Production and Media Management.

• Richard Duke, Avid
  

  Richard Duke

  Avid

  As the Chief Cloud Solutions Architect at Avid, Richard is responsible for helping customers “Cloudify” their workflows and infrastructure using Avid’s industry leading tools, including the Avid NEXIS | VFS storage platform, Avid’s Creative Editing tools, Media Composer and Pro Tools, and the Media Central solutions. Richard has been working in the film and broadcast industry for over 20 years and has developed and deployed some of the most industry leading solutions in public and private clouds.

During this session we will be taking a look into how virtual production technology, once the sole province of tent-pole features, is now impacting project development across many genres, allowing writers, producers and directors to visualize the tone, pacing and style of their content well in advance of production. Filmmakers and show runners are now discovering the value in having real time camera tracking, keying and compositing live on set, and at an affordable price.

• Moderator: Jesse Korosi, Sim
  

  Jesse Korosi

  Sim

  As the Director of Workflow Services at Sim, the 2016 HPA Emerging Leader award winner & Studio Daily Top 50 award winner, Jesse currently oversees a global workflow and development team and provides technical-level management. Over the past 18 months, Jesse and his team have overseen the dailies/post production workflow on over 100 projects spanning the globe, collectively managing over 8 Petabytes of media. Aside from working on such notable jobs as Mr. Robot, Narcos, Fargo, and The Great Wall, Jesse counts creating Sims new client facing metadata aggregation/automated transcoding database Metabanq, as his greatest achievement.

  Jesse has a lifelong love of filmmaking and has worked in many different on-set and post-production roles over the last decade including: 24 frame playback editing/compositing both on and off set, on-set visual effects editing, data management, dailies, offline/online editing, and final color. Jesse uses this wealth of knowledge to provide his clients with customized workflows, that are tailored to successfully meet their unique requirements and the specific needs of their projects.

• Eliot Mack, Lightcraft Technology
  

  Eliot Mack

  Lightcraft Technology

  Eliot earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then went to work at Walt Disney Imagineering, designing the backbone for an 11,000 pound walking dinosaur robot. In 2000, he joined iRobot as the lead mechanical engineer for the Roomba, the world’s first successful home robot. In 2004, having had his fill of chasing dust bunnies, Eliot followed his interests in visual effects and motion tracking and founded Lightcraft Technology, applying robotic techniques to the motion picture industry to create what would become the Emmy Award-winning Previzion and Halide FX virtual studio systems.

• Scott Metzger, Nurulize
  

  Scott Metzger

  Nurulize

  Scott is a 18 year veteran of the visual effects industry having worked at almost every major studio in Los Angeles including Digital Domain and Method Studios. Scott’s ground breaking work in volumetric image acquisition and real time rendering workflow serves as the foundation of Nurulize technology. As a pioneer of laser photogrammetry and environment capture techniques, Scott brings an unparalleled knowledge of recreating photo real environments. A frequent presenter for Autodesk, Nvidia, The Foundry and others, Scott is recognized as a leader in his field.

• Colin Green, Digital Monarch Media

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Avid
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

AI and machine learning are showing potential in a wide range of applications for the entertainment industry.  Computers can create useful synthetic audio visual output based on “training” a system with input that humans would consider inferior or incomplete.  Sound synthesis, sharpening, noise reduction, colorization and more have been demonstrated and force us to re-imagine what is possible.  This panel of experts will share their experience and give hints about what we can expect in the future.

• Moderator: Don Eklund, Sony Pictures Entertainment
  

  Don Eklund

  Sony Pictures Entertainment

  Don Eklund has been a part of the development and launch of multiple consumer entertainment formats since starting his career at Sony. He developed the operation that launched DVD at Sony Pictures and went on to oversee the development of software tools and hardware systems which supported compression, authoring and quality control of Blu-ray. Don continues to participate in industry standards organizations and consortiums which focus on next generation entertainment, content security and delivery systems. He has been granted numerous patents on 3D, content security and content authoring.

• Jason Brahms, Video Gorillas
  

  Jason Brahms

  Video Gorillas

  Jason Brahms has 17+ years experience launching B2C and B2B platforms in the media/content industry. He currently the CEO and Managing Partner at Video Gorillas (VG), a media-focused product and services company that develops state-of-the-art video technology incorporating machine learning, neural networks, visual analysis, object recognition, and live streaming. In this role Jason is responsible for defining and executing sales, marketing and product strategies across all VG products and services. Prior to VG, Jason was Vice President of Innovation and Advanced Solutions, where he oversaw product design, research, development and engineering for Sony Media Cloud Services cloud-based SAAS collaborative applications for creative professionals and content creators. Jason joined Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1998 starting in Corporate Development focusing on evangelizing and incubating ideas related to disruptive technology and new business models, including helping design, develop and launch the first IP VOD service, Movielink, where he assumed the role of Director of Content Acquisition and Operations. Jason has held multiple roles across various Sony business units since, including Director of Content for Playstation Network, Vice President, Technology and Operations for Sony Pictures, and Vice President, Advanced Platforms for Sony Pictures where he effectively worked as an “entrepreneur in residence” developing and evangelizing new production and post-production technology solutions. Jason is also a songwriter/music producer whose songs have been featured in numerous television series (e.g. Ugly Betty, Monk, ER, etc.).

• Kenny Lauer, Rival Theory
  

  Kenny Lauer

  Rival Theory

  People amuse me. Or maybe more accurately, their behavior captivates me. That’s how I answered the question entertainment icon Peter Guber asked me on why I like to create experiences.

  Kenny has spent decades in experience creation and focuses on the use of technology to collapse distances. He is the Chief Experience Officer for the AI company, Rival Theory. Where he is focuses on the experience delivered through Rival Theory’s touchpoints-be it with real people or human-based AIs.

  Previously, Kenny lead Marketing & Digital experiences at the Golden State Warriors where he ran day to day operations and led the team’s brand experience creation in the digital and physical space. Previous to the Warriors, he lead worldwide digital for George P. Johnson. He has also held senior positions at KPMG and Peppers & Rogers Group

  Kenny has been awarded the elite “Certified Experience Economy Expert” designation and in 2017, Kenny was added to the BT-150 recognized as one of the top global executives leading innovative business transformation efforts in their organizations.

  Kenny is also an active member of

  • The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Interactive Media (Emmys)

  • Advisory Board Member to the SXSW Interactive Festival

  He began his career with his favorite title of all time “Evangelist” at Apple Computer, Inc. Wow, how long ago was that?

• Richard Zhang, Adobe
  

  Richard Zhang

  Adobe

  Richard Zhang is a research scientist at Adobe Research, San Francisco. He obtained his PhD in 2018 at UC Berkeley, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS), advised by Professor Alexei A. Efros. His research interests are in computer vision, deep learning, machine learning, and graphics. He graduated summa cum laude with BS and MEng degrees from Cornell University in ECE in 2010. He is a recipient of the 2017 Adobe Research Fellowship.

Next-Gen content production has attracted sophisticated, next-gen security threats from determined and savvy hackers.  Some of these threats have become reality, causing significant damage to content owners and productions facilities. Guy Finley (TPN and CDSA) and Ben Stanbury (Amazon and TPN) will present a case study of a sophisticated content hack/security breach and discuss how content owners and facilities can be better prepared to mitigate the risks of an attack. The Trusted Partner Network (TPN) was developed to meet threats with next gen security solutions and represents an important industry effort to leverage technology, platform and community to transform a year’s old process into the next generation of production.

• Guy Finley, CDSA
• Ben Stanbury, Amazon

The day has been filled with what is happening today. But what about 5 years from now? How do we lay the groundwork for collaboration, personalization and consumption in the future. Scott Bounds, Media Solutions Architect from Microsoft will discuss the future of collaboration through the use of cloud and others. Next Field Garthwaite, co-Founder and CEO of Iris TV, will talk about the power of personalized content and how this drives attentive and loyal audiences. Finally Matt Jones former Director of Future Technology at Jaguar Land Rover, will lead a dive into what the future of consuming content looks like in a world where Uber and autonomous vehicles free up our time. For anyone and everyone that is interested in the future of media.

• Eliot Sakhartov, Microsoft
  

  Eliot Sakhartov

  Microsoft

  Eliot has over 20 years of professional technology experience in Media and Entertainment. At Microsoft he is a Business and Technology Strategist for Media and Entertainment, matching business problems with technology solutions. Before joining Microsoft, Eliot was the Director of Technology for Funny or Die, Director of Technology at Endemol Shine North America and Manager of TV Production Technology at NBCUniversal. During his time at NBCUniversal he delivered technology solutions from digital workflows to unified communications to all in-house produced shows like The Tonight Show, The Office, House, Jerry Springer, SNL, Battlestar Galactica and more. Eliot has founded 2 startups in the media space, and holds patents in digital advertising. Has been a mentor to startups throughout Los Angeles working with Launchpad and WeWork.

• Matt Jones, Ola Cabs
  

  Matt Jones

  Ola Cabs

  Matt Jones is the head of product marketing for the GENIVI alliance, focused on infotainment and the connected car to power the next generation of mobility solutions. GENIVI is an alliance of OEMs, Tier 1s and other players in the automotive ecosystem dedicated to accelerating development through open platforms and standards. Matt recently departed Virgin Hyperloop One, where he led the Software Engineering teams; tasked with providing all the software needed to manage, control, and operate an autonomous hyperloop system. This included embedded software and electronics, networking, cloud data and services, as well as customer-facing applications. Previously Matt was with moovel Group, Daimler’s mobility subsidiary, where he was Chief Product Officer. He was focused on integrating personal, shared and public transportation options into single-view mobility products. In this role he prepared the way for connected, autonomous, shared electric vehicles; launching in many cities across the US and EU. Prior to that he spent 14 years at Jaguar Land Rover as the Director of Future Technology, leading development of electronic and software systems for the future connected autonomous vehicles.

• Scott Bounds, Microsoft
• Field Garthwaite, Iris TV
  

  Field Garthwaite

  Iris TV

  Field Garthwaite, CEO & Co-Founder of video personalization and programming platform, IRIS.TV. He previously founded Jukebox TV, the first in-stream recommendation engine, which was a predecessor to IRIS.TV’s current augmented intelligence solution for video publishers and brands.

• Jerry Pierce, Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners
  

  Jerry Pierce

  Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners

  Jerry Pierce, Chairman ISDCF and NATO Technology Advisor Jerry Pierce serves as the Technology Advisor for NATO (National Association of Theater Owners). He provides technology guidance in conjunction with the NATO Technology Committee. Jerry serves as the Chairman of ISDCF (Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum) a multi-industry open group that addresses digital cinema issues. His passions in the semi-retired state of mind include backpack hiking, photography and sculling (rowing). He was previously Senior Vice President, Technology, Universal Pictures. He joined Universal in 1995 and established the New Technology Department for Universal Pictures in 2000. He was responsible for the technical launch of DVD for Universal and was responsible for Digital Cinema activities for Universal. He was chairman of the SMPTE Digital Cinema Mastering group, a member of the Studio’s Digital Cinema Consortium (DCI), was an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, was Vice President of the Hollywood Post Alliance, and was on the Board of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center. He established the joint project with Universal and Panasonic for DVD disc authoring and High Definition Telecine Transfers. He was part of SRI International (Stanford Research Institute) for over 13 years. Jerry holds a MSEE degree from Stanford University and an BSEE from UC Berkeley.

• Leon Silverman

Adobe, AJA Video Systems, ATTO Technology, Avid Technology, AWS Amazon, axle ai, Canon USA, CineCert, Cinnafilm, Colorfront, Creative Solutions, Delair, Digital Anarchy, DigitalGlue, Dolby Laboratories, EditShare, Eizo, Eluvio, FilmLight, G&D North America, GrayMeta, G-Technology, Image Essence, intoPIX, Marquise Technologies, Microsoft, Moxion, Nagra, Nevion, Omnitek, OWNZONES Entertainment Technologies, Pixelworks, Prime Focus Technologies, Rohde & Schwarz, Root6, Salesforce, Signiant, Sohonet, Sony Electronics, SRI International, Streambox, The Studio-B&H, Teledyne LeCroy, Telestream, Teradici, Variant Systems Group, Xperi

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Dolby

1. Saving large amounts of data at low costs, Meghan McClelland, Versity
2. Object storage and analytics/hybrid cloud, Erik Weaver, Western Digital
3. M&E cloud: challenges and solutions, Anthony Howe, Microsoft Azure
4. Immersive audio: separating fact from fiction, Ken Tankel, Linear Acoustic
5. Academy Digital Source Master Spec based on IMF App 5 ACES, Wolfgang Ruppel, RheinMain U.
6. HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort, Pete Putman, ROAM Consulting
7. AI for film restoration, Jason Brahms, Video Gorillas
8. Workflow for production lifecycle: story to screen, Roger Vakharia, Salesforce
9. Microservices & media: made for each other? Chris Lennon, MediAnswers; John Footen, Deloitte
10. IT challenges in the wake of a media merger, Kevin Scott, Signiant
11. Implementing IMF for broadcast & online: a DPP update, DPP & Mr MXF
12. Immediates: the value of dailies a day earlier, Hugh Calveley, Moxion
13. SFP-based SMPTE 2110 systems, Roy Folkman, Embrionix
14. Diverging strategies for media processing deployment, Max Denton, Telestream
15. Cloud IMF workflows, Adrian Goman, Ownzones Connect
16. OTT Video Quality Optimization, Ernie Sanchez, Cinnafilm
17. HDR aesthetics: let’s talk about the shadows, Greg Ciaccio, Sim
18. Workflow storage: Ethernet or Fibre Channel? Carllene Mowry, ATTO Technology
19. eSports production, Michael Little, Artistic Resources Corporation
20. Why buying “best” might not be good enough, Josh Rizzo, technologist
21. Automated distribution servicing for ‘TV Everywhere,’ Lior Berezonski, Prime Focus
22. Media management and asset protection, Robert Herzan, Scale Logic
23. Too many AIs: how to compare & select, Jim Tierney, Transcriptive.com
24. Beyond SMPTE time code: the TLX project, Peter Symes, Symes TV Consulting
25. VFX: what is next? Anthony Magliocco, EMTM
26. Secure cloud collaboration, Rollo Wenlock, Wipster
27. Remote HDProxy editing for Premiere, Thomas Mauro, Arvato Systems
28. Trusted Partner Network security assessment: Tips for Preparing, Juan Reyes, Convergent Risks
29. Intra-file editing, John Harris, Cinedeck
30. Intra-file editing: user experience, Matthew Schneider, Technicolor-PostWorks New York
31. Remote collaborative production session, Chuck Parker, Sohonet
32. HDR: the haves and the have nots, Gregory Cox, GrayMeta

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

See program below for dedicated Innovation Zone hours

• Seth Hallen, HPA

• Mark Schubin, Program Maestro, HPA Tech Retreat
  

  Mark Schubin

  Program Maestro, HPA Tech Retreat

  Multiple Emmy-award winning SMPTE Life Fellow Mark Schubin is the world’s greatest expert on the intersecting histories of media technology and opera. He helped create the hotel in-room movie business, the first live nationwide stereo simulcast network, the first live multi-language cinema subtitles, and what was probably the first HDR-to-SDR converter (though no one knew what HDR was at the time). He has worked on moving-image projects on all seven continents (including Antarctica), including news in Kazakhstan, cable TV in Hong Kong, and the television transmission system of Barbados. He also worked on the standardization of the VU meter. His bedroom was an official test site of the ATSC, his paper on aspect ratios was cited by the FCC, and his blog at SchubinCafe.com is archived by the Library of Congress. He once piloted the Fuji blimp and has been known to wear shoes.

A lot has happened in the legislative/regulatory/legal world since last year. How does it affect you? Find out from our resident expert.

• Jim Burger, Thompson Coburn LLP
  

  Jim Burger

  Thompson Coburn LLP

  Jim is a partner in the Thompson Coburn Lobbying & Policy and Intellectual Property Groups. He has worked extensively on legal and policy issues arising from the intersection of digital technology, intellectual property, communications, and government regulation. Jim has represented the Computer Industry Group and other information technology entities in efforts to secure copy protection rules for DVDs, Blu-ray/UHD discs and digital music downloads. He advises technology clients on artificial intelligence IP issues. Jim has represented technology clients before the Administration, Congress, and the FCC in regard to the Digital TV Transition, the Broadcast Flag, and international agreements affecting U.S. intellectual property law. For the past three years Jim has taught Copyright Law at Georgetown Law School. Jim also served seven years as an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia Law School, where he taught Advanced Administrative Law.

It might seem nice to be able to use actors long dead, but the concept of “fake news” takes a terrifying new turn with deepfakes, the term that Wikipedia describes as a portmanteau of “deep learning” and “fake.” Although people have been manipulating images for centuries – long before the creation of Adobe Photoshop – the new AI-powered tools allow the creation of very convincing fake audio and video. We’ll show examples of deep fakes, describe how they’re created, and ask if and how content distributors can guard themselves from being purveyors of fake news.

• Moderator: Debra Kaufman, ETCentric
  

  Debra Kaufman

  ETCentric

  Debra Kaufman, a freelance writer in the media and entertainment technology field, currently writes for USC’s Entertainment Technology Center newsletter, ETCentric. She also contributes to American Cinematographer, International Cinematographer, and the Editor’s Guild CineMontage. Her work has appeared in Wired, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and numerous trade publications.

  She has moderated panels and appeared as a speaker on panels at NAB, CES, HPA Tech Retreat, NATPE, Produced By and many other trade shows, consulted on post production, mobile entertainment and other industry issues. She holds a Master’s degree from UCLA and a Bachelor’s from UC Berkeley. Her other work experience includes UNESCO in Paris and the United Nations in New York.

• Marc Zorn, HBO
  

  Marc Zorn

  HBO

  With a career spanning from pre-Internet days, Marc Zorn has been involved with information security as a well-recognized leader in the IT industry. His participation with various consortia has helped to lay the groundwork for international groups such as FIRST and SANS, and establish standards including ISO 17799, 27000, HIPAA, and GIAC. Marc has held key security positions in the public and private sectors, including the last several years in M&E primarily consulting with studios, post-production houses, exhibitors, and the MPAA to address protection of multimedia content through the transition from film-based to file-based workflows.

• Ed Grogan, Department of Defense
  

  Ed Grogan

  Department of Defense

  Edward T. Grogan received his BSEE and MSEE from Drexel University. He is now in his 43rd year working for the Department of Defense on advanced technologies. In the past he was one of the lead engineers within the DoD who helped define progressive HDTV as the format for DoD and industry. He is currently working in a field that he brought into the DoD, and adapted to government needs. In his off time he supports local community and school theatre productions by providing sound and video (now 4K HDR) to the education environment. He is a member of SMPTE, HPA and the Visual Effects Society.

• Oles Petriv, Video Gorillas
  

  Oles Petriv

  Video Gorillas

  Oles Petriv is the Head of AI at VideoGorillas and for the past 6 years has led active research and development of computer vision and natural language processing systems. He is currently focused on delivering high quality video super-resolution neural networks for professional video. Oles has a strong background in video processing using deep learning methods for object and action detection, image and video captioning for the movie industry as well as a number of projects in the field of multilingual news representation, named entity recognition, concept drift analysis and unsupervised knowledge mining. Oles is the author of multiple online Machine Learning courses (i.e. Prometheus Deep Learning course) and advisor to a number of startups in the ML/AI field, most notably Reflect.tech, a real-time face swap solution.

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Avid
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

An optimized user interface, meaningful personalized recommendations, efficient streaming and a high-quality catalog of content are the principal factors that define the end-user Netflix experience. A myriad of business workflows of varying complexities come together to realize this experience. Under the covers, they use computationally expensive computer vision, audio processing and natural language processing based media analysis algorithms. These algorithms generate temporally and spatially dynamic metadata that is shared across the various use cases. The Netflix Media DataBase (NMDB) is a multi-tenant, data system that is used to persist this deeply technical metadata about various media assets at Netflix and that enables querying the same at scale. NMDB is built using the best practices of the Netflix micro-services framework. NMDB uses concepts from SMPTE IMF and ISO BMFF to efficiently model the media timeline across a vast category of use-cases, enabling a uniform search and mining interface. The “shared nothing” distributed database architecture allows NMDB to store large amounts of media timeline data, thus forming the backbone for various Netflix media processing systems.

• Rohit Puri, Netflix
  

  Rohit Puri

  Netflix

  Dr. Rohit Puri is Engineering Manager, Cloud Media Systems at Netflix. His team develops cloud-scalable services and tools for the Netflix “media trans-coding pipeline” enabling ingestion and streaming of various audio, video and timed text media formats including IMF, QuickTime, MP4/DASH and W3C TTML. The team is also responsible for the Netflix “media intelligence pipeline” – implementing in-depth technical analyses on Netflix media assets using deep learning methods to solve challenging computer vision and natural language processing problems as well as building out scalable media infrastructure components that orchestrate these computations and persist their inferences for use across various business workflows.

  Dr. Puri received the B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the

  M.S. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, all in electrical engineering. Prior to joining Netflix he worked at semiconductor businesses PortalPlayer and Nvidia, SaaS businesses RhythmNew Media and TenHands, as well as Sony Electronics and Cisco Systems from the systems domain, in various software development and architecture roles for video-based products and systems.

  Dr. Puri was the recipient of the Eliahu I. Jury doctoral thesis award at University of California, Berkeley for outstanding achievement in systems, communications, control or signal processing research (2004). He was also a part of the Netflix team that was a recipient of the 67th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy award titled “Standardization and Pioneering Development of Non-Live Broadcast Captioning” (2015).

• Jason Brahms, Video Gorillas
  

  Jason Brahms

  Video Gorillas

  Jason Brahms has 17+ years experience launching B2C and B2B platforms in the media/content industry. He currently the CEO and Managing Partner at Video Gorillas (VG), a media-focused product and services company that develops state-of-the-art video technology incorporating machine learning, neural networks, visual analysis, object recognition, and live streaming. In this role Jason is responsible for defining and executing sales, marketing and product strategies across all VG products and services. Prior to VG, Jason was Vice President of Innovation and Advanced Solutions, where he oversaw product design, research, development and engineering for Sony Media Cloud Services cloud-based SAAS collaborative applications for creative professionals and content creators. Jason joined Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1998 starting in Corporate Development focusing on evangelizing and incubating ideas related to disruptive technology and new business models, including helping design, develop and launch the first IP VOD service, Movielink, where he assumed the role of Director of Content Acquisition and Operations. Jason has held multiple roles across various Sony business units since, including Director of Content for Playstation Network, Vice President, Technology and Operations for Sony Pictures, and Vice President, Advanced Platforms for Sony Pictures where he effectively worked as an “entrepreneur in residence” developing and evangelizing new production and post-production technology solutions. Jason is also a songwriter/music producer whose songs have been featured in numerous television series (e.g. Ugly Betty, Monk, ER, etc.).

• Andy Quested, BBC

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Western Digital

• Moderator: Matthew Goldman, Sinclair Broadcast Group
  

  Matthew Goldman

  Sinclair Broadcast Group

  Matthew Goldman is Senior Director Media Engineering & Architecture at Sinclair Broadcast Group. He has been actively involved in the development of digital television systems for 30 years. In the 1990s, he was a prominent participant in the Moving Picture Experts Group where he helped create the MPEG-2 Systems standard, the baseline transport technology used in direct broadcast satellite, digital cable, and terrestrial broadcasting. He also served as project editor for the MPEG-2 DSM-CC standard, the control signaling used in video-on-demand systems, switched digital video, and for DTV data downloads and carousels. Mr. Goldman was a co-developer of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) standard. In the mid-2000s, he defined the broadcasting industry’s first compressed-domain program splicer. Four of his projects have been later recognized by Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards. A technical paper on high dynamic range that he co-wrote received the Best Paper Award of the 2015 NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference. He is an author of the 2007 and 2017 editions of the NAB Engineering Handbook, and has been published in the IEEE Proceedings and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Motion Imaging Journal. Mr. Goldman received bachelor (high honors) and master of sciences degrees in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He holds six patents related to digital video transport. A SMPTE Fellow and former President, he is also a senior member of the IEEE, and an inductee of the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers.

• Del Parks, EVP/CTO, Sinclair Broadcast Group
  

  Del Parks

  EVP/CTO, Sinclair Broadcast Group

  Delbert R. Parks, III is the Executive Vice President / Chief Technology Officer of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Del has been serving Sinclair since 1972 and has held various operations and engineering positions with Sinclair over the last 48 years. In his role, he supports the company’s current and future Engineering, Technical Operations, and Facilities for Sinclair.

   

  Currently, he is responsible for the deployment of the new broadcast standard, the Next Generation Broadcast Platform, and co-leads Sinclair’s technical and operational integration of the twenty-one recently purchased FOX Regional Sports Networks, the Marquee Sports Network (Chicago Cubs), the Tennis Channel’s new IP digital facility in Los Angeles, and the transformation of the company’s media and broadcast operations as they migrate to the cloud and their future state.

  Del is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who has held various commands during his 26-year reserve career. Retiring in 1998 as the Battalion Commander of the 175^th Infantry (5^th Maryland), Maryland Army National Guard.

  He is a member of the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers and in 2015 was honored as a SMPTE Fellow. In 2007, he was the recipient of Broadcasting and Cable’s Technology Leadership Award and is a member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Baltimore Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America and has been active in the scouting program for many years with his two Eagle Scout sons.

  Favorite sayings: “Never suffer in silence” and “If you want something done…give it to someone who’s busy.”

   

• Skip Pizzi, NAB
  

  Skip Pizzi

  NAB

  Skip Pizzi is Vice President, Technology Education and Outreach, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Washington, DC, USA. His career has spanned the radio, television and digital media industries, working for 13 years in production engineering and technical training at NPR, and for 11 years in content creation, media standards development and technical policy analysis at Microsoft. He also spent 7 years as an editor at Broadcast Engineering magazine, and has been a columnist for numerous other industry publications. He has authored, co-authored or edited several books, most recently A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers, 4th edition, and the NAB Engineering Handbook, 11th edition, both published by Focal Press.

  Skip is a frequent speaker at media technology conferences around the world, and manages all of NAB’s technical education programs. He has also been involved with numerous media standardizations efforts, and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC) Technology Group 3 (TG3)—which has developed the ATSC 3.0 standard—and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ultra HD Forum. In 2017, Skip was presented with the ATSC’s Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied Fine Arts, International Economics and Electrical Engineering.

• Dave Siegler, Cox Media Group and Pearl TV
  

  Dave Siegler

  Cox Media Group and Pearl TV

  Dave Siegler is Vice President of Technical Operations for Cox Media Group (CMG) at the company’s Atlanta, Ga. headquarters.

  As Vice President of Technical Operations, Siegler is responsible for leading and growing the integrated media company through the rapidly changing technologies and consumer demands. Specifically, he manages CMG’s Technical Operations groups to integrate new technologies and processes across various platforms for CMG’s 14 broadcast television stations, one local cable television station and 57 radio stations.

  Prior to his current position, Siegler was Cox’s Director of Broadcast Operations & Engineering for the company’s television operations in Charlotte, NC and served 13 years in various positions with Post-Newsweek Television Stations.

  Dave is a Fellow Member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and is a recipient of Broadcasting & Cable’s Technology Leadership Award.

  He serves as Chair of the ATSC 3.0 Personalization Interactivity & Interactivity Implementation Team, serves as Chair of NAB’s Television Technology Committee and is a member of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, He sits on the Board of Directors of the ATSC and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Broadcast Technology Society.

• Richard Friedel, FOX TV
  

  Richard Friedel

  FOX TV

  Richard Friedel is Executive Vice President of Engineering, Operations & Technology for Fox Television Stations, supporting 21st Century Fox’s twenty-eight local stations throughout the United States and overseeing their rollout of ATSC 3.0 Previously, Mr. Friedel headed Fox Network Engineering & Operations, responsible for their national and regional television businesses. Early in his time at Fox, he was a member of the team that launched Fox News Channel. Mr. Friedel is a fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and life member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers. He serves as President of the Video Services Forum, President of the North American Broadcasters Association and is the former Chairman of the Advanced Television Systems Committee. He was previously awarded a lifetime achievement Emmy by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Once again, Pete Putman traveled to Las Vegas to see what’s new in the world of consumer electronics.

• Peter Putman, ROAM Consulting
  

  Peter Putman

  ROAM Consulting

  Peter Putman is president of ROAM Consulting LLC in Doylestown, PA. A 44–year veteran of the commercial AV and home theater industries, Pete has authored hundreds of columns, tutorials, and feature articles for 35 years on topics as diverse as display technology, digital video, RF and wireless signal propagation, and signal interfacing; all for a wide range of magazines and media outlets.
  

  He has presented, instructed, and moderated panel discussions multiple times at major trade shows and technical conferences, among them SMPTE, the NAB West and East trade shows, the Hollywood Professional Association Technology Retreat, CEDIA Expo, and Integrated Systems Europe.
  

  Pete taught seminars and workshops annually at the InfoComm trade show for 20+ years and a Senior Academy member of AVIXA University™ faculty. He was one of the first candidates to earn InfoComm’s Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) designation, and was also named InfoComm’s 2008 Educator of the Year.
  

  Pete earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Seton Hall University and a Master of Science degree in Television and Film from Syracuse University. He has also been a licensed Amateur Radio operator for 51 years, and currently holds Extra Class callsign KT2B. Pete is a Life Member of SMPTE and recently authored an online course on the fundamentals of ultra–high–definition television for the organization.

• Peter Putman, ROAM Consulting
  

  Peter Putman

  ROAM Consulting

  Peter Putman is president of ROAM Consulting LLC in Doylestown, PA. A 44–year veteran of the commercial AV and home theater industries, Pete has authored hundreds of columns, tutorials, and feature articles for 35 years on topics as diverse as display technology, digital video, RF and wireless signal propagation, and signal interfacing; all for a wide range of magazines and media outlets.
  

  He has presented, instructed, and moderated panel discussions multiple times at major trade shows and technical conferences, among them SMPTE, the NAB West and East trade shows, the Hollywood Professional Association Technology Retreat, CEDIA Expo, and Integrated Systems Europe.
  

  Pete taught seminars and workshops annually at the InfoComm trade show for 20+ years and a Senior Academy member of AVIXA University™ faculty. He was one of the first candidates to earn InfoComm’s Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) designation, and was also named InfoComm’s 2008 Educator of the Year.
  

  Pete earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Seton Hall University and a Master of Science degree in Television and Film from Syracuse University. He has also been a licensed Amateur Radio operator for 51 years, and currently holds Extra Class callsign KT2B. Pete is a Life Member of SMPTE and recently authored an online course on the fundamentals of ultra–high–definition television for the organization.

• Josh Pines, Technicolor
  

  Josh Pines

  Technicolor

  Joshua is currently in charge of imaging and color science projects at technicolor digital intermediates, which provides the motion picture industry with digital color correction processes for theatrically released films.

  he joined Technicolor after more than 10 years at Industrial Light & Magic, where he supervised their film scanning/recording department from its inception, and worked extensively with both traditional and digital cinema technologies. he started his career teaching film courses at the cooper union in New York city after earning his degree in electrical engineering there. he began working in visual effects at MAGI in 1982 at the tail end of their work on “Tron”, went on to lead the computer graphics division at R/Greenberg Associates in New York city, and then supervised film effects and film recording at Degraf/Wahrman in Los Angeles before working for ILM. he has received two technical achievement awards from the academy of motion picture arts and sciences and the Herbert Kalmus award from SMPTE, has had his gender identity confirmed when SMPTE named him a fellow, and has credits on several zillion feature films.

  Joshua has always thought that computers could be a useful tool in making movies better, and he still hopes that one day this may come true.

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Avid
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

• Seth Hallen, Pixelogic

• Don Eklund, Sony Pictures Entertainment
  

  Don Eklund

  Sony Pictures Entertainment

  Don Eklund has been a part of the development and launch of multiple consumer entertainment formats since starting his career at Sony. He developed the operation that launched DVD at Sony Pictures and went on to oversee the development of software tools and hardware systems which supported compression, authoring and quality control of Blu-ray. Don continues to participate in industry standards organizations and consortiums which focus on next generation entertainment, content security and delivery systems. He has been granted numerous patents on 3D, content security and content authoring.

• Haruka Miyagawa, Netflix
  

  Haruka Miyagawa

  Netflix

• Richard Miller, Pixelworks
  

  Richard Miller

  Pixelworks

  Richard Miller is a technology executive at PIxelworks. He is currently focused on ways to extend creative reach for motion in High Dynamic Range.

Last year’s discussion of image presentation management for consumer displays further fueled efforts toward solving the challenge of conveying creative intent. This year’s session shines a light on the latest developments by delving into Sony’s and Netflix’s pioneering, joint consumer deployment “calibrated mode” and the UHD Alliance’s viewpoint and work and by analyzing the next steps that need to be taken in order to achieve a consumer-friendly, industry-wide approach.

For consumers upgrading to 4K televisions, the desire for better picture quality (39% according to Futuresource Consulting’s May 2018 report) is second to only to the desire for a larger screen in the home (45%, same report). UHD has been credited with lifting the trade value of the consumer television market by $85 billion in 2018, alone. The need to deliver on the promise of UHD to consumers is real for content creators, distributors, and display manufacturers, and defining image quality for the consumer is a critical part of this picture.

• Moderator: Michael Chambliss, International Cinematographers Guild
  

  Michael Chambliss

  International Cinematographers Guild

  Michael Chambliss, the advanced production technology specialist for the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG), IATSE Local 600, focuses on the integration of new forms of programming and emerging production methods into the craft of cinematography and camera crew practices. He is active on the American Society of Cinematographers’ (ASC) Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC) as well as being the ICG’s representative on the Entertainment Technology Center @ USC projects, NAB’s Cine Consortium Educational Subcommittee and additional industry forums.

  Prior to shepherding the ICG’s technology initiatives, Michael was a principal of the commercial production company Chambliss-Wolff Films and a consultant for media technology investment groups. He worked as a director of photography and camera operator on commercials, motion pictures and television series for more than 20 years as well as earning a Peabody Award as the director/DP on the documentary “It Works.”

• Richard Smith, Netflix
  

  Richard Smith

  Netflix

  Richard joined Netflix in 2009. He currently leads the team responsible for partnering and collaborating with Post-Production Technology Manufacturers. Prior to his role in Post Partnerships, he led the launch of new streaming formats for Netflix, including4K video, HDR video, and Dolby Atmos audio.

• Chris Clark, Netflix
  

  Chris Clark

  Netflix

  Chris is the Manager of Production Imaging Technology at Netflix. Before Netflix, he was a Color Scientist for Sony Pictures D.I. and picture finishing facility, Colorworks, where he worked through the transition from 35mm to digital, and oversaw facility-wide color management from on-set through finishing. At Netflix, his team supports the studio’s imaging-related initiatives and research, and provides support for creatives on Netflix productions.
• Annie Chang, UHD Alliance
• Steven Poster, ASC, International Cinematographers Guild
  

  Steven Poster

  ASC, International Cinematographers Guild

  Steven Poster, ASC has shot a wide variety of motion pictures including “Rocky V,” “Big Top Pee-wee,” “Cat’s and Dogs – The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” “The Box,” “Donnie Darko,” “Southland Tales,” (screened in competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival), and most recently, “Amityville: The Awakening” for director Franck Kalfoun and Dimension Films.

  For the small screen, Poster was the cinematographer on “Mrs. Harris,” “Roswell,” “Color of Justice” and “Courage”–all critically acclaimed television movies—as well as on the first episode of the Netflix series “Hemlock Grove,” executive produced by Eli Roth. Poster also shot “Like a Prayer,” the controversial, award-winning Madonna video.

  Poster was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie for Phyllis Nagy’s “Mrs. Harris” and for an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award for Best Cinematography on Ridley Scott’s “Someone to Watch Over Me.”

  Poster is currently National President of the International Cinematographers Guild (ICG), Local 600. He was formerly President of the ASC, where he was responsible for reinvigorating the ASC Technology Committee.

• Toshi Ogura, Sony
  

  Toshi Ogura

  Sony

  Toshiyuki (Toshi) Ogura is Chief Distinguished Engineer of Sony Visual Products Inc., responsible for R&D strategy for consumer TV products and its ecosystem, specializing and evangelizing new picture quality technologies of 4K/8K and HDR across the industry, impacting everything from content creation, platform technology to client devices such as consumer TV products.

  Toshi joined Sony in 1983 and experienced several product developments, product design and R&D roles for consumer TVs and digital imaging products. In 2016, Toshi was recognized as one of the “Chief Distinguished Engineers” within the whole Sony group, which is only given to selected Sony engineers with outstanding technical expertise in key technological fields and have made a significant contribution to Sony. In the same year, he received a Sony Outstanding Engineer award for establishing the ecosystem of HDR format, which was loyalty free and later become de fact standard in the industry.

Direct-view displays bring high image quality in the cinema but suffer from low pixel fill factor which can lead to heavy moiré and aliasing patterns. Cinema projectors have a much better fill factor which avoids most of those issues even though some moiré effect can be produced due to the screen perforations needed for the audio. With the advent of high contrast, EDR, and soon HDR image quality in cinema, it was noticed that the screen perforations have an effect on the perceived brightness and contrast from the same image, though the effect has never been quantified since some perforations had always been needed for cinema audio. Now that high quality cinema audio system are available which are not requiring screen perforations, it appears necessary to quantify this effect.

In addition to luminance measurements, we are evaluating the perception of brightness in HDR using half-plain/half-perforated screens and two projectors, allowing projector power levels to be adjusted to achieve perceptible matches, therefore allowing the effect of perforations on brightness perception to be quantified. Contrast ratio measurement data will be provided and discussed as well.

• Julien Berry, Delair Studios
  

  Julien Berry

  Delair Studios

  For the last two decades, Julien Berry has been a prominent figure of the audio-video industry in France. He has worked with many post-production studios and high-end movie theaters, educating the industry about the video fundamentals and best practices, most notably the necessity of picture calibration. He has provided numerous training to industry professionals such as movie projectionists, colorists, and AV dealers and installers. Julien also brought his expertise in design and calibration to post-production facilities, commercial movie theaters, screening rooms and TV stations such as TSF and Canal +, as well as consultation services for manufacturers like Volfoni. In order to contribute to the public awareness of accurate imaging, Julien has participated to the production of test pattern and tutorial discs.

  Julien now brings his experience and expertise to Delair as the company’s Product Evangelist, ensuring that the best quality is delivered to clients and audiences.

• Jean-Philippe Jacquemin, Barco
  

  Jean-Philippe Jacquemin

  Barco

  JP Jacquemin is Product Manager Projection at Barco Digital Cinema in charge of HDR development.

• Jerry Pierce, Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners
  

  Jerry Pierce

  Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners

  Jerry Pierce, Chairman ISDCF and NATO Technology Advisor Jerry Pierce serves as the Technology Advisor for NATO (National Association of Theater Owners). He provides technology guidance in conjunction with the NATO Technology Committee. Jerry serves as the Chairman of ISDCF (Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum) a multi-industry open group that addresses digital cinema issues. His passions in the semi-retired state of mind include backpack hiking, photography and sculling (rowing). He was previously Senior Vice President, Technology, Universal Pictures. He joined Universal in 1995 and established the New Technology Department for Universal Pictures in 2000. He was responsible for the technical launch of DVD for Universal and was responsible for Digital Cinema activities for Universal. He was chairman of the SMPTE Digital Cinema Mastering group, a member of the Studio’s Digital Cinema Consortium (DCI), was an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, was Vice President of the Hollywood Post Alliance, and was on the Board of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center. He established the joint project with Universal and Panasonic for DVD disc authoring and High Definition Telecine Transfers. He was part of SRI International (Stanford Research Institute) for over 13 years. Jerry holds a MSEE degree from Stanford University and an BSEE from UC Berkeley.

• Leon Silverman

Sponsored by Adobe

1. Scalable metadata, Meghan McClelland, Versity
2. Why object storage for M&E? Erik Weaver, Western Digital
3. M&E cloud: challenges and solutions, Anthony Howe, Microsoft Azure
4. Immersive audio: separating fact from fiction, Ken Tankel, Linear Acoustic
5. Intra-file editing, John Harris, Cinedeck
6. 8K: Really? Pete Putman, ROAM Consulting
7. Washington update follow-up, Jim Burger, Thompson Coburn
8. Collaboration in movie production & marketing, Roger Vakharia, Salesforce
9. NABA, DPP, IMF, and content delivery, Chris Lennon, MediAnswers
10. Right sizing media services in the cloud, Ian Hamilton, Signiant
11. Implementing IMF for broadcast & online: a DPP update, DPP & Mr MXF
12. Immediates: the value of dailies a day earlier, Hugh Calveley, Moxion
13. SFP-based SMPTE 2110 systems, Roy Folkman, Embrionix
14. Diverging strategies for media processing deployment, Max Denton, Telestream
15. Studio-in-the-cloud via IMF, Aaron Sloman, Ownzones Media Network
16. Complex workflows in the cloud, Lance Maurer, Cinnafilm
17. Component Distribution via IMF, Brian Holter, Fox Media Services
18. IMSC subtitles for online distribution, Dave Kneeland, Fox, & Pierre Lemieux, Sandflow
19. eSports venue, Michael Little, Artistic Resources Corporation
20. NVMe fast storage, faster fabrics, Carllene Mowry, ATTO Technology
21. Who watches eSports, where, and why? Josh Rizzo, technologist
22. Agile production workflow & QC, Christine Sears, Salesforce
23. Automated distribution servicing for ‘TV Everywhere,’ Lior Berezonski, Prime Focus
24. Media management and asset protection, Robert Herzan, Scale Logic
25. Standardized cloud workflows for film/TV production, Mark Turner, MovieLabs
26. Too many AIs: how to compare & select, Jim Tierney, Transcriptive.com
27. Beyond SMPTE time code: the TLX project, Peter Symes, Symes TV Consulting
28. VFX: what is next? Anthony Magliocco, EMTM
29. De-risking post-production review, Rollo Wenlock, Wipster
30. Remote HDProxy editing for Premiere, Thomas Mauro, Arvato Systems
31. Protecting your valuable content, Patrick Sumby, Sohonet
32. ACESclip: what should a color metadata standard look like? Chris Clark, Netflix

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

See program below for dedicated Innovation Zone hours

• Ianik Beitzel, ARRI and Stuttgart Media University (HdM)
  

  Ianik Beitzel

  ARRI and Stuttgart Media University (HdM)

  Ianik Beitzel is a Student at the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart. His field of study is “Audiovisual Media” with emphasis on TV and Cinema technology.He recently finished his Master Thesis on Reduction of Judder Artefacts using Synthetic Shutter.Currently he is employed as a camera assistant at the “Bayrischer Rundfunk”, a public-service radio and television broadcaster.You can reach Ianik at ianik.beitzel@hotmail.com.

• Aaron Kuder, ARRI and Stuttgart Media University (HdM)
  

  Aaron Kuder

  ARRI and Stuttgart Media University (HdM)

  Aaron Kuder is a young freelance filmmaker focusing on post production for German TV and cinema films. In 2017 he graduated B.Eng. of Audiovisual Media at Stuttgart Media University (HdM). As a part of his bachelor thesis, he created professional HFR test footage. He can be contacted at aaron.kuder@gmx.net.

Drone aerial photography may be used to create multiple geotagged images that are processed to create a 3D point cloud set of a ground scene. The point cloud may be used for production previsualization or background creation for videogames or VR/AR new-media products.

• Eric Pohl, Singularity Imaging
  

  Eric Pohl

  Singularity Imaging

  Eric is an experienced media technology professional with diverse management & technical expertise. With a solid foundation in Electrical Engineering (BS and MS degrees), Eric has established himself as a technology leader who has an accomplished record of deploying new technology in the media industry.

  Having worked at television networks, equipment manufacturers, and served as a CTO at a leading media systems integrator, Eric has a wide and deep view of emerging media technology.

  He provided leadership in many new technology initiatives and has earned 3 Emmys for his work in television.

With a continuing appetite for content from viewers of all the major networks, as well as niche networks, streaming services, web, eGames/eSports, and venue and concert-tour events, the battle is on to make it possible to watch almost every sporting and entertainment event that takes place, all live as it is happening.  Join these key members of the remote and mobile community talking about what’s new for this area and what the workflows are behind the content production and delivery in today’s fast-paced environments.  Expect to hear about new REMI applications, IP workflows, AI, UHD/HDR, eGames, and eSports.

• Moderator: Mark Chiolis, Mobile TV Group
  

  Mark Chiolis

  Mobile TV Group

  Mark Chiolis is the Director of Business Development for Mobile TV Group (MTVG), which provides facilities for over 4,000 live professional and college sports and entertainment events annually, with more than 35 mobile units, and dozens of remote Cloud Control facilities, based throughout the U.S.  MTVG has been leading the 4K/UHD/HDR/Cloud live event production with key broadcasters, networks and distribution companies.

  Mark is currently working to interface with customers and partners to develop and support MTVG’s entertainment, awards, corporate, concerts, egames, and esports events with current and new trucks, using both broadcast and cine workflows.

  Prior to MTVG, Chiolis worked in marketing, business development, and sales for Grass Valley, Thomson, Technicolor, Philips, and BTS as well as at television stations KMUV, KRBK and KVIE.

  Chiolis is an active board member of the HPA, an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, member of the NAB Cine Consortium, member of the SciTech group at the Television Academy (Emmys), member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), member of International Association of Aviation Photographers, past section manager of SMPTE, member of STE, SBE and California Broadcasters Association.

• Wolfgang Schram, PRG
  

  Wolfgang Schram

  PRG

  Wolfgang Schram is a Broadcast Engineer for PRG based in the PRG Los Angeles office. He is responsible for the design of new systems to support multiple video markets worldwide. With that task he is also accountable for video standards in the engineering department, as well as input with our LED inventory and collaboration on video operating procedures. Since the late 90s, Wolfgang worked as an Engineer in Germany for N-TV, Bahn TV and OB trucks such as Wige Media & Alfa Cam. Wolfgang in his travels to the US resided for 8 years in the United Kingdom working for XL Video, CTVOB, Telegenic and finally PRG.

  For the last 10 Years Wolfgang has been working in the music business as a touring Video Engineer. Some of his clients are Beyoncé, Drake, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Queen and Paul Rogers as well as U2 and Lionel Richie to name only a few.

  In 2014 Wolfgang moved to Los Angeles and became a Chief Engineer for PRG Nocturne.

  Since 2016 Wolfgang is Director of Video Engineering at PRG Los Angeles.

• Scott Rothenberg, NEP Group
  

  Scott Rothenberg

  NEP Group

  Scott Rothenberg is NEP’s Senior Vice President of Program and Planning. Scott is responsible for setting up the project management office (PMO) for all of NEP’s global projects. Scott and the PMO team are responsible for putting into place the standards, tools and processes to implement and manage global projects and programs. Scott also continues to oversee NEP’s capital budgeting, equipment planning and coordination.

  In his previous role as SVP of Technology and Asset Management, Scott focused on understanding and matching clients’ needs with NEP’s technical capabilities and capacity, working tirelessly across all of NEP’s divisions to ensure that the right equipment is always in the right place, we have the right technology for our clients’ needs —and that NEP is always working to develop technical solutions to meet emerging client needs.

  Scott started with NEP in 1995 as a maintenance engineer after working as a freelance technician when he provided engineering and operational support for television crews and solving all manner of problems under the pressure of live television. Scott has been a member of three Emmy Award-winning NEP technical crews (twice for NASCAR and once for PokerDome) and won a CableACE Award in 1995 for his work on “Ripken’s 2131st Game” for HTS. Scott truly loves being a member of the NEP team and enjoys sharing the outstanding dedication and commitment with his extraordinary peers and colleagues.

• Nick Garvin, Mobile TV Group
  

  Nick Garvin

  Mobile TV Group

  Nick Garvin is Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner at Mobile TV Group (MTVG). Nick
  oversees all of MTVG’s operations, which includes over half of all NBA, MLB, and NHL
  broadcasts across the country and over 4,000 live events annually. Based in Denver, MTVG
  has offered high quality broadcast engineering for nearly 30 years. In 2020, the company
  introduced Cloud Control, the first fully remote production managed service, in response to the
  evolving industry and its needs. Cloud Control allows clients to go live from over 3,000 miles
  away from the on–site event without making any production sacrifices, and maintaining their
  complete production staff. This technology is reshaping the way that events are produced and
  Cloud Control has been an overwhelming success for MTVG and all of its clients. Nick is a
  member of Forbes’ 2018 30 Under 30 class and continues to lead and inspire MTVG as it
  innovates the live production industry.

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Avid
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

IMSC is a W3C standard for worldwide subtitles/captions, and the result of an international collaboration. The initial version of IMSC (IMSC 1) was published in 2016, and has been widely adopted, including by SMPTE, MPEG, ATSC, and DVB. With the recent publication of IMSC 1.1, we now have the opportunity to converge on a single subtitle/caption format across the entire entertainment chain, from authoring to consumer devices. IMSC 1.1 improves on IMSC 1 with support for HDR, advanced Japanese language features, and stereoscopic 3D. Learn about IMSC’s history, capabilities, operational deployment, implementation experience, and roadmap — and how to get involved.

• Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Sandflow Consulting (supported by MovieLabs)
• Dave Kneeland, Fox
  

  Dave Kneeland

  Fox

  Dave Kneeland is the Director of Technical Development and Support for 20th Century Fox, where he writes and distributes the file based specifications for the post-theatrical workflows. In addition to helping standardize the next generation media workflows at Fox, he has unwittingly become the in-house subtitle guy. The IMSC subtitle test content that he built with his colleagues at Fox has been used by most of the manufacturers from the IMF User Group to ensure proper IMSC encoding and decoding regardless of the tool that is being used.

This session will cover the latest, exciting updates happening with the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES).  The ACESNext effort has been kicked off with a new project structure, roadmap and several timely projects that are evolving ACES into THE industry-standard platform for color-managed workflows and final deliverables. The Academy Digital Source Master (ADSM), a standards-based, master-level file format designed for delivery and archiving, will also be covered in-depth.

• Andy Maltz, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
  

  Andy Maltz

  Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

  Andy Maltz is the founding Managing Director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Science Technology Council. He developed and implemented the Council’s operational plan, oversees the Council’s day-to-day operations, leads several Council projects and represents the Academy on motion picture science and technology matters at industry, government and academic forums in the U.S. and abroad.

  Prior to joining the Academy, Andy worked in the commercial world for over 20 years developing and deploying digital cinema servers and mastering systems, professional media authoring systems, nonlinear editing systems as well as working in film, television and commercial production.

  Andy is the chairman of ISO TC 36 Cinematography and is a fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), where he serves on the SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal Board of Editors. Andy is also a member of the Academy Software Foundation governing board.

• Annie Chang, Universal Pictures
  

  Annie Chang

  Universal Pictures

  Annie Chang is the Vice President, Creative Technologies for Universal Pictures, responsible for developing strategies and designing innovative next-generation workflows across film and emerging immersive media experiences. Prior to joining Universal Pictures, Chang was the VP, Technology for Marvel Studios and held various roles during more than a decade tenure at The Walt Disney Studios. Chang is the AMPAS ACES Project Co-Chair and served as the Co-Chair of the AMPAS SciTech Council until 2022. She was the Chair of the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) Working Group at SMPTE. She is an SMPTE Fellow and is a recipient of the SMPTE Workflow Systems Medal Award, Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership award and StudioDaily’s 2018 Exceptional Women in Production and Post. In 2020, The Hollywood Reporter named Chang on their list of top “Hollywood Innovators.” In 2021, Hollywood Professional Association honored Chang with the HPA League Honor of “The Catalyst” which recognizes a leader who has successfully inspired and sparked positive change and innovation in entertainment as a “mover and shaker,” and TVNewsCheck recognized Chang with their Women in Technology Futurist Award. In 2022, Women in Technology Hollywood honored Chang with their WiTH Leadership Award.

• Joachim Zell, Barco
  

  Joachim Zell

  Barco

  For 12 years he served as VP of Technology and Imaging Science at EFILM/Deluxe, where he designed and monitored production workflows from onset production to the movie release. Previously he was VP of Advanced Technology at Technicolor Thomson in Burbank and before that he was Marketing Manager Americas at Grass Valley Thomson. During his time in London, Joachim worked as Product Manager, Digital Film Systems for Pandora Int. He supports SMPTE as Hollywood Section Manager and serves on the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council DI team that has defined the ASC CDL standard. Joachim is an Associate Member of the American Society of Cinematographers. He also acts as Co-Chair of the ASC’s MITC Next-Generation Cinema Display committee and Co-Produces the ASC “Standard Evaluation Material V2” short. He holds the position of ACES Project Vice Chair at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
  Sciences.

  In February 2020, Joachim became a Board Member of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA).

  Joachim holds a Master’s Degree in Film and Television Engineering and has co-authored four image processing patents.

• Dr. Wolfgang Ruppel, RheinMain University
  

  Wolfgang Ruppel

  RheinMain University

  Dr. Wolfgang Ruppel is a digital technology expert and consultant with more than 20 years of experience in broadcast and media. Dr. Ruppel’s recent work includes software development of enhanced Open Source IMF tools and workflow automation utilizing Framework for Interoperable Media Services (FIMS) and queuing software for digital transfers and post production workflows. Dr. Ruppel serves as a consultant to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences towards standardization of a new archival format based on IMF and ACES. Dr. Ruppel holds a professorship for Media Technology at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany since 2006. Prior to 2009, Dr. Ruppel served as Head of T-Systems Development of a Digital Cinema distribution platform. He has worked with leading media companies and studios across North America and Europe. Dr. Ruppel earned a Dipl.-Ing. degree in 1989 and a Dr.-Ing. degree in 1994 from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.

Maintaining a consistent creative look across today’s many different cinema and home displays can be a big challenge, especially with the wide disparity in possible display brightness and contrast as well as the viewing environments or surrounds. It is not practical to have an individual creative session for every possible combination. Even if this were to be done, maintaining creative consistency would be very difficult at best.

By utilizing the knowledge of how the human visual system works, the perceptual model, processing source content to fit a given displays brightness and surround can be automatically applied while maintaining the original creative intent with little to no trimming.

• Bill Feightner, Colorfront

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Western Digital

Concurrent Women In Post Lunch (Invite Only)

• Moderator: Erik Weaver, Entertainment Technology Center at USC
  

  Erik Weaver

  Entertainment Technology Center at USC

  Erik Weaver is Emmy-nominated producer and is currently running Virtual & Adaptive production for the Entertainment Technology Center@ University of Southern California (ETC). Projects include Executive Producer on Ripple Effect a production-focused in Covid safety and Virtual Production and Fathead. Mr Weaver graduated from the 3rd Unreal Fellowship and 3rd ICVFX Fellowship.

  Mr Weaver is considered a leading authority in all aspects of OSVP. An early pioneer in executing shows from beginning to end. Running teams of industry experts to define LED testing and standardize the evaluation of panels, lighting, and color science. He worked on the team that built the largest stage in America for Amazon studios and has delivered portable stages to several national conferences. His experience also included both small and large VAD builds and orchestrating the development of assets globally.

• Tim Claman, Avid
  

  Tim Claman

  Avid

  Tim Claman is CTO and VP of Software Engineering at Avid.

  Tim is a media technology innovator with a track record of designing and developing award-winning tools and technologies for the media and entertainment industry. Before joining Avid, Tim was CTO at Snell Advanced Media and Quantel. Previously, as CTO of Avid, Tim helped shape the company’s technology and product strategies over a period of 14 years. Tim began his initial tenure at Avid as Senior Product Manager for Pro Tools, designing many of the features that led to the 2004 Academy Award for Pro Tools.

  Tim’s unique perspective on media technology stems from his career as an accomplished editor, sound designer and mixer. Tim worked at leading US post production facilities, working on many high-profile film and TV productions. Before working in Film and Television, Tim was a professional recording engineer and musician in Los Angeles.

  Tim holds a BA from Dartmouth College, where he graduated with High Honors in Music Composition, and is a member of SMPTE.

• Buzz Hays, Google
• Marco Rota, Microsoft

While the business of content creation hasn’t changed much over time, the
technology enabling processes around production, digital supply chain and marketing
resource management among other areas have become increasingly complex. Enabling an
agile, platform-based workflow can help in decreasing time and complexity but cost, scale
and business sponsorship are often inhibitors in driving success. Driving efficiency at scale
can be daunting but many media leaders have taken the plunge to drive agility across their
business process. Join this discussion to learn best practices, integrations, workflows and
techniques that successful companies have used to drive simplicity and rigor around their
workflow and business process.

• Roger Vakharia, Salesforce
  

  Roger Vakharia

  Salesforce

  Roger Vakharia is a senior executive with over 15 years of experience in Silicon Valley & Hollywood industry. His tenure reflects leadership positions at Microsoft, Intel and Salesforce where he successfully closed several digital transformation partnerships with high ROI and business value for all stakeholders.

  In his current role at Salesforce, Roger is enabling customer and industry success through partnerships based on innovative technologies, talent and thought leadership that meet the needs of Hollywood community, its global fans and how to benefit from transformative digital mega trends around 5G, AI, OTT-D2C, AR/VR, Media Cloud and Collaboration.

• Christine Sears, Salesforce
  

  Christine Sears

  Salesforce

Ice Cream Break Sponsored by ALT Systems

How to use AI (ML and DL networks) to perform “creative” tasks that are boring
and humans spend time doing but don’t want to (working real world examples included).

• Rich Welsh, Sundog Media Toolkit
  

  Rich Welsh

  Sundog Media Toolkit

  Richard Welsh is co-founder and CEO of Sundog Media Toolkit Ltd. Based in the UK, Richard has worked in the cinema industry since 1999. He has been involved in various technology development work during this time, primarily in digital cinema and is named on patents in the area of visual perception of 3D. He set up Sundog in 2013 and along with colleague Christian Ralph created the Sundog cloud platform. Sundog specialise in versioning automation, hyperscale processing and AI applications for media. Sundog works with several major Hollywood studios and broadcasters and contributed to feature films, broadcast series, documentaries as well as supporting student films from universities around the world.

  Richard has previously held positions as Head of Digital Cinema Operations at Technicolor, Director of Digital Cinema at Dolby Laboratories and has served on the board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

  Richard holds a BSc (Hons) in Media Technology and an honorary Doctor of Technology degree from Southampton Solent University.

Expectations for more and more content are continually increasing – yet staff sizes remain the same or only marginally bigger – how can advancements from machine
learning help content creators? AI can be an incredible boon to remove repetitive tasks and tedious steps allowing humans to concentrate on the creative; ultimately AI can provide the one currency creatives yearn for more than anything else: Time.

• Tim Converse, Adobe
  

  Tim Converse

  Adobe

The content landscape is shifting, with an ever-expanding essence and metadata repertoire, viewing experiences, global content platforms and automated workflows. Component-based workflows and formats, such as the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) standard, are being deployed to meet the challenges brought by this shift. Come and join us for a first-hand account from those on the front-lines.

• Moderator: Pierre-Anthony Lemieux, Chairman, IMF User Group
• Lucas Carboni, Fox
  

  Lucas Carboni

  Fox

  Lucas is the Senior Vice President of Media Strategy & Integration at 20th Century Fox Media Services.

  His team develops, implements, and evangelizes best practices across the global Digital Supply Chain at Fox. Taking a collaborative approach to initiate technological change in media processing, metadata preparation, and asset management at scale, Lucas leads initiatives to reduce effort and digital “waste” (time/storage/compute) while maximizing content availability.

  With 15 years of post-production and software development experience, he has performed or overseen a wide variety of integrated roles. This hands-on insight and deep understanding of workflows allows him to develop pragmatic solutions that evolve the Digital Supply Chain towards futuristic ideals while still maintaining business continuity.

  Currently, Lucas and his team are busy pushing NextGen content into service globally with UHD HDR mastering, localization, and distribution processes utilizing SMPTE IMF.

• Greg Geier, Sony Pictures Entertainment
  

  Greg Geier

  Sony Pictures Entertainment

  Greg Geier is Senior Vice President, Digital Media Supply Chain Strategy and Operations, Sony Pictures Entertainment. He had a critical role in transitioning Sony into a file-based Interoperable Master Format ecosystem, while strengthening the handoffs between productions and distribution. He is currently responsible for managing the DMSC team – a group that enables industry-leading workflow design, knowledge management, and media processes. Working together with stakeholders across the studio, the DMSC promotes the formation of an end-to-end, integrated, digital supply chain that enables SPE to more effectively acquire, manage, and distribute.

• Chris Fetner, Netflix
  

  Chris Fetner

  Netflix

  Chris currently serves as Director, Post Partnerships & Integrations (PPI) for Netflix. Chris and his team work to bridge the external post production ecosystem with the internal needs of Netflix. Prior to joining Netflix, Christopher Fetner served as Vice President of Post Production & Technical Services for BBC Worldwide, in which he oversaw management of all BBC  Worldwide Americas’ post-production resources and operations in the U.S.

• Jack Wenzinger, M&E Partner Technologies, AWS
  

  Jack Wenzinger

  M&E Partner Technologies, AWS

  I support technology partners in the Media & Entertainment Vertical for AWS, accelerating their adoption of AWS in media operations and services to support their customers. I’ve spend over 25 years defining contribution networks, digitization, MAM, and media workflow solutions for studios, broadcasters, sports, news, and government agencies. Over the last year, I’ve focused on how cloud technologies can advance content production workflows such as capture to cloud, production edit in the cloud, and virtual production. I’m also best known in the role as “Train Passenger #3” in last year’s HPA cinematic epic, “Lost Lederhosen”. I’m always ready to talk cloud, MAM, metadata, classic car restoration, big dogs, jeeps, Rush or other epic rock bands.

• Benjamin Sos, Disney

The Blockchain Entertainment Economy:  adding transparency, disintermediating the supply chain, and empowering content creators to own, manage and monetize their IP to create sustainable, personal and connected economies.

As we all know, rights and revenue (including royalties, residuals, etc.) management is a major pain point for content creators in the Entertainment Industry. As one recent producer put it: “The process is to cut a deal with a studio, make the movie, release the movie, file a lawsuit, resolve the lawsuit, and then get paid.”

Tokens and smart contracts offer an elegant means to solve that problem. We will explore tokenomic models that do away with accounting opacity and streamline rights, royalties and revenue management thereby freeing content creators to do what they do best.

• Adam Lesh, SingularDTV
  

  Adam Lesh

  SingularDTV

  Adam is excited to be a part of bringing blockchain’s power to the entertainment creator community! A career entertainment technology executive, Adam joined SingularDTV in early 2018 to build out an Artist Portal which will provide content management, preparation, publication and post-publication analytics for SingularDTV’s content creators. Now as VP, Technology, Adam provides technical leadership in all aspects of S-DTV’s business functions combining strategic and business planning to ensure that S-DTV adopts technology to best serve the company’s mission, the executive leadership team’s strategy and practical business needs. As a SingularDTV and blockchain evangelist, Adam frequently represents S-DTV at conferences as speaker and panelist.

• Jerry Pierce, Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners
  

  Jerry Pierce

  Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners

  Jerry Pierce, Chairman ISDCF and NATO Technology Advisor Jerry Pierce serves as the Technology Advisor for NATO (National Association of Theater Owners). He provides technology guidance in conjunction with the NATO Technology Committee. Jerry serves as the Chairman of ISDCF (Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum) a multi-industry open group that addresses digital cinema issues. His passions in the semi-retired state of mind include backpack hiking, photography and sculling (rowing). He was previously Senior Vice President, Technology, Universal Pictures. He joined Universal in 1995 and established the New Technology Department for Universal Pictures in 2000. He was responsible for the technical launch of DVD for Universal and was responsible for Digital Cinema activities for Universal. He was chairman of the SMPTE Digital Cinema Mastering group, a member of the Studio’s Digital Cinema Consortium (DCI), was an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, was Vice President of the Hollywood Post Alliance, and was on the Board of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center. He established the joint project with Universal and Panasonic for DVD disc authoring and High Definition Telecine Transfers. He was part of SRI International (Stanford Research Institute) for over 13 years. Jerry holds a MSEE degree from Stanford University and an BSEE from UC Berkeley.

• Leon Silverman

1. Cloud-storage cost models and gateways, Meghan McClelland, Versity
2. IMF API for locating assets, Bruce Devlin, Mr MXF
3. Carrying on the Tradition: Karl Paulsen and Merrill Weiss Question One Another
4. Blockchain & entertainment: a deeper dive, Adam Lesh, SingularDTV
5. IMSC subtitles for online distribution, Dave Kneeland, Fox
6. IMF at Netflix, Florian Schleich, Netflix
7. The war for attention: winning strategies for OTT success, Christine Sears, Salesforce
8. VFX: what is next? Anthony Magliocco, EMTM
9. Remote HDProxy editing for Premiere, Thomas Mauro, Arvato Systems
10. Drones (UAVs) and photogrammetry, Eric Pohl, Singularity Imaging
11. Deep fakes, Ed Grogan
12. Solid Cinema Screens with Front Sound: Do They Work? Julien Berry, Delair Studios

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

• Barbara Lange, Kibo121
  

  Barbara Lange

  Kibo121

SMPTE Time Code, ST 12, was developed and standardized in the 1970s to support the emerging field of electronic editing.  It has been, and continues to be, a robust standard; its application is almost universal in the media industry, and the standard has found use in other industries.  However, ST 12 was developed using criteria and restrictions that are not appropriate today, and it has many shortcomings in today’s environment.

A new project in SMPTE, the Extensible Time Label (TLX) is gaining traction and appears to have the potential to meet a wide range of requirements.  TLX is designed to be transport-agnostic and with a modern data structure.  Key to the design is a structure of self-identifying TLX Items, each representing data and metadata for a particular attribute such as time or equipment identification, and TLX Profiles specifying requirements and/or constraints for each application.  As the title indicates, the proposed standards will incorporate a mechanism for adding additional TLX Items and TLX Profiles as new applications emerge.

The work is still in the development phase, and we would like the opportunity to present the concepts to the HPA professionals and garner feedback and more application information.

• Peter Symes, Symes TV Consulting

The number one company in the world for gaming revenue makes as much as Sony and Microsoft combined. It isn’t American or Japanese. Marketeers project that by 2019, video advertising on out-of-home displays will be as important as their spending on TV. Meanwhile, a single US tech giant could buy every franchise of the top five US sports leagues. From its off-shore reserves. And still have $50 billion change.

We all know consumers like OTT video. But that’s the least of it. There are trends in the digital economy that, if looked at globally, could have sudden, and profound, implications for the professional content creation industry.

In this eye-widening presentation, Mark Harrison steps outside the western-centric, professional-media industry perspective to join the technology, consumer, and media dots and ask: what could blindside us if we don’t widen our point of view?

• Mark Harrison, DPP
  

  Mark Harrison

  DPP

  Mark began his career as an Historian at Cambridge University, before moving into the media industry. He spent many years as a Director, Producer and Executive Producer, and won numerous awards for his filmmaking, including an International Emmy and a BAFTA nomination.

  Mark held senior roles within the independent production sector and the BBC. He was MD of an independent production company before being appointed BBC Head of Arts, and then Head of Multiplatform Production. He was subsequently Controller of Production for BBC North and leader of the BBC’s End-to-End Digital programme, before becoming Director of Transformation for BBC Design & Engineering.

  In 2015 Mark became CEO of the DPP – the international network for media and technology, which he founded. Today the DPP has over 500 member companies from across the whole media supply chain – from global tech giants to broadcasters, and from media tech vendors to production companies. The DPP works with its member companies to generate strategic insight and create business opportunities.

Looking to experiment with non-linear storytelling, Netflix launched its first interactive episodes in 2017. Both in children’s programming, the shows encouraged even the youngest of viewers to touch or click on their screens to control the trajectory of the story. This presentation delves into how we overcame some of the more interesting technical challenges of the project (i.e., mastering, encoding, streaming), how we utilized SMPTE IMF to streamline the process and why we need more formalized mastering practices for future projects.

• Andy Schuler, Netflix
  

  Andy Schuler

  Netflix

  Andy Schuler leads the video engineering team at Netflix, focused on the development of cloud-based digital compression applications and encoding needs for the production of Netflix Originals at unprecedented scale.

• Moderator: Joachim Zell, Barco
  

  Joachim Zell

  Barco

  For 12 years he served as VP of Technology and Imaging Science at EFILM/Deluxe, where he designed and monitored production workflows from onset production to the movie release. Previously he was VP of Advanced Technology at Technicolor Thomson in Burbank and before that he was Marketing Manager Americas at Grass Valley Thomson. During his time in London, Joachim worked as Product Manager, Digital Film Systems for Pandora Int. He supports SMPTE as Hollywood Section Manager and serves on the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council DI team that has defined the ASC CDL standard. Joachim is an Associate Member of the American Society of Cinematographers. He also acts as Co-Chair of the ASC’s MITC Next-Generation Cinema Display committee and Co-Produces the ASC “Standard Evaluation Material V2” short. He holds the position of ACES Project Vice Chair at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
  Sciences.

  In February 2020, Joachim became a Board Member of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA).

  Joachim holds a Master’s Degree in Film and Television Engineering and has co-authored four image processing patents.

• Joe Bogacz, Canon
  

  Joe Bogacz

  Canon

  Joe Bogacz joined Canon in 1989, after a successful career as a professional photographer, video editor and cameraman.

  Joe is involved with helping launch of Canon imaging products,third party relationships, and product and feature development. He is an integral part of Canon’s efforts to communicate the needs of industry professionals to the engineers and teams who design the imaging solutions and products of tomorrow.

  Over his career, Joe has been involved with many facets of imaging including the seismic changeover from analog to digital, SD to HD ,the adoption of 4K ,and the preparation for 8K. Currently Joe is focused on Canon’s Reference Display business. Joe is a member of SMPTE, an Associate Member of the American Society of Cinematographers(ASC), and a committee participant on The Academy’s ACES project.

• Shawn Carlson, Blackmagic Design
• Lance Maurer, Cinnafilm
• Michael Flathers, IBM
  

  Michael Flathers

  IBM

  Currently CTO of Aspera, an IBM Company, Mike Flathers has more than 20 years of software development experience. He has a passion for pushing the technology envelope and has been a primary contributor and visionary for Aspera FASPStream.

  Throughout his career, Flathers has focused on enabling third-party technology integrations by creating software solutions and APIs. He has deep video experience having been CTO at Sorenson Media prior to joining Aspera. At Sorenson Media, Flathers led the development of Sorenson VCast, one of the industry’s first online video delivery platforms, and Sorenson VRS, a video relay service empowering communication for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

  Flathers also spent 14 years at Novell after the company acquired Excelan. He was a lead developer for the LANWorkplace product, the first suite of TCP/IP utilities for DOS and Windows.

• Dave Norman, Telestream

Sponsored by:

• Adobe
• Avid
• Blackmagic Design
• Salesforce
• Weka IO
• Western Digital
• WhDiYo Digital

• John Willkie, Luxio
  

  John Willkie

  Luxio

  John Willkie is a graduate of San Diego’s Samuel F.B. Morse High School. He attended San Diego City College, where he studied Radio and Television and first took to the airwaves on KSDS-FM, playing Jazz and writing and reporting news in his first semester. He is a few credits short of a Paralegal certificate (and degree) and a Broadcasting degree but did make it to the Dean’s list once.

  His love for free, over-the-air broadcasting and electronic media came much earlier, when his father explained to him that the family would always be able to watch television, even on a Navy enlisted man’s pay, because TV and broadcasting were free. The advent of color TV, the Internet and digital TV only increased his ardor for free media and innovation.

  As the founder and CEO of Civic Light Television, Inc., John was one of the pioneers of Low Power Television, filing the 47th LPTV application less than a month after the FCC announced the opportunity. He spent 8-1/2 years in the freezing swamp that is Washington, DC, pursuing the K63EN construction permit. Grant of the construction permit was delayed by the need to modify an existing treaty between the US and Mexico.

  The undercapitalized station took to the air in October 1992. John was effectively and unlawfully booted from the station in March 1995 due to the actions of an unfaithful business partner and a couple of preening, ignorant vipers.

  John then founded EtherGuide Systems and independently developed the most reliable and standards-compliant PSIP generator in the field. His first customer was the legendary Jeremy Lansman, who operated KYES-DT out of his Anchorage, AK garage. His second customer was the Navajo Nation, whose lack of momentum and competence helped destroy his firm’s momentum. He left the emission metadata field when his third customer, Meredith’s KPTV/KPDX hired a new Chief Engineer and he ended up with an unhappy customer. The new Chief Engineer left shortly thereafter for a lesser position elsewhere.

  John’s involvement in technical standardization activities began with honorary membership in the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), where he assisted in the development of the Programming Metadata Communications Protocol (ATSC A/76), Mobile/Handheld (A/153) and Non-Real Time (ATSC 2.0) standards. He has been an active member of SMPTE since 2003 and is currently Chair of the SMPTE Extensible Time Label (TLX) drafting group and VR/AR Study Group, which he helped create.

  John’s writing and reporting has appeared in The Washington Post, Washington Times, theBroadcastBridge.com, Radio & Records, Broadcast Engineering, Pacifica Radio/KPFK-Los Angeles, KGTV San Diego, KGB-FM San Diego and Bay 63 TV/K63EN San Diego. John has been profiled in the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post and appeared on “The Bertice Berry Show,” a nationally-syndicated TV talk show. John is latino.

There is no question that transitioning to off-the-shelf hardware is clearly one of the biggest topics on all sides of our industry, from manufacturers, software and service providers through to system integrators, facilities and users themselves. It’s also incredibly uncomfortable.

Post-production was an early adopter of specialized workstations (e.g. SGI), and has now embraced a further migration up the stack to COTS hardware and IP networks, whether bare metal, virtualized, hybrid or fully cloud based.

As the industry deals with the global acceleration of formats, platforms and workflows, what are the limits of COTS hardware when software innovation is continually testing the limits of general purpose CPUs, GPUs and network protocols?

This presentation and panel will put the “hidden” issues on the table when it comes to using COTS hardware, from the point of view of users and facility operators as well as manufacturers, services and systems integrators.

• Moderator: Stan Moote, IABM
  

  Stan Moote

  IABM

  Stan Moote is CTO of IABM, the international vendors’ association for the digital media and entertainment sector. A highly respected industry veteran, Moote began his television career in 1977 as a plant engineer for CFTO-TV in Toronto, Canada. He was involved in the original SMPTE Digital Video Standards Committee meetings creating CCIR-601 and continues by coordinating activities within the industry for standards groups. Through his domain knowledge working with video and audio, Moote developed several patents and focuses on workflow solutions, new technology, and interoperability. Stan is SMPTE Life Fellow and recipient of the SMPTE Digital Processing Medal Award.

• Paul Stechly, Applied Electronics
  

  Paul Stechly

  Applied Electronics

  Paul Stechly is the President and an owner of Applied Electronics Limited a large Broadcast and AV Systems Integrator with offices across Canada. Paul is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and his career in the Broadcast industry has spanned 37 years. He is a past board member of SMPTE including the positions of Membership and Finance Vice President. He is also a SMPTE Fellow. Paul is currently a board member of the IABM serving as America’s Council Chair.

• Thomas Burns, Dell
  

  Thomas Burns

  Dell

  Thomas Burns, Dell Technologies CTO for Media & Entertainment, has re-engineered global post-production workflows and developed HDR imaging solutions for episodic and feature projects. He has built a boutique VFX facility in Shanghai, a feature animation studio in Toronto, and was the architect of Oxygen Media’s storage and networking infrastructure in Manhattan’s Chelsea Market. Burns began his career at Silicon Graphics, Inc., developing Maya animation software and managing digital disk recorder products.

• Mike Palmer, Masstech
• Karl Paulsen, Diversified
  

  Karl Paulsen

  Diversified

  Karl Paulsen is Chief Technology Officer for Diversified. He supports and directs the company’s consulting and technology-driven broadcast engineering services; focusing on long term strategic planning, workflow analysis, media asset management and storage solutions technologies. Karl has held senior engineering management positions at systems integration companies and broadcast television stations since the early-1980s.

  A Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE), he has been active in the SMPTE standards development processes since 1986. Karl is an SBE Life Member, SBE Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer and a member of the VSF, AES and IEEE. His monthly TV Technology column has provided the industry with information on media workflow practices, storage and IP technologies for over 25 years.

• Scott Randol, MAX Post

In August 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Linux Foundation launched the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) to provide a neutral forum for open source software developers in the motion picture and broader media industries to share resources and collaborate on technologies for image creation, visual effects, animation and sound. This presentation will explain why the Foundation was formed and how it plans to increase the quality and quantity of open source contributions by lowering the barrier to entry for developing and using open source software across the industry.

• David Morin, Academy Software Foundation
  

  David Morin

  Academy Software Foundation

  David is Director, Industry Relations at Epic Games, where he works with the industry and the Unreal Engine team to develop open standards and the use of open source software, in virtual production and everywhere Unreal Engine is used. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation, a non-profit created by the motion picture industry to develop the use of open source software in all media. David is also chairman of the Joint Technology Committee on Virtual Production, and a past co-chair of the Joint Technology Subcommittee on Previsualization. He has a degree in computer science from Laval University, and has participated in the development of motion capture and 3D software since “Jurassic Park” at companies such as Softimage, Microsoft, Avid Technology, Autodesk, and Epic Games.

Meow Wolf, a New Mexico location-based entertainment start-up, created the first true cross-reality sculpture that blurs the lines between the real and digital realms using Magic Leap. The DIY arts collective built a fully immersive large scale sculpture of an intergalactic mech, called “The Navigator,” that uses a custom made control panel to control an experience in Magic Leap. When users sit on the mech, they are invited to explore a two star solar system with seven planets and solve a set of puzzles. The Navigator is intended to be a teaser for Meow Wolf’s Denver exhibit and explores the use of spatial computing in location based entertainment.

• Selma Sabera, Meow Wolf
  

  Selma Sabera

  Meow Wolf

  Selma is an emerging technology leader with over two decades of experience in media and entertainment. She started her career in Belgrade, Serbia as a technical director and online video editor at a national television station while studying mathematics. When she immigrated to the U.S. in 1998, she obtained a degree in electrical engineering and worked in Bay Area companies like Pixar, ILM, and Lucasfilm as a media technologist. In 2017 she joined Meow Wolf’s technology team bringing years of experience in scaling teams and technology. Selma is now leading Meow Wolf’s cross-reality R&D initiatives in location-based entertainment merging physical and digital art into new interactive experiences.

Jerry’s Guide to Backpacking Photography – Nerd’s Edition

How do you plan both backpacking and photography for a trek in the wilderness for 7+ days? Everything on your back and take GREAT pictures – all in under 40 pounds (food, shelter, camera, power supply, water, etc.).

• Jerry Pierce, Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners
  

  Jerry Pierce

  Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners

  Jerry Pierce, Chairman ISDCF and NATO Technology Advisor Jerry Pierce serves as the Technology Advisor for NATO (National Association of Theater Owners). He provides technology guidance in conjunction with the NATO Technology Committee. Jerry serves as the Chairman of ISDCF (Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum) a multi-industry open group that addresses digital cinema issues. His passions in the semi-retired state of mind include backpack hiking, photography and sculling (rowing). He was previously Senior Vice President, Technology, Universal Pictures. He joined Universal in 1995 and established the New Technology Department for Universal Pictures in 2000. He was responsible for the technical launch of DVD for Universal and was responsible for Digital Cinema activities for Universal. He was chairman of the SMPTE Digital Cinema Mastering group, a member of the Studio’s Digital Cinema Consortium (DCI), was an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, was Vice President of the Hollywood Post Alliance, and was on the Board of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center. He established the joint project with Universal and Panasonic for DVD disc authoring and High Definition Telecine Transfers. He was part of SRI International (Stanford Research Institute) for over 13 years. Jerry holds a MSEE degree from Stanford University and an BSEE from UC Berkeley.

The Earliest Idea for an Electronic Camera?

Newly discovered information moves the date for the earliest idea for a video camera back by seven years to an Australian 15-year-old. Maybe.

• Mark Schubin, Program Maestro, HPA Tech Retreat
  

  Mark Schubin

  Program Maestro, HPA Tech Retreat

  Multiple Emmy-award winning SMPTE Life Fellow Mark Schubin is the world’s greatest expert on the intersecting histories of media technology and opera. He helped create the hotel in-room movie business, the first live nationwide stereo simulcast network, the first live multi-language cinema subtitles, and what was probably the first HDR-to-SDR converter (though no one knew what HDR was at the time). He has worked on moving-image projects on all seven continents (including Antarctica), including news in Kazakhstan, cable TV in Hong Kong, and the television transmission system of Barbados. He also worked on the standardization of the VU meter. His bedroom was an official test site of the ATSC, his paper on aspect ratios was cited by the FCC, and his blog at SchubinCafe.com is archived by the Library of Congress. He once piloted the Fuji blimp and has been known to wear shoes.