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Please note that the HPA Tech Retreat 2020 is now Sold Out and registration is closed. We will not be able to accept any new registrations and on-site registration is not available.

If you have a question about registration or need assistance, please email events@hpaonline.com and our Staff will respond.  Please note that all HPA Staff will be onsite at the Tech Retreat and this email is the best way to reach us.

Overview

The HPA Tech Retreat is the pre-eminent gathering of industry-leading thinkers and innovation-focused companies engaged in the creation, management, and dissemination of content. Every year, for a week near Palm Springs, the HPA Tech Retreat brings together a world-class roster of well-known and emerging leaders in engineering, technology, creativity and business. At the HPA Tech Retreat, the most compelling topics facing the media and entertainment landscape today are presented, explored and debated.

HPA Tech Retreat

During the HPA Tech Retreat, attendees and speakers unplug from their day-to-day routine to engage with the brightest minds in the industry. From 7:30 AM breakfast roundtables to late-night fire pit conversations, there is nowhere else to experience the kind of unbiased, unvarnished, and authentic discussion, deliberation, and debate between experts that happens throughout the Tech Retreat.

Participants—who have included Oscar winners, program leads from NASA, and established and emerging tech mavens—take a forward-looking approach to trends and technologies of the content creation ecosystem while tackling issues of the present from fresh perspectives.

The HPA Tech Retreat is a limited attendance event, strictly capped at 700 guests, that consists of the main conference program, TR-X Tech Retreat Xtra, the Supersession, breakfast roundtables, and the curated innovation zone where companies present the absolute latest in technology.

View Schedule »

Tech Retreat Features

TR-X

TR-X

Stop the Technology World, I Want to Get Off!

This year’s TR-X, a half-day session produced by Mark Chiolis and Craig German, will examine how the most disruptive changes in technology will fundamentally alter the way each of us practices our craft. When anything is possible, how do you think and behave differently when you create content? What new skill sets will you need in this new era? How will each of us, from new entrants to the workforce to old hands, continue to learn when the pace of change becomes daily? From professional educators to visionaries to industry pioneers, we will explore what it looks like to live and work in a rebooted future.

Among our headline speakers will be Mark Turner of Entertainment Technologists Inc., Josh Stinehour of Devoncroft, and Rodney Grubbs of NASA.

Registration for the half-day TR-X is included in the All-Access registration package and can also be purchased as a standalone registration.

 

Supersession

Supersession

For the first time at the Retreat, this year’s Supersession will present a live production – from acquisition through post – of a short movie, in near real-time.  The culmination of the production will be a screening of “The Lost Lederhosen” at the day’s conclusion. Joachim “JZ” Zell, Vice President of Technology at EFILM, is at the helm of this year’s event.

Main Program

HPA Tech Retreat Main Program

The HPA Tech Retreat Main Program features an array of high-powered conference sessions, more than 50 breakfast roundtables led by industry experts, and extensive networking opportunities. This is an incomparable opportunity to meet and engage with a world-class roster of well-known and emerging leaders in engineering, technology, creativity and business.

Innovation Zone

Innovation Zone

HPA invites individuals and companies to share new and innovative technology with the participants of the HPA Tech Retreat®. The Innovation Zone is where attendees can discover your company’s NEW technology in a space designed for learning and discovery. Bring your latest and greatest innovations that improve how the chain from acquisition to delivery is done.

View Speakers »

Look Who’s Talking…

Keep an eye on this space. We will have many experts from around the world, sharing their insights and knowledge at this year’s Tech Retreat.

Annie Chang

Universal Pictures
Benjamin Nowicki

Benjamin Nowicki

Brian Vessa

Brian Vessa

Sony Pictures
Christopher Grove

Chris Grove

EK Gaming

Chris Lennon

Ross Video

Craig German

HPA
David Cole

David Cole

IPV
David Morin

David Morin

Academy Software Foundation
David Phillips

David Phillips

Cloudian
David Stump

David Stump

ASC

Del Parks

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Doug Walker

Autodesk
Eliot Mack

Eliot Mack

Lightcraft Technology
Erik Weaver

Erik Weaver

Entertainment Technology Center at USC
Felicia Yue

Felicia Yue

Amazon Prime Video
Glen Sakata

Glen Sakata

Dalet
Greg Ciaccio

Greg Ciaccio

IMAX
Guy Finley

Guy Finley

The Trusted Partner Network
Hossein ZiaShakeri

Hossein ZiaShakeri

Spectra Logic
Jerry Pierce

Jerry Pierce

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

Jim Burger

Thompson Coburn LLP

Jim Helman

MovieLabs
John Buzzel

John Buzzell

Epic Games
John Harris

John Harris

Cambridge Research Systems
John Quartel

John Quartel

Company 3
Josh Pines

Josh Pines

Technicolor
Josh Stinehour

Josh Stinehour

Devoncroft
Karl Paulsen

Karl Paulsen

Diversified
Kenneth Cuomo

Kenneth Cuomo

Vimond IO

Kristin Petrovich

Createasphere and SOC

Mark Chiolis

Mobile TV Group

Mark Harrison

DPP

Mark Schubin

HPA Tech Retreat

Mark Turner

MovieLabs
Matt Allen

Matt Allen

IES Communications

Matthew Goldman

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Michael Chambliss

International Cinematographers Guild
Michael Mansouri

Michael Mansouri

Radiant Images

Michael Zink

Warner Bros.

Michelle Munson

Eluvio
Mike Cronk

Mike Cronk

AIMS/Grass Valley
Mike Strein

Mike Strein

ABC News
Nadya Ichinomiya

Nadya Ichinomiya

Sony

Nick Garvin

Mobile TV Group
Omer Farooq

Omer Farooq

Independent Security Evaluators
Patrick Renner

Patrick Renner

Pomfort
Paul Bonar

Paul Bonar

Game Creek Video

Paul Debevec

Netflix/ICT

Peter Putman

ROAM Consulting
Phil Lelyveld

Phil Lelyveld

Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California
Poppy Crum

Poppy Crum

Dolby
Ramy Katrib

Ramy Katrib

DigitalFilm Tree

Renard Jenkins

Warner Bros. Discovery
Reza Rassool

Reza Rassool

Real Networks

Rich Berger

MovieLabs
Richard Friedel

Richard Friedel

FOX TV
Richard Duke

Richard Duke

Avid
Robin Cowie

Robin Cowie

HELO Technology
Rodney Grubbs

Rodney Grubbs

NASA
Ron Luniewski

Ron Luniewski

InPlay Studios
Ron Williams

Ron Williams (Coachella & Billie Eilish)

Rowan De Pomerai

Rowan de Pomerai

DPP

Scott Rothenberg

NEP Group
Sean Tajkowski

Sean Tajkowski

Speaker - Skip Pizzi

Skip Pizzi

NAB
Stacy Chaet

Stacy Chaet

SIM International
Steve Byrd

Steve Byrd

Sportradar
Steve Morris

Steve Morris

Skywalker Sound
Thomas Bause Mason

Thomas Bause Mason

SMPTE
Tony Gaughan

Tony Gaughan

RSTOR

Wendy Aylsworth

Walden Pond

Schedule

Tech Retreat 2020 Conference Program. Main session and Supersession programs TBA. Schedule is subject to change.

Monday, February 17 | HPA TR-X

11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Registration Open
1:00 pm – 6:30 pm
HPA TR-X: Stop the Technology World, I Want to Get Off!

This year’s TR-X, a half-day session produced by Mark Chiolis and Craig German, will examine how the most disruptive changes in technology will fundamentally alter the way each of us practices our craft. When anything is possible, how do you think and behave differently when you create content? What new skill sets will you need in this new era? How will each of us, from new entrants to the workforce to old hands, continue to learn when the pace of change becomes daily? From professional educators to visionaries to industry pioneers, we will explore what it looks like to live and work in a rebooted future.

Among our headline speakers will be Mark Turner of Entertainment Technologists Inc., Josh Stinehour of Devoncroft, and Rodney Grubbs of NASA.

Registration for the half-day TR-X is included in the All-Access registration package and can also be purchased as a standalone registration.

1:00 pm – 1:10 pm
Mark and Craig Welcome, Overview and Goals for the Afternoon
  • 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
1:10 pm – 1:25 pm
Keynote 1
  • Mark Turner, MovieLabs

    Mark Turner

    MovieLabs

    Mark Turner is President, Entertainment Technologists Inc and coordinates the Production Technology program for Movielabs that created the 2030 Vision for the future of content creation. In Mark’s 27 years in the global media industry he has always been at the intersection of technology and business. Mark has held roles from product management, to sales, strategy, business development and partnerships for start-ups to multi-billion corporates including Ryff, Technicolor, Levels Beyond, RSTOR, Wasabi, Dolby , Microsoft, BT Media & Broadcast, Eutelsat and Xinsere.

1:25 pm – 1:40 pm
Keynote 2
  • Josh Stinehour, Devoncroft
    Josh Stinehour

    Josh Stinehour

    Devoncroft

    Josh Stinehour is a principal analyst with Devoncroft Partners, a provider of market research and strategic consulting services to a wide range of digital media clients and institutional investors. He is a frequent presenter at conferences and trade shows in the media technology sector. Prior to joining Devoncroft, Mr. Stinehour was a managing director at Silverwood Partners in the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications group. While at Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour executed a range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, valuations, and private placements. Before joining Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour worked in various positions at EMC Corporation including as a software programmer and later as an analyst on integration teams for EMC’s acquisitions of Documentum, Legato, and VMWare. He holds an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, an MS in computer science from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BS in computer science from Union College. Mr. Stinehour is a CFA charterholder.

1:40 pm – 2:30 pm
Video Over IP: Opening the Floodgates

Video has been distributed over IP on the Internet for decades, but professional production and distribution infrastructure is still dominated by traditional technologies. What is the attraction of moving all of it to IP?  Decoupling solutions from proprietary hardware, accelerating innovation from the historical multi-year upgrade cycles, and reimagining our solutions as infrastructure-as-code are just some of the benefits. Join us as we explore the evolution of video distribution infrastructure to the CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous deployment) model that is now commonplace in software development. IP is now moving ahead as facilities and other avenues fully deploy it for use.

  • Claire Southey, Amazon
  • Mike Cronk, AIMS/Grass Valley
    Mike Cronk

    Mike Cronk

    AIMS/Grass Valley

    Michael Cronk is Chairman of the Board for the Alliance for IP Media Solutions and Vice President of Core Technology for Grass Valley. Michael guides the critical development of Grass Valley’s next generation core technologies for both cloud and on-premise topologies. He also leads Grass Valley’s company-wide cyber-security initiative. Michael’s history with Grass Valley originally dates back to 1989 to 2008 when he held a number of growing roles over the period including General Manager of the Server and News business, as well as Vice President of Marketing. During this tenure with the company, Michael led the identification and implementation of Grass Valley’s expansion strategy into the news market. After a hiatus Michael re-joined the company in 2013 as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Line Management where he was instrumental in the turn-around of the company prior to its acquisition by Belden. Between 2015 and 2016 he served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, driving Grass Valley’s product roadmap and strategy.

  • Mike Strein, ABC News
    Mike Strein

    Mike Strein

    ABC News

    Mike is the Director of Engineering and Technology at ABC News in NY, part of Walt Disney Television. For the last 30 years he has been at the forefront of just about every technical advancement that the ABC TV network has made, from the conversion from analog to digital, through the HDTV transition to the migration to video over IP and the expansion of streaming platforms. Mike has over 40 Disney Innovation awards that have resulted in 22 US patents, with several others still in process. Mike is fairly active in the standards communities, has been an active SMPTE NY board member since 1997 and is a SMPTE Fellow. Prior to ABC, Mike spent 7 years at Standard Microsystems Corporation as part of a semiconductor design team. He has a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from SUNY Polytechnic University in Utica/Rome.

  • Karl Paulsen, Diversified
    Karl Paulsen

    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.

  • Paul Bonar, Game Creek Video
    Paul Bonar

    Paul Bonar

    Game Creek Video
2:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Beat the Clock Part I

5 Industry Leaders in the know have exactly 2:30 to say where the industry is going, once early on to baseline today’s foundation and once at the end to explore the limits of the future on each of their individual topics. The clock is ticking!

  • Automating Metadata: Letting Your Data Write Itself - Stacy Chaet, SIM International
    Stacy Chaet

    Stacy Chaet

    SIM International

    Stacy Chaet is a Supervising Workflow Producer at Sim. She is involved with the creation and implementation of workflows for television and feature films as well as managing facility needs. She has a genuine curiosity for solving technical issues as well as a love for the merging of art and technology. With over 10 years experience in post production, Stacy aims to keep on the forefront of the ever evolving industry.

  • The Future of Media Creation: How to Support a Worldwide Production & Post Workforce - Greg Ciaccio, IMAX
    Greg Ciaccio

    Greg Ciaccio

    IMAX

    Greg Ciaccio, Creative Technologist, is pushing the boundaries of production and post techniques to help usher in the new paradigm of filmmaking through advances in virtual and remote production.

    Ciaccio serves as Chair of the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council’s Workflow Committee, which includes the Advanced Data Management and ACES Subcommittees. He is also helping to lead Production Technology for R&D Projects at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, working to advance workflows and technical best-practices in Virtual and Remote Production. Their next short “Fathead” dives deeper into Virtual Production use cases, adding virtual humans and expanded remote production as we continue to work through challenging times.

    Additionally, he is an ASC Associate Member, Board Member of the SMPTE Hollywood Section, Advisory Board Member of SMPTE Rapid
    Industry Solutions, Member of the Television Academy Science & Technology Group, and a founding member of the Digital Cinema Society.

  • Assembling the Best Team for Each of Your Projects and Why Diversity Matters - Nadya Ichinomiya, Sony
    Nadya Ichinomiya

    Nadya Ichinomiya

    Sony

    Early in Nadya’s life, when dirt was also young, she became obsessed with this question: how do you influence behavior? Her first job at 16 was calling up strangers on the phone, asking them to take a 20 minute survey about legal cases. OOOOF. The question morphed into – how do you inspire employees to unleash their passion, innovation and engagement? What needs to be in place to create highly performing teams? Nadya serves as an Executive Director at Sony Pictures in the role of Enterprise Agile Coach, working with tech teams aiming to improve their responsiveness to change in an industry tackling vast amounts of disruption. Starting out her professional life with a Business degree from USC, Nadya cut her corporate teeth at IBM, working in sales and management behind the Orange Curtain. From there she leveraged her intimacy with the umlaut to land a job as a Vice President with Electronic Data Systems (now Hewlett Packard) in Frankfurt at the young age of 27 – shattering a glass ceiling as the company’s highest ranking woman in the EMEA’s region (22,000 employees) and also was the youngest VP worldwide (out of 117,000 employees.) Never one to shy away from a challenge, Nadya moved from computer screens to movie screens, changing course and rebooting her career as a Hollywood producer. After five years working with Bonnie Hunt in both movies and TV (as a producer on ABC’s Life With Bonnie,) she was ready to return to the corporate world. First in TV Distribution at MGM and now back in technology at Sony Pictures, Nadya’s familiarity with both the wonky and the wacky aspects of Hollywood has provided a wide aperture of both the entertainment business and the tech world. In 2010, Nadya launched a side business as a literary manager, guiding the career of mom blogger, Kelle Hampton, whose first book “Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected,” debuted two years later at number 11 on The New York Times best seller list. During this time, she created, directed and edited a video for a non-profit which has over 100,000 views on YouTube and raised over $100,000 in the first week. A woman of diverse talents, Nadya also spent time training female boxers and is licensed as a boxing trainer in the states of California and Nevada, earning the ring name of “The Monster.” Six years ago, Nadya co-founded Women In Technology: Hollywood (501c3) – a cross media & entertainment non-profit with 2500+ members from all the major studios where she serves as Chairwoman. Additionally, she was co-Chair of Women in Technology at Sony Pictures, which has 250+ members. In both groups, the mission is to enable women to expand their professional development and build their network as well as empower girls to consider a career in technology, whether it’s in coding itself or code adjacent roles in project management and business analysis. In 2016, Nadya was honored with a Certification of Acknowledgement from Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, for entrepreneurial/start-up service to LA as the founder/thought leader of both influential groups, now in their fourth year. She also received the honor of a Leadership/Education/Advocacy award from Women in Cable Telecommunications. Nadya lives in LA with her husband David, their two sons Mingus and Spike & their Boston Terrier, Dolphy.

  • Producing Live Industry Events: Challenges and Solutions in an Age of Unlimited Connectivity, Social Media, and Immediate Gratification - Kristin Petrovich, Createasphere and SOC

    Kristin Petrovich

    Createasphere and SOC

    Createasphere is the leading builder of professional communities for content creation technology and media companies. Working with organizations at strategic points in their growth to build new audiences, while engaging current fans.

    Kristin has developed and lead hundreds of community building initiates worldwide from organizations, tradeshows, conferences, digital to educational workshops.

    Kristin is currently privileged to work with the Society of Camera Operators as the Executive Director and with NAB Show consulting on their cinema focused initiatives.

    Her passion is fostering women entrepreneurs through transformative thought leadership.

  • Managing Through the Transition to an IP Environment - Renard Jenkins, Warner Bros. Discovery

    Renard Jenkins

    Warner Bros. Discovery

    Renard Jenkins is an experienced contention creation and creative technology executive in the Film, Television and Radio industry. He is currently Warner Bros. Discovery’s Senior Vice President, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services where he oversees teams that support 23,500 plus cast/crew members, 8,500 plus content hours and hundreds of global feature film, animation, and syndicated television productions annually. He and his teams provide creative production technology solutions and strategy for film, animation, and television productions worldwide. They also provide application, IP, production pipeline support and workflows as well as work stream design and implementation. A portion of his team are also responsible for the exploration and successful implementation of emerging and creative technologies such as virtual production, multiplatform storytelling, virtual character and meta human development, neuro-technology and better images and sound for cinema and home entertainment.

    Prior to joining WarnerMedia, Jenkins served as Vice President, Operations, Engineering & Distribution at PBS, where he was responsible for the strategic direction, technology development, engineering, and operational management of PBS’s entire media-supply chain. He and his teams were responsible for the successful simultaneous launch of the Live Linear and Cloud-based PBS Kids Channel plus Live Streaming App which also contained games and VOD. It remains as one of the most popular kid’s applications and destinations today. He also created PBS’s Advanced Format Center. He has also worked for TV One, Discovery, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting where he received multiple awards for his work in Film & Television Production, Post Production and R&D, including two national Emmys. Jenkins was also awarded the Innovator of the Year award in 2017 for his cutting-edge work and accomplishments in UHD, HDR, NGA and supply chain technology through the PBS Advanced Format Center and other industry activities.

    Jenkins is a SMPTE Fellow and currently serves as President of SMPTE. He sits on the boards of MovieLabs, the Hollywood Professionals Association, the UltraHD Forum, the Content & Entertainment Council as well as the Microsoft and Oracle Advisory Boards. He is also a recipient of a Peabody, 2 Headliners and a 2020 Broadcasting and Cable Technology Leadership award to name a few others.

    He is a champion and advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in the technology and media industries. He is a Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC), chairs the Warner Bros. Discovery Technology and Operations Equity and Inclusion Council, the SMPTE Global Inclusion Working Group and he also Co-Chairs, HPA ALL which advocates for and promotes diversity, better equity and increased inclusion and accessibility in the media and entertainment industry.

    When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and best friend of over 30 years, his daughters, and his grandchildren. He loves travel photography / filmmaking and only has one more continent left to explore. He is also a certified sound engineer and is passionate about the visual arts. When time permits, he loves to provide pro bono location sound, live mixing, studio recording, post-production and finishing services for aspiring filmmakers, animators, and musicians. His family moto is “In all things integrity and integrity in all things.”

2:45 pm – 3:30 pm
Mainstream Betting: The Gamifying of Entertainment

Regulatory constraints are being removed from the gaming industry, and technology now makes it possible to place bets in real-time from any device as an integrated event experience. What will happen when betting expands beyond its traditional realm, into esports, on-line games, and even general entertainment like TV and movies? What are the basics of today’s technology, and where are the best business opportunities? How will betting data be used to drive stories, camera angles, spinoffs, etc.? How does this change the way that workflow and personnel are deployed throughout the industry over the next 5-10 years or more? Will this be the crumbling of our moral fabric, is there a rainbow waiting at the end of this, or do we find a new middle ground? Come find out!

  • Jason Dachman, SVG / Sports Video Group
  • Steve Byrd, Sportradar
    Steve Byrd

    Steve Byrd

    Sportradar

    Steve Byrd is head of strategic partnerships at Sportradar. A thirty-year veteran of the sports industry, Steve joined Sportradar’s U.S. operation as chief commercial officer in May 2015. After building out the U.S. sales team, Byrd transitioned into his current global role in May 2017. This follows a stint during which he served as a consultant and advisory board member for a number of global digital sports firms. Previously, Byrd was co-chief operating officer at STATS, leading their growth and relationships with leagues, federations, broadcasters, brands, and technology firms for nearly two decades. Byrd is a founding board member of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and serves as an executive-in-residence for his alma mater, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

  • 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 175th Infantry (5th 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.”

     

  • Ron Luniewski, InPlay Studios
    Ron Luniewski

    Ron Luniewski

    InPlay Studios

    CEO InPlay Studios a first to market digital streaming company in the fast-growing sports betting space. Prior to InPlay Ron for 16 years Ron built Xpressbet and Global Wagering Solutions(GWS) into a respected global leader in wagering. This multi-platform gaming company generates $300+ million in annual revenue placing $2 billion in wagers each year. Prior to Xpressbet Ron was COO\CEO of a startup to IPO; Youbet.com.

  • Chris Grove, EK Gaming
    Christopher Grove

    Chris Grove

    EK Gaming

    Chris Grove is a partner at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming where he heads the firm’s sports betting practice. His research and insights are regularly cited by policymakers, media, publicly-traded companies, and financial analysts. Grove is also a founder and managing partner at SGIF, a VC fund investing in startups focused on the legal U.S. sports betting opportunity.

3:30 pm – 3:45 pm
Coffee Break

Sponsored by Adobe

3:45 pm – 4:05 pm
Special guest: Poppy Crum, Dolby
  • Poppy Crum, Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories, Dolby
    Poppy Crum

    Poppy Crum

    Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories, Dolby

    Poppy Crum works to bridge the gap between technology and insightful, effective human interaction. As a multi-dimensional advocate of empathetic technology, she builds technologies that best leverage human physiology to enhance our experiences and how we interact with the world.

     

    Poppy serves as the Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories and as an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics and Program in Symbolic Systems.

     

    Poppy is dedicated to the development of immersive technologies that leverage human physiology and perceptual realities to enhance our experiences and interactions in the world. She has advanced a mission to democratize the way people of all abilities benefit from sensory technologies – and how effectively technology communicates back to each of us. She believes the power of intelligent technologies is only realized with dynamic optimization and learning of as much of our personal and contextual data as possible.

     

    At Dolby, Poppy directs the growth of internal science. She is responsible for integrating neuroscience and sensory data science into algorithm design, technological development, and technology strategy. At Stanford, her work focuses on the impact and feedback potential of new technologies including gaming and immersive environments such as Augmented and Virtual Reality on neuroplasticity and learning.

4:05 pm – 4:35 pm
Step Into Your Content: The Future of Experience

Real time spatial computing is changing the experiences of tomorrow.  The lines between Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality have melted.  From producing The Blair Witch Project to the latest Electronic Arts story mode, Robin Cowie has 26 years in theme parks, feature films, and computer games. Joining him is John Buzzell, a strategic and creative leader focused on real time content for Epic Games and their Unreal engine.  Together they’ll share some of the most exciting projects they are currently working on and where they think experience content is going.

  • Robin Cowie, HELO Technology
    Robin Cowie

    Robin Cowie

    HELO Technology

    Robin Cowie is the Director of Experience Technology for Helo (www.flyhelo.com), a global experiential creative studio. He has 26-years creating film, television, theme park, theatre, and computer game experiences. His first feature, The Blair Witch Project, was followed by 8 other successful feature films, 2 television series, 6 video games, and a role as the Creative Director for the $600 million Dr. Phillips Center. He is the winner of numerous awards including the Producers Guild of America Award, the Prix De Jeuvenes from the Cannes Film Festival, and the Independent Spirit Award. Further, he is a founding partner for Experientia XR Limited, an original content development company located in London, England.

  • John Buzzell, Epic Games
    John Buzzel

    John Buzzell

    Epic Games

    John Buzzell is an award-winning veteran of the digital industry. In his role at Epic Games, John helps creative agencies, animation studios, and AR and VR creators leverage Unreal Engine’s real-time visuals for breakthrough experiences and compelling storytelling. His past credits include emerging technology for WarnerMedia, National Geographic, Coca-Cola, Porsche, and Discovery, Inc. John lives near Epic’s headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he also leads the VR/AR Association’s local chapter. 

4:35 pm – 4:50 pm
Beat the Clock Part 2

5 Industry Leaders in the know have exactly 2:30 to say where the industry is going, once early on to baseline today’s foundation and once at the end to explore the limits of the future on each of their individual topics. The clock is ticking!

  • Automating Metadata: Letting Your Data Write Itself - Stacy Chaet, SIM International
    Stacy Chaet

    Stacy Chaet

    SIM International

    Stacy Chaet is a Supervising Workflow Producer at Sim. She is involved with the creation and implementation of workflows for television and feature films as well as managing facility needs. She has a genuine curiosity for solving technical issues as well as a love for the merging of art and technology. With over 10 years experience in post production, Stacy aims to keep on the forefront of the ever evolving industry.

  • The Future of Media Creation: How to Support a Worldwide Production & Post Workforce - Greg Ciaccio, IMAX
    Greg Ciaccio

    Greg Ciaccio

    IMAX

    Greg Ciaccio, Creative Technologist, is pushing the boundaries of production and post techniques to help usher in the new paradigm of filmmaking through advances in virtual and remote production.

    Ciaccio serves as Chair of the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council’s Workflow Committee, which includes the Advanced Data Management and ACES Subcommittees. He is also helping to lead Production Technology for R&D Projects at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, working to advance workflows and technical best-practices in Virtual and Remote Production. Their next short “Fathead” dives deeper into Virtual Production use cases, adding virtual humans and expanded remote production as we continue to work through challenging times.

    Additionally, he is an ASC Associate Member, Board Member of the SMPTE Hollywood Section, Advisory Board Member of SMPTE Rapid
    Industry Solutions, Member of the Television Academy Science & Technology Group, and a founding member of the Digital Cinema Society.

  • Assembling the Best Team for Each of Your Projects and Why Diversity Matters - Nadya Ichinomiya, Sony
    Nadya Ichinomiya

    Nadya Ichinomiya

    Sony

    Early in Nadya’s life, when dirt was also young, she became obsessed with this question: how do you influence behavior? Her first job at 16 was calling up strangers on the phone, asking them to take a 20 minute survey about legal cases. OOOOF. The question morphed into – how do you inspire employees to unleash their passion, innovation and engagement? What needs to be in place to create highly performing teams? Nadya serves as an Executive Director at Sony Pictures in the role of Enterprise Agile Coach, working with tech teams aiming to improve their responsiveness to change in an industry tackling vast amounts of disruption. Starting out her professional life with a Business degree from USC, Nadya cut her corporate teeth at IBM, working in sales and management behind the Orange Curtain. From there she leveraged her intimacy with the umlaut to land a job as a Vice President with Electronic Data Systems (now Hewlett Packard) in Frankfurt at the young age of 27 – shattering a glass ceiling as the company’s highest ranking woman in the EMEA’s region (22,000 employees) and also was the youngest VP worldwide (out of 117,000 employees.) Never one to shy away from a challenge, Nadya moved from computer screens to movie screens, changing course and rebooting her career as a Hollywood producer. After five years working with Bonnie Hunt in both movies and TV (as a producer on ABC’s Life With Bonnie,) she was ready to return to the corporate world. First in TV Distribution at MGM and now back in technology at Sony Pictures, Nadya’s familiarity with both the wonky and the wacky aspects of Hollywood has provided a wide aperture of both the entertainment business and the tech world. In 2010, Nadya launched a side business as a literary manager, guiding the career of mom blogger, Kelle Hampton, whose first book “Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected,” debuted two years later at number 11 on The New York Times best seller list. During this time, she created, directed and edited a video for a non-profit which has over 100,000 views on YouTube and raised over $100,000 in the first week. A woman of diverse talents, Nadya also spent time training female boxers and is licensed as a boxing trainer in the states of California and Nevada, earning the ring name of “The Monster.” Six years ago, Nadya co-founded Women In Technology: Hollywood (501c3) – a cross media & entertainment non-profit with 2500+ members from all the major studios where she serves as Chairwoman. Additionally, she was co-Chair of Women in Technology at Sony Pictures, which has 250+ members. In both groups, the mission is to enable women to expand their professional development and build their network as well as empower girls to consider a career in technology, whether it’s in coding itself or code adjacent roles in project management and business analysis. In 2016, Nadya was honored with a Certification of Acknowledgement from Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, for entrepreneurial/start-up service to LA as the founder/thought leader of both influential groups, now in their fourth year. She also received the honor of a Leadership/Education/Advocacy award from Women in Cable Telecommunications. Nadya lives in LA with her husband David, their two sons Mingus and Spike & their Boston Terrier, Dolphy.

  • Producing Live Industry Events: Challenges and Solutions in an Age of Unlimited Connectivity, Social Media, and Immediate Gratification - Kristin Petrovich, Createasphere and SOC

    Kristin Petrovich

    Createasphere and SOC

    Createasphere is the leading builder of professional communities for content creation technology and media companies. Working with organizations at strategic points in their growth to build new audiences, while engaging current fans.

    Kristin has developed and lead hundreds of community building initiates worldwide from organizations, tradeshows, conferences, digital to educational workshops.

    Kristin is currently privileged to work with the Society of Camera Operators as the Executive Director and with NAB Show consulting on their cinema focused initiatives.

    Her passion is fostering women entrepreneurs through transformative thought leadership.

  • Managing Through the Transition to an IP Environment - Renard Jenkins, Warner Bros. Discovery

    Renard Jenkins

    Warner Bros. Discovery

    Renard Jenkins is an experienced contention creation and creative technology executive in the Film, Television and Radio industry. He is currently Warner Bros. Discovery’s Senior Vice President, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services where he oversees teams that support 23,500 plus cast/crew members, 8,500 plus content hours and hundreds of global feature film, animation, and syndicated television productions annually. He and his teams provide creative production technology solutions and strategy for film, animation, and television productions worldwide. They also provide application, IP, production pipeline support and workflows as well as work stream design and implementation. A portion of his team are also responsible for the exploration and successful implementation of emerging and creative technologies such as virtual production, multiplatform storytelling, virtual character and meta human development, neuro-technology and better images and sound for cinema and home entertainment.

    Prior to joining WarnerMedia, Jenkins served as Vice President, Operations, Engineering & Distribution at PBS, where he was responsible for the strategic direction, technology development, engineering, and operational management of PBS’s entire media-supply chain. He and his teams were responsible for the successful simultaneous launch of the Live Linear and Cloud-based PBS Kids Channel plus Live Streaming App which also contained games and VOD. It remains as one of the most popular kid’s applications and destinations today. He also created PBS’s Advanced Format Center. He has also worked for TV One, Discovery, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting where he received multiple awards for his work in Film & Television Production, Post Production and R&D, including two national Emmys. Jenkins was also awarded the Innovator of the Year award in 2017 for his cutting-edge work and accomplishments in UHD, HDR, NGA and supply chain technology through the PBS Advanced Format Center and other industry activities.

    Jenkins is a SMPTE Fellow and currently serves as President of SMPTE. He sits on the boards of MovieLabs, the Hollywood Professionals Association, the UltraHD Forum, the Content & Entertainment Council as well as the Microsoft and Oracle Advisory Boards. He is also a recipient of a Peabody, 2 Headliners and a 2020 Broadcasting and Cable Technology Leadership award to name a few others.

    He is a champion and advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in the technology and media industries. He is a Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC), chairs the Warner Bros. Discovery Technology and Operations Equity and Inclusion Council, the SMPTE Global Inclusion Working Group and he also Co-Chairs, HPA ALL which advocates for and promotes diversity, better equity and increased inclusion and accessibility in the media and entertainment industry.

    When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and best friend of over 30 years, his daughters, and his grandchildren. He loves travel photography / filmmaking and only has one more continent left to explore. He is also a certified sound engineer and is passionate about the visual arts. When time permits, he loves to provide pro bono location sound, live mixing, studio recording, post-production and finishing services for aspiring filmmakers, animators, and musicians. His family moto is “In all things integrity and integrity in all things.”

4:50 pm – 5:35 pm
Extreme Innovation: Human Visual Experience from Everywhere

The limits of camera engineering are being pushed at every extreme, from the microscopic to the gargantuan, from Arctic to volcanic, from oceanic floors to the outer reaches of space, and at every square inch around us. Can we see everything we’d ever want to see? And if we can, what will that tell us? Your eyes will be tantalized by the image menagerie we have in store. NASA, Oceanic Exploration, other far sighted opportunities that we can relate to M&E.

  • Rodney Grubbs, NASA
    Rodney Grubbs

    Rodney Grubbs

    NASA

    Rodney Grubbs began his career as a co-op motion picture photographer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center while a student at the University of Alabama. He is currently the NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager and chairs the NASA Digital Television Working Group. He is responsible for the NASA video distribution architecture including NASA TV and internet video distribution. He has been a Principal Investigator for flights of High Definition Television (HDTV) and Digital Cinema cameras and related experiments on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS), including the first ever live HDTV program from a spacecraft and more recently, the first ever Ultra High Definition program from a spacecraft. He is currently Principal Investigator for the National Lab’s Red Digital Cinema camera on the ISS and the Imagery Subsystem Lead for the Lunar Gateway. He also chairs the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group. www.linkedin.com/in/rodgrubbs @rod4dtv on twitter

  • Paul Debevec, Netflix/ICT

    Paul Debevec

    Netflix/ICT

    Paul Debevec recently joined Netflix as Director of Research, Creative Algorithms and Technology, on the Data Science and Engineering team, where he oversees R&D around new technologies in computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning with applications in VFX, virtual production, and animation. Techniques from Paul’s work have been used to create key visual effects sequences in The Matrix, Spider-Man 2, Benjamin Button, Avatar, Gravity, Furious 7, Blade Runner: 2049, Gemini Man, numerous video games, and to record a 3D Portrait of US President Barack Obama. His light stage facial capture technology has helped numerous tech companies, video game studios, and visual effects companies create photoreal digital actors and advance ML datasets for facial appearance. Paul’s work in HDR imaging, image-based lighting, and light stage facial capture has been recognized with two technical Academy Awards and SMPTE’s Progress Medal. Paul is a Fellow of the Visual Effects Society and serves on the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee, and is a past co-chair of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council and Vice President of ACM SIGGRAPH. More info at: www.debevec.org.

  • Reza Rassool, Real Networks
    Reza Rassool

    Reza Rassool

    Real Networks

    Reza Rassool, Chief Technology Officer, joined RealNetworks in April 2016. Mr. Rassool is a serial startup professional and inventor bringing a wealth of knowledge from companies such as DirectTV, CBS, and Panasonic. He founded Kwaai Oak – CTO-as-a-Service™, a technical consulting firm specializing in digital entertainment platforms. Previously, Mr. Rassool served as chief technology officer at Zya and as chief engineer and vice president of product development at Widevine Technologies, a Seattle-based video technology startup that was sold to Google in 2010. Developer and architect whose innovations have earned a Technical Oscar™, Technical Emmy™, and over 20 patents, Mr. Rassool holds a B.Sc. in Physics from King’s College London.

  • Michael Mansouri, Radiant Images
    Michael Mansouri

    Michael Mansouri

    Radiant Images

    Michael is known as one of the industry’s most knowledgeable, inventive and passionate technologists. Born into a family of filmmakers, he has produced and directed several high-impact documentaries, most recently, for the United Nation’s Geneva Summit for Human Rights. His documentaries help raise awareness of human and animal rights violations around the world to provide a voice for the voiceless. Always interested in the overlap between film and technology, Michael co-founded Radiant Images in 2005. His work and innovations in film led to his acceptance as an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, an invite-only membership group limited to less than 400 experts with distinguished credits in motion picture industry. He also received several other prestigious honors that include the Lumiere Award from The Advanced Imaging Society, Tech Innovations Award from Definition magazine and the Mario Award, which recognizes significant technological breakthroughs, and landed a spot on The Studio Daily’s as the top 50 creatives & technologists in Motion picture industry. Mr. Mansouri’s efforts in filmmaking led to NASA / JPL’s 2018 Emmy win for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for Cassini’s Grand Finale, which was NASA’s first recognition in the film community. At Radiant, he hopes to break the technology barriers surrounding digital innovation and provide a more meaningful impact that connects and engages humanity. Always interested in the overlap between film and technology, Michael co-founded Radiant Images in 2005. His work and innovations in film led to his acceptance as an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, an invite-only membership group for experts with distinguished credits in film. He also received several other prestigious honors such as the Lumiere award, Tech Innovations Award, 2019 Artificial Intelligence Award and the Mario Award, which recognizes significant technological breakthroughs, and landed a spot on the Studio Daily’s list of The Top Creatives & Technologists. Mr. Mansouri’s efforts in filmmaking led to NASA / JPL’s 2018 Emmy win for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for Cassini’s Grand Finale, which was NASA’s first recognition in the film community. At Radiant, he hopes to break the technology barriers surrounding digital innovation and provide a more meaningful impact that connects and engages humanity.

5:35 pm – 5:55 pm
Mark and Craig: Close and Wrap of What We Learned
5:55 pm – 6:30 pm
Overtime: Fireside Chat
  • Mark Turner, MovieLabs

    Mark Turner

    MovieLabs

    Mark Turner is President, Entertainment Technologists Inc and coordinates the Production Technology program for Movielabs that created the 2030 Vision for the future of content creation. In Mark’s 27 years in the global media industry he has always been at the intersection of technology and business. Mark has held roles from product management, to sales, strategy, business development and partnerships for start-ups to multi-billion corporates including Ryff, Technicolor, Levels Beyond, RSTOR, Wasabi, Dolby , Microsoft, BT Media & Broadcast, Eutelsat and Xinsere.

  • Josh Stinehour, Devoncroft
    Josh Stinehour

    Josh Stinehour

    Devoncroft

    Josh Stinehour is a principal analyst with Devoncroft Partners, a provider of market research and strategic consulting services to a wide range of digital media clients and institutional investors. He is a frequent presenter at conferences and trade shows in the media technology sector. Prior to joining Devoncroft, Mr. Stinehour was a managing director at Silverwood Partners in the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications group. While at Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour executed a range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, valuations, and private placements. Before joining Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour worked in various positions at EMC Corporation including as a software programmer and later as an analyst on integration teams for EMC’s acquisitions of Documentum, Legato, and VMWare. He holds an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, an MS in computer science from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BS in computer science from Union College. Mr. Stinehour is a CFA charterholder.

Tuesday, February 18 | HPA Supersession, Innovation Zone, Welcome Dinner

7:00 am – 7:00 pm
Registration Open
7:30 am – 8:30 am
Breakfast Roundtables
  1. Evolution of storage, David Hare, Stellus Technologies
  2. Challenges in implementing HDR online dailies, Hugh Calveley, Moxion.io
  3. Would a users group speed 2110 implementation? Mark Chiolis & Wendy Aylsworth
  4. Everything GPU, Thomas True, NVIDIA
  5. IP/PTP best practices & lessons, Karl Kuhn, Telestream
  6. UHD/HDR/WCG production tools, Gopi Lakshmanan, Telestream
  7. SFP-based processing: new way to build SMPTE ST 2110 systems, Roy Folkman, Riedel (Embrionix)
  8. Immersive Audio Delivery Now, Ken Tankel, Telos Alliance
  9. Next-generation facility architecture, Mike Strein, ABC, & Stan Moote, IABM
  10. Live content and localization for OTT services (gambling?), Vince Maza, Red Bee Media
  11. What should we call the SMPTE ST 2110 ecosystem? Bruce Devlin, SMPTE
  12. Trusted Partner Network: security assessment Q&A with an assessor, Juan Reyes, Convergent Risks
  13. VFX in the cloud: tell us what works for your projects, Anthony Magliocco, EMTM

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • AWS
  • Blackmagic
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • Red Bee Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
9:00 am – 5:30 pm
HPA Supersession: HPA Makes A Movie

For the first time at the Retreat, this year’s Supersession will present a live production – from acquisition through post – of a short movie, in near real-time.  The culmination of the production will be a screening of “The Lost Lederhosen” at the day’s conclusion. Joachim “JZ” Zell, Vice President of Technology at EFILM, is at the helm of this year’s event.

9:00 am – 9:05 am
Open and Welcome
  • Seth Hallen, HPA President
9:05 am – 9:25 am
Pre-Production Meeting
  • Joachim Zell, EFILM
  • Steven Shaw, ASC DGA SAG
  • Peter Moss, ASC ACS
  • Roy Wagner, ASC
  • Sam Nicholson, Stargate ASC
  • Ricardo Mejia, 616 Music Lab
9:25 am – 9:45 am
Sam Nicholson Session
  • Sam Nicholson, Stargate ASC
9:45 am – 10:15 am
Shooting the first live scene
10:15 am – 10:35 am
Making of First Scene - Zeiss
  • Snehal Patel, Zeiss
  • Cahlab Knueven, Nuke
  • Dan Duran, RED
10:35 am – 10:55 am
Refreshment Break

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • Blackmagic
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
  • Red Bee Media
  • Avid
  • LaCie
  • Zeiss
  • Sohonet
  • Frame.io
10:55 am – 11:05 am
Shooting the second live scene
11:05 am – 11:25 am
Epic Games & LUX Machina explain the functionality of the Unreal Engine
  • David Morin, Epic Games
    David Morin

    David Morin, Epic Games

    David Morin is Head of the Epic Games Los Angeles Lab. He is also Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation. At Epic Games, David works to develop the use of the Unreal Engine in the Film and Television industries. At the Academy Software Foundation, David works for the Premier Members to develop the use of open source software in the motion picture industry. Previously David was president of David Morin, LLC, a diversified consultancy specializing in immersive production with clients such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Arri Inc., Autodesk, Epic Games, Shotgun Software and others. David is also chairman of the Joint Technology Committee on Virtual Production, the Joint Technology Committee on Virtual Reality, and a past co-chair of the Joint Technology Subcommittee on Previsualization. Heearned a B.Sc.A. in computer science from Laval University (Quebec City, Canada) 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 now Epic Games.

11:25 am – 11:35 am
Drone Shots
  • Mark Bender Aerials and Associates
11:35 am – 11:55 am
Introducing the cameras in use and explaining the ACES workflow
  • Joachim Zell, EFILM
  • Josh Pines, Technicolor
    Josh Pines

    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.

11:55 am – 12:05 pm
Monitor Calibration
  • Tyler Pruitt, CalMan Portrait
12:05 pm – 12:15 pm
DIT onset color correction ASC CDL
  • Peter Postma, FilmLight
12:15 pm – 12:25 pm
Shooting the 3rd live scene
12:25 pm – 1:25 pm
Lunch

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • Blackmagic
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
1:25 pm – 1:35 pm
ASC Metadata / ACES AMF
  • Patrick Renner, Pomfort
    Patrick Renner

    Patrick Renner

    Pomfort

    Patrick Renner is a specialist in designing and developing applications for media management and video processing in production and post-production workflows. He co-founded the software company Pomfort that develops applications and services that are used in professional film productions around the world. Prior to that he was involved in research and teaching as a research assistant for software engineering at TUM in Munich, Germany. He acquired knowledge about professional film productions as an IT professional in a large post production facility, and helped to build and run one of the first DI facilities in Europe. Patrick Renner is committee member of the ASC MITC for data management, and is participating in the ACES Implementation Technical Advisory Council.

1:35 pm – 1:55 pm
Frame.io instant dailies, editing in the cloud
  • Patrick Southern, Frame.io
  • Michael Cioni, Frame.io
1:55 pm – 2:15 pm
Colorfront OSD dailies processing and Transkoder VFX and DI deliverables
  • Bruno Munger, Colorfront
2:15 pm – 2:25 pm
BeBop Adobe Outtake reel and end credits
  • David Benson, BeBop Technology
2:25 pm – 2:45 pm
Pixelworks TrueCut Motion Grading
  • Richard Miller, Pixelworks
2:45 pm – 3:05 pm
AVID in Microsoft Cloud editing / Teradici
3:05 pm – 3:20 pm
Refreshment Break

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • Blackmagic
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
  • Red Bee Media
  • Avid
  • LaCie
  • Zeiss
  • Sohonet
  • Frame.io
3:20 pm – 3:30 pm
BorisFX Remote VFX
3:30 pm – 3:45 pm
Skywalker Sound Remote sound mixing
  • Steve Morris, Skywalker Sound
  • Iris Wu, Ambidio
3:45 pm – 3:55 pm
Pixspan data mover
  • Keith Hogan, Pixspan
3:55 pm – 4:10 pm
Sohonet / Baselight remote grading with ClearView
4:10 pm – 4:30 pm
Amazon Cloud workflow
  • Jack Wenzinger, Amazon
  • Bruno Munger, Colorfront
  • Nick Nelson, Ownzones
  • Greg Cox, Graymeta
  • Keith Hogan, Pixspan
  • Usman Shakeel, Amazon
  • Matt Herson, Amazon
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Resolve Color Timing
  • Zach Medow, Freelance Colorist
5:00 pm – 5:10 pm
Mistika Cloud Workflow Manager / deliverables
  • Miguel Angel Doncel, SGO
5:10 pm – 05:20 pm
End 2 End Workflow recap
  • Joachim Zell, EFILM
5:20 pm – 5:25 pm
Red Bee movie to your smart phone

URL after the screening

5:25 pm – 5:35 pm
Movie Screening from Resolve
  • Zach Medow, Freelance Colorist
5:35 pm – 5:40 pm
Seth’s Thank you’s
  • Seth Hallen, HPA President
5:40 pm – 7:30 pm
Innovation Zone Open with Cocktails (dedicated demo time)

Sponsored by CP Communications

7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Welcome Dinner - Celebrating 25 Years!

Sponsored by Adobe

Wednesday, February 19 | Roundtables, Individual Sessions, Innovation Zone

7:00 am – 7:00 pm
Registration Open
7:30 am – 8:30 am
Breakfast Roundtables
  1. High frame rate: keeping it cinematic, Richard Miller, Pixelworks
  2. Challenges in implementing HDR online dailies, Hugh Calveley, Moxion.io
  3. Automating the digital distribution supply chain, Carl Segal, Prime Focus Technologies
  4. Would a users group help drive ACES for TV? Mark Chiolis & Wendy Aylsworth
  5. LED for TV & cinema display, Pete Putman, ROAM Consulting
  6. Modern production/post workflows, Greg Ciaccio, ASC Motion Imaging Tech Council
  7. Open Services Alliance & (micro) services in media, Chris Lennon, MediAnswers
  8. IP/PTP best practices & lessons, Karl Kuhn, Telestream
  9. UHD/HDR/WCG production tools, Gopi Lakshmanan, Telestream
  10. SFP-based processing: new way to build SMPTE ST 2110 systems, Roy Folkman, Riedel (Embrionix)
  11. What should Adobe AI tackle next? Van Bedient, Adobe
  12. Immersive Audio Delivery Now, Ken Tankel, Telos Alliance
  13. Monitoring, compliance, & other cool stuff, Jay Gedanken, Actus Digital
  14. Live content and localization for OTT services (gambling?), Vince Maza, Red Bee Media
  15. Intelligent metadata for media workflow, John Ying, GrayMeta
  16. Workflow challenges: dailies to finishing, Weyron Henriques, Deluxe
  17. Virtual studio in the cloud, Buzz Hays, Google
  18. UHD/HDR ecosystem interoperability. What could go wrong? Juan Reyes, Convergent Risks
  19. VFX in the cloud: tell us what works for your projects, Anthony Magliocco, EMTM
  20. Dolby Vision content creation tools and workflows, Tom Graham, Dolby Laboratories

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • AWS
  • Blackmagic
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • Red Bee Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
8:30 am – 8:30 pm
Innovation Zone open for appointments

See program below for dedicated Innovation Zone hours

8:30 am – 8:45 am
Breathe
8:45 am – 8:55 am
Welcome
  • Seth Hallen, HPA President
8:55 am – 9:15 am
Introduction & Technology Year in Review
  • 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.

9:15 am – 10:00 am
Washington Update

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

    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.

10:00 am – 10:30 am
CES Review
  • Peter Putman, ROAM Consulting

    Peter Putman

    ROAM Consulting

    Peter Putman is president of ROAM Consulting LLC in Doylestown, PA. A 44year 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 ultrahighdefinition television for the organization.

10:30 am – 10:45 am
Refreshment break

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • Blackmagic
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
  • Red Bee Media
  • Avid
  • LaCie
  • Zeiss
  • Sohonet
  • Frame.io
10:45 am – 11:00 am
Decoding CES 2020: the key trends that will impact media and entertainment

Beyond all the noise and nonsense of the world’s biggest consumer tech show, there were, once again, important messages for the media and entertainment industry. This presentation reveals the trends that really matter; and sets them in the context of broader, transformational, trends developing over time.

  • 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.

11:00 am – 11:30 am
“Broadcasters” panel
  • 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.

  • Dave Folsom, Pearl TV
  • Richard Friedel, FOX TV
    Richard Friedel

    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.

  • 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 175th Infantry (5th 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
    Speaker - Skip Pizzi

    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.

11:30 am – 11:45 am
The Immersive Media Challenge - USC students envision the near-future of entertainment
  • Phil Lelyveld, Immersive Media Initiative Program Lead, Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California
    Phil Lelyveld

    Phil Lelyveld

    Immersive Media Initiative Program Lead, Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California

    Philip Lelyveld runs the Immersive Media (VR/AR/MR/LBE) Initiative at the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC@USC), a think tank within the School of Cinematic Arts. He also runs the Executive/Student Coffee program which creates structured, casual discussion and networking opportunities around topics of interest to the industry.

     

    The ETC@USC is funded by the major Hollywood studios, Verizon, Microsoft, and related service, technology, telco/internet, and consumer electronics companies to advise them on emerging technology-related opportunities, project out where entertainment will be in the 3-5 year timeframe, connect them with start-ups and communities of interest, help accelerate adoption of promising technologies, and work to drive standardization and avoid format wars. Learn more at www.ETCenter.org and www.PhilipLelyveld.com .

11:45 am – noon
The Theatre is not a Big TV
  • Jerry Pierce, Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners
    Jerry Pierce

    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.

noon – 1:58 pm
Lunch (dedicated Innovation Zone time)
1:58 pm – 2:00 pm
Quiz answer & announcements
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
Collaboration at Any Resolution: Virtual Production for the Rest of Us

International Cinematographers Guild in Cooperation with the Art Directors Guild

  • 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.”

  • Ramy Katrib, DigitalFilm Tree
    Ramy Katrib

    Ramy Katrib

    DigitalFilm Tree

    Ramy Katrib is an award-winning filmmaker and CEO / Founder of DigitalFilm Tree (DFT) https://www.digitalfilmtree.com, an 18 year old post-production and software development company. Ramy started his career in media & technology over 25 years ago, as filmmaker, negative cutter, and telecine colorist. In all the organizations and projects he propels, Ramy champions a multidisciplinary work culture, led by world-class creatives and technologists working hand in hand to solve huge problems. DFT played a key role in transitioning the media and entertainment industry to digital post and file-based workflows, on projects like Cold Mountain and Scrubs. Today DFT is the leading provider of IP based production, post, story visualization services and software solutions. DFT clients include ABC, A&E, CBS, Disney, Fox, HBO, Netflix, Turner, Warner Bros, and first-time storytellers alike.

  • Eliot Mack, Lightcraft Technology
    Eliot Mack

    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.

  • Benjamin Nowicki, art director
    Benjamin Nowicki

    Benjamin Nowicki

    art director

    Benjamin Nowicki has 25 years of experience in the Art Department of mainstream film productions (DreamWorks, Sony, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros., among others), collaborating with directors such as Christopher Nolan, Damien Chazelle, Sam Mendes, Gore Verbinski and Robert Altman. He was Art Director for Dunkirk (Oscar nominated), Art Director for First Man (Oscar nominated). As a Graphic Artist, he worked on numerous international box office hits and also Emmy-winning TV shows, such as The Morning Show, Big Little Lies, FlashForward and The Unit. Benjamin is a member of The Art Directors Guild where he is currently serving as Chair of the Professional Development Committee.

  • David Stump, ASC
    David Stump

    David Stump

    ASC

    David Stump ASC has been working in motion pictures and television production as Director of Photography, as Visual Effects Director of Photography, as Visual Effects Supervisor, and as Stereographer, (including both live action work and 2D to 3D conversion work), earning an Emmy Award, an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement, an IMAGO Technical Achievement Award and an International Cinematographers Guild Award. His credits include projects like Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show, Skyfire, The Happytime Murders, American Gods, The Unwilling, Immortals, Quantum of Solace, Flight Plan, Fantastic Four, X-Men 1 & 2, Into the Blue, Garfield, Batman Forever, Hollow Man, Men of Honor, Deep Blue Sea, Stuart Little, The Sphere, Contact, Batman & Robin, Mars Attacks, Executive Decision, Stargate, and Free Willy, among many, many others. He is currently chairman of the Camera Committee and the Metadata Committee of the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council. Under his guidance, the combined efforts of the Producer’s Guild of America and the American Society of Cinematographers produced both the ASC / PGA Camera Assessment Series, and the ASC / PGA Image Control Assessment Series, side by side comparisons of virtually all of the high end digital cinema cameras against film. He has lectured and taught classes in Cinematography and Visual Effects at the American Film Institute, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Woodbury University, Arizona State University, Global Cinematography Institute, IATSE Local 600, TV Globo Rio De Janeiro Brasil, Savannah College of Art and Design, The Beijing Film Academy and most recently the ARRI Academy in Beijing. He has spoken at many conferences and trade shows including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the International Broadcast Convention (IBC), Cinegear Expo, DV Expo, the PGA Produced By Conference, the Hollywood Post Alliance Retreat, the Cinegrid Conference, the IMAGO Conference, the Lisbon Film Festival, the Todos En Alta Conference in Zaragoza Spain, and many others. David authored the book “Digital Cinematography – Fundamentals, Techniques and Workflows”, and is a contributing author to the “VES Handbook”. http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Cinematography-Fundamentals-Techniques-Workflows/dp/0240817915 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_12?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ves+handbook+of+visual+effects&sprefix=VES+handbook%2Cstripbooks%2C324

2:45 pm – 3:15 pm
In-Camera Visual Effects
  • David Morin, Epic Games
    David Morin

    David Morin, Epic Games

    David Morin is Head of the Epic Games Los Angeles Lab. He is also Executive Director of the Academy Software Foundation. At Epic Games, David works to develop the use of the Unreal Engine in the Film and Television industries. At the Academy Software Foundation, David works for the Premier Members to develop the use of open source software in the motion picture industry. Previously David was president of David Morin, LLC, a diversified consultancy specializing in immersive production with clients such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Arri Inc., Autodesk, Epic Games, Shotgun Software and others. David is also chairman of the Joint Technology Committee on Virtual Production, the Joint Technology Committee on Virtual Reality, and a past co-chair of the Joint Technology Subcommittee on Previsualization. Heearned a B.Sc.A. in computer science from Laval University (Quebec City, Canada) 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 now Epic Games.

3:15 pm – 4:00 pm
Live Production Innovative Solutions and Workflow Highlights
  • 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.

  • 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 onsite 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.

  • 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.

  • Ron Williams (Coachella & Billie Eilish)
    Ron Williams

    Ron Williams (Coachella & Billie Eilish)

    Mr. Williams is the CEO of The LANDMARK Group, a systems integration, design, and consulting company for 3 decades. As a veteran in the broadcast and film industries, with ABC Network, architect of the FOX network and Technical Director for several Olympic games, and design for feature films. He now is working with AIMS alliance members for advanced IP designs. His work with Camera manufactures on image development, he has helped push imaging quality forward.

    With the advent of single chip cameras integrated with the broadcast industry, Ron has engineered several major entertainment shows for streaming and live broadcast. Working to educate both industries on the merge, of technologies and operations. He is an active member of SMPTE, AMPAS, DCI HPA SVG and has chaired and contributed on a variety of technical committees and standards groups

  • Felicia Yue, Amazon Prime Video
    Felicia Yue

    Felicia Yue

    Amazon Prime Video

    Felicia is a computer science dropout who took a while to figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up. After learning to code and play the piano from her mom (a classically-trained concert pianist and illegal immigrant turned IBM software developer), Felicia got a degree in Economics and started her career in corporate finance. After three years in power suits, she ran away from her nice, stable corporate life and joined the TV circus by becoming the only woman on the crew of Monday Night Football. There, she helped develop and launch virtual enhancements like the Emmy-winning 1st & Ten line (a.k.a. “the yellow line”) for NFL fans, along with other products for fans of the Olympics, Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the Champions League. Along the way, she got her MBA from Columbia Business School, dabbled in Product Marketing for Procter & Gamble, scrubbed penguin guano at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and worked as a ranch hand on a humane pig and chicken farm in the Bay Area (note: will work for bacon). Now, as a Product Manager for Amazon, Felicia is focused on bringing sports fans the next wave of innovative features that will make watching sports a best-in-class experience on Prime Video.

4:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Refreshment break

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • Blackmagic
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
  • Red Bee Media
  • Avid
  • LaCie
  • Zeiss
  • Sohonet
  • Frame.io
4:15 pm – 4:35 pm
Tested Perceptual Difference Between 4K & 8K
  • Michael Zink, Warner Bros.

    Michael Zink

    Warner Bros.

    As Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros., Michael Zink is responsible for exploring emerging technologies to enhance WB’s capabilities for production, post-production, and distribution. This includes assessing new technologies; and assisting with the setup and integration of digital workflows. Michael also participates in a number of standards associations such as BDA, CTA, DCI, SMPTE, UHDA, among others. Prior to joining Warner Bros. in 2014, Michael worked at Technicolor for over 10 years, most recently as Vice President of Technology Strategy, where he was responsible for launching the production efforts around various new optical disc formats. Additionally, Michael was responsible for the promotion and adoption of Technicolor technology solutions within industry groups. Earlier in his career, he worked for several media production facilities in Germany.

4:35 pm – 4:55 pm
Immersive Audio Rollout
  • Brian Vessa, Sony Pictures
    Brian Vessa

    Brian Vessa

    Sony Pictures

    Brian Vessa is a dedicated audio professional with over 35 years of experience in the industry. After attending UCLA Engineering School he became a recording engineer, producing albums and recording orchestras. His passion was hot-rodding studio gear and discovering novel recording techniques. Brian transitioned into film post as a music editor and sound editor, became a re-recording mixer at Cannon Films and MGM, then handled audio restoration at NT Audio. He was hired by Sony Pictures in 1998, and today is their Executive Director of Digital Audio Mastering and representative to DCI. Brian is a member of the Academy Sound Branch, AES, and is a Fellow of SMPTE. He is the founding chair of the SMPTE TC-25CSS Technical Committee on Cinema Sound Systems and serves on many SMPTE and AES committees. As one of the founding fathers of IMF, Brian was a member of the original committee that conceived and created the concept, helping write a fully detailed standard for IMF prior to it being brought to SMPTE. He then continued the work with SMPTE to create the IMF specifications suite. He has been instrumental in standardizing the IAB immersive audio distribution bitstream for Cinema and IMF as well as a host of related standards. Brian is the current chair of the DCI Technical Committee, and has written many independent audio specifications, including a white paper on near-field mixing for home theater that has been widely adopted. Brian enjoys recording jazz, rock and mixing live sound. He is a drummer and keyboardist in the LA area, an avid backpacker and an award-winning home wine and beer maker.

4:55 pm – 5:15 pm
Why Traditional Information Security Doesn’t Fit in Most of Media & Entertainment
  • Marc Zorn, HBO/WarnerMedia
5:15 pm – 5:35 pm
Latest International Guidelines to Protect Viewers from Photosensitive Epilepsy (PSE)

Provoked Seizures

  • John Harris, Cambridge Research Systems
    John Harris

    John Harris

    Cambridge Research Systems

    John Harris has worked within the Broadcast Film and TV industry for over 35 years. Initially beginning as an analogue and digital electronics specialist and growing into Sales, Marketing and Business Development roles for companies like Abekas, Ampex and Avid before co-founding root6 in London. In 2013 John emigrated to Vancouver, Canada and is now providing Business Development roles for Cambridge Research and Cinedeck.

5:35 pm – 5:45 pm
New Adventures in Mastering & Deliverables (compression edition)
  • Josh Pines, Technicolor
    Josh Pines

    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.

5:45 pm – 6:00 pm
What Just Happened? A Review of the Day by Jerry Pierce & Annie Chang
  • Jerry Pierce, Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners
    Jerry Pierce

    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.

  • 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.

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Innovation Zone Open with Cocktail Reception (dedicated demo time)

Sponsored by Adobe

9:00 pm – 1:00 am
25th Anniversary Afterparty

Sponsored by Ownzones

Thursday, February 20 | Roundtables, Individual Sessions, Innovation Zone

7:15 am – 5:00 pm
Registration Open
7:30 am – 8:30 am
Breakfast Roundtables
  1. Washington-update follow-up, Jim Burger, Thompson Coburn
  2. Would a users group lead to mass HDR acceptance? Mark Chiolis & Wendy Aylsworth
  3. Advanced wireless (5G, etc.), Pete Putman, ROAM Consulting
  4. Karl Paulsen & Merrill Weiss ask each other questions
  5. Hey, you; get off of my cloud, Chris Lennon, MediAnswers
  6. Immersive Audio Delivery Now, Ken Tankel, Telos Alliance
  7. Dynamic dynamic range, Walter Gish, Dolby Laboratories
  8. Technology & trends roadmap for 2020, Stan Moote, IABM
  9. Monitoring, compliance, & other cool stuff, Jay Gedanken, Actus Digital
  10. Live content and localization for OTT services (gambling?), Vince Maza, Red Bee Media
  11. Non-automated QC in the cloud, Greg Cox, GrayMeta
  12. Media preservation & archive migration, Buzz Hays, Google
  13. What should we call the SMPTE ST 2110 ecosystem? Bruce Devlin, SMPTE
  14. Live cinema multicam, Ron Williams, The Landmark Group

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • AWS
  • Blackmagic
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • Red Bee Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
8:30 am – 2:00 pm
Innovation Zone open for appointments.

See program below for dedicated Innovation Zone hours

8:30 am – 8:43 am
Breathe
8:43 am – 8:45 am
Quiz answer & announcements
8:45 am – noon
The MovieLabs 2030 Vision
8:45 am – 8:50 am
Introduction
  • Rich Berger, MovieLabs

    Rich Berger

    MovieLabs

    Richard Berger joined MovieLabs as CEO in 2017, arriving with an extensive digital strategy background and a proven and unique ability to bring companies together to solve the most challenging problems and achieve profound industry change. He is responsible for the overall direction of MovieLabs and oversees technology initiatives on behalf of the major studios. Rich led the development of the “2030 Vision” which has become the industry’s reference for the future of media creation.

    Rich came to MovieLabs with over 20 years of experience in digital innovation, and more than a decade leading new media and technology efforts at Sony Pictures Entertainment. He served most recently as SVP of Worldwide Digital Strategy & Advanced Platforms, where he built a reputation for innovation, particularly around emerging digital platforms and formats such as Movies Anywhere and UHD (4K-HDR). Rich also was one of original founders of UltraViolet and helped launch the DECE consortium.

    Other roles at Sony included SVP New Media & Technology, where he was responsible for establishing digital policy across all Sony Pictures digital distribution businesses. Rich also worked at Sony Music Entertainment’s New Media Department where he developed Sony Music’s first Enhanced CDs. Rich holds a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from Tisch School of the Arts and a Bachelors in Computer Science from Rutgers College.

8:50 am – 9:20 am
Cloud Infrastructure panel

As our workflows move to the cloud we need to agree on structures and processes that will run from cloud storage instead of local storage.  This panel will explore some of the opportunities and challenges inherent in supporting cloud-based storage including across both private, hybrid, and public clouds.  It will focus on Object vs. File, using the S3 ‘standard,’ architectures to support everything from big archives to WiP productions. Can the cloud act like local storage today; if not, when? Hybrid storage models use ultra-fast on-premises storage combined with cloud models.

  • Moderator: Erik Weaver, Entertainment Technology Center at USC
    Erik Weaver

    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.

  • Tony Gaughan, RSTOR
    Tony Gaughan

    Tony Gaughan

    RSTOR

    Tony Gaughan is the Chief Technology Officer at RStor. With over 25 years of experience in various product development and executive roles within both small and large companies, Gaughan was previously chief technical officer at Proofpoint (formerly Cloudmark) and Marketron. He also held chief executive and senior product officer positions at Serenhipity, SGI, Satmetrix, Computer Associates, and Oracle.

  • David Phillips, Cloudian
    David Phillips

    David Phillips

    Cloudian

    A media technologist with over twenty years of experience in the design and deployment of media and entertainment workflows, David Phillips brings a unique set of creative problem solving skills to every project or design. After 10 years architecting feature film restoration and finishing pipelines for The Criterion Collection, David joined Rohde&Schwarz-DVS as a Solutions Architect in 2012. While at R&S, he designed SAN and workflow solutions for a wide variety of enterprise customers in North America. David joined NBCU in 2014 to manage the Entertainment Systems division, responsible for designing and building the infrastructure supporting the late night and cable entertainment production units in New York City. Seeing the exponential storage capacity requirements on the media space horizon, and the market need for storage platforms that facilitate key data analytics, David joined Cloudian in 2018 to provide next generation cloud-native designs for media enterprise customers.

  • Hossein ZiaShakeri, Spectra Logic
    Hossein ZiaShakeri

    Hossein ZiaShakeri

    Spectra Logic

    Hossein ZiaShakeri is Spectra Logic’s Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Alliances. Hossein is an executive on the company’s technology team tasked with maintaining the company’s leadership position in product innovation and business success. Hossein has more than 30 years of experience in design, engineering and management of storage subsystems, with a special focus on the M & E industry.

  • Eric Bassier, Quantum
  • Tridib Chakravarty, StorageDNA
9:20 am – 9:35 am
In-Depth Look at Technology Migration Driven by Physical Relocation

What happens when a major television network is acquired or a major market station makes a temporary move? The long term future suddenly becomes an opportunity to transform in the present.

  • Glen Sakata, Dalet
    Glen Sakata

    Glen Sakata

    Dalet

    Glen is a Sr. Account Executive at Dalet with three decades of product, market and sales development experience across the broadcast, entertainment and enterprise markets. He has an extensive track record of launching post-incubation technologies such as studio robotics, master control automation, video processing, statistical multiplexing and media logistics with transformative outcomes at top media companies worldwide.

9:35 am – 9:50 am
In-Depth Look at Adaptive-Production Projects at ETC@USC

From archive in the cloud to blockchain to VFX standards, learn about some of the work being done at ETC and how you can get involved.

  • Seth Levenson, Entertainment Technology Center at USC
9:50 am – 10:05 am
Key Takeaways from the DPP Next-Gen Production Report

What does cloud-based production look like in the real world? What are the benefits? And could it actually bring a competitive advantage? The DPP has researched production innovation at ten companies, ranging from a small digital agency to a Hollywood studio.

  • 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.

10:05 am – 10:20 am
A Case Study for a Post-Cloud Supply Chain

The Movie Labs 2030 Vision paper calls for foundational new technology and approaches that innovate beyond today’s cloud workflows to support the radical opportunities of the entertainment industry in the next decade. This case study will show a new supply chain approach deployed at MGM studios based on a new substrate platform that is neither cloud nor CDN in today’s sense and that implements many of the MovieLabs principles.

Key technology capabilities and learnings will be described. The substrate is a single backend source for master asset servicing including media, metadata and code, with inherent linking of components, re-use, rights, and versioning.  Streaming and file-based video presentation is delivered just in time from the source objects. There are no file copies, and the content security does not trust the infrastructure (trust less).

  • Michelle Munson, Eluvio

    Michelle Munson

    Eluvio

    Michelle Munson is the co-founder and CEO of Eluvio and co-creator of the content fabric protocol, an open and decentralized Internet protocol for owner-controlled streaming, storage and monetization of digital content at scale. She leads the Berkeley based company and is co-inventor on 11 patents.

    Michelle is an Emmy-award winning technologist who previously co-founded Aspera in 2004 and led the company as CEO until May 2017, including through acquisition by IBM in 2014. She co-invented the Aspera FASP™ transport technology.

    Michelle is a recipient of the David Sarnoff Medal from the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE); the Charles Swartz Award from the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA); IABM’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; and named one of the top 25 “People to Watch by TV Technology.

    Michelle was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Fame at Kansas State University in 2021. She was also the 2019 Kansas State University Commencement Speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences and the 2006 Alumnus of the Year for the College of Engineering. She holds dual B.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Kansas State University, where she was a Goldwater Scholar for achievement in Science and Mathematics. She was also a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University where she received a postgraduate diploma in Computer Science.

  • Chris Crook, MGM Studios
10:20 am – 10:45 am
Security & Access panel

Production in the cloud offers the opportunity for creative people to work from anywhere. But securing and accessing content in that workflow requires new thinking. We can no longer rely on physical or network-perimeter security as the primary defense. This security sea change will be discussed in the context of the MovieLabs 2030 security principles.

  • Moderator: Jim Helman, MovieLabs

    Jim Helman

    MovieLabs

    Jim is CTO at MovieLabs, a technology joint venture of five major Hollywood studios. At MovieLabs, Jim leads technical work on the 2030 Vision for media creation in the cloud and has led industry initiatives including driving worldwide standards for high dynamic range video. Jim also led the design and implementation of the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR), for which he was awarded an Engineering, Science and Technology Emmy.

    Prior to MovieLabs, Jim was chief software architect at Liberate Technologies, where he led the development of a web platform for delivering interactive cable services. Prior to Liberate, he worked at Silicon Graphics, developing real-time 3D systems for VR, location-based entertainment, and visual simulation. Jim holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from Stanford and a B.A. in Physics and Math from Washington University.

  • Guy Finley, The Trusted Partner Network
    Guy Finley

    Guy Finley

    The Trusted Partner Network

    Guy Finley is President of CDSA (Content Delivery & Security Association) and MESA (Media & Entertainment Services Alliance). He is the CEO of the Trusted Partner Network, a joint venture launched in 2018 between CDSA and MPA (Motion Picture Association), that helps companies prevent leaks, breaches, and hacks of their customers’ movies and television shows prior to their intended release through by creating a single, global directory of “trusted partner” vendors. Guy started his career in the entertainment industry as a successful performer and producer, making music with industry giants such as Phil Ramone, Elliott Scheiner, and Dave Grusin in the 1990s. His New York City based group was signed to Larry Rosen’s N2K Encoded Music, the first record company to distribute music via digital downloads. In 2000 he joined the home entertainment industry as President of LFA, Inc., providing home video brand and business consulting services for a worldwide clientele. His firm represented JVC in North America, licensing the loading and duplication of VHS videocassettes bearing the VHS Logo Trademark. In 2005 he joined the Content Delivery and Security Association (then IRMA, International Recording Media Association) where he pioneered the CDSA Daily News Portal. In 2008 Guy founded MESA as a coalition of service providers to the Hollywood studios, independent content holders, video game publishers, software publishers and music labels. Through MESA’s media, events, working groups and initiatives, MESA facilitates ongoing discussions about collaboration and innovation in the entertainment industry along four key verticals: supply chain, data, security and IT. MESA also manages the business affairs and calendars of CDSA, WiTH (Women in Technology: Hollywood) Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, and EIDR (Entertainment ID Registry). With over 150 member companies worldwide, MESA is a leading voice in the global media & entertainment industry.

  • Spencer Stephens, TechXMedia
  • Omer Farooq, Independent Security Evaluators
    Omer Farooq

    Omer Farooq

    Independent Security Evaluators

    Omer Farooq is a Cloud Security Principle at Independent Security Evaluators who is focused on Media and Entertainment vertical. Over 10 years of experience in cloud consulting, building security programs, secure software development and DevOPs. Currently architecting, building, securing and assessing post-production security, studio-in-the-cloud, virtual desktop infrastructure, and improving overall data mobilization and delivery across the entire entertainment industry.

  • Michelle Munson, Eluvio

    Michelle Munson

    Eluvio

    Michelle Munson is the co-founder and CEO of Eluvio and co-creator of the content fabric protocol, an open and decentralized Internet protocol for owner-controlled streaming, storage and monetization of digital content at scale. She leads the Berkeley based company and is co-inventor on 11 patents.

    Michelle is an Emmy-award winning technologist who previously co-founded Aspera in 2004 and led the company as CEO until May 2017, including through acquisition by IBM in 2014. She co-invented the Aspera FASP™ transport technology.

    Michelle is a recipient of the David Sarnoff Medal from the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE); the Charles Swartz Award from the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA); IABM’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; and named one of the top 25 “People to Watch by TV Technology.

    Michelle was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Fame at Kansas State University in 2021. She was also the 2019 Kansas State University Commencement Speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences and the 2006 Alumnus of the Year for the College of Engineering. She holds dual B.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Kansas State University, where she was a Goldwater Scholar for achievement in Science and Mathematics. She was also a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University where she received a postgraduate diploma in Computer Science.

  • James Wilson, IBM Aspera
10:45 am – 11:00 am
Refreshment break

Sponsored by:

  • Adobe
  • Blackmagic
  • Nutanix
  • Ownzones
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Key code Media
  • SDVI
  • Signiant
  • Stellus
  • Red Bee Media
  • Avid
  • LaCie
  • Zeiss
  • Sohonet
  • Frame.io
11:00 am – 11:30 am
Software-Defined Workflows panel

Based on the foundations of Cloud and Security, this session to explore what we can now do to build workflows on top.  We’ll look at what companies are doing to enable software defined workflows today, what is working, and what to expect in the future with multi-cloud initiatives and the role of industry wide APIs/software interchange layers.

  • Moderator: Mark Turner, MovieLabs

    Mark Turner

    MovieLabs

    Mark Turner is President, Entertainment Technologists Inc and coordinates the Production Technology program for Movielabs that created the 2030 Vision for the future of content creation. In Mark’s 27 years in the global media industry he has always been at the intersection of technology and business. Mark has held roles from product management, to sales, strategy, business development and partnerships for start-ups to multi-billion corporates including Ryff, Technicolor, Levels Beyond, RSTOR, Wasabi, Dolby , Microsoft, BT Media & Broadcast, Eutelsat and Xinsere.

  • Richard Duke, Avid
    Richard Duke

    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.

  • Kenneth Cuomo, Vimond IO
    Kenneth Cuomo

    Kenneth Cuomo

    Vimond IO

    Having worked as a cameraman and editor for close to 20 years, covering some of the biggest news events around the world, I have seen how the demands in the industry have shifted. The need for efficiency and flexibility is greater than ever before.

  • Steve Morris, Director of Engineering, Skywalker Sound
    Steve Morris

    Steve Morris

    Director of Engineering, Skywalker Sound

    Steve Morris is a 30-year veteran in the audio engineering industry and has worked in every facet of the media business, including music, film and video post-production, as well as broadcast television. Steve is a member of SMPTE, AES, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

  • David Cole, IPV
    David Cole

    David Cole

    IPV

    David is an industry visionary and technology leader in the media and entertainment sector. David’s strategy and innovation drives IPV’s leadership in production and management of video assets across multiple platforms, devices and geographies.

11:30 am – 11:45 am
Moving to the Cloud
  • Chris Lennon, Ross Video

    Chris Lennon

    Ross Video

    Chris Lennon serves in Ross Video’s Office of the CTO as Director, Standards Strategy. He is responsible for Ross’ activities in global standards and trade organizations

    Chris also serves as Executive Director of the Open Services Alliance (OSA), a global industry organization focused on interoperability among microservice oriented media systems. The OSA produced the media industry’s first microservices standards, working closely with SMPTE, in 2020, and continues to lead the way in this rapidly evolving area.

    Chris has held a variety of leadership positions in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), including Standards Director, Local Section Manager, Technology Committee Chair, and currently, Western Region Governor. He is a SMPTE Fellow and recipient of SMPTE’s prestigious 2008 Citation.  He also has served in a variety of roles, including Secretary of the SMPTE Rocky Mountain Section.

  • Renard Jenkins, Warner Bros. Discovery

    Renard Jenkins

    Warner Bros. Discovery

    Renard Jenkins is an experienced contention creation and creative technology executive in the Film, Television and Radio industry. He is currently Warner Bros. Discovery’s Senior Vice President, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services where he oversees teams that support 23,500 plus cast/crew members, 8,500 plus content hours and hundreds of global feature film, animation, and syndicated television productions annually. He and his teams provide creative production technology solutions and strategy for film, animation, and television productions worldwide. They also provide application, IP, production pipeline support and workflows as well as work stream design and implementation. A portion of his team are also responsible for the exploration and successful implementation of emerging and creative technologies such as virtual production, multiplatform storytelling, virtual character and meta human development, neuro-technology and better images and sound for cinema and home entertainment.

    Prior to joining WarnerMedia, Jenkins served as Vice President, Operations, Engineering & Distribution at PBS, where he was responsible for the strategic direction, technology development, engineering, and operational management of PBS’s entire media-supply chain. He and his teams were responsible for the successful simultaneous launch of the Live Linear and Cloud-based PBS Kids Channel plus Live Streaming App which also contained games and VOD. It remains as one of the most popular kid’s applications and destinations today. He also created PBS’s Advanced Format Center. He has also worked for TV One, Discovery, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting where he received multiple awards for his work in Film & Television Production, Post Production and R&D, including two national Emmys. Jenkins was also awarded the Innovator of the Year award in 2017 for his cutting-edge work and accomplishments in UHD, HDR, NGA and supply chain technology through the PBS Advanced Format Center and other industry activities.

    Jenkins is a SMPTE Fellow and currently serves as President of SMPTE. He sits on the boards of MovieLabs, the Hollywood Professionals Association, the UltraHD Forum, the Content & Entertainment Council as well as the Microsoft and Oracle Advisory Boards. He is also a recipient of a Peabody, 2 Headliners and a 2020 Broadcasting and Cable Technology Leadership award to name a few others.

    He is a champion and advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in the technology and media industries. He is a Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC), chairs the Warner Bros. Discovery Technology and Operations Equity and Inclusion Council, the SMPTE Global Inclusion Working Group and he also Co-Chairs, HPA ALL which advocates for and promotes diversity, better equity and increased inclusion and accessibility in the media and entertainment industry.

    When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and best friend of over 30 years, his daughters, and his grandchildren. He loves travel photography / filmmaking and only has one more continent left to explore. He is also a certified sound engineer and is passionate about the visual arts. When time permits, he loves to provide pro bono location sound, live mixing, studio recording, post-production and finishing services for aspiring filmmakers, animators, and musicians. His family moto is “In all things integrity and integrity in all things.”

11:45 am – noon
Universal Pictures Production 3.0
  • 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.

Noon – 1:58 pm
Lunch and Final Innovation Zone Time (dedicated demo time)
Noon – 1:00 pm
WIP Lunch (invite only)

Wendy’s Maxims: Tips and truisms gathered along the venturesome path of career and family life.

(This lunch session is by invite only)

Sponsored by Adobe

  • Wendy Aylsworth, Walden Pond

    Wendy Aylsworth

    Walden Pond

    Wendy Aylsworth is CEO of Walden Pond, providing entertainment technology consulting and strategic board guidance for entities focused on emerging ecosystems and nascent technologies. Her entertainment career has spanned 30+ years at Warner Bros. and Disney bringing emerging technologies into production and distribution usage, as seen in such hits as Lion King and Space Jam, and new technologies such as high frame rate, as seen in the Hobbit trilogy.

    Wendy is a frequent speaker and moderator at key industry conferences, and is involved in many organizations to share knowledge and grow the next generation of entertainment professionals; currently acting as Secretary of the Board of the Hollywood Professional Association, as Governor of the Television Academy’s brand new Science & Technology Peer Group, and as President Emeritus of the USC Entertainment Technology Center (ETC). A Lifetime Fellow, former president, and former VP of Engineering (Standards) at SMPTE, Wendy has been honored with many awards, including the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award, the Bob Lambert Technology Leadership Award from the ETC, and SMPTE’s Progress Medal.  Wendy holds a BSCE from the University of Michigan and an MS/MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma) from USC.

1:58 pm – 2:00 pm
Quiz answer & announcements
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm
ACES Update
  • Coordinator: 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.

  • Patrick Renner, Pomfort
    Patrick Renner

    Patrick Renner

    Pomfort

    Patrick Renner is a specialist in designing and developing applications for media management and video processing in production and post-production workflows. He co-founded the software company Pomfort that develops applications and services that are used in professional film productions around the world. Prior to that he was involved in research and teaching as a research assistant for software engineering at TUM in Munich, Germany. He acquired knowledge about professional film productions as an IT professional in a large post production facility, and helped to build and run one of the first DI facilities in Europe. Patrick Renner is committee member of the ASC MITC for data management, and is participating in the ACES Implementation Technical Advisory Council.

  • Doug Walker, Autodesk

    Doug Walker

    Autodesk

    Doug is the Technology Lead for Color Science at Autodesk, working on products such as Flame, Maya, Arnold, and ShotGrid. He is also very active in open source projects, serving as the Chief Architect on the OpenColorIO Technical Steering Committee and as part of the Architectural Technical Advisory Council for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science’s ACES project. He led the team of Autodesk engineers that developed OpenColorIO v2. Doug has been honored with the Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal and the Workflow Systems Medal from SMPTE and with an HPA Engineering Excellence award.

  • Carol Payne, Netflix
2:30 pm – 3:15 pm
State of Open-Source Software for VFX/Animation
  • David Morin, Academy Software Foundation
    David Morin

    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.

  • Annie Chang, ACES Project Chair

    Annie Chang, ACES Project Chair

    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 Chair and Co-Chair of the AMPAS SciTech Council. She has been a Co-Chair of the 10E Essence Technology and 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.

  • Mathieu Mazerolle, Foundry
  • Erik Strauss, Netflix
3:15 pm – 3:40 pm
Mastering with a Large LED Screen
  • John Quartel, Company 3
    John Quartel

    John Quartel

    Company 3

    John Quartel is Vice President of Imaging Science for Company 3. Within Company 3 and Deluxe he has, since 2016, been helping film and television creatives realise their visions with novel technologies and worklflows. Formerly he developed color management and film scanning technology at FilmLight, for which he received, in 2010, a scientific and engineering award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As a member of SMPTE, John contributed to standards for image file formats and to the ACES project. John has a PhD in Optical Physics from Imperial College London and a BSc from the University of Sydney. 

3:40 pm – 3:55 pm
Refreshment break

Ice Cream Break Sponsored by Microsoft

3:55 pm – 4:20 pm
Chaos on Demand: Is Online Video Just the Bad Old Days in New Clothing?

Online video has transformed the media industry, opening up new distribution opportunities and new customer experiences. This new way of working has also created the opportunity to build efficiency and elegance into new processes from the get-go, or to replicate all the complexity and expense of the past. Which is it to be? The DPP has undertaken exclusive research with major companies such as Amazon, Facebook, BBC Studios, Discovery, Sky, and ViacomCBS, to establish the realities of online video delivery. The work identifies the range of workflows and practices in use today, to learn whether the different formats and workflows in use are useful differentiators, or an unnecessary cause of cost. The findings of this research will be revealed to provide the answers.

  • Rowan de Pomerai, DPP
    Rowan De Pomerai

    Rowan de Pomerai

    DPP

    Rowan de Pomerai leads the technology strategy and delivery for the DPP, the media industry’s business network. The DPP is the place where customers and suppliers come together to solve problems and create opportunities. Rowan has an MEng in Electronic Engineering with Media Technology from the University of York, and a strong background in media innovation, having started his career in BBC Research & Development. Since then he has delivered transformative change for some of the UK’s biggest broadcasters and producers. This included architecting and deploying the BBC’s Automated QC solutions, and leading the Production Modernisation project at ITV Studios, streamlining the production and delivery process. Most recently, Rowan was Director of Professional Services, EMEA at Ooyala. He and his team delivered media workflow, asset management, and online video solutions to leading broadcasters, sports clubs and enterprises. He joined the DPP in 2018.

4:20 pm – 4:50 pm
When Is Good Enough Not Good Enough?

This panel will discuss the commonly overlooked production/post-production/distribution “physical” environments which are the backbone to the productivity and the reliability of any media and entertainment business. In mission-critical environments, such as remote production, mastering and broadcast, strict standards must be met to deliver content to and from the production facilities and/or the local/global data centers. Whether you are an all public-cloud-based facility, an internal on-premises data center, or a hybrid of the two, this panel will visit the responsibilities the facility or studio campus must provide with regard to digital distribution infrastructure. Noticing a limited number of facilities meeting telecommunications data infrastructure standards compliance, the panel will visit the need for long term evolution planning in an agile environment within the production and post-production creative spaces. The panel will also explore the current industry trends and predictions of 25G/40G/50G/100G/200G/400G infrastructure adoption needed to fulfill the current and emerging technologies within production facilities/studio campuses/private or public data center environments, and even remote production.

  • Coordinator: Sean Tajkowski
    Sean Tajkowski

    Sean Tajkowski

    Sean Tajkowski has been involved with the Media and Entertainment industry for over 33 years. In this time he has seen the production environment change exponentially. He currently provides Audit/Design/Client Representation services for mission critical environments in motion picture, broadcast, data centers, network operations centers, and federal/military/civil public safety. He has provided services to many worldwide studio organizations, production/post production facilities, and visual effects houses globally. His long history within the business gives him unique insight as a consultant/client representative on many aspects of facility design and production techniques, in both local and remote applications. Sean works with many professional organizations and manufactures to provide standards/best practices education to many mission critical environments. Sean continues to research and analyze telecommunications/big tech emerging technologies, while providing long term technical forecasting.

  • Kam Patel, Commscope
  • Robert Schimke, AFL Networks
  • Matt Allen, IES Communications
    Matt Allen

    Matt Allen

    IES Communications

    Matt Allen has been in the cabling/communications industry for over 20 years, joining IES in 2011. While at IES, Allen has worked as an estimator/design engineer for all types of cabling projects including data centers, production facilities, class A office space and manufacturing/industrial environments before rising through the ranks to Vice President of Engineering. Allen achieved his BICSI RCDD certification in 2009 and his OSP specialization in 2016.

4:50 pm – 5:15 pm
SMPTE Update
  • Thomas Bause Mason, SMPTE
    Thomas Bause Mason

    Thomas Bause Mason

    SMPTE

    Thomas Bause Mason is the Director of Standards Development at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) where he leads SMPTE’s standards development efforts and industry engagement. He began his career in Cologne, Germany, as a computer programmer for automation software in the nuclear and automobile industries. Before his move to Los Angeles, Bause Mason worked at the West German Television (WDR) and Cologne Broadcasting Center (CBC), where he led the quality control department. In addition, he worked as an independent database developer. In Los Angeles, he became a postproduction consultant, building and running the encoding operations for Ascent Media. Joining NBC Universal in 2005, he focused on emerging digital media technology, spending two years in London to support the company’s international business. Moving to New York in 2008, Bause Mason provided proof of concept, product evaluation, and best practice implementation advice to NBC Universal’s various business units. He assisted industry organizations in the development of standards, technical recommendations, and study group reports. He holds several patents relating to watermarking, 3D, authentication, metadata tagging and VR.

5:15 pm – 5:45 pm
Vid2Vec: A Machine Language for Media Content
  • Yves Bergquist, Entertainment Technology Center at USC
5:45 pm – 6:00 pm
What Just Happened? A Review of the Day by Jerry Pierce & Annie Chang
  • Jerry Pierce, Inter-Society Digital Cinema Forum, National Association of Theatre Owners
    Jerry Pierce

    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.

  • 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.

6:00 pm – 6:15-ish
Why the Show on Rebuilding The Brady Bunch House Couldn’t Get the Color Right
  • Ed Grogan

Speakers

Below are bios submitted by some of our 2020 Tech Retreat speakers. We have many more exciting speakers listed on our schedule.

Annie Chang

Universal Pictures

Annie Chang

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.

Benjamin Nowicki

Benjamin Nowicki

Benjamin Nowicki

Benjamin Nowicki has 25 years of experience in the Art Department of mainstream film productions (DreamWorks, Sony, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros., among others), collaborating with directors such as Christopher Nolan, Damien Chazelle, Sam Mendes, Gore Verbinski and Robert Altman. He was Art Director for Dunkirk (Oscar nominated), Art Director for First Man (Oscar nominated). As a Graphic Artist, he worked on numerous international box office hits and also Emmy-winning TV shows, such as The Morning Show, Big Little Lies, FlashForward and The Unit. Benjamin is a member of The Art Directors Guild where he is currently serving as Chair of the Professional Development Committee.

Brian Vessa

Brian Vessa

Sony Pictures

Brian Vessa

Brian Vessa is a dedicated audio professional with over 35 years of experience in the industry. After attending UCLA Engineering School he became a recording engineer, producing albums and recording orchestras. His passion was hot-rodding studio gear and discovering novel recording techniques. Brian transitioned into film post as a music editor and sound editor, became a re-recording mixer at Cannon Films and MGM, then handled audio restoration at NT Audio. He was hired by Sony Pictures in 1998, and today is their Executive Director of Digital Audio Mastering and representative to DCI. Brian is a member of the Academy Sound Branch, AES, and is a Fellow of SMPTE. He is the founding chair of the SMPTE TC-25CSS Technical Committee on Cinema Sound Systems and serves on many SMPTE and AES committees. As one of the founding fathers of IMF, Brian was a member of the original committee that conceived and created the concept, helping write a fully detailed standard for IMF prior to it being brought to SMPTE. He then continued the work with SMPTE to create the IMF specifications suite. He has been instrumental in standardizing the IAB immersive audio distribution bitstream for Cinema and IMF as well as a host of related standards. Brian is the current chair of the DCI Technical Committee, and has written many independent audio specifications, including a white paper on near-field mixing for home theater that has been widely adopted. Brian enjoys recording jazz, rock and mixing live sound. He is a drummer and keyboardist in the LA area, an avid backpacker and an award-winning home wine and beer maker.

Christopher Grove

Chris Grove

EK Gaming

Chris Grove

Chris Grove is a partner at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming where he heads the firm’s sports betting practice. His research and insights are regularly cited by policymakers, media, publicly-traded companies, and financial analysts. Grove is also a founder and managing partner at SGIF, a VC fund investing in startups focused on the legal U.S. sports betting opportunity.

Chris Lennon

Ross Video

Chris Lennon

Chris Lennon serves in Ross Video’s Office of the CTO as Director, Standards Strategy. He is responsible for Ross’ activities in global standards and trade organizations

Chris also serves as Executive Director of the Open Services Alliance (OSA), a global industry organization focused on interoperability among microservice oriented media systems. The OSA produced the media industry’s first microservices standards, working closely with SMPTE, in 2020, and continues to lead the way in this rapidly evolving area.

Chris has held a variety of leadership positions in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), including Standards Director, Local Section Manager, Technology Committee Chair, and currently, Western Region Governor. He is a SMPTE Fellow and recipient of SMPTE’s prestigious 2008 Citation.  He also has served in a variety of roles, including Secretary of the SMPTE Rocky Mountain Section.

Craig German

HPA

Craig German

David Cole

David Cole

IPV

David Cole

David is an industry visionary and technology leader in the media and entertainment sector. David’s strategy and innovation drives IPV’s leadership in production and management of video assets across multiple platforms, devices and geographies.

David Morin

David Morin

Academy Software Foundation

David Morin

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.

David Phillips

David Phillips

Cloudian

David Phillips

A media technologist with over twenty years of experience in the design and deployment of media and entertainment workflows, David Phillips brings a unique set of creative problem solving skills to every project or design. After 10 years architecting feature film restoration and finishing pipelines for The Criterion Collection, David joined Rohde&Schwarz-DVS as a Solutions Architect in 2012. While at R&S, he designed SAN and workflow solutions for a wide variety of enterprise customers in North America. David joined NBCU in 2014 to manage the Entertainment Systems division, responsible for designing and building the infrastructure supporting the late night and cable entertainment production units in New York City. Seeing the exponential storage capacity requirements on the media space horizon, and the market need for storage platforms that facilitate key data analytics, David joined Cloudian in 2018 to provide next generation cloud-native designs for media enterprise customers.

David Stump

David Stump

ASC

David Stump

David Stump ASC has been working in motion pictures and television production as Director of Photography, as Visual Effects Director of Photography, as Visual Effects Supervisor, and as Stereographer, (including both live action work and 2D to 3D conversion work), earning an Emmy Award, an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement, an IMAGO Technical Achievement Award and an International Cinematographers Guild Award. His credits include projects like Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show, Skyfire, The Happytime Murders, American Gods, The Unwilling, Immortals, Quantum of Solace, Flight Plan, Fantastic Four, X-Men 1 & 2, Into the Blue, Garfield, Batman Forever, Hollow Man, Men of Honor, Deep Blue Sea, Stuart Little, The Sphere, Contact, Batman & Robin, Mars Attacks, Executive Decision, Stargate, and Free Willy, among many, many others. He is currently chairman of the Camera Committee and the Metadata Committee of the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council. Under his guidance, the combined efforts of the Producer’s Guild of America and the American Society of Cinematographers produced both the ASC / PGA Camera Assessment Series, and the ASC / PGA Image Control Assessment Series, side by side comparisons of virtually all of the high end digital cinema cameras against film. He has lectured and taught classes in Cinematography and Visual Effects at the American Film Institute, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, Woodbury University, Arizona State University, Global Cinematography Institute, IATSE Local 600, TV Globo Rio De Janeiro Brasil, Savannah College of Art and Design, The Beijing Film Academy and most recently the ARRI Academy in Beijing. He has spoken at many conferences and trade shows including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the International Broadcast Convention (IBC), Cinegear Expo, DV Expo, the PGA Produced By Conference, the Hollywood Post Alliance Retreat, the Cinegrid Conference, the IMAGO Conference, the Lisbon Film Festival, the Todos En Alta Conference in Zaragoza Spain, and many others. David authored the book “Digital Cinematography – Fundamentals, Techniques and Workflows”, and is a contributing author to the “VES Handbook”. http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Cinematography-Fundamentals-Techniques-Workflows/dp/0240817915 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_12?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ves+handbook+of+visual+effects&sprefix=VES+handbook%2Cstripbooks%2C324

Del Parks

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Del Parks

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 175th Infantry (5th 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.”

 

Doug Walker

Autodesk

Doug Walker

Doug is the Technology Lead for Color Science at Autodesk, working on products such as Flame, Maya, Arnold, and ShotGrid. He is also very active in open source projects, serving as the Chief Architect on the OpenColorIO Technical Steering Committee and as part of the Architectural Technical Advisory Council for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science’s ACES project. He led the team of Autodesk engineers that developed OpenColorIO v2. Doug has been honored with the Natalie M. and Herbert T. Kalmus Medal and the Workflow Systems Medal from SMPTE and with an HPA Engineering Excellence award.

Eliot Mack

Eliot Mack

Lightcraft Technology

Eliot Mack

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.

Erik Weaver

Erik Weaver

Entertainment Technology Center at USC

Erik Weaver

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.

Felicia Yue

Felicia Yue

Amazon Prime Video

Felicia Yue

Felicia is a computer science dropout who took a while to figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up. After learning to code and play the piano from her mom (a classically-trained concert pianist and illegal immigrant turned IBM software developer), Felicia got a degree in Economics and started her career in corporate finance. After three years in power suits, she ran away from her nice, stable corporate life and joined the TV circus by becoming the only woman on the crew of Monday Night Football. There, she helped develop and launch virtual enhancements like the Emmy-winning 1st & Ten line (a.k.a. “the yellow line”) for NFL fans, along with other products for fans of the Olympics, Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the Champions League. Along the way, she got her MBA from Columbia Business School, dabbled in Product Marketing for Procter & Gamble, scrubbed penguin guano at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and worked as a ranch hand on a humane pig and chicken farm in the Bay Area (note: will work for bacon). Now, as a Product Manager for Amazon, Felicia is focused on bringing sports fans the next wave of innovative features that will make watching sports a best-in-class experience on Prime Video.

Glen Sakata

Glen Sakata

Dalet

Glen Sakata

Glen is a Sr. Account Executive at Dalet with three decades of product, market and sales development experience across the broadcast, entertainment and enterprise markets. He has an extensive track record of launching post-incubation technologies such as studio robotics, master control automation, video processing, statistical multiplexing and media logistics with transformative outcomes at top media companies worldwide.

Greg Ciaccio

Greg Ciaccio

IMAX

Greg Ciaccio

Greg Ciaccio, Creative Technologist, is pushing the boundaries of production and post techniques to help usher in the new paradigm of filmmaking through advances in virtual and remote production.

Ciaccio serves as Chair of the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council’s Workflow Committee, which includes the Advanced Data Management and ACES Subcommittees. He is also helping to lead Production Technology for R&D Projects at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, working to advance workflows and technical best-practices in Virtual and Remote Production. Their next short “Fathead” dives deeper into Virtual Production use cases, adding virtual humans and expanded remote production as we continue to work through challenging times.

Additionally, he is an ASC Associate Member, Board Member of the SMPTE Hollywood Section, Advisory Board Member of SMPTE Rapid
Industry Solutions, Member of the Television Academy Science & Technology Group, and a founding member of the Digital Cinema Society.

Guy Finley

Guy Finley

The Trusted Partner Network

Guy Finley

Guy Finley is President of CDSA (Content Delivery & Security Association) and MESA (Media & Entertainment Services Alliance). He is the CEO of the Trusted Partner Network, a joint venture launched in 2018 between CDSA and MPA (Motion Picture Association), that helps companies prevent leaks, breaches, and hacks of their customers’ movies and television shows prior to their intended release through by creating a single, global directory of “trusted partner” vendors. Guy started his career in the entertainment industry as a successful performer and producer, making music with industry giants such as Phil Ramone, Elliott Scheiner, and Dave Grusin in the 1990s. His New York City based group was signed to Larry Rosen’s N2K Encoded Music, the first record company to distribute music via digital downloads. In 2000 he joined the home entertainment industry as President of LFA, Inc., providing home video brand and business consulting services for a worldwide clientele. His firm represented JVC in North America, licensing the loading and duplication of VHS videocassettes bearing the VHS Logo Trademark. In 2005 he joined the Content Delivery and Security Association (then IRMA, International Recording Media Association) where he pioneered the CDSA Daily News Portal. In 2008 Guy founded MESA as a coalition of service providers to the Hollywood studios, independent content holders, video game publishers, software publishers and music labels. Through MESA’s media, events, working groups and initiatives, MESA facilitates ongoing discussions about collaboration and innovation in the entertainment industry along four key verticals: supply chain, data, security and IT. MESA also manages the business affairs and calendars of CDSA, WiTH (Women in Technology: Hollywood) Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, and EIDR (Entertainment ID Registry). With over 150 member companies worldwide, MESA is a leading voice in the global media & entertainment industry.

Hossein ZiaShakeri

Hossein ZiaShakeri

Spectra Logic

Hossein ZiaShakeri

Hossein ZiaShakeri is Spectra Logic’s Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Alliances. Hossein is an executive on the company’s technology team tasked with maintaining the company’s leadership position in product innovation and business success. Hossein has more than 30 years of experience in design, engineering and management of storage subsystems, with a special focus on the M & E industry.

Jerry Pierce

Jerry Pierce

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

Jerry Pierce

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.

Jim Burger

Jim Burger

Thompson Coburn LLP

Jim Burger

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.

Jim Helman

MovieLabs

Jim Helman

Jim is CTO at MovieLabs, a technology joint venture of five major Hollywood studios. At MovieLabs, Jim leads technical work on the 2030 Vision for media creation in the cloud and has led industry initiatives including driving worldwide standards for high dynamic range video. Jim also led the design and implementation of the Entertainment Identifier Registry (EIDR), for which he was awarded an Engineering, Science and Technology Emmy.

Prior to MovieLabs, Jim was chief software architect at Liberate Technologies, where he led the development of a web platform for delivering interactive cable services. Prior to Liberate, he worked at Silicon Graphics, developing real-time 3D systems for VR, location-based entertainment, and visual simulation. Jim holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from Stanford and a B.A. in Physics and Math from Washington University.

John Buzzel

John Buzzell

Epic Games

John Buzzell

John Buzzell is an award-winning veteran of the digital industry. In his role at Epic Games, John helps creative agencies, animation studios, and AR and VR creators leverage Unreal Engine’s real-time visuals for breakthrough experiences and compelling storytelling. His past credits include emerging technology for WarnerMedia, National Geographic, Coca-Cola, Porsche, and Discovery, Inc. John lives near Epic’s headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he also leads the VR/AR Association’s local chapter. 

John Harris

John Harris

Cambridge Research Systems

John Harris

John Harris has worked within the Broadcast Film and TV industry for over 35 years. Initially beginning as an analogue and digital electronics specialist and growing into Sales, Marketing and Business Development roles for companies like Abekas, Ampex and Avid before co-founding root6 in London. In 2013 John emigrated to Vancouver, Canada and is now providing Business Development roles for Cambridge Research and Cinedeck.

John Quartel

John Quartel

Company 3

John Quartel

John Quartel is Vice President of Imaging Science for Company 3. Within Company 3 and Deluxe he has, since 2016, been helping film and television creatives realise their visions with novel technologies and worklflows. Formerly he developed color management and film scanning technology at FilmLight, for which he received, in 2010, a scientific and engineering award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As a member of SMPTE, John contributed to standards for image file formats and to the ACES project. John has a PhD in Optical Physics from Imperial College London and a BSc from the University of Sydney. 

Josh Pines

Josh Pines

Technicolor

Josh Pines

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.

Josh Stinehour

Josh Stinehour

Devoncroft

Josh Stinehour

Josh Stinehour is a principal analyst with Devoncroft Partners, a provider of market research and strategic consulting services to a wide range of digital media clients and institutional investors. He is a frequent presenter at conferences and trade shows in the media technology sector. Prior to joining Devoncroft, Mr. Stinehour was a managing director at Silverwood Partners in the firm’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications group. While at Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour executed a range of transactions including mergers and acquisitions, valuations, and private placements. Before joining Silverwood, Mr. Stinehour worked in various positions at EMC Corporation including as a software programmer and later as an analyst on integration teams for EMC’s acquisitions of Documentum, Legato, and VMWare. He holds an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, an MS in computer science from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BS in computer science from Union College. Mr. Stinehour is a CFA charterholder.

Karl Paulsen

Karl Paulsen

Diversified

Karl Paulsen

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.

Kenneth Cuomo

Kenneth Cuomo

Vimond IO

Kenneth Cuomo

Having worked as a cameraman and editor for close to 20 years, covering some of the biggest news events around the world, I have seen how the demands in the industry have shifted. The need for efficiency and flexibility is greater than ever before.

Kristin Petrovich

Createasphere and SOC

Kristin Petrovich

Createasphere is the leading builder of professional communities for content creation technology and media companies. Working with organizations at strategic points in their growth to build new audiences, while engaging current fans.

Kristin has developed and lead hundreds of community building initiates worldwide from organizations, tradeshows, conferences, digital to educational workshops.

Kristin is currently privileged to work with the Society of Camera Operators as the Executive Director and with NAB Show consulting on their cinema focused initiatives.

Her passion is fostering women entrepreneurs through transformative thought leadership.

Mark Chiolis

Mobile TV Group

Mark Chiolis

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.

Mark Harrison

DPP

Mark Harrison

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.

Mark Schubin

HPA Tech Retreat

Mark Schubin

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.

Mark Turner

MovieLabs

Mark Turner

Mark Turner is President, Entertainment Technologists Inc and coordinates the Production Technology program for Movielabs that created the 2030 Vision for the future of content creation. In Mark’s 27 years in the global media industry he has always been at the intersection of technology and business. Mark has held roles from product management, to sales, strategy, business development and partnerships for start-ups to multi-billion corporates including Ryff, Technicolor, Levels Beyond, RSTOR, Wasabi, Dolby , Microsoft, BT Media & Broadcast, Eutelsat and Xinsere.

Matt Allen

Matt Allen

IES Communications

Matt Allen

Matt Allen has been in the cabling/communications industry for over 20 years, joining IES in 2011. While at IES, Allen has worked as an estimator/design engineer for all types of cabling projects including data centers, production facilities, class A office space and manufacturing/industrial environments before rising through the ranks to Vice President of Engineering. Allen achieved his BICSI RCDD certification in 2009 and his OSP specialization in 2016.

Matthew Goldman

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Matthew Goldman

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.

Michael Chambliss

International Cinematographers Guild

Michael Chambliss

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.”

Michael Mansouri

Michael Mansouri

Radiant Images

Michael Mansouri

Michael is known as one of the industry’s most knowledgeable, inventive and passionate technologists. Born into a family of filmmakers, he has produced and directed several high-impact documentaries, most recently, for the United Nation’s Geneva Summit for Human Rights. His documentaries help raise awareness of human and animal rights violations around the world to provide a voice for the voiceless. Always interested in the overlap between film and technology, Michael co-founded Radiant Images in 2005. His work and innovations in film led to his acceptance as an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, an invite-only membership group limited to less than 400 experts with distinguished credits in motion picture industry. He also received several other prestigious honors that include the Lumiere Award from The Advanced Imaging Society, Tech Innovations Award from Definition magazine and the Mario Award, which recognizes significant technological breakthroughs, and landed a spot on The Studio Daily’s as the top 50 creatives & technologists in Motion picture industry. Mr. Mansouri’s efforts in filmmaking led to NASA / JPL’s 2018 Emmy win for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for Cassini’s Grand Finale, which was NASA’s first recognition in the film community. At Radiant, he hopes to break the technology barriers surrounding digital innovation and provide a more meaningful impact that connects and engages humanity. Always interested in the overlap between film and technology, Michael co-founded Radiant Images in 2005. His work and innovations in film led to his acceptance as an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, an invite-only membership group for experts with distinguished credits in film. He also received several other prestigious honors such as the Lumiere award, Tech Innovations Award, 2019 Artificial Intelligence Award and the Mario Award, which recognizes significant technological breakthroughs, and landed a spot on the Studio Daily’s list of The Top Creatives & Technologists. Mr. Mansouri’s efforts in filmmaking led to NASA / JPL’s 2018 Emmy win for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for Cassini’s Grand Finale, which was NASA’s first recognition in the film community. At Radiant, he hopes to break the technology barriers surrounding digital innovation and provide a more meaningful impact that connects and engages humanity.

Michael Zink

Warner Bros.

Michael Zink

As Vice President of Technology at Warner Bros., Michael Zink is responsible for exploring emerging technologies to enhance WB’s capabilities for production, post-production, and distribution. This includes assessing new technologies; and assisting with the setup and integration of digital workflows. Michael also participates in a number of standards associations such as BDA, CTA, DCI, SMPTE, UHDA, among others. Prior to joining Warner Bros. in 2014, Michael worked at Technicolor for over 10 years, most recently as Vice President of Technology Strategy, where he was responsible for launching the production efforts around various new optical disc formats. Additionally, Michael was responsible for the promotion and adoption of Technicolor technology solutions within industry groups. Earlier in his career, he worked for several media production facilities in Germany.

Michelle Munson

Eluvio

Michelle Munson

Michelle Munson is the co-founder and CEO of Eluvio and co-creator of the content fabric protocol, an open and decentralized Internet protocol for owner-controlled streaming, storage and monetization of digital content at scale. She leads the Berkeley based company and is co-inventor on 11 patents.

Michelle is an Emmy-award winning technologist who previously co-founded Aspera in 2004 and led the company as CEO until May 2017, including through acquisition by IBM in 2014. She co-invented the Aspera FASP™ transport technology.

Michelle is a recipient of the David Sarnoff Medal from the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE); the Charles Swartz Award from the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA); IABM’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; and named one of the top 25 “People to Watch by TV Technology.

Michelle was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Fame at Kansas State University in 2021. She was also the 2019 Kansas State University Commencement Speaker for the College of Arts and Sciences and the 2006 Alumnus of the Year for the College of Engineering. She holds dual B.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Kansas State University, where she was a Goldwater Scholar for achievement in Science and Mathematics. She was also a Fulbright Scholar at Cambridge University where she received a postgraduate diploma in Computer Science.

Mike Cronk

Mike Cronk

AIMS/Grass Valley

Mike Cronk

Michael Cronk is Chairman of the Board for the Alliance for IP Media Solutions and Vice President of Core Technology for Grass Valley. Michael guides the critical development of Grass Valley’s next generation core technologies for both cloud and on-premise topologies. He also leads Grass Valley’s company-wide cyber-security initiative. Michael’s history with Grass Valley originally dates back to 1989 to 2008 when he held a number of growing roles over the period including General Manager of the Server and News business, as well as Vice President of Marketing. During this tenure with the company, Michael led the identification and implementation of Grass Valley’s expansion strategy into the news market. After a hiatus Michael re-joined the company in 2013 as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Line Management where he was instrumental in the turn-around of the company prior to its acquisition by Belden. Between 2015 and 2016 he served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, driving Grass Valley’s product roadmap and strategy.

Mike Strein

Mike Strein

ABC News

Mike Strein

Mike is the Director of Engineering and Technology at ABC News in NY, part of Walt Disney Television. For the last 30 years he has been at the forefront of just about every technical advancement that the ABC TV network has made, from the conversion from analog to digital, through the HDTV transition to the migration to video over IP and the expansion of streaming platforms. Mike has over 40 Disney Innovation awards that have resulted in 22 US patents, with several others still in process. Mike is fairly active in the standards communities, has been an active SMPTE NY board member since 1997 and is a SMPTE Fellow. Prior to ABC, Mike spent 7 years at Standard Microsystems Corporation as part of a semiconductor design team. He has a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from SUNY Polytechnic University in Utica/Rome.

Nadya Ichinomiya

Nadya Ichinomiya

Sony

Nadya Ichinomiya

Early in Nadya’s life, when dirt was also young, she became obsessed with this question: how do you influence behavior? Her first job at 16 was calling up strangers on the phone, asking them to take a 20 minute survey about legal cases. OOOOF. The question morphed into – how do you inspire employees to unleash their passion, innovation and engagement? What needs to be in place to create highly performing teams? Nadya serves as an Executive Director at Sony Pictures in the role of Enterprise Agile Coach, working with tech teams aiming to improve their responsiveness to change in an industry tackling vast amounts of disruption. Starting out her professional life with a Business degree from USC, Nadya cut her corporate teeth at IBM, working in sales and management behind the Orange Curtain. From there she leveraged her intimacy with the umlaut to land a job as a Vice President with Electronic Data Systems (now Hewlett Packard) in Frankfurt at the young age of 27 – shattering a glass ceiling as the company’s highest ranking woman in the EMEA’s region (22,000 employees) and also was the youngest VP worldwide (out of 117,000 employees.) Never one to shy away from a challenge, Nadya moved from computer screens to movie screens, changing course and rebooting her career as a Hollywood producer. After five years working with Bonnie Hunt in both movies and TV (as a producer on ABC’s Life With Bonnie,) she was ready to return to the corporate world. First in TV Distribution at MGM and now back in technology at Sony Pictures, Nadya’s familiarity with both the wonky and the wacky aspects of Hollywood has provided a wide aperture of both the entertainment business and the tech world. In 2010, Nadya launched a side business as a literary manager, guiding the career of mom blogger, Kelle Hampton, whose first book “Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected,” debuted two years later at number 11 on The New York Times best seller list. During this time, she created, directed and edited a video for a non-profit which has over 100,000 views on YouTube and raised over $100,000 in the first week. A woman of diverse talents, Nadya also spent time training female boxers and is licensed as a boxing trainer in the states of California and Nevada, earning the ring name of “The Monster.” Six years ago, Nadya co-founded Women In Technology: Hollywood (501c3) – a cross media & entertainment non-profit with 2500+ members from all the major studios where she serves as Chairwoman. Additionally, she was co-Chair of Women in Technology at Sony Pictures, which has 250+ members. In both groups, the mission is to enable women to expand their professional development and build their network as well as empower girls to consider a career in technology, whether it’s in coding itself or code adjacent roles in project management and business analysis. In 2016, Nadya was honored with a Certification of Acknowledgement from Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, for entrepreneurial/start-up service to LA as the founder/thought leader of both influential groups, now in their fourth year. She also received the honor of a Leadership/Education/Advocacy award from Women in Cable Telecommunications. Nadya lives in LA with her husband David, their two sons Mingus and Spike & their Boston Terrier, Dolphy.

Nick Garvin

Mobile TV Group

Nick Garvin

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 onsite 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.

Omer Farooq

Omer Farooq

Independent Security Evaluators

Omer Farooq

Omer Farooq is a Cloud Security Principle at Independent Security Evaluators who is focused on Media and Entertainment vertical. Over 10 years of experience in cloud consulting, building security programs, secure software development and DevOPs. Currently architecting, building, securing and assessing post-production security, studio-in-the-cloud, virtual desktop infrastructure, and improving overall data mobilization and delivery across the entire entertainment industry.

Patrick Renner

Patrick Renner

Pomfort

Patrick Renner

Patrick Renner is a specialist in designing and developing applications for media management and video processing in production and post-production workflows. He co-founded the software company Pomfort that develops applications and services that are used in professional film productions around the world. Prior to that he was involved in research and teaching as a research assistant for software engineering at TUM in Munich, Germany. He acquired knowledge about professional film productions as an IT professional in a large post production facility, and helped to build and run one of the first DI facilities in Europe. Patrick Renner is committee member of the ASC MITC for data management, and is participating in the ACES Implementation Technical Advisory Council.

Paul Debevec

Netflix/ICT

Paul Debevec

Paul Debevec recently joined Netflix as Director of Research, Creative Algorithms and Technology, on the Data Science and Engineering team, where he oversees R&D around new technologies in computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning with applications in VFX, virtual production, and animation. Techniques from Paul’s work have been used to create key visual effects sequences in The Matrix, Spider-Man 2, Benjamin Button, Avatar, Gravity, Furious 7, Blade Runner: 2049, Gemini Man, numerous video games, and to record a 3D Portrait of US President Barack Obama. His light stage facial capture technology has helped numerous tech companies, video game studios, and visual effects companies create photoreal digital actors and advance ML datasets for facial appearance. Paul’s work in HDR imaging, image-based lighting, and light stage facial capture has been recognized with two technical Academy Awards and SMPTE’s Progress Medal. Paul is a Fellow of the Visual Effects Society and serves on the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee, and is a past co-chair of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council and Vice President of ACM SIGGRAPH. More info at: www.debevec.org.

Peter Putman

ROAM Consulting

Peter Putman

Peter Putman is president of ROAM Consulting LLC in Doylestown, PA. A 44year 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 ultrahighdefinition television for the organization.

Phil Lelyveld

Phil Lelyveld

Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California

Phil Lelyveld

Philip Lelyveld runs the Immersive Media (VR/AR/MR/LBE) Initiative at the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC@USC), a think tank within the School of Cinematic Arts. He also runs the Executive/Student Coffee program which creates structured, casual discussion and networking opportunities around topics of interest to the industry.

 

The ETC@USC is funded by the major Hollywood studios, Verizon, Microsoft, and related service, technology, telco/internet, and consumer electronics companies to advise them on emerging technology-related opportunities, project out where entertainment will be in the 3-5 year timeframe, connect them with start-ups and communities of interest, help accelerate adoption of promising technologies, and work to drive standardization and avoid format wars. Learn more at www.ETCenter.org and www.PhilipLelyveld.com .

Poppy Crum

Poppy Crum

Dolby

Poppy Crum

Poppy Crum works to bridge the gap between technology and insightful, effective human interaction. As a multi-dimensional advocate of empathetic technology, she builds technologies that best leverage human physiology to enhance our experiences and how we interact with the world.

 

Poppy serves as the Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories and as an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University in the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics and Program in Symbolic Systems.

 

Poppy is dedicated to the development of immersive technologies that leverage human physiology and perceptual realities to enhance our experiences and interactions in the world. She has advanced a mission to democratize the way people of all abilities benefit from sensory technologies – and how effectively technology communicates back to each of us. She believes the power of intelligent technologies is only realized with dynamic optimization and learning of as much of our personal and contextual data as possible.

 

At Dolby, Poppy directs the growth of internal science. She is responsible for integrating neuroscience and sensory data science into algorithm design, technological development, and technology strategy. At Stanford, her work focuses on the impact and feedback potential of new technologies including gaming and immersive environments such as Augmented and Virtual Reality on neuroplasticity and learning.

Ramy Katrib

Ramy Katrib

DigitalFilm Tree

Ramy Katrib

Ramy Katrib is an award-winning filmmaker and CEO / Founder of DigitalFilm Tree (DFT) https://www.digitalfilmtree.com, an 18 year old post-production and software development company. Ramy started his career in media & technology over 25 years ago, as filmmaker, negative cutter, and telecine colorist. In all the organizations and projects he propels, Ramy champions a multidisciplinary work culture, led by world-class creatives and technologists working hand in hand to solve huge problems. DFT played a key role in transitioning the media and entertainment industry to digital post and file-based workflows, on projects like Cold Mountain and Scrubs. Today DFT is the leading provider of IP based production, post, story visualization services and software solutions. DFT clients include ABC, A&E, CBS, Disney, Fox, HBO, Netflix, Turner, Warner Bros, and first-time storytellers alike.

Renard Jenkins

Warner Bros. Discovery

Renard Jenkins

Renard Jenkins is an experienced contention creation and creative technology executive in the Film, Television and Radio industry. He is currently Warner Bros. Discovery’s Senior Vice President, Production Integration & Creative Technology Services where he oversees teams that support 23,500 plus cast/crew members, 8,500 plus content hours and hundreds of global feature film, animation, and syndicated television productions annually. He and his teams provide creative production technology solutions and strategy for film, animation, and television productions worldwide. They also provide application, IP, production pipeline support and workflows as well as work stream design and implementation. A portion of his team are also responsible for the exploration and successful implementation of emerging and creative technologies such as virtual production, multiplatform storytelling, virtual character and meta human development, neuro-technology and better images and sound for cinema and home entertainment.

Prior to joining WarnerMedia, Jenkins served as Vice President, Operations, Engineering & Distribution at PBS, where he was responsible for the strategic direction, technology development, engineering, and operational management of PBS’s entire media-supply chain. He and his teams were responsible for the successful simultaneous launch of the Live Linear and Cloud-based PBS Kids Channel plus Live Streaming App which also contained games and VOD. It remains as one of the most popular kid’s applications and destinations today. He also created PBS’s Advanced Format Center. He has also worked for TV One, Discovery, ESPN and Turner Broadcasting where he received multiple awards for his work in Film & Television Production, Post Production and R&D, including two national Emmys. Jenkins was also awarded the Innovator of the Year award in 2017 for his cutting-edge work and accomplishments in UHD, HDR, NGA and supply chain technology through the PBS Advanced Format Center and other industry activities.

Jenkins is a SMPTE Fellow and currently serves as President of SMPTE. He sits on the boards of MovieLabs, the Hollywood Professionals Association, the UltraHD Forum, the Content & Entertainment Council as well as the Microsoft and Oracle Advisory Boards. He is also a recipient of a Peabody, 2 Headliners and a 2020 Broadcasting and Cable Technology Leadership award to name a few others.

He is a champion and advocate for inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in the technology and media industries. He is a Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Washington, DC Chapter of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC), chairs the Warner Bros. Discovery Technology and Operations Equity and Inclusion Council, the SMPTE Global Inclusion Working Group and he also Co-Chairs, HPA ALL which advocates for and promotes diversity, better equity and increased inclusion and accessibility in the media and entertainment industry.

When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and best friend of over 30 years, his daughters, and his grandchildren. He loves travel photography / filmmaking and only has one more continent left to explore. He is also a certified sound engineer and is passionate about the visual arts. When time permits, he loves to provide pro bono location sound, live mixing, studio recording, post-production and finishing services for aspiring filmmakers, animators, and musicians. His family moto is “In all things integrity and integrity in all things.”

Reza Rassool

Reza Rassool

Real Networks

Reza Rassool

Reza Rassool, Chief Technology Officer, joined RealNetworks in April 2016. Mr. Rassool is a serial startup professional and inventor bringing a wealth of knowledge from companies such as DirectTV, CBS, and Panasonic. He founded Kwaai Oak – CTO-as-a-Service™, a technical consulting firm specializing in digital entertainment platforms. Previously, Mr. Rassool served as chief technology officer at Zya and as chief engineer and vice president of product development at Widevine Technologies, a Seattle-based video technology startup that was sold to Google in 2010. Developer and architect whose innovations have earned a Technical Oscar™, Technical Emmy™, and over 20 patents, Mr. Rassool holds a B.Sc. in Physics from King’s College London.

Rich Berger

MovieLabs

Rich Berger

Richard Berger joined MovieLabs as CEO in 2017, arriving with an extensive digital strategy background and a proven and unique ability to bring companies together to solve the most challenging problems and achieve profound industry change. He is responsible for the overall direction of MovieLabs and oversees technology initiatives on behalf of the major studios. Rich led the development of the “2030 Vision” which has become the industry’s reference for the future of media creation.

Rich came to MovieLabs with over 20 years of experience in digital innovation, and more than a decade leading new media and technology efforts at Sony Pictures Entertainment. He served most recently as SVP of Worldwide Digital Strategy & Advanced Platforms, where he built a reputation for innovation, particularly around emerging digital platforms and formats such as Movies Anywhere and UHD (4K-HDR). Rich also was one of original founders of UltraViolet and helped launch the DECE consortium.

Other roles at Sony included SVP New Media & Technology, where he was responsible for establishing digital policy across all Sony Pictures digital distribution businesses. Rich also worked at Sony Music Entertainment’s New Media Department where he developed Sony Music’s first Enhanced CDs. Rich holds a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from Tisch School of the Arts and a Bachelors in Computer Science from Rutgers College.

Richard Friedel

Richard Friedel

FOX TV

Richard Friedel

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.

Richard Duke

Richard Duke

Avid

Richard Duke

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.

Robin Cowie

Robin Cowie

HELO Technology

Robin Cowie

Robin Cowie is the Director of Experience Technology for Helo (www.flyhelo.com), a global experiential creative studio. He has 26-years creating film, television, theme park, theatre, and computer game experiences. His first feature, The Blair Witch Project, was followed by 8 other successful feature films, 2 television series, 6 video games, and a role as the Creative Director for the $600 million Dr. Phillips Center. He is the winner of numerous awards including the Producers Guild of America Award, the Prix De Jeuvenes from the Cannes Film Festival, and the Independent Spirit Award. Further, he is a founding partner for Experientia XR Limited, an original content development company located in London, England.

Rodney Grubbs

Rodney Grubbs

NASA

Rodney Grubbs

Rodney Grubbs began his career as a co-op motion picture photographer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center while a student at the University of Alabama. He is currently the NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager and chairs the NASA Digital Television Working Group. He is responsible for the NASA video distribution architecture including NASA TV and internet video distribution. He has been a Principal Investigator for flights of High Definition Television (HDTV) and Digital Cinema cameras and related experiments on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS), including the first ever live HDTV program from a spacecraft and more recently, the first ever Ultra High Definition program from a spacecraft. He is currently Principal Investigator for the National Lab’s Red Digital Cinema camera on the ISS and the Imagery Subsystem Lead for the Lunar Gateway. He also chairs the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group. www.linkedin.com/in/rodgrubbs @rod4dtv on twitter

Ron Luniewski

Ron Luniewski

InPlay Studios

Ron Luniewski

CEO InPlay Studios a first to market digital streaming company in the fast-growing sports betting space. Prior to InPlay Ron for 16 years Ron built Xpressbet and Global Wagering Solutions(GWS) into a respected global leader in wagering. This multi-platform gaming company generates $300+ million in annual revenue placing $2 billion in wagers each year. Prior to Xpressbet Ron was COO\CEO of a startup to IPO; Youbet.com.

Ron Williams

Ron Williams (Coachella & Billie Eilish)

Ron Williams (Coachella & Billie Eilish)

Mr. Williams is the CEO of The LANDMARK Group, a systems integration, design, and consulting company for 3 decades. As a veteran in the broadcast and film industries, with ABC Network, architect of the FOX network and Technical Director for several Olympic games, and design for feature films. He now is working with AIMS alliance members for advanced IP designs. His work with Camera manufactures on image development, he has helped push imaging quality forward.

With the advent of single chip cameras integrated with the broadcast industry, Ron has engineered several major entertainment shows for streaming and live broadcast. Working to educate both industries on the merge, of technologies and operations. He is an active member of SMPTE, AMPAS, DCI HPA SVG and has chaired and contributed on a variety of technical committees and standards groups

Rowan De Pomerai

Rowan de Pomerai

DPP

Rowan de Pomerai

Rowan de Pomerai leads the technology strategy and delivery for the DPP, the media industry’s business network. The DPP is the place where customers and suppliers come together to solve problems and create opportunities. Rowan has an MEng in Electronic Engineering with Media Technology from the University of York, and a strong background in media innovation, having started his career in BBC Research & Development. Since then he has delivered transformative change for some of the UK’s biggest broadcasters and producers. This included architecting and deploying the BBC’s Automated QC solutions, and leading the Production Modernisation project at ITV Studios, streamlining the production and delivery process. Most recently, Rowan was Director of Professional Services, EMEA at Ooyala. He and his team delivered media workflow, asset management, and online video solutions to leading broadcasters, sports clubs and enterprises. He joined the DPP in 2018.

Scott Rothenberg

NEP Group

Scott Rothenberg

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.

Sean Tajkowski

Sean Tajkowski

Sean Tajkowski

Sean Tajkowski has been involved with the Media and Entertainment industry for over 33 years. In this time he has seen the production environment change exponentially. He currently provides Audit/Design/Client Representation services for mission critical environments in motion picture, broadcast, data centers, network operations centers, and federal/military/civil public safety. He has provided services to many worldwide studio organizations, production/post production facilities, and visual effects houses globally. His long history within the business gives him unique insight as a consultant/client representative on many aspects of facility design and production techniques, in both local and remote applications. Sean works with many professional organizations and manufactures to provide standards/best practices education to many mission critical environments. Sean continues to research and analyze telecommunications/big tech emerging technologies, while providing long term technical forecasting.

Speaker - Skip Pizzi

Skip Pizzi

NAB

Skip Pizzi

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.

Stacy Chaet

Stacy Chaet

SIM International

Stacy Chaet

Stacy Chaet is a Supervising Workflow Producer at Sim. She is involved with the creation and implementation of workflows for television and feature films as well as managing facility needs. She has a genuine curiosity for solving technical issues as well as a love for the merging of art and technology. With over 10 years experience in post production, Stacy aims to keep on the forefront of the ever evolving industry.

Steve Byrd

Steve Byrd

Sportradar

Steve Byrd

Steve Byrd is head of strategic partnerships at Sportradar. A thirty-year veteran of the sports industry, Steve joined Sportradar’s U.S. operation as chief commercial officer in May 2015. After building out the U.S. sales team, Byrd transitioned into his current global role in May 2017. This follows a stint during which he served as a consultant and advisory board member for a number of global digital sports firms. Previously, Byrd was co-chief operating officer at STATS, leading their growth and relationships with leagues, federations, broadcasters, brands, and technology firms for nearly two decades. Byrd is a founding board member of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and serves as an executive-in-residence for his alma mater, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Steve Morris

Steve Morris

Skywalker Sound

Steve Morris

Steve Morris is a 30-year veteran in the audio engineering industry and has worked in every facet of the media business, including music, film and video post-production, as well as broadcast television. Steve is a member of SMPTE, AES, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Thomas Bause Mason

Thomas Bause Mason

SMPTE

Thomas Bause Mason

Thomas Bause Mason is the Director of Standards Development at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) where he leads SMPTE’s standards development efforts and industry engagement. He began his career in Cologne, Germany, as a computer programmer for automation software in the nuclear and automobile industries. Before his move to Los Angeles, Bause Mason worked at the West German Television (WDR) and Cologne Broadcasting Center (CBC), where he led the quality control department. In addition, he worked as an independent database developer. In Los Angeles, he became a postproduction consultant, building and running the encoding operations for Ascent Media. Joining NBC Universal in 2005, he focused on emerging digital media technology, spending two years in London to support the company’s international business. Moving to New York in 2008, Bause Mason provided proof of concept, product evaluation, and best practice implementation advice to NBC Universal’s various business units. He assisted industry organizations in the development of standards, technical recommendations, and study group reports. He holds several patents relating to watermarking, 3D, authentication, metadata tagging and VR.

Tony Gaughan

Tony Gaughan

RSTOR

Tony Gaughan

Tony Gaughan is the Chief Technology Officer at RStor. With over 25 years of experience in various product development and executive roles within both small and large companies, Gaughan was previously chief technical officer at Proofpoint (formerly Cloudmark) and Marketron. He also held chief executive and senior product officer positions at Serenhipity, SGI, Satmetrix, Computer Associates, and Oracle.

Wendy Aylsworth

Walden Pond

Wendy Aylsworth

Wendy Aylsworth is CEO of Walden Pond, providing entertainment technology consulting and strategic board guidance for entities focused on emerging ecosystems and nascent technologies. Her entertainment career has spanned 30+ years at Warner Bros. and Disney bringing emerging technologies into production and distribution usage, as seen in such hits as Lion King and Space Jam, and new technologies such as high frame rate, as seen in the Hobbit trilogy.

Wendy is a frequent speaker and moderator at key industry conferences, and is involved in many organizations to share knowledge and grow the next generation of entertainment professionals; currently acting as Secretary of the Board of the Hollywood Professional Association, as Governor of the Television Academy’s brand new Science & Technology Peer Group, and as President Emeritus of the USC Entertainment Technology Center (ETC). A Lifetime Fellow, former president, and former VP of Engineering (Standards) at SMPTE, Wendy has been honored with many awards, including the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award, the Bob Lambert Technology Leadership Award from the ETC, and SMPTE’s Progress Medal.  Wendy holds a BSCE from the University of Michigan and an MS/MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma) from USC.

Participating Companies

  1. 3 Ball Entertainment
  2. 3rd i
  3. 5th Kind
  4. 616 MUSIC LAB
  5. Aarmadillo Inc.
  6. ABC News
  7. ABC Studios
  8. ABC Studios/Shondaland
  9. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  10. Actus Digital
  11. Adder Technology
  12. Adobe
  13. ADS – Advanced Digital Services Inc
  14. Advanced Systems GRoup
  15. AFL
  16. AJA Video Systems
  17. Alpha Dogs, Inc.
  18. ALT Systems
  19. Amazon Prime Video
  20. Amazon Studios
  21. Amazon Web Services
  22. Ambidio
  23. American Cinema Editors
  24. AMPAS
  25. AnnaVista Films
  26. Apple
  27. ARRI Rental
  28. Art Directors Guild
  29. Artisans PR
  30. Artistic Resources Corp.
  31. Arvato SYSTEMS
  32. ASC
  33. Astrodesign Inc
  34. Atavium
  35. ATSC
  36. ATTO Technology
  37. Autodesk
  38. Avid
  39. AWS Elemental
  40. BH & Photo & Video
  41. Bebop Technology
  42. Berlin Productions
  43. Blackmagic Design
  44. Bluewater Media Studios
  45. BluFocus Inc
  46. Brooklyn College
  47. Bubble Agency
  48. Bwilderus
  49. BYU Broadcasting
  50. Caleb Knueven
  51. Canon USA Inc
  52. Cartoon Network – Adult Swim
  53. CBS Television Studios
  54. Cerberus Tech Ltd
  55. Chesapeake Systems
  56. CineCert Inc.
  57. CineSys Inc
  58. CineSys-Oceana
  59. Cinnafilm Inc.
  60. Cisco Inc
  61. ClearPlay Inc
  62. Cloudian Inc.
  63. Cobalt Digital
  64. CODEX
  65. Colorfront
  66. CommScope, Inc
  67. Company 3
  68. Convergent Risks Inc.
  69. Coughlin Associates
  70. CP Communications
  71. Createasphere
  72. Credit Suisse
  73. CUNY TV
  74. D2D Technologies
  75. Dalet
  76. Dalet Digital Media Systems
  77. DCIMPro
  78. Delair Labs
  79. Dell EMC
  80. Dell Technologies, Inc.
  81. Deluxe
  82. Deluxe EFILM
  83. Deluxe Entertainment Services Group
  84. Department of Defense
  85. Devoncroft Partners
  86. Digital Cinema Society
  87. DigitalFilm Tree
  88. Discovery
  89. Discovery Communications
  90. Disney / ABC Television Group
  91. Disney Digital Studios
  92. Diversified
  93. Dolby Laboratories
  94. DPP
  95. DreamWorks Animation
  96. DTDC
  97. DTS/Xperi
  98. EBU
  99. EcoDigital
  100. EFILM
  101. Eikon Group
  102. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming
  103. EIZO Inc.
  104. Eluvio
  105. Embrionix
  106. Entertainment and Media Technology Marketing, Inc.
  107. Entertainment Technology Center at USC
  108. Entropy Enterprises
  109. Envoi
  110. Epic Games
  111. Equinix
  112. ETC
  113. Evercast, LLC
  114. EVL/UIC
  115. Exchange Communications
  116. Fancy Film
  117. FilmLight
  118. FlightLine Films
  119. Florical Systems
  120. Fortium Technologies
  121. FotoKem
  122. Foundry
  123. Fox Corporation
  124. Fox Networks
  125. Frame.io
  126. Fujifilm/ Fujinon
  127. G&D North America Inc.
  128. Game Creek Video
  129. Garblecloud Inc.
  130. GB Labs Ltd
  131. Globecast
  132. Google
  133. Grass Valley
  134. GrayMeta
  135. G-Technology
  136. Haivision
  137. Happy Robotz LLC
  138. HardingFPA
  139. HBA
  140. HBO
  141. HBO / Warner Media
  142. HDVideoPro
  143. Helo
  144. IABM
  145. IBM Aspera
  146. ICG Magazine
  147. IDC-LA
  148. IES Communications
  149. Ignite Strategic Comminucations
  150. Image Essence LLC
  151. IMAGICA Lab.Inc.
  152. Imajeo
  153. Infinity Festival
  154. InPlay Studios
  155. InterDigital
  156. International Cinematographers Guild
  157. IPV
  158. ISDCF/NATO
  159. ISE
  160. JB & A
  161. Jigsaw24
  162. Joe Bogacz Consulting
  163. Joe Kane Productions
  164. John Ferder Engineer
  165. JVC Kenwood
  166. Key Code Media
  167. Key Code Media/Burst Communications
  168. Klein Media, LLC
  169. LAUSD & AFI
  170. Legendary Pictures
  171. Levels Beyond
  172. LG Electronics
  173. LIFE Electronic
  174. Lightcraft Technology
  175. Luminessence-Photo
  176. Lynx Technik USA
  177. Mark Bender and Aerials and Associates
  178. Masstech Innovations Inc
  179. MAX Post
  180. Media & Entertainment
  181. MediaBridge Capital
  182. MediaKind
  183. MediAnswers
  184. MelroseMAC
  185. Merrill Weiss Group LLC
  186. MESA
  187. MGM Studios
  188. Microsoft
  189. Mission Rock Digital
  190. Mobile TV Group
  191. MOCEAN
  192. Molex
  193. Moonshine Post Productions
  194. Morningstar Productions
  195. Motion Picture Solutions
  196. Motormouth Productions Inc.
  197. MovieLabs
  198. Moxion Inc
  199. Mr MXF
  200. NAB
  201. NAGRA
  202. NASA-MSFC
  203. Nat Geo -DC
  204. National Teleconsultants
  205. NBCUniversal
  206. NCAM TECH INC
  207. NECF
  208. NEP Group
  209. NETAPP
  210. Netflix
  211. Nevion
  212. New Box Solutions
  213. Nexsan
  214. Nice Shoes LLC
  215. NTC
  216. Nutanix
  217. NVIDIA, Inc.
  218. Object Matrix
  219. OWNZONES Entertainment Technologies
  220. Ozzie Sutherland
  221. PADEM Media Groupo
  222. Paramount Pictures
  223. Paramount Studios
  224. PBS
  225. PearlTV LLC
  226. Picture Shop
  227. Piksel
  228. Piper Digital
  229. Pixar Animation Studios
  230. Pixelogic
  231. Pixelworks
  232. Pixit Media
  233. Pixspan, Inc.
  234. Pocket Watch
  235. Pomfort
  236. Pop
  237. Portrait Displays
  238. Post Magazine
  239. postPerspective
  240. Prime Focus Technologies
  241. PSAV
  242. Quantum Corporation
  243. Racktop Systems
  244. Radiant Images, Inc.
  245. Real Networks
  246. Red Bee Media
  247. RED Digital Cinema
  248. Residential Tech Today
  249. RFX Inc
  250. RheinMain University of Applied Sciences
  251. Riedel Communications
  252. ROAM Consulting LLC
  253. Rohde & Schwarz
  254. Ross Video
  255. RStor
  256. Samsung Research America
  257. Sandflow Consulting LLC
  258. Scale Logic
  259. SDI Media
  260. SDVI Corporation
  261. Seagate Technology LLC
  262. SGO
  263. Signiant
  264. Sim
  265. Simple Cloud
  266. Sinclair Broadcast Group
  267. Singularity Imaging LLC
  268. Skywalker Sound
  269. Slalom Consulting
  270. SMPTE
  271. Sohonet
  272. Sony
  273. Sony Electronics
  274. Sony Pictures Entertainment
  275. Sony Pictures Television
  276. Sound & Communications
  277. Source Digital, Inc.
  278. SPE
  279. Spectra Logic
  280. Sportradar
  281. Sports Video Group
  282. SRI International
  283. Stargate Studios
  284. Stellus Technologies
  285. StorageDNA
  286. Streambox Inc
  287. Stringr Inc.
  288. Studio Network Solutions
  289. Sundog Media Toolkit LTD
  290. T S L Professional Products Ltd
  291. TAG V.S
  292. technicolor
  293. Technicolor PWNY
  294. Technology Advisors
  295. TechXMedia
  296. Teledyne LeCroy
  297. Telestream
  298. Telos Alliance/TVSG
  299. Teradek, LLC
  300. Teradici
  301. Tessive LLC
  302. Testronic
  303. The Foundation
  304. The Hollywood Reporter
  305. The LANDMARK Group
  306. THE PRODUCT FACTORY
  307. The Studio-B&H
  308. The Telos Alliance
  309. The Walt Disney Studios
  310. Thompson Coburn LLP
  311. Tiger Technology
  312. TMS Consulting, Inc.
  313. Trusted Partner Network
  314. TV Technology
  315. TVU Networks
  316. TWE Solutions
  317. TWiT
  318. United Nations
  319. Universal Pictures
  320. Utah Scientific
  321. Vecima (root6)
  322. Verizon
  323. VFXTech Consulting
  324. Vidispine
  325. Vimond Media Solutions
  326. Visual Data Media Services Ltd
  327. VIZN
  328. Walden Pond
  329. Walt Disney DTCI
  330. Warner Bros.
  331. Warner Media
  332. Wasabi
  333. Wavelet Consulting LLC
  334. Western Digital
  335. WGBH – FRONTLINE
  336. WGBH PRODUCTION GROUP
  337. WMRG Studios, LLC
  338. Wowza Media Systems
  339. Xperi
  340. Xytech
  341. YouTube Originals
  342. ZEISS Cine Lenses

Our Sponsors

Diamond Title Sponsor

25th Anniversary Afterparty Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Connectivity Partners

Event Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

Star Sponsors

Foundation Members

Media Sponsors

Innovation Zone

HPA invites individuals and companies to share new and innovative technology with the participants of the HPA Tech Retreat®. The Innovation Zone is where attendees can discover your company’s NEW technology in a space designed for learning and discovery. Bring your latest and greatest innovations that improve how the chain from acquisition to delivery is done.

Innovation Zone



  • All applications will be reviewed and vetted based on meeting the intent and focus of the Innovation Zone.
  • Approved participants that apply by December 21 will receive the early rate of $900 for HPA & SMPTE Corporate Members or $1,100 for Non Members per Innovation Zone space.
  • Applications submitted and approved after December 21 will pay $1,000 for HPA & SMPTE Corporate Members or $1,200 for Non Members per Innovation Zone space.

Space Information

Innovation Zone requirements:

Your demonstration must reflect technology that is innovative, game changing and important to entertainment markets including production, post production, broadcast, distribution, OTTs or related areas. It must provide the attendees with solution(s) that are unique and, if possible, demonstrate integrated workflows for distinctive services. Experimental products and new concepts or products are of particular interest. Start ups or creative solutions are most welcome.

You may bring secondary partners to be part of your space and demonstration if it fits within a complete solution that can differentiate the workflow or delivery process from what is available today.

Service companies and solutions providers who have unique, forward thinking offerings in production, post production, broadcast, distribution, OTT’s or a related area are invited to participate.

To apply, submit a description of what you would like to demonstrate for vetting purposes. Click here for the Application Form.


General Information:

The Innovation Zone is a meeting and networking area which will be open during conference hours as well as dedicated times, including a cocktail reception, two breaks per day, lunch time and prior to the Welcome Dinner. Refer to the program online (when available) for actual times.

No one is required to be with your demo during the entire time the Innovation Zone is open, except during the specific dedicated times listed in the Tech Retreat program. You are also free to make appointments during any open hours.

You may provide white papers and handouts describing the technology you will be showing as well as swag, because everyone loves free Stuff!

Related technologies will be placed in a workflow row that might define what a customer might be looking for to purchase or integrate.

We encourage Tech Retreat Innovation Zone participants to invite clients, other individuals within your company and interested industry professionals to register and visit you at the HPA Tech Retreat. However, please note that there are no guest passes to attend just the Innovation Zone. All attendees must be registered through the Tech Retreat registration site.


Innovation Zone Space Fees:

$900/space – for HPA & SMPTE Corporate Members until December 21, 2019 deadline for early application
$1,100/space – for Non Members until December 21, 2019 deadline for early application

$1,000/space – for HPA & SMPTE Corporate Members December 22, 2019 onward
$1,200/space – for Non Members December 22, 2019 onward

Registration and additional services are not included in the Innovation Zone Space Fees. See Pricing page for all registration options and prices including Innovation Zone Tech options.

Innovation Zone Space Fees are Non-Refundable.


Space Information:

The Innovation Zone is one large ballroom. You may apply for more than one space if you have more than one technology to present. An additional fee will apply and this space will be provided on an availability basis.

If you have something that requires a separate space, we may be able to provide this on a “limited engagement” basis. Please contact Vincent Maza or Max Ma at innovation.zone@hpaonline.com. Please note that an additional fee will apply.

You may include anything that will fit into the space except an exhibit booth, bar-type unit or anything that will block full view or limit accessibility to the spaces around you. A small cove for monitors, racks, and stands, if they don’t block a view, will most likely be permitted. If there’s a question about this, please contact Vincent Maza or Max Ma at innovation.zone@hpaonline.com.

Select additional furniture (e.g. high boy table, high stools) may be ordered through the hotel vendor, PSAV.

A/V equipment may be ordered through the hotel vendor, PSAV.

Links to all forms will be provided upon acceptance of your demo.

If your application is accepted you will be sent further information and be asked to register for the Tech Retreat and confirm your Innovation Zone space by submitting payment.

Confirmation of your space in the Innovation Zone is a commitment to have your demonstration set up from Tuesday through Thursday according to the times listed in the Program.

As mentioned above, while your Innovation Zone demo does not need to be staffed at all times, there are specific times within the program during which Innovation Zone Staff is required to be present. All persons staffing your demo MUST have a valid and individual registration for the event. Those wishing to attend the HPA Tech Retreat conference program may register for the HPA Tech Retreat All-Access, Conference package or for a Daily Registration package (for day(s) attending). Those who will ONLY be attending the Innovation Zone can register for an “Innovation Zone Tech” package (up to 2 Tech registrations permitted per Innovation Zone space). HPA Tech Retreat registrations may be purchased now (Early Bird Pricing is available through December 7, 2019). Innovation Zone Tech registration instructions will be provided upon approval of your demo. Please note that as the Innovation Zone is a part of the HPA Tech Retreat conference experience, there is NO separate registration for the Innovation Zone. Access to the Innovation Zone is ONLY granted with an HPA Tech Retreat registration or an Innovation Zone Tech registration.

Please contact events@hpaonline.com with any registration-related questions.

The HPA Tech Retreat has a number of Press attending. Press are requested to respect your wishes to be off-the-record or enter into an NDA, but you will need to arrange this directly with them. It is not required as part of HPA issuing a Press Pass.

Innovation Zone Participants

  • Actus Digital
  • Adder Technology
  • Adobe
  • AJA Video Systems
  • Arvato SYSTEMS
  • Avid
  • Canon USA, Inc.
  • Cinnafilm, Inc.
  • Cloudian
  • Colorfront
  • EIZO Inc.
  • Eluvio
  • Evercast, LLC
  • FilmLight
  • Frame.io
  • G&D North America Inc.
  • GrayMeta
  • G-Technology
  • Haivision
  • Harding FPA
  • Image Essence LLC
  • JVC Kenwood
  • Moxion Ltd
  • Nagra
  • OWNZONES Entertainment Technologies
  • Pixelworks
  • Prime Focus Technologies
  • Quantum Corp
  • Racktop Systems
  • Red Bee Media
  • Rohde & Schwarz USA Inc.
  • Scale Logic / Atavium
  • Seagate Technology LLC
  • Simple Cloud
  • Sohonet
  • Sony Electronics
  • SRI International
  • Stellus Technologies
  • StorageDNA
  • Streambox Inc
  • Teledyne LeCroy
  • Telestream
  • Telos Alliance
  • Teradek, LLC
  • The Studio-B&H
  • Tiger Technology
  • Vecima (root6)
  • Vimond Media Solutions
  • Wowza Media Systems
  • ZEISS Cine Lenses

Innovation Zone Schedule

Subject to change

Monday, February 17

  • 8:00 am – 5:15 pm

    Load in of equipment to the hotel

  • 3:30 pm – 7:30 pm

    Innovation Zone opens for set up


Tuesday, February 18

  • 9:00 am – 2:00 pm

    Final time for arrival and set up of demos at the hotel

  • 2:30 pm

    Set up of demos must be complete

  • 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

    Innovation Zone Opens with Cocktails


Wednesday, February 19

  • 8:30 am – 7:30 pm

    Innovation Zone is open

  • 10:30 – 10:45 am

    Break in Innovation Zone

  • 12:00 – 1:58 pm

    Innovation Zone will be open during lunch

  • 3:20 – 3:35 pm

    Break in Innovation Zone

  • 6:00 – 8:30 pm

    Innovation Zone Cocktail Reception


Thursday, February 20

  • 8:30 am – 2:00 pm

    Innovation Zone open

  • 10:15 – 10:30 am

    Break in Innovation Zone

  • 12:00 – 1:58 pm

    Innovation Zone will be open during lunch

  • After lunch

    Break-down and move out of Innovation Zone

  • 7:00 pm

    All equipment must be out of the Innovation Zone


Friday, February 21

  • 2:00 pm

    Equipment must have been shipped out from the hotel

    If anything is left until Monday, arrangements must be made directly with the hotel for storage and a fee may be charged.

Call for Proposals

The Hollywood Professional Association has issued the call for proposals for the 2020 HPA Tech Retreat®, which marks the 25th anniversary of this unmissable event in media and entertainment technology. Key portions of the programming – the main program and the breakfast roundtables – are determined via this call for proposals.

The 2020 HPA Tech Retreat will take place February 17 through 20 at the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, CA. Now in its 25th year, the event attracts a wide array of distinguished attendees and speakers and engages leaders from every facet of the content ecosystem. It is one of the most important annual events for individuals and companies engaged in the creation, management, and dissemination of content in the dynamic landscape of distribution environments.


The deadline to submit main program proposals is end of day, Friday, October 25, 2019. Breakfast roundtable proposals are accepted until tables are full. Submissions should be sent to tvmark@earthlink.net.


HPA TR 2019 Conference

HAP TR 2019 Breakfast Roundtables

Main Program - Submission Deadline October 25 2019

Call for Proposals: Main Program

Main program presentations are strictly reserved for marketing-free content. Mark Schubin, who has programmed the Tech Retreat since its inception and is seen as the Maestro of the Tech Retreat, notes that main program sessions can include a wide range of topics.

“We seek thought provoking, challenging and important ideas as well as the latest developments and the creative use of technology.  Chances are we will dive into the entire array of topics related to moving images and associated sounds. That includes, but is not limited to: alternative content for cinema, broadcast in the age of broadband, content protection, dynamic range, enhanced cinema, frame rate, global mastering, higher immersion, international law, joke generation, kernel control, loss recovery, media management, night vision, optical advances, plug-‘n’-play, queasiness in VR, robo-post, surround imagery, terabyte thumb drives, UHD II, verification, wilderness production, x-band internet access, yield strength of lighting trusses, and zoological holography.” It is a far-ranging and creative call to the most innovative thinkers exploring the most interesting ideas and work.

Proposals for main program presentations are short and informal, as brief in length as a few sentences, and must be submitted by the proposed presenter. Presentations in the main program are typically of half-hour duration, including set-up and Q&A (if any). Longer or shorter presentations can sometimes be accommodated. Panels are typically longer, and submissions for panels should include the panelists and moderator (arranging panelists and moderators is the presenter’s responsibility).

The deadline to submit main program proposals is the end of the day on Friday, October 25, 2019. Proposals should be sent directly to Mark Schubin at tvmark@earthlink.net.

In the event a submission is not promptly acknowledged, submitters should contact Mr. Schubin to confirm receipt. Decisions are expected by the beginning of December.

Breakfast Roundtables

Call for Proposals: Breakfast Roundtables

Breakfast roundtables are held at 7:30 AM during the tech retreat and can include marketing information, whereas the program presentation proposals cannot. Schubin comments, “Table moderators are free to teach, preach, ask, call-to-task, sell, kvell, or do anything else that keeps conversation flowing for an hour.” The HPA Tech Retreat roundtables are a popular part of the Tech Retreat, and offer attendees and experts the chance to dig in and converse on important topics.

There is no vetting process for breakfast roundtables. All breakfast roundtable moderators must be registered for the retreat and there is no retreat registration discount conveyed by moderating a breakfast roundtable. Proposals for breakfast roundtables must be submitted by their proposed moderators and should include the desired day(s) and the desired topic(s). Once the maximum number of tables is reached, no more can be accepted.

Proposals should be sent directly to Mark Schubin at tvmark@earthlink.net.


Further details for the 2020 HPA Tech Retreat will be announced in the coming weeks, including supersession topics, TR-X focus, and Innovation Zone details.

For more information about the 2020 HPA Tech Retreat, visit www.hpaonline.com or call +1 (818) 273-1482. For sponsorship information, please contact Joyce Cataldo at jcataldo@hpaonline.com.

Pricing

Please note that the HPA Tech Retreat 2020 is now Sold Out and registration is closed. We will not be able to accept any new registrations and on-site registration is not available.

If you have a question about registration or need assistance, please email events@hpaonline.com and our Staff will respond.  Please note that all HPA Staff will be onsite at the Tech Retreat and this email is the best way to reach us.


Pricing information subject to change.

Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations. Registration fees for the Tech Retreat do not include hotel accommodations.


HPA Tech Retreat Event
February 17 – 20, 2020
at The Westin Mission Hills

(All listed dates subject to change)

HPA Tech Retreat All-Access Registration
This conference registration package includes: All provided meals, admission to the Innovation Zone, Monday TR-X Seminar, Tuesday Supersession, Wednesday through Thursday Tech Retreat Program, Tuesday Conference Dinner, and Wednesday Innovation Zone Cocktail Reception.

HPA Tech Retreat Conference Registration
This conference registration package includes: All provided meals, admission to the Innovation Zone, Tuesday Supersession, Wednesday through Thursday Tech Retreat Program, Tuesday Conference Dinner, and Wednesday Innovation Zone Cocktail Reception.
Monday TR-X Seminar is NOT included.

Registration Options Early Registration through 12/7/2019 Regular Registration through 2/1/2020 (Space Permitting) Last Minute Registration From 2/2/2020 (Space Permitting)
All-Access Registration (Mon-Thu)
HPA & SMPTE Members $1,700 $1,850 $2,100
Non Members $1,900 $2,050 $2,300
Tech Retreat Speakers, Panel Moderators and Panelists $975 (Receive day of free) $975 (Receive day of free) $975
Tech Retreat Conference Registration (Tue-Thu)
HPA & SMPTE Members $1,500 $1,650 $1,900
Non Members $1,700 $1,850 $2,100
Tech Retreat Speakers, Panel Moderators and Panelists $825 (Receive day of free) $825 (Receive day of free) $825
Credentialed Press Registration
Credentialed Press No Charge No Charge No Charge

 

Registration By Day

Monday, February 17, 2019 – TR-X
Monday seminar is NOT included in conference registration but is included with all-access registration.
Registration Options Early Registration through 12/7/2019 Regular Registration through 2/1/2020 (Space Permitting) Last Minute Registration From 2/2/2020 (Space Permitting)
TR-X Seminar
HPA & SMPTE Members $350 $395 $450
Non Members $450 $495 $550
 

Tuesday, February 18 – Thursday, February 20 2020
This registration package includes: All provided meals, admission to the Innovation Zone and Conference Sessions for the day(s) selected, and admission to the Conference Dinner (Tuesday registration only), and Innovation Zone Cocktail Reception (Wednesday registration only).

One Day Registration (Tues Supersession, Weds or Thurs Tech Retreat)
HPA & SMPTE Members $625 $695 $775
Non Members $725 $795 $875
Welcome Dinner GUEST TICKET (Tues)
Guest Ticket $150 $150 $175
Innovation Zone Cocktail Reception ONLY (Wed)
HPA & SMPTE Members $165 $165 $195
Non Members $195 $195 $225

 

Innovation Zone

In addition to the Innovation Zone Space fee, conference registration is also required to participate in the Innovation Zone. Visitors must be registered for the one of the following packages: All-Access, Tech Retreat Conference, Registration by Day (Tues-Thurs), or Wednesday Evening Innovation Zone Cocktail Reception. There are no complimentary passes. Accepted Innovation Zone companies are limited to two Innovation Zone Tech registrations per space.

Innovation Zone Tech Registration includes access to the Innovation Zone and all included meals Tuesday through Thursday, as well as admission to the Tuesday Evening Conference Dinner.  This registration Does NOT include access to any of the Conference Sessions.

Early Application through 12/21/2019 Regular Pricing through 2/1/2020 Last Minute Registration From 2/2/2020 (Space Permitting)
Innovation Zone Space
HPA & SMPTE Corporate Members $900 $1,000 NA
Non Members $1,100 $1,200 NA
Innovation Zone Tech Registration
Innovation Zone Tech $950 $950 $1,000
Innovation Zone Space Fees are Non-Refundable.

Please be advised that space is limited and always sells out.

You may pay by credit card or check in U.S. dollars only. If paying by check, your payment MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN JANUARY 27, 2020 in order to confirm your registration. As this event will sell out, we may not be able to hold a registration which is not paid for by the deadline. If there are circumstances which prevent you from doing this, please contact our office. See registration form for complete payment information.

CANCELLATION AND REFUND POLICY

You may cancel your registration online by clicking the link in your confirmation email to View or Edit your registration. Cancellations made by January 27, 2020 will be refunded, less a 10% cancellation fee. In addition, a $35 administrative fee will be charged for any refunds made to registrations paid by check.

NO REFUNDS FOR CANCELLATIONS AFTER 27 January 2019. However, you may transfer a registration to another individual. No fee will be charged for transferred registrations provided the new registrant is of the same registration type (Member or Non-Member). If the new registrant is of a different registration type, the different in price will apply.

For questions or additional information contact: HPA at events@hpaonline.com or 818-273-1482.

Location

The HPA Tech Retreat will take place February 17-20 2020 at the The Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, CA (Palm Springs area).

Nestled on 360 acres in Rancho Mirage, The Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort is a desert oasis, moments from Palm Springs. Rugged mountains and panoramic views set an extraordinary backdrop for an unforgettable experience. Spacious guestrooms and suites feature signature Westin Heavenly Beds® and other personalized details. Several dining destinations beckon, showcasing flavorful California fare and 130,000 square feet of inspiring event space is at your disposal.

Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations. Registration fees for the Tech Retreat do not include hotel accommodations.


Event Hotel

The Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa
71333 Dinah Shore Drive
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
http://www.marriott.com
Main Telephone: 1-760-328-5955

The Westin Mission Hills Reservations

HPA has arranged a room block with a discounted rate of $249 per night for Tech Retreat attendees and you must make your reservations using the link provided or call 760-328-5955 (press 1 when prompted) to get the discounted rate. The deadline for booking within the group room block has been extended to January 25, 2020, while rooms are available. Be sure to book early as rooms typically sell out.

  • Group Rate: $249 per night
  • Cutoff Date: January 25, 2020 – THIS BLOCK IS SOLD OUT! Please check below for Overflow block details.

Resort Charge

The resort charge of $32 is waived for those who book through the HPA Group Room Block.  The resort charge includes: Overnight Self-Parking, Guest Room Wireless Internet (up to 5 devices), Complimentary Newspaper Mon-Fri, Wireless Internet in Public Spaces excluding Meeting Rooms, Access to Westin WORKOUT open 24 hours a day with room key, 15% off merchandise from Pete Dye Pro Shop, 15% off Tennis Court Fees and merchandise from the Pro Shop, Complimentary Daily Resort Activities.

Individual Reservation Cancellations

To avoid a one night’s room and tax charge, reservations must be canceled at least three (3) days prior to scheduled arrival.


The event venue hotel is sold out so you may not be able to reserve rooms there. HPA has secured other rooms block at nearby locations.

Option 1: Courtyard Palm Desert for $174 USD per night

Dates available: Sunday, February 16, 2020 – Friday, February 21, 2020
Deadline to book: Friday, February 7, 2020
To reserve: Please use this link
Information for your online reservation link above. If you have questions or need help with the link, please do not hesitate to contact the hotel.

Option 2: Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage for $219 USD per night

Dates available: Sunday, February 16, 2020 – Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Deadline to book: Monday, February 10, 2020
To reserve: Please call 800-854-1279 or use this link and Promo Code: HPA20
To receive special group rates, you must call before the cut-off date of Monday, February 10, 2020 and identify the name (HPA Tech Retreat) and dates of the event or by the block code of HPA20

Other overflow options are being arranged so please check back as they will be posted here when finalized.


Directions & Transportation

The Westin Mission Hills is located 7 miles from Palm Springs International Airport, 130 miles from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), 77 miles from Ontario Airport, 130 miles from Burbank Airport and 116 miles east of Los Angeles if driving. For driving directions, please click here. Or, For those of you who use GPS or Google Earth, the coordinates: 33.81021715293067 North, 116.41294168768748 West.

Shuttle Companies

Taxi Companies

  • Yellow Cab of the Desert
    760-340-8294
  • Uber
    Uber.com
  • American Cab
    760-300-000
  • Desert City Cab
    760-328-3000

There are also a large number of limo, town car and private shuttle options. The full listing of available ground transportation from the airport can be found here.


For More Local Area Information, Please Click Here.

FAQ

1. What is the HPA Tech Retreat?

The HPA Tech Retreat is the pre-eminent gathering of industry-leading thinkers and innovation-focused companies engaged in the creation, management, and dissemination of content. Every year, for a week near Palm Springs, the HPA Tech Retreat brings together a world-class roster of well-known and emerging leaders in engineering, technology, creativity and business. At the HPA Tech Retreat, the most compelling topics facing the media and entertainment landscape today are presented, explored and debated.

2. How did it start?

The International Teleproduction Society (ITS, later the Association of Imaging Technology and Sound) offered a Presidents Retreat to allow chief executives of its member companies to combine a vacation with some information exchange. In 1995, the idea was extended to engineers with a Technology Retreat, which rapidly became more information and less vacation. After ITS ceased operations in 2001, the HPA began sponsoring the Tech Retreat.

3. What does “all aspects” mean?

All aspects: academics, archivists, broadcasters, cable-TV system operators, cinematographers, computer and software makers, consultants, consumer-electronics manufacturers, digital rights managers, directors, display designers, editors, equipment-rental houses, forensic investigators, government officials, historians, Hollywood studios, intelligence analysts, interactive gamers, journalists, lawyers, lens manufacturers, licensing pools, the military, networks, producers, production facilities, professional-equipment manufacturers, post-production facilities, satellite-system operators, semiconductor manufacturers, sound mixers and editors, standards organizations, telephone companies, theater owners, venture capitalists, and vision scientists are among those who have been there or sent representatives.

There have been representatives of MPEG the Moving Picture Experts Group and MPEG the Motion Picture Editors Guild, NATO the National Association of Theater Owners and NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. To add to the alphabet soup, AAF, AMPAS, ASC, ATSC, BBC, CEA, CEDIA, CPTWG, DCI, DoD, FCC, MPAA, NAB, NABA, NIMA, NSA, SMPTE, and USC have all been officially represented. So have ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, UPN, and the WB among broadcast networks; Sinclair and Tribune among other broadcast-station owners; Columbia/Tri-Star/Sony, Disney, Fox, Paramount, and Universal among Hollywood studios; Adobe, Apple, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft among others from the computer industry. People attending the retreat have also come from all over the world.

4. What does “top engineering and technical talent” mean?

SMPTE Fellows, Oscar nominees, Emmy-award winners and Ph.D.s. Creators of some of the basic technologies used daily in content creation.Many of the attendees have CTO, vp-engineering, or director of technology titles. Others work on blockbuster movies and top-rated streaming and broadcast. Thanks to the informal nature of the retreat, it’s not easy to tell, and everyone is welcome to attend.

The unofficial motto of the HPA Tech Retreat is “Someone Will Be There Who Knows the Answer.”

5. What does “informal” mean?

It’s not a typical technical conference. There are no droning introductions listing a presenter’s academic credentials. In fact, there are no introductions at all beyond name and affiliation.

6. What does “exchange information” mean?

The retreat is divided into several categories: pre-retreat seminars and events, the main program, breakfast roundtables, the demo area, the quizzes, and the softball challenge. There are also meals and breaks that are useful for networking.

7. What is the main program?

The main program is devoted to the most compelling issues of the time, with a focus to putting  the most knowledgeable experts together to explore and enliven a conversation around those issues.  Much of the main program is invited; the rest is drawn from submissions. The main program is run precisely by the clock. The slot for each presentation includes set-up and questions-&-answers, and speakers have sometimes been cut off in mid-sentence. Similarly, the program starts and returns from breaks at exactly the listed times.

8. How long are presentations in the main program?

They are probably a little shorter than they should be. Individual presentations typically last between 10 and 45 minutes. Panels typically run from 20 to 90 minutes. There is no fixed time period, but shorter presentations can more easily be squeezed in.

9. How does one get to present on the main program?

A Call for Proposals is issued every year around Labor Day. There are, year over year, more submissions than can be accommodated. The burning issues facing the ecosystem may help determine which submissions are accepted. Those wishing to make presentations should also consider breakfast roundtables and the demo area. Presentations in the main program, the breakfast roundtables, and the demo area are not mutually exclusive.

10. What are the breakfast roundtables?

Starting at 7:30 am, the breakfast roundtables are one of the most popular aspects of the retreat. Each table has a number which corresponds to a posted list of topics and moderators. Moderators may choose any topic and run the roundtables as they see fit. They may present information, gather information from those at the table, or simply moderate arguments between others. Popular tables might end up surrounded by layers of attendees and others might have only a few. There are no restrictions on topics other than length (so they may be printed; long topic titles will be abridged). There are no restrictions on moderators other than being registered at the retreat. All requests to moderate tables are accepted; if another moderator has chosen the same or a similar topic, the moderators will be informed so they may consider combining their tables. A moderator may choose to have tables at either or all, and if more than one, on the same or different topics. A single company or organization is welcome to provide moderators for as many roundtables as it would like. Once a roundtable is confirmed, it must be moderated, even if someone else seems to have a more attractive topic. Topics and moderators, however, may be changed.

11. What is the Innovation Zone?

The Innovation Zone is not a trade show but rather a curated area where the latest, often unseen technologies or applications are demonstrated.  Participants for the Innovation Zone must apply, and the applications are reviewed by the Innovation Zone manager and HPA Tech Retreat Committee.  The Innovation Zone is focused on new technology or applications. The retreat will provide table(s), chair(s), power, and security. No “booths” are permitted. No corporate signage is permitted; the retreat will provide a simple paper sign with the name of each demonstrator’s company or organization. Information about the technology or application is accepted and appreciated. White papers are encouraged. Relevant product literature is fine. Demonstrators are encouraged to join forces to show systems. In the past competitors have helped set up each other’s demonstrations.Many popular products were first introduced at the HPA Tech Retreat, -Panasonic’s Varicam and Sony’s HDCAM SR- among them. Other innovations shown at the retreat have yet to make it to mass manufacture, including a 72-frame-per-second HDTV camera and a system for automatically converging and color balancing multiple projectors forming a single image. Some are one of a kind, like a tiny Lucas Digital (ILM) camera-attitude sensor used in Star Wars: Episode 3. A slot in the main program at the end of the first day is reserved for demo introductions. Each demonstrator is allowed a very brief period (about a minute) to introduce the demonstration. That is followed by the first scheduled demo session, which includes a cocktail reception for attendees and their registered guests. There is another scheduled demo session at the end of the last day. In between, attendees may schedule demos at mutually convenient times.

12. What are the quizzes?

A quiz relating to television technology is posted at the registration table at the beginning of each session. A bowl is also provided there for answers. The first quiz is relatively easy, and there are multiple winners. Quizzes get progressively harder.
One year, participants were asked to derive the NTSC color subcarrier from scratch. Another quiz asked for the next number in these series: 51, 25, 19, 13, 8, 6 and …21, 16, 11, 8, 6.

Those entering are welcome to consult others, reference books, or the Internet. Past prizes have included glow-in-the-dark statues of the patron saint of television and plush teddy-bear TV remote controls.

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