05 NAB Shows Technology Summit on Cinema examines past and future of storytelling

--

2015 NAB Shows Technology Summit on Cinema examines past and future of storytelling --

Mon, 11 May 2015 10:54

--

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE ), one of the worldwide leaders in motion-imaging standards and education for the communications, media, entertainment, and technology industries, recently announced that the 2015 NAB Shows Technology Summit on Cinema (TSC), produced in partnership with SMPTE, concluded successfully on 12 April, having provided attendees with a fresh perspective on the past and future of storytelling. More than 600 people attended the two-day summit, Building the Future of Storytelling, which offered a roadmap for future success and also explored potentially disruptive innovations that could ultimately redefine the cinema experience of tomorrow.

The audience for this years program was fantastic, as were the technical sessions, which featured intriguing discussions by renowned industry executives, experts, and creatives, said SMPTE Fellow Bill Hogan, the 2015 program chair for the TSC. The various panels, presentations, and productions showcased during this years summit reflected the rapidly changing nature of cinema technology revealing how far weve come, and how far we might yet go.

In a keynote titled Leveraging New Technology to Preserve Creative Intent, David Keighley, chief quality officer and executive vice president at IMAX Corporation, and Jan Yarbrough, senior colourist at Warner Bros., discussed the relationship between enhanced technical capabilities and the filmmakers creative vision. The conversation covered topics ranging from creative opportunity to standards for screen brightness and bit depth to effective storage media. Keighley stressed the importance of raising the bar with respect to the quality of the image projected on screen, and Yarbrough explained the balance he must strike in maintaining creative intent and making the most of new technology when restoring library titles.

The TSC featured a first look at SMPTEs Moving Images documentary, which is being produced by Randall Dark and directed by Howard Lukk, with cinematographer Travis LaBella. The feature-length documentary is slated for release in conjunction with SMPTEs centennial celebration in 2016, and it focuses on the evolution of motion-imaging technology, as well as the people behind it. The four-minute preview, edited by Bobby Hewitt and featuring music from Life In Film, highlighted some of the first moving images from the early 1890s along with clips and interviews extending up to the present. During the TSC, SMPTE also generated buzz on the show floor and on Twitter with the screening of the first video in its #LIFEWITHOUTSMPTE public awareness campaign (available at www.lifewithoutsmpte.org), a multichannel initiative showcasing the societys contributions to media and entertainment.

Speaking on a specific SMPTE contribution to the industry, the session titled DCP Update and Future Delivery Options: Satellite, Fiber, and Internet examined SMPTE Digital Cinema Packaging (SMPTE-DCP) and featured a discussion of SMPTE-DCPs exceptional support for higher bit rates, dynamic 3D subtitles, Material eXchange Format (MXF), fully encrypted subtitles, and auxiliary data.

The summits second keynote, Virtual Reality: Coming to a Display Near You, engaged Arthur van Hoff, co-founder and chief technology officer at Jaunt VR, in a conversation about cinematic virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). What we are all aiming for is not VR; its really the holodeck experience, van Hoff said. He discussed AR technologies, including the Microsoft HoloLens, explained why AR is significantly more difficult than VR, and described the many applications live concerts, sports, travel, film, news, advertising, and education in which VR offers a lower-cost alternative with tremendous potential.

The session titled Cinema and Virtual Reality: Perfect Together? extended that conversation, delving into the state of the art in immersive cinema experiences and exploring ways the technology might develop in the future. Richard Welsh, SMPTE governor for EMEA and the Central and South America region and CEO of Sundog Media Toolkit, moderated the panel, which featured experts including van Hoff and Ted Schilowitz of 20th Century Fox, Barco, and Jaunt VR. The panel further explored future applications of VR and AR within the theatrical environment.

Related Articles

The future of filmmaking innovations a focus at the 2014 NAB ShowThe Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has partnered with the 2014 NAB Show for their Technology Summit on Cinema...

Read more...



-- --

-- --

-- Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus

LINK:	http://www.screenafrica.com/page/news/tv-and-video-production-technolo...
	See more stories from screenafrica

Most recent headlines