Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers - SMPTE

When You See High-Quality Motion-Imaging Content, You See SMPTE®

Have you ever seen the color bars television test pattern? Watched a live sports broadcast in high definition, or a movie in 3D? Downloaded or streamed content your device? Gone to see a live sporting or music event? Or, used closed captioning?

Then you’ve most likely seen the Oscar® and Emmy® Award-winning Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers® (SMPTE®) in action!

SMPTE standards touch nearly every piece of motion-imaging content consumed by billions of viewers around the world, ensuring that content is seen and heard in the highest possible quality on any display screen. Our standards also enable repeatable workflows and profitable business models for content creators and distributors, as well as the manufacturers who support them.

With nearly 100 years of motion-imaging standards leadership, SMPTE is the innovator of some of the most iconic standards for high-quality content, as well as those that are facilitating the transition to an IP-based multiscreen world.

SMPTE Standards are recognized across the world. SMPTE is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and recognized by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as an international standards organization. Among its many roles on the international stage, SMPTE chairs the ISO Technical Committee on Cinematography, TC-36.


SMPTE Innovation

SMPTE Color Bars© Television Test Patterns have set THE consistent reference point for more than four decades to ensure color is calibrated correctly on broadcast monitors, programs, and on video cameras and displayed beautifully for consumers.

SMPTE Time Code© gives every frame of video its own unique identifying number, makes digital editing possible, and enables the association of other data to make audio and video even more meaningful, accurate, and repeatable, whether in post for a major studio release, in hard news environments or live sports production. It even synchronizes music and is often used to automate lighting, pyrotechnics, video, and other effects in live concert production

SMPTE Digital Cinema standards — from those for higher frame rate capture and production, with high-performance, fast compression, and pristine projection, to others supporting efficient, interoperable workflows, better security, and a consistent and engaging movie-going experience — ushered in the era of digital cinema and are enabling its rapid expansion.

SMPTE Timed Text© is accelerating the transition of broadcast content to the Internet and makes it more easily accessible to tens of millions of people in the U.S. with disabilities. SMPTE Timed Text is also the basis for subtitles and captions in the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem’s UltraViolet™ format for commercial movie and television content and is used by several video services and Internet video players.

SMPTE Transport of High Bit Rate Media Signals over IP Networks creates a standardized framework for the transport of video over Internet Protocols (IP) networks. This framework is vital for future-proofing content creation and distribution infrastructures as the media and entertainment industries undergo massive transitions to the IP-based enterprises that facilitate multipoint transmission, a critical enabler in monetizing content and advertising in new ways across multiple screens, such as computers, smart phones, and tablets.


SMPTE: 650 Standards, 64 Countries, and 6,000 Members Strong

Since its founding in 1916, SMPTE has developed more than 650 standards, recommended practices, and engineering guidelines, and it continues to innovate at a rapid clip, generating an average of 50 new standards annually focused on film and digital cinema, television, and Internet video.

By providing structure, organization, and interoperability, SMPTE has helped advance the motion-imaging industry through all of the major transitions, from the advent and integration of sound and color to the shift from celluloid
and analog to digital formats, including digital cinema, high-definition TV (HDTV), and 3D TV.

In addition to thousands of individual professionals globally, more than 200 organizations from around the world support SMPTE, with sustaining members representing leaders across the media and entertainment industry.

SMPTE Diamond-level Sustaining Members include CBS, Inc., Disney/ABC/ESPN, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., Fox Entertainment Group, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony Electronics, Technicolor, Inc., Turner, and
Warner Bros.

SMPTE continues its intensive global expansion strategy,
with sections spanning the globe. In 2012 two new sections
were approved. In India (Mumbai), Ujwal Nirgudkar chairs an
enthusiastic Section from one of the most prolific movie-making
areas of the world. In the U.K. Chris Johns chairs a Section with
more than 350 members.

Enabling the IP-Based Content Revolution

Today, massive change is sweeping across the motion-imaging industry, driven by the proliferation of IP-based video, video-capable consumer display devices, and exciting new bandwidth-hungry display technologies, such as ultra high definition (UHDTV).

The rapid pace of change introduces the potential for standards development to fragment across multiple organizations, corporations and individual efforts. Never has SMPTE’s standards work been more vital – or timely. SMPTE standards are helping members of the motion-imaging industry to achieve interoperability, accelerate time to market, and pursue new revenue streams with confidence.

In 2013, SMPTE published 50 standards documents, including those related to assuring high-quality content in the IP-based video era. A few highlights:

• Closed captioning for online video, which has been recognized as a safe-harbor by the U.S. FCC (SMPTE Timed Text) read more.
• Information exchanges between business and media management systems (BXF)
• Internet transport of high bit-rate images, in partnership with the Video Services Forum (VSF)
• Digital tool communication in broadcast, production, post production and archiving (FIMS, IMF, MXF)


Supporting Advances in Digital Cinema

Facilitating the rapid growth of the digital cinema industry has been a key SMPTE focus in recent years, and continues with ongoing development in key areas including immersive sound experiences for cinema-goers.