The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE ( /ˈsɪmptiː/, rarely /ˈsʌmptiː/), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in the United States of America, of engineers working in the motion imaging industries. An internationally recognized standards organizations, SMPTE has over 400 standards, Recommended Practices and Engineering Guidelines for television production, filmmaking, digital cinema, audio recording and medical imaging. In addition to development and publication of technical standard documents, SMPTE publishes a journal, provides networking opportunities for its members, produces academic conferences and exhibitions, and performs other industry-related functions.
Membership is open to any individual or organization with interest in the subject matter.
SMPTE standards documents are copyrighted and may be purchased from the SMPTE website, or other distributors of technical standards. Standard documents may be purchased by the general public. Significant standards promulgated by SMPTE include:
- All film and television transmission formats and media, including digital.
- Physical interfaces for transmission of television signals and related data (such as SMPTE time code and the Serial Digital Interface) (SDI)
- SMPTE color bars
- Test card patterns and other diagnostic tools
- The Material eXchange Format, or MXF
SMPTE's educational and professional development activities include technical presentations at regular meetings of its local Sections, annual and biennial conferences in the US and Australia and the SMPTE Journal. SMPTE also has a number of student Sections and sponsors scholarships for college students in the motion imaging disciplines.
Related organizations include
- National Television System Committee (NTSC)
- Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
- Pro-MPEG
- The ITU Radiocommunication Sector (formerly known as the CCIR)
- BBC Research Department
- European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
Read more about Society Of Motion Picture And Television Engineers: 3D Television, Awards Program
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“The society of the energetic class, in their friendly and festive meetings, is full of courage, and of attempts, which intimidate the pale scholar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Being dismantled before our eyes are not just individual programs that politicians cite as too expensive but the whole idea that society has a stake in the well-being of children down the block and the security of families on the other side of town. Whether or not kids eat well, are nurtured and have a roof over their heads is not just a consequence of how their parents behave. It is also a responsibility of society—but now apparently a diminishing one.”
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“I have seen in this revolution a circular motion of the sovereign power through two usurpers, father and son, to the late King to this his son. For ... it moved from King Charles I to the Long Parliament; from thence to the Rump; from the Rump to Oliver Cromwell; and then back again from Richard Cromwell to the Rump; then to the Long Parliament; and thence to King Charles, where long may it remain.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The television critic, whatever his pretensions, does not labour in the same vineyard as those he criticizes; his grapes are all sour.”
—Frederic Raphael (b. 1931)