The Hollywood IT Society (HITS) is a community of technologists representing the Hollywood studios, independent content creators and their supporting information technology partners. On Wednesday, May 12, the annual Spring Hollywood IT Summit — HITS Spring: Hollywood Innovation & Transformation Summit — will include presentations by ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver, director of Adaptive Production and Special Projects, and Yves Bergquist, director of ETC’s AI & Neuroscience in Media Project. Presented by HITS and the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA), the event features 50+ speakers and more than 20 breakout sessions. Registration is available via Eventbrite. Continue reading ETC Execs to Present at Hollywood IT Society Spring Summit

During this week’s MESA Content Workflow Management Forum, Vubiquity will address strategies for how to keep pace with today’s evolving video supply chain. Piers Godden, commercial director EMEA for Vubiquity and Amdocs Media, will discuss the numerous challenges involved with the growing changes to content licensing, material handling costs, processing and distribution. “The time has come for CaaS — Content as a Service,” notes Godden, “the content you want, where you want it, at the flick of a switch.” The online presentation is scheduled for February 25. Continue reading Forum: Vubiquity to Present ‘The Democratization of Content’

A modern laptop contains 251 technical interoperability standards, said Erik Weaver, global director of M&E market development at Western Digital. He added that only 20 of them come from Microsoft. The proliferation of standards in a digital era — and the need for interoperability between them — was the topic of a NAB 2019 Birds of a Feather discussion including representatives from five different groups involved with creating and redefining relevant standards: ASC, ETC, MESA, MovieLabs and CineCert. Continue reading New Distribution, Preservation Standards for the Digital Age

The move to digital has created major challenges for content creators and owners. As part of the Birds of a Feather program at the NAB Show in Las Vegas next week, Erik Weaver of HGST and an all-star panel representing key industry working groups will discuss “Redefining Deliverable and Preservation Standards for Digital Times.” The panel is scheduled for Monday, April 8, 12:00-1:00 pm in N243. Guests will include Jesse Korosi of SIM Digital, Mary Yurkovic of MESA, Seth Levenson of The Entertainment Technology Center@USC, John Hurst of CineCert, and Craig Seidel of MovieLabs. Continue reading NAB Panel to Cover Digital Deliverable & Archive Standards

The Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA), in collaboration with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), are responding to next-gen threats with the Trusted Partner Network (TPN), “a voluntary process by which vendors can assess the security preparedness of their facilities, staffs and workflows against industry best practices.” CDSA executive director Guy Finley, who is also MESA president, and CDSA chairman of the board Ben Stanbury, Amazon’s chief security officer, described TPN at the HPA Tech Retreat. Continue reading HPA Tech Retreat: CDSA Promotes Trusted Partner Network

Los Angeles-based OTOY, a company that has created software used for visual effects in projects such as “Westworld” and “The Avengers,” also launched a blockchain- and cryptocurrency-based rendering platform called RNDR to help other content creators harness the power of thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs). OTOY’s strategy is to gather a group of computer owners who can share their GPUs in the cloud in a decentralized way, and thus trade GPU power among members to accomplish data-intense imagery. Continue reading Blockchain-Based RNDR Harnesses Power of 14,000 GPUs

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) completed its first update of Content Security Best Practices since the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) debuted in April in a joint venture with the Content Delivery and Security Association (CDSA). The TPN is intended to standardize and improve the quality of assessors and reduce the waste of duplicative audits. Current and future vendor assessments will be based on the MPAA Best Practices, built into the TPN platform to create its Common Controls. Continue reading MPAA Debuts First Update of Content Security Best Practices

At January’s 2014 International CES in Las Vegas, the ETC reporting team will be looking at how vendors are positioning 4K UHD TVs, including what features they consider compelling, and how they are building out the full consumer experience with an ecosystem of products and services. Features we’ll be watching for include resolution and pixel count, extended dynamic range, wider color gamut, a “director’s intent” setting, the latest in 3D, advances in audio, and more. Continue reading CES 2014: Exciting Possibilities for Future of 4K Ultra HDTV