SMPTE on the Red Carpet — Awarded an Emmy!

SMPTE, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, has been awarded an Emmy!  We don’t usually think of standards as a glamour industry, but here it is:  A picture of SMPTE staff member Peter Symes on the podium getting accolades for SMPTE’s work on closed-captioning for Internet content taken from movies and television.  And who was there on the podium as well?  Representatives from Netflix, HBO, Telestream, and W3C.  Nice crowd you run with, SMPTE!

Of course, organizations like SMPTE provide the hidden infrastructure that makes many of our new products and services work.  This work is laborious, taking resources of both manhours and dollars and cents.  So in many ways, SMPTE is also representing those many technical folks who take the time to participate in the standards process.  And the SMPTE Emmy also reminds us that good standardization does rely on industry to provide much of this investment.

What is the SMPTE Emmy for?  It was awarded for the development and publication of the SMPTE Timed Text® (SMPTE-TT) profile.  This is work that was built upon the Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) provided by W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium.  It allows for closed captioning that was done for television broadcasting to be repurposed for Internet distribution.

Another great thing about the development of this standard is that it highlights the participation not only of industry but of the public, especially those with a vested interest in the development of this standard.  SMPTE established a liaison with the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology to make sure that it was appropriate for the requirements of the disability community.

For those of us in the Standards Community, public recognition beyond that offered by the various Standards Organizations themselves is not a common sight.  So congratulations again to SMPTE and thanks to the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the recognition.

You can read more about this prestigious award on the SMPTE website — Here’s a link to the Press Release for the SMPTE Emmy.  It also contains information on SMPTE member Chuck Pagano who was awarded a NATAS Lifetime Achievement Award.  And the press release also mentions a number of SMPTE company members who were honored during the ceremonies.  Really a pleasure to see the public acknowledgement of the contribution of SMPTE and it’s members.

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Claudia Bach

Claudia Bach is the President of Document Center Inc. and a world-wide recognized expert on Standards and Standards Distribution. You can connect with her on Google+

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