John Abt
AJA, Chairman
John earned his BSEE and MSEE from Sacramento State University. He started his career as a broadcast engineer at KXTV Sacramento. In 1984 he went to Eigen Video in Grass Valley, CA. Shortly afterward, he went to Grass Valley Group where he worked as a design engineer. In 1993, he left Grass Valley group to found AJA Video Systems, where he still serves as Chairman. AJA Video Systems builds industry leading video capture cards, digital recording devices, video routers, frame synchronizers and scalers, digital converts and professional streaming solutions.
FRANÇOIS BOURDUA
Consultant, VS-TEK, Strategies and Technologies
Professionally active for over 43 years, François Bourdua has worked in TV production as technical manager, and in film and television postproduction as Vice-president, technologies. During fall 2009, he started VS-TEK, a consulting and project management company. Over the course of his career, M.Bourdua, his teams and partners successfully took many technological challenges and were responsible for many technology premieres in film restoration, 2K/ 4K postproduction, D-Cinema, digital audio postproduction and ST2110 deployments just to name a few. More recently, thru VS-TEK he was involved in many key projects with customers like the CBC/Radio-Canada, Télé-Québec, Jonquière’s media college, ATM and the Montreal Canadians hockey team. M. Bourdua is an active SMPTE member since 1997 and has been involved with the local chapter since 2011 as secretary-treasurer (11 years) and governor (2 years).
CAROLYN GIARDINA
Journalist/Author
Her extensive coverage has spanned entertainment technology and the creative arts ranging from VFX to sound. She’s covered key industry inflection points such as the DTV and digital cinema transitions and continues to examine the impact of emerging technology. She’s been recognized with American Cinema Editors’ Robert Wise Award for journalistic contributions to film editing; International Cinematographers Guild’s Technicolor William A. Fraker Award for journalistic contributions to cinematography; Women in Technology Hollywood’s Leadership Award; and Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership Award. A dedicated educator, Carolyn is a lecturer at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film & Media Arts and co-authored a book about stereoscopic 3D filmmaking, “Exploring 3D” (Focal Press, 2012). She is a long-standing and active community member—a frequent conference speaker/moderator who has served on numerous industry boards, committees and juries. During nearly two decades on HPA ‘s Board of Directors, she co-founded and chaired the inaugural HPA Awards. She has conducted panels and interviews for organizations including SMPTE, IBC, NAB and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Eric Gsell, Dolby Labs
I’ve been a research and application engineer for most of my career, from my early days at the Advanced Television Test Center and the Model DTV station to Dolby Laboratories. I’ve helped develop and create technologies for DTV, advanced compression tools, Digital Cinema, HDR and next generation entertainment experiences. During most of that time I have been an active SMPTE member, participating in standards, testing and local section management. As a SMPTE Governor I’ve been able to learn more about how the Society operates and the challenges we face as we move into the next iteration of media technology. My comprehensive experience at every facet of SMPTE gives me good perspective to understand what has made SMPTE successful, where the strength exists and where we need to grow new muscles to be successful in the future. As Executive Vice President my job is to support the membership of the society by continuing and building on the strategic efforts that the SMPTE Executive Committee, Board, Staff and Membership have created, while helping guide the society towards newer and greater horizons. That growth will involve changing the way SMPTE operates, building on the strong success of our past, but becoming nimble and faster as the world increasingly speeds up. Recognizing the changing needs of the membership as the industry grows and evolves will be paramount to the value and long term success of SMPTE. I often think of SMPTE as providing “Technology in the Service of Creativity”; creativity that drives the expansion and capabilities of media creation and delivery. And it is the creativity of SMPTE that we need to lean on and embrace as we envision SMPTE and its future.
CARYS HUGHES
Principal Engineer - Video Presentation and Picture Quality, Sky
Carys is a Principal Engineer in Sky’s Display Engineering team. With over 10 years at Sky, Carys previously worked in Content Engineering roles. Her work has included workflow/solutions design, compression quality evaluation, technology assessment and advocacy, authoring of technical specifications and HDR research and deployment. Her current focus is image quality on Sky’s TV Sets - Mostly in panel/TV Set implementation, but with an understanding of Sky’s “Glass to Glass” image handling. Her primary motivation is to see engaging content being delivered to ordinary homes in its’ best form. Carys’ involvement with SMPTE began whilst studying Media Technology in Salford. She has since become an active user of Standards and has presented at SMPTE conferences centrally and in the UK. She is an active member of the SMPTE UK board of managers, and a current SMPTE Education Director. Carys is passionate about retaining engineering students and early careerists, via healthy technical community. As a result, her efforts with SMPTE often focus on embedding sustainable strategies for student engagement into SMPTE's core activities. This includes the development of SMPTE UK's annual "Young Innovators" events - Bringing students and employers together, whilst showcasing the work of those in their early tech careers.
PHILLIP LAYTON
Head of Applied Research, BBC
Phil is Head of Applied Research for Media in BBC, Research & Development. He initially joined the BBC in 1983, returning in 1989 after a spell in commercial television, and has worked on a wide variety of projects involving hardware design, software and systems engineering. Since 2009 he has led engineering teams which have contributed to many open international standards including initiating the work which led to the development and trialling of the HLG standard for UHD HDR. Over a long career he has contributed to data broadcasting, the analogue to digital video infrastructure transition, the research and adoption of motion compensated video processing techniques. Since 1996 he has contributed to all the major BBC digital TV projects across Freeview, Freesat, YouView and Freely and BBC integrations with third-party platforms, e.g. Sky. His work is now centred on the BBC’s transition from broadcast to streaming distribution. Phil is also non-executive Director of the Digital TV Group. He is a graduate of Imperial College, London, a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
FRANÇOIS LEGRAND
Sr. Director of Innovation, CBC/Radio-Canada
François joined CBC/Radio-Canada in 2003 as a broadcast systems designer. In this role, he has been involved in the design and implementation of a wide range of digital, television, and radio systems. From 2011 to 2016, he held several management positions where he coordinated the technological development of Quebec’s regional stations and played a pivotal role in transitioning national news to automated production. He spent 7 years as the Senior Director of Engineering, where he oversaw the team responsible for implementing all CBC/Radio-Canada IT and Broadcast infrastructure projects … including the now famous “Nouvelle Maison de Radio-Canada” in Montréal, Qc, Canada that was one of the first and largest “all ST2110” multimedia broadcast facility. As Senior Director of Innovation its next endeavor is to bring the media industry into the digital age by accelerating the transition to software solutions leveraging the latest innovation from the IT industry. In his free time, François is an avid maker with interests in 3D printing, CNC machining, and microcontroller-based electronics. Hoping to inspire the next generation of engineers, he also serves as the lead mentor of the FIRST Robotics Competition Team 9234 - Les Aigles d’Or.
NICHOLAS MITCHELL
CTO and Technology Consultant, WildAcre Company
Nick Mitchell is a distinguished media and entertainment technologist currently serving as Chief Technology Officer of the Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition (DCDC), overseeing technology strategy for a network delivering content to over 33,000 screens across North America. Nick also serves as a technology consultant for InterDigital and business development consultant for Philips, focusing on the Advanced HDR by Technicolor initiative, which advances color science and HDR technologies through machine learning-driven solutions. During his 13-year tenure at Technicolor, Nick rose to Vice President of Immersive Technology, designing the company's first virtual production facility and developing VR/AR color management pipelines. As VP of Digital Cinema Mastering Services, he was instrumental in the industry's transition from 35mm film to digital cinema, creating some of the first Digital Cinema Packages and establishing workflows still used today. Nick's contributions to SMPTE standards development have been extensive. He spearheaded and chaired the original SMPTE 429-16 CPL Metadata standard committee, creating specifications that continue to guide digital cinema packaging worldwide. He has served on the SMPTE Hollywood Section Board of Managers and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. With over two decades of experience bridging creative and technical domains, Nick strives to exemplify SMPTE's mission of developing technologies and standards that enable seamless media creation and delivery.
PARITOSH SAHA
Executive Director - Media Technology and Operations, JioStar India Pvt. Ltd.
Paritosh Saha is a Television Broadcast Industry technologist and executive and has a rich experience of over 30 years, presently working with India's leading television Broadcaster and OTT provider, JioStar. His career in the Media Industry started with Tektronix and later Grass Valley, switching from the field of Biomedical Engineering. At JioStar (erstwhile Disney Star and Star TV even before that) he heads Engineering (Broadcast) and has been involved in the success of most of the major projects. His passion for Technology and Standards have lead him to involve and contribute with Organizations formulating Broadcast Tech and equipment standards. His focus has been to migrate to IP systems since 2008 onwards, moving from Tape based facilities to file based, J2K based REMI (Remote Production), a complete end to end IP based multichannel Playout facility including IP based UHD playout among many others. New Technology design and adoption has always been a priority. He strives to make meaningful contributions to the industry, sharing his knowledge generously. As a member of SMPTE and a Fellow of the Society, he believes that he has the advantage of using these platforms to further disseminate his expertise.
FLORIAN SCHLEICH
Senior Software Engineer, Netflix
Florian started his professional career at Fraunhofer IIS in Germany, where he developed software to process Digital Cinema Packages and supported European film archives in their efforts to adopt digital preservation workflows. He then moved to Los Angeles to interface with local studios and production/post companies to better understand their needs and to position Fraunhofer’s light field production tools and IMF packaging solutions. Since joining Netflix in 2018, he held different positions managing technology partnerships and standards engagement and he is currently a Senior Software Engineer in Netflix’s Encoding Technologies team. Florian has Dipl.-Inf. (FH) and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science.
JAMES BRYAN TOTEN
SVP Production Integration, Lightstorm Vision
Jim Toten is a seasoned entertainment technology leader with over three decades of experience in production, post-production, and distribution, across various sectors, including film, television, live music, radio, and streaming media. Known for his innovative approach to utilizing new and emerging technology for creative problem-solving, Jim has had active key roles on successful projects with innovative companies such as Tribune Broadcasting/Entertainment, NBC, CBS, FOX, Prime Video, Lucasfilm/ILM and now Lightstorm Vision. He has contributed to high-profile events such as the Super Bowl, Olympics, live concert tours, festivals, and residencies. Jim’s recent focus has been utilizing digital cine-cameras in livestreaming environments such as the Coachella Music Festival and advanced color workflow in Adele’s residency in Munich. His ability to thrive under pressure, build strong teams, and deliver results has earned him a reputation as a visionary in the industry.
RUSSELL TRAFFORD-JONES
Chair, IET Media Technical Networks
Introduced to broadcast through student radio while studying for his master’s in Physics, Russell began in the BBC’s central MCR working with connectivity, codecs and people to get complex outside broadcasts on air which included on-site engineering at the UEFA Euros and FIFA World Cup. As a systems architect at TSL Systems, Russell's knowledge of the whole transmission chain expanded rapidly, delivering systems and facilities from glass to glass. After a very technical role running the test & demo infrastructure for codec company, V-Nova, Russell returned to live sports as a specialist in the team architecting and delivering all connectivity and compression for Eurosport's coverage across four Olympics. Russell spent two academic years teaching broadcast engineering topics at Solent University in the UK. Most recently as Head of Support, and now Industry Engagement Manager at Techex, Russell has immersed himself in the technical minutiae of root cause investigations and in industry collaborations such as the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme. Previously a manager of the SMPTE UK Section, Russell now chairs the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Media Technical Network which creates events that spread the word about what's new in engineering for the Media & Entertainment industry.
RONALD A. WILLIAMS
CEO, The Landmark Group
Professional in the broadcast and film industries, Mr. Williams has successfully operated The LANDMARK Group as the CEO, -a design, sales and consulting company in the Broadcast, CGI and Film industries. The LANDMARK Group has designed and built facilities for all major networks, post production houses, government facilities. Working with ARRI Cinema Cameras, for Multi-Cam transmission of Live entertainment shows. Has developed systems features for broadcast integration into film features .At Grass Valley was a Solution Specialist,. Specifying broadcast cameras in digital systems, and the applications, of 4K, HDR, WGC, HFR, as well as camera applications, for special venues. Factory development input for advanced customer functionality. Started the engineering team to build the original Fox Network broadcast center in Hollywood. Engineered the startup shows for the prime time programs. Engineering Manager and Technical Director for the ABC television network in New York and Hollywood. As one of the team leaders, who designed six Olympic games, five political conventions and many Wide World of Sports events, winning nine Emmy nominations, went on to organize the special events unit for the ABC Network. Mr. Williams continues 53 yrs work with SMPTE standards committees. Writing the standards for advanced digital formats ST 2110 and other transmission standards. He has chaired the Digital Cinema standard for SMPTE committees and the Digital Cinema Initiatives, recommendation for digital cinema. He is also member of the EBU, SPIE and AMPAS Science and Technology Council’s Advanced Technology Group, working on the ACES format.
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