News Stories

DVP Interest at HPA

2.19.2009

The HPA Tech Retreat’s Thursday program began with breakfast roundtable discussions. One of the most crowded sessions—where there is clearly a lot of interest both in and beyond Hollywood–offered a look at the Digital Video Package initiative, chaired by Disney’s Annie Chang.

Chang provided an overview of the effort of Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros., working under the ETC@ USC umbrella, to create recommendations for an industry standard for master digital files, which would be used to send entertainment content to broadcasters, Internet sites and mobile service providers. The DVP would be used in B2B settings between content providers and content distributors.

Chang reported that the goal is to complete the recommendations by year’s end, and to submit them to SMPTE for standardization.

3D Ranks on ATSC 2.0 Plans

2.18.2009

HPA’s Tuesday afternoon broadcast panel began with a DTV transition update: 421 stations turned off analog TV last night, without any major issues. 220 stations had already turned off analog TV. 36% of the 1,796 licensed NTSC stations are now off the air.

The NAB’s Graham Jones was first up, reporting on plans for ATSC 2.0, a suite of next generation services for the fixed DTV receiver.

He said an industry poll resulted in the identification of 26 features that are currently under consideration.

Among them is 3D, which ranked 18th as most desired feature (and ranked 6th among CE manufacturers). Jones noted that the poll was taken last August, and he would expect that if taken today, 3D would be rank higher on the list.

“We are looking for input from the industry,” he emphasized.

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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