News Stories

What is the future?

11.24.2012

This is the question that drives and inspires ETC, the Entertainment Technology Center at The University of Southern California, a leading forum, think tank and research center that brings together senior executives, innovators, thought leaders, and catalysts from the entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and services industries along with the academic resources of the University of Southern California to explore and to act upon topics and issues related to the creation, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content in the 21st Century.

True to the founding vision originally conceived 20 years ago by George Lucas and carried on today through CEO and Executive Director Kenneth Williams, ETC engages in a broad portfolio of projects all on the frontier of next generation entertainment. With the pace of change only accelerating, ETC plays a vital role as a hub of information, insight, analysis and perspective through projects, research, events and publications.

The completely redesigned ETCenter.org now serves its members and a broadening base of industry professionals with curated content and original publications. Within ETCenter.org is ETCentric, where members and guests will find the most current industry technology news and trends. ETC Members have additional access to special reports and research found on ETCentric. Members also receive ETCentric’s Daily Bullet, a news brief tailored to member’s interest and information needs.

In addition to the daily briefing, ETCentric introduces a special daily feature. Mondays will preview the week ahead with a focus on product launches, major announcements, reports or key events. Tuesdays deliver a guest column, giving members a platform or bringing outside experts to the forum. Wednesdays feature special reports, some generated through ETC and others shared from outside. ETC recaps trade show, conferences and events in a regular Thursday rundown. And Fridays encapsulates the week in entertainment technology with the week in review. Register here for The Daily Bullet.

The ETC is also a convener. Look for special events, seminars, panels and conferences organized by or in partnership with ETC. Silicon Beach@USC, produced with the Marshall School during the Fall of 2012, gathered many of the most prominent innovators and incubators in Los Angeles for a provocative series of panels and discussion.

The future is here.

CES 2013: LIVE COVERAGE FROM THE SHOW

10.26.2012

The ETC brings together senior executives from the entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and services industries to discuss and importantly, to act upon, topics related to the creation, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content. The ETC, an organization within the USC School of Cinematic Arts, helps drive collaborative projects among our member companies, and also brings next generation consumers to the table to understand the impact of new technology on all aspects of the entertainment industry – technology development and implementation, the creative process, and existing business models. Fundamentally, ETC acts as an accelerator for entertainment technology and commerce through: Collaborative Projects, Shared Facilities, Research, Events

 

The ETC@USC was founded with the help of George Lucas in 1993, with the goal of bringing technology and entertainment visionaries together to collaborate on the future of entertainment technology. Our Sponsoring participants comprise the major studios: Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, and Warner Bros.; along with several other leading technology and services companies. The ETC is perhaps most famous for the Digital Cinema Lab, which created an accelerator and a home for the discussions which led to the creation of the Digital Cinema specification (by DCI) and the world-wide roll-out of Digital Cinema. The Digital Cinema Lab’s success has provided a template for the creation of ETC’s next industry-shaping laboratories: the Anytime/Anywhere Content Lab and the Consumer 3D Experience Lab.

Bros.; along with several other leading technology and services companies. The ETC is perhaps most famous for the Digital Cinema Lab, which created an accelerator and a home for the discussions which led to the creation of the Digital Cinema specification (by DCI) and Content Lab and the Consumer 3D Experience Lab

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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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