Students Drive SMPTE Into The Next Century

By Richard Welsh, SMPTE Governor for EMEA and Central & South America Region and CEO at Sundog Media Toolkit.

Over the past five years, I have served on the SMPTE Board of Governors, and watched the Society expand. Membership has grown throughout the world and in particular in the UK Section, which we re-established in 2012. This Section has seen a high degree of interest and support from across the creative, manufacturing, broadcasting, and service organisations in the UK’s thriving media landscape. This interest contributed to the SMPTE UK Section growing from 100 members in 2012 to more than 500 members today.

Widespread support for the Section and its work is evident in rapidly increasing attendance at Section meetings across the UK. Additionally, students have shown a great interest in the Society. SMPTE has seen a surge in student membership thanks to the charitable work of members led by our Membership Vice President, Bill Miller, who has donated his own funds to allow students to join SMPTE for free in their first year. Bill has encouraged others to do the same within SMPTE and this has really given us significant growth in the student population of SMPTE. It is one of the most important initiatives in The Society, since these young people are the future of our industry, and of course the Society itself.

The recent finalisation of a formal partnership between SMPTE and the Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA), provides both organizations the opportunity to extend their reach, while better serving the industry as a whole — from engineering and technical professionals to the creative community. The organizations share a collective interest in education and programs for students. One example of this dedication to student initiatives was the the first annual SMPTE-HPA Student Film Festival, presented during the recent SMPTE 2015 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition in Hollywood.

The film festival was open to full-time students currently enrolled in an accredited university or film school and entries were received from all over the world. The focus of the festival was on technology, so students majoring in an area that emphasizes science, advanced technologies, engineering, or fundamental theories associated with motion imaging, sound, metadata, and workflows were encouraged to enter. I am very proud to say that the winner of the Best Use of Creative Virtual Reality (VR) Technology in storytelling was Louis Arrigoni.

A sound engineering student, studying at my alma mater, Southampton Solent University, Louis has core skills in multiple aspects of the media industry and his focus is on VR game development and video production, using a creative skill set supported by a technical background, to produce content. His award winning work is titled, "PhaseShift", and is a story driven platformer, harking back to traditional games in it’s design and nostalgic art style. Working in VR allowed Louis to expand this retro design into a 3D immersive environment, creating a unique look to the game, allowing for unique game mechanics in the platformer genre and gives a fun way to tell a story to the players. The game is kind of an action-comedy-puzzle hybrid, driven by it’s quirky characters and interesting environments, which is meant to bring some charm and smiles to the VR genre.

In speaking with Louis, he highly recommends that students or creatives considering experimenting with VR games or video, give it go.

"With such an exciting new technology, you have a unique opportunity to be able to reinvent the wheel — approach at the creative process in a whole new light. All the while, having a much louder voice a creator, as the industry needs more (VR) content," Louis said.

The story of "Phase Shift" follows 'Dr. Hoffman', a solitary scientist researching a chemical synthesised in his lab. However, after accidentally drinking his formula, he starts to see visions of alien beings in another dimension. Assuming they mean to steal his research, he starts to run. Trying make sense of the world around him, as he hops between realities. In the game, you control a 'portal'. An orb which the player can position in 3D space, allowing them to interact with the environment and objects within a parallel dimension. Designing a level within 'two dimensions' has lots of potential for really creative mechanics and art, as well as challenging puzzles, all pushed forward by a fun and original storyline.

"PhaseShift" has been an ongoing project with a small team of coders and artists. The version submitted to the SMPTE-HPA festival competition is set half way through the game in the jungle, made to briefly show off the potential of the game and give people a taste of the story. The first act of the game will be released more widely over the next couple of months.

I was honoured to present Louis with his award at a special event at Southampton Solent University on 25 November. The University was celebrating the opening of its Dolby Atmos screening and mixing facility on its main campus. The existing 3D Digital Cinema theatre has been retrofitted with the Dolby Atmos sound system during the summer and is now one of only two such facilities at universities anywhere in the world. Students are now able to enjoy experiencing movies in this latest sound format, as well as have the exceptional opportunity for hands-on learning, using object based audio mixing for movies, television and games with Atmos. The event also marked the first official meeting of the newly formed Southampton Solent SMPTE Student Chapter, which was petitioned for and approved by the SMPTE Board of Governors, this October.

It's wonderful to be able to celebrate the huge involvement with SMPTE of the students and staff at Southampton Solent University and also to see one of their students win an award such as this, in a cutting edge area like VR is really special. Presenting Louis with the award at the opening of the University's Dolby Atmos screening and mixing facility speaks to the advanced nature of the facilities and courses at the University. There is huge value in the ever closer links between SMPTE and Southampton Solent, who's graduates are snapped up by the television and film industries.

My term as SMPTE Governor comes to an end with the new year. The membership has elected SMPTE Fellow, Bruce Devlin, who will now serve as a Governor on the SMPTE Board. I am proud to have been a part of the Society’s many accomplishments during my service. I will still be active in the Society, serving as Chair for the 2016 NAB Show's The Future of Cinema Conference, produced in partnership with SMPTE (formerly known as the Technology Summit on Cinema); as well as bringing the HPA Tech Retreat to the UK in July. Look for more information about that soon!

More information about SMPTE's Student Programs is available at www.smpte.org/students.

Image: (L-R): Peter Richardson, of Southampton Solent University; Roger Lownsborough, of Southampton Solent University; James Shannon of Dolby Laboratories; and Richard Welsh of SMPTE and Sundog Media Toolkit.

This article is also available to read at BFV online.

(JP)