This is a modified version of the original presentation given at the 2016 HPA Tech Retreat on February 17, 2016. What were some of the hot technologies of 2015? Could they have been books, film, and television? And might the greatest advance in television be something first written up in 1877? Correction: The Polaroid Snap […] More
With the Olympic Games opening in Brazil this week, it might be worth noting that the first to feature television cameras took place in Germany 80 years ago. But those weren’t the first sports events with television coverage. Baseball was televised in Japan in 1931; before that, tennis was captured by a video camera […] More
Today, July 24, 2016. as this image from page 13 of the July 25, 1916 issue of The Evening Star in Washington, D.C. indicates, is the 100th anniversary of the first meeting of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, the group that became SMPTE in 1950 when a T for television was added. The article noted that, […] More
A Capitol Fourth is one of the longest-lasting shows on PBS and is said to be the highest rated. It’s an extraordinary undertaking, with stars from virtually every genre of music performing live both in front of a huge crowd on the west lawn and steps of the U.S. Capitol building and, simultaneously, on TV […] More
Recorded on May 25, 2016 at the SMPTE DC “Bits by the Bay,” Managing Technologies in Transition at the Chesapeake Beach Resort & Spa. TRT: 33:00 (52 MB) Download link: NAB 2016 Wrap-up Embedded: More
HDR: The Great, the Okay, and the Yikes! Of all of the picture improvements being discussed today, high dynamic range (HDR) offers the most bang for the bit. It has other characteristics that could also be described as “great.” Implementation will take some work, which is okay. And then there are the parts that are […] More
Like every other NAB show, the upcoming 2016 one will likely have lots of innovations. One to which I’m looking forward is the new “autocolor” button on SoftPanels LED lights. Each can measure the ambient lighting and adjust its output to match, whether it’s an incandescent table lamp or daylight streaming in a window. I’m […] More
“The Fandom of the Opera” at McGill University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research into Music and Media Technology, by Mark Schubin Electronic home entertainment, movies, consumer headphones – even newscasts and sportscasts – were all created for opera. Really! Emmy-award-winning engineer and historian Mark Schubin offers a brief seminar on “The fandom of the opera: How […] More
Like many other innovations, high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging can bring benefits but will require work to implement. And then there’s the bottom line. HDR’s biggest benefit is that it offers the greatest perceptual image improvement per bit. Different researchers have independently verified the improvement, and it theoretically requires no increase in bit rate whatsoever. In […] More
In the aftermath of the shootings in San Bernardino, the leading Presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party called yesterday for barring members of a particular religion from entering the country. The statement is ignorant, and I feel compelled to explain why. It is ignorant because the ban would violate the U.S. constitution, which […] More
