Comment by cyberax

5 hours ago

What the heck is SMPTE?

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

The SMPTE standards have been very important for cinematography and television, especially for professional applications.

Their importance has decreased since the transition to digital video, when many relevant standards have been issued by other organizations, but many SMPTE standards are still important, especially regarding the formats used for distributing digital movies for movie theaters.

  • But they are getting back in the game with SMPTE 2110 which is a standard that describes how to send digital media over an IP network.

I had the same question. I clicked on their menu About > Who is SMPTE page and it didn't define the acronym either.

Then I scrolled to the bottom of the page and I did see it in the footer: SOCIETY OF MOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION ENGINEERS

Today I learned

Also the name of prog supergroup Transatlantic's first album, SMPT:E, a play on the band members names.