WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers announced the three keynote speakers for the SMPTE 2014 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition, Oct. 21-23 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, Calif.
Chris Fetner, director of global content partners operations at Netflix, will present the opening keynote. Later in the day, ticket-holders for the SMPTE Industry Luncheon will have the opportunity to hear a keynote presentation by Mark Aitken, vice president of advanced technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group. On Wednesday, Vubiquity CEO Darcy Antonellis will address SMPTE Fellows, including those newly inducted for 2014, at the SMPTE Fellows Luncheon.
“The keynotes presented by Chris, Mark, and Darcy will punctuate a strong conference program that advances the industry through shared knowledge and experience,” said Wendy Aylsworth, SMPTE president and senior vice president of technology at Warner Bros. Technical Operations. “The real-world experiences of these industry leaders in leveraging advanced media delivery technologies will serve both to complement and enrich the diverse array of SMPTE 2014 technical sessions.”
Fetner, a SMPTE member, began his career as an operations manager at a local Public Broadcasting Systems affiliate in Washington, D.C., and went on to serve as a producer for television programs including “Frontiers of Medicine.” He later served as a post production and operations executive at Discovery Communications, guiding the company’s migration to an all-digital workflow, and as vice president of post production and technical services at the British Broadcasting Corp. Worldwide in New York, where he oversaw all technical operations supporting both the cable network BBC America and its distribution to electronic sell-through, video-on-demand, and subscription video-on-demand customers. At Netflix he and his team deploy tools, processes, and knowledge that allow content owners and service vendors to deliver high-quality content to Netflix simply and with efficiency.
In addition to representing Sinclair Broadcast interests in industry technical and standards issues, Aitken is chairman of the Advanced Television System Committee TSG/S4 codec working group and a member of both the Mobile 500 Alliance executive committee and National Association of Broadcasters TV Technology Committee. Since 1987, he also has been involved in the Federal Communications Committee Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Services. Prior to joining Sinclair, Aitken held various positions with Comark Communications, where he was part of the Emmy Award-winning team that brought Internet of Things* technology to the marketplace. He is currently a member of the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers, the IEEE, and SMPTE. He has authored numerous papers on innovative radio-frequency product developments, advanced digital television system design, and related implementation strategies, and holds patents for various RF devices. Aitken is a recipient of the 2008 Broadcasting and Cable Technology Leadership Award and the 2013 ATSC Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award.
Prior to becoming CEO at Vubiquity, Antonellis served as president of technical operations and chief technology officer at Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., where she directed technology strategy and the company’s use of media and entertainment-related product and service innovations to drive growth and business opportunity. Earlier, during her tenure at CBS, she held lead management roles with responsibility for the network’s New York and Washington, D.C., operations. Antonellis is a three-time Emmy Award-winner for technical production and engineering. She serves on numerous advisory boards and has been named on the Video Business “Women Elite” and The Hollywood Reporter’s Digital Power 50 List. She has also earned Broadcasting and Cable’s Technology Leadership Award and India’s NASSCOM Innovator Leader Award, and was presented with the inaugural NAB TVNewsCheck Women in Technology Leadership Award. Antonellis is a SMPTE Fellow.
Further information about SMPTE 2014 is available at www.smpte2014.org.
*Aitken says his contribution to IOT has more to do with induction output tubes.
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