HPA Retreat Program Set

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES:
The main program of the 16th-annual Tech Retreat, administered by the Hollywood Post Alliance, has been set. The 2010 event will take place Feb. 16-19 at Rancho Las Palmas Resort in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Among this year's highlights will be a half-day seminar by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, which recently approved standards for mobile digital TV and program loudness, and a half-day seminar by SMPTE Gold Medal Winner Charles Poynton on high-dynamic-range imaging, which could make pictures more life-like than HDTV.

A supersession on 3D in the home will feature (among many others) the European Broadcasting Union’s head of emerging media, David Wood, who has called for a health warning on 3D TV programming.

CableLabs chief technology officer Ralph Brown will join TV network executives and others discussing program distribution from the internet and disk vending machines to mobile broadcasts, cable, satellite, live cinema, and immersive media. Netscape’s fifth employee Tom Paquin will discuss online games.

The event also will feature an eclectic mix of presentations. Participants will hear from the mysterious Mo Henry, whose name has appeared in the credits of hundreds of major motion pictures, and from Stephen Long, oversight executive for motion intelligence in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. They will learn how classic Disney animation has been restored and how future movies and TV shows will be shot.

Demo room technologies have not yet been finalized. The 2009 retreat featured full-color, motion holograms, and previous demo rooms have included such technologies as a steerable pencil-beam microphone that can pick out any conversation in a sports arena without being moved. Such companies as Lucas Digital, Panasonic and Sony have all introduced technologies at previous retreats.

The event regularly sells out. Registration information is available at the HPA Web site.

For more info about the program or to request a breakfast roundtable, contact program chairman Mark Schubin. Applications for demonstration space must be submitted online by Dec. 19.