Jack Watts and Tomasz Witkowski, managers of the new SMPTEDCP.com portal explain the benefits of this online information resource.
There is a shift in the industry; more specifically in the distribution market. As we transition from Dcinema Interop DCPS to SMPTE DCPs, nomenclature has evolved to the point that people refer to the SMPTE DCP to differentiate packaging constraints from its Interop (IOP) equivalent. This won’t change until the transition is complete and such differences cease to exist in the mainstream market. Within the European Digital Cinema Forum, there is a SMPTE Project Group which manages the transitional logistics and challenges of changing from the InteropDCP to SMPTE DCP.
Introducing smptedcp.com
Early on, a process was defined enabling this transition which has been used as the basis for facilitating the transition in each territory. Like every process, it has both pros and cons associated with it. The Pros are that it is proven to work and open to further refinement as it has highlighted issues which are time consuming in the planning stages; slow to yield results and present localisation challenges.
We looked at how we were currently approaching the issue and identified a major pitfall plaguing the SMPTE DCP initiative: information. Information beyond that of what the engineering and standards communities are exposed to. Information that exhibitors and distributors alike need, of whom are the audiences that actually account for approx. 90% of the people who will handle this format in their day to day responsibilities.
Smptedcp.com is an information resource on the new SMPTE DCP and its operational use. More specifically, as a resource, it pertains to the distribution model, recommended practice and the current transitional status to the format. It unifies all online resources, and caters to the knowledge needs of integrators, mastering houses and distributors.
With years of experience including at Technicolor and Deluxe, Jack Watts manages smptedcp.com with Tomasz Witkowski, workflow engineer at Sundog Media Toolkit.
