SMPTE wants to be “more nimble, accessible and inclusive” as it looks to better serve the technology and engineering community.
The Society said it is developing plans to promote greater diversity, equity, and inclusion within SMPTE and the industry as a whole.
“SMPTE is transforming every element of its business to meet the changing needs of creative and technology professionals in the digital media industry,” said Patrick Griffis, president of SMPTE. “We’re creating strategic changes to give all our members even better access to the tools, expertise, educational offerings, and rich global network of colleagues that are vital to their career success.”
The process of reimagining SMPTE is being steered by a three-year plan launched in 2019.
It wants to promote greater diversity, equity, and inclusion and said it will continue to amplify the talents of a broader spectrum of media technology professionals of every nationality, race, gender, and career stage.
“The Society has taken a first step by being the industry’s first standards body to scrub its documents and replace technical terms that could be considered racially offensive with more accurate and thoughtful language,” said SMPTE in a statement.
SMPTE also wants to be “nimbler and more responsive to quickly changing media technologies, creative techniques, and business models.”
Changes include focusing on more software-oriented standards and using more software-based tools to manage and streamline the standardisation process. “SMPTE also is augmenting its rigorous standards development process with new models that allow members and the public at large to contribute to various standards-like documents,” said the Society.
As part of the changes, SMPTE has launched a new logo and website.
