Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

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The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers or SMPTE, (IPA pronunciation: [sɪmpti] and sometimes [sʌmpti]), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in the United States of America, of engineers working in the motion imaging industries. An internationally-recognized standards developing organization, SMPTE has over 400 standards, Recommended Practices and Engineering Guidelines for television, motion pictures, digital cinema, audio and medical imaging. In addition to development and publication of standards documents, SMPTE publishes a journal, provides assistance to members with employment, and performs other industry-related functions.

Membership is open to any individual or organization with interest in the subject matter.

SMPTE standards documents are copyrighted and may be purchased from the SMPTE website, or other distributors of technical standards. Standard documents may be purchased by the general public. Significant standards promulgated by SMPTE include:

All film and television transmission formats and media, including digital.
Physical interfaces for transmission of television signals and related data (such as SMPTE time code and the Serial Digital Interface)
The SMPTE color bar test pattern and other diagnostic tools
The Material eXchange Format, or MXF

SMPTE's educational and professional development activities include technical presentations at regular meetings of its local Sections, annual and biennial conferences in the US and Australia and the SMPTE Journal. SMPTE also has a number of student Sections and sponsors scholarships for college students in the motion imaging disciplines.

Related organizations include