12
SMPTE publishes
immersive audio
standards for cinema
The Society of Motion Picture and Television
Engineers (SMPTE) has published new
SMPTE ST 2098 standards for immersive
audio. These include ST 2098-1:2018,
Immersive Audio Metadata; ST 2098-2:2018,
Immersive Audio Bitstream Specification;
and ST 2098-5:2018, D-Cinema Immersvie
Audio Channels and Soundfield Groups.
Brian Vessa, founding chair of SMPTE’s
Technology Committee on Cinema Sound
Systems (TC-25CSS) and executive director
of digital audio mastering at Sony Pictures
Entertainment, said: “By supporting delivery
of a standardised immersive audio bitstream
within a single interoperable digital cinema
package, the new SMPTE immersive audio
standards simplify distribution while
ensuring that cinemas can confidently play
out immersive audio on their choice of
compliant immersive sound systems.”
April 2012 2018
November
Content creation
involves the
best cameras ...
and more
While cameras continue to play a pivotal role in the capture of some of the most
iconic moments in cinema and TV, the value of the supporting cast — including
lighting and tripod systems — cannot be understated. Shawn Liew reports.
W
Asim Saeed joins
Ikegami Electronics
Ikegami has appointed Asim
Saeed as business develop-
ment manager. Reporting to
Kenzo Ishizuka, president,
Europe, Ikegami, Saeed will
promote the full Ikegami
range of broadcast and medical products
to existing and potential customers. Saeed
was previously with a UAE-based systems
integrator, where he was responsible for
Canon’s broadcast lenses in the Middle East.
He became its sales manager in 2006 and
has been its general manager since 2014.
Next Month @ Creation
Graphic Systems & Virtual Sets
PANELLISTS
Dr Ahmad Zaki
Mohd Salleh
Director Technical Operations
TV Networks
Media Prima
Phan Tien Dung
CTO
Vietnam Digital Television
Mike Whittaker
Executive Vice-President
and CTO, Asia-Pacific and
the Middle East,
Fox Networks Group Asia
According to ARRI, Stellar re-imagines lighting control by automatically managing complex
DMX settings, and by featuring control interfaces with “stunning graphic design”.
The OCU-1 operator control unit is
designed to help camera operators
take control of lens functions,
allowing them to take full control
of their lenses when they want it.
hile HBO’s Barry is essentially a dark
comedy about a Midwestern hitman
(played by Bill Hader) who travels to Los
Angeles to kill someone, there was noth-
ing unilluminating in the way ARRI lit up
the production of the TV series.
While the ARRI Alexa and Alexa
Mini cameras, used in conjunction with
the Angenieux Optimo Zooms, provided
director of photography (DoP) Paula
Huidobro with the visuals she was look-
ing for, lighting also played an important
role in conveying the visual look the crea-
tive team was after.
“I wanted the light to be as soft as pos-
sible, which allowed us to work relatively
quickly and consistently,” she explains.
“My gaffer, Paul McIlvine, and I decided
to go with a more old-school approach,
using Fresnels, booklights and Chinese
lanterns instead of LED technology,
which has become the norm.”
For day exteriors, they used the ARRI
M18, ARRIMAXes and SkyPanels. “I like
the versatility of the SkyPanels and I like
the colour of the ARRI HMIs and how
consistent they are. There were great tools
to have,” says Huidobro, who also high-
lights how they wanted the lighting to be
“real”. This, she says, led to the obsession
with not having shadows that would take
the viewer away from the faces or the
comedy while still retaining some con-
trast. “We wanted to keep the light shaped
in an interesting way. I didn’t ever want to
drift into flat comedic lighting, but I also
avoided hard lighting for the most part.”
They also used a lot of practical lights,
both on location and fixtures built into
the sets. “I always diffused and controlled
them when they were off camera,” says
Huidobro. “A key to success in making
our days was that we were able to build
in a lot of lighting solutions into our sets.”
That included rigging “a beautiful soft
box” into one of the main shooting areas