Why do I recommend that you join SMPTE, and JOIN SMPTE NOW? What has it meant for me?

Well, being the dullest knife in the drawer and from a different part of the entertainment technology biz, it has meant that I get a little bit closer to the unadulterated technical information that I use to make sense of things. For me, this means the free to members webcasts…and a digital copy of the Imaging Journal…far above my head, but every once in a while I stumble on an article from someone I know – I’ll say to them, “Hey! saw your article in the Journal. Nice. Thanks.” That’s worth the price of admission right there. 

“But can’t I have gotten that without spending $145 for an individual membership,” you ask? Maybe. But it actually feels good when I can say that I am a member. “Couldn’t it be less expensive?,” you ask. “I mean, is SMPTE gouging?” I don’t think so, and let me explain why.

If you want to go the next step in SMPTE, contributing your time and efforts to committees and study groups, then you have to pay a bunch more…something like $250. That additional cost goes into keeping the SMPTE structure up to the standards of the international groups that SMPTE belongs to, most especially the ISO. Imagine all the work that goes into submitting the SMPTE Standards and Recommended Practices to the ISO…then having the ISO say, “You didn’t have the required time period between draft submission and voting closure dates.” The costs of making all that right might have been wrapped into the costs of general membership, making the $145 a lot more – putting membership far out of reach of many. “Why~!~! That’s the opposite of gouging,” you say.

The hard part is the realization that you learn too much, yet how little that you know. As the saying goes: Kilometers wide, millimeters deep. People who you respect openly asking questions. You find that you can no longer pontificate since it is not only bad form, but you know that there is always so much more nuance that can be told. 

So, if you need an excuse to get some of your time back by not pontificating, and feel good if someone says, “You are a SMPTE member, aren’t you?”, join now. And tell them that C J sent you.

Here’s the official SMPTE Membership Referral Program link:

SMPTE Member Referral Program | Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers

Why do I recommend that you join SMPTE, and JOIN SMPTE NOW? What has it meant for me?

Well, being the dullest knife in the drawer and from a different part of the entertainment technology biz, it has meant that I get a little bit closer to the unadulterated technical information that I use to make sense of things. For me, this means the free to members webcasts…and a digital copy of the Imaging Journal…far above my head, but every once in a while I stumble on an article from someone I know – I’ll say to them, “Hey! saw your article in the Journal. Nice. Thanks.” That’s worth the price of admission right there. 

“But can’t I have gotten that without spending $145 for an individual membership,” you ask? Maybe. But it actually feels good when I can say that I am a member. “Couldn’t it be less expensive?,” you ask. “I mean, is SMPTE gouging?” I don’t think so, and let me explain why.

If you want to go the next step in SMPTE, contributing your time and efforts to committees and study groups, then you have to pay a bunch more…something like $250. That additional cost goes into keeping the SMPTE structure up to the standards of the international groups that SMPTE belongs to, most especially the ISO. Imagine all the work that goes into submitting the SMPTE Standards and Recommended Practices to the ISO…then having the ISO say, “You didn’t have the required time period between draft submission and voting closure dates.” The costs of making all that right might have been wrapped into the costs of general membership, making the $145 a lot more – putting membership far out of reach of many. “Why~!~! That’s the opposite of gouging,” you say.

The hard part is the realization that you learn too much, yet how little that you know. As the saying goes: Kilometers wide, millimeters deep. People who you respect openly asking questions. You find that you can no longer pontificate since it is not only bad form, but you know that there is always so much more nuance that can be told. 

So, if you need an excuse to get some of your time back by not pontificating, and feel good if someone says, “You are a SMPTE member, aren’t you?”, join now. And tell them that C J sent you.

Here’s the official SMPTE Membership Referral Program link:

SMPTE Member Referral Program | Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers