SMPTE’s Howard Lukk on the Upcoming Time Code Summits

How the Organization Is Developing the New, Expanded Time Label Standard for the Next Generation of Content Creation

SMPTE is planning a series of Time Code Summits aimed at gathering feedback that will help shape the drafting of a new "Time Label" standard — essentially, SMPTE Time Code for a new generation. The first is coming up at 8 p.m. October 10 at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood, CA, followed by another at 10 a.m. on November 1 at BT Tower in London. A New York summit is planned later in November, with other locations under consideration. SMPTE's Howard Lukk, director of engineering and standards, will host the meetings. To register for one of the summits, visit SMPTE's website.

We asked Lukk to fill us in on the thinking behind the new standard, what it can convey and how it works, and what users need to know if they're thinking about joining one of the summits. 

StudioDaily: Time Code today uniquely identifies every frame of video. What kind of information could be added in the Time Label standard?

Howard Lukk: This is exactly the information we are looking for! We are asking them to provide suggestions. So, does the user community have things they would like to see in a Time Label standard? For example, one might want to include the date, which is not formally a part of the existing SMPTE Time Code standard. Another example might be to include Equipment ID of the device creating the time stamp.

How would Time Label differ from Time Code in terms of how it’s recorded and transmitted?

SMPTE Time Code began its life as an analog standard and thus was sent down wires. These days, it is embedded into AES, SDI, and file formats. Now, we are moving more and more to IP infrastructures, and as such need to provide Time “Code” within this emerging infrastructure. So, this is where Time Labels come in. Time Labels would be embedded into IP packets and then moved around via networks. This could be a real-time scenario or a non-real-time scenario. That would be the biggest difference between SMPTE Time Code and Time Labels.

Will the eventual new standard result in more complexity for users? 

Hopefully not, and that is exactly why we are reaching out to the user community to get their specific feedback. These details will help to create a new standard that applies directly to the needs of the community that is using the standard.

How much work has already been done on Time Labels? 

A lot of work has already been done within and outside the SMPTE standards community. However, this work has mostly been performed by engineering subject matter experts. Now is the time to solidify the requirements so that a robust interchange standard can be created. Thus, we are looking for feedback from the user community.

If users want to attend one of the Time Code Summits, what homework should they do beforehand so they're prepared to contribute meaningfully to the discussion?

Actually, we would like users to come with their practical experience of what are they missing at the moment from their workflow as it concerns SMPTE Time Code — such as support for Higher Frame Rates (HFR) — as well as a view toward the future. The good news is they don’t have to study for a test or anything like that! All they have to do is just bring their enthusiasm, their SMPTE Time Code pain points, and their ideas of where they would like to go with their workflows.