M+E Daily

HITS Spring to Cover All Corners of Innovation

The May 23 Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) at the Culver Theater in Los Angeles will feature more than 30 presentations, covering everything from virtual production workflows to AI-assisted dubbing.

Here’s a look at what attendees can expect:

• The opening keynote comes from Jonathan Lee, head of media engineering and innovation for Amazon Studios. In “Inside the Innovation Lab” attendees will learn and witness what Amazon Studios is making available to production teams. The pace at which technology innovations are impacting the creation of content is rapid and accelerating. These innovations are revolutionary in their impact on workflows. They will enable a speed-to-market advantage which will enable teams to react faster to customer demand and retain highly sought-after creative talent.

• Then in the first panel of the day, “Virtual Production: The Next-Level,” five virtual production experts with Amazon Studios will dive into everything from game engines and real-time applications to LED screens and more.

They’ll discuss how emerging technologies are changing the way we envision, produce, and distribute the stories we want to tell and how it will impact audiences today and in the future. Ken Nakada, head of virtual productions operations, moderates the panel with Bobby Evans, virtual production executive; Manny Francisco, virtual production engineering supervisor; Heidi Hathaway, virtual production stage coordinator; Dan Smiczek, virtual production supervisor; and James Thomas, virtual production executive.

Beginning at 11 a.m., attendees will have four tracks of sessions to choose from:

TRACK 1

• Signiant kicks things off with Rick Capstraw, chief growth officer, who’ll share how his company is uniquely positioned to help with automating workflows, in the session “Bringing Platform Power to Automation Workflows.” With a multi-tenant SaaS platform that is already operating at scale, Signiant can deliver ecosystem leverage via reusable, productised workflow building blocks. Easily connectable with modern APIs, these next-generation media process automation modules will provide optionality, scalability, short time to value (TTV), and high resiliency and availability.

• David Swan, manager of sales engineering for MicroStrategy, will guide attendees through what it takes to build a modern studio today. The presentation — “MicroStrategy One: Guide to a Modern Studio” — will walk attendees through the benefits of the platform, including sleek interfaces, interactive content, and action-oriented workflows. From A-Z, Swan will cover what products and features are included to take your studio to the next level.

• The Convergent Risks-led panel “Automating the Way to Better Security Operations” will discuss different perspectives about the measures needed to secure automated environments. Junaid Banatwala, CTO at Prime Focus Technologies; David Leopold, director of strategic development for media and entertainment at LucidLink; Keith Ritlop, VP of enterprise and production technology at NBCUniversal; and Jason Shea, senior director of app and cloud security for Convergent Risks will round out the panel.

TRACK 2

• Brajesh Jha, SVP and global head of media, publishing and entertainment for Genpact will offer insights into how people, process, and data-related decisions can help drive an organisation toward peak efficiency. His session — “Transforming Efficiency for Media and Cable Companies” — examines how the economic uncertainties this year, combined with reducing consumer appetite for streaming bundles, has weighed heavily on media and cable companies. Companies are no longer willing to spend their way to increasing the consumer base. Profitability is now in the spotlight and strategies related to overall cost containment are being debated openly.

• “Web 3.0’s Inevitability: It’s Not ‘If’ but ‘When’” features Seth Shapiro, founder and managing partner of Digital Asset Advisors and chairman of the NAB Web 3 Advisory Council. He’ll provide a high-level overview with data that supports the trillion-dollar opportunity where AI, the metaverse, and blockchain integrate to reshape our current economic and cultural landscape.

• Next, Shapiro will be joined on stage by Aamir Lakhani, senior FortiGuard staff SE with Fortinet, as they tackle “Opportunity & Risk: Exploring the Two Sides of Web 3.0.” Business and technology Innovators are starting to explore the opportunities that Web 3.0 brings, including how it can change entertainment types and experiences, enable completely new customer experiences and relationships, and even enable products to be sold while also allowing the creator to securely get compensated each time there is a transaction.

TRACK 3

• Ankur Jain, SVP of sales for Prime Focus Technologies, will present “Revolutionizing Social Media for Revenue Generation with the Power of AI.” Social media is no longer used for promotional purposes alone; it is fast becoming a key revenue generator for enterprises. This session will centre on how you can unlock the full potential of AI to revolutionise content creation, audience engagement, and revenue generation.

• Jeanette Kadow, media and entertainment regional sales director for Veritone, will walk attendees through idea on how modern AI gives media organisations the ability to accomplish this by supercharging content production, in the presentation “Boosting Your Content Capabilities (and Your Bottom Line) with AI.” Kadow’s presentation will help you learn how AI is unlocking more content, more revenue and greater efficiency than ever before for leading media and entertainment organisations around the world.

• AppTek’s Kyle Maddock, SVP of sales and marketing, and Dr. Volker Steinbiss, managing director, will offer an update on the state of automatic dubbing. The session — “Automatic Dubbing for Hollywood and Beyond” — will cover how AppTek is at the forefront of AI and machine learning in the dubbing arena, and will share how the technology is evolving and what can we expect now, and in the next few years.

TRACK 4

• First up is the panel “Infrastructure Transformation: You’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat” featuring a collection of experts discussing the way overall technology and data centre infrastructure is evolving (and required) to enable the entire global supply chain of content creation and distribution. Sean Tajkowski, technical director of the Media and Entertainment Data Center Alliance (MEDCA) will moderate the panel with Manny Aguilar, business development executive with Iron Mountain; Nader Balady, account executive with GPL Technologies; Chrissy Olsen, senior manager of strategic accounts for Wesco; and Derek Powell, director for Altman Solon.

• Ken Bamberg, sales director for Coresite, is set to deliver the presentation “Transforming Collaboration through Data Centers.” Broadcast, media and entertainment is a highly collaborative, content-centric industry. CoreSite, with 28 highly connected data centres in 10 key markets and a digital ecosystem of 775-plus network, cloud and IT service providers, is ideally positioned to foster collaboration throughout the content journey, optimise monetisation and deliver the infrastructure solutions organisations require to be future-ready.

• Dave Liu, head of media and entertainment consulting in North America for EPAM, will detail just how endless the possibilities of AI in the content supply chain are, in the session “The Future of AI in the Content Supply Chain.” From ideation and production all the way to content management, distribution, and customer experience, AI is making waves in how the supply chain operates.

Liu will delve into various areas where generative AI can enhance the creative process, operations and even how MetaHumans can offer immersive experiences that captivate audiences and reduce traditional support costs. But beware: all revolutionary technologies have their challenges.

• Derek Powell, director of Altman Solon, presents “How AVoIP Is Giving Viewers the Best Seat in the House.” How can broadcasters take a long term, strategic view toward investments, talent, and operational structures to reap the full value of AVoIP? Join this session to explore trends and insights from their recent AVoIP report.

Following a networking luncheon, attendees can choose from several tracks, featuring the Entertainment ID Registry’s (EIDR) Annual Participant Meeting, a selection of Women in Technology Hollywood (WiTH) sessions, and presentations centred around new innovations in the industry.

TRACK 1

• “Perfect VAD Asset Workflow (and Why Nobody is Doing That)”
• “The Reality of Virtual Production”
• “The Give and Take of Innovation and Security”
• “Embracing Disruption: Innovating through Economic Turbulence for M+E”
• “Transforming an Industry: MovieLabs 2030 Vision”

TRACK 2

• “EIDR APM – Opening Remarks”
• “Leveraging EIDR for Title and Version Strategy”
• “KEYNOTE: Over the Horizon – The Future of Entertainment Discovery”
• “EIDR Technology: Now and Coming Soon”
• “EIDR APM: Closing Remarks and Ask Me Anything”

TRACK 3

• “WiTH KEYNOTE: Powering Scalability and Innovation through Governance”
• “Film Forward: Transforming Workforce Training with Award-Winning Films”
• “Challenging Age Stereotypes: Creating Synergy and Building Stronger Teams”
• “Generative AI: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly”
• “Workflow on Espresso: AI and Smart Content’s Impact on M+E Workflow”

• Before the networking reception, Ryan Riggs, COO of creative production firm King Studio, closes the day with a keynote presentation. He will share an inside look into the operations behind a global influencer, how they created a global audience with their followers, and how their love of movie-making magic has helped drive their growth in a short amount of time, in the closing keynote “When Stars Collide (What Hollywood Can Learn From 120 Million-Plus Followers and Billions of Views!”

The annual Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) Spring event is the industry’s largest gathering of media and entertainment’s CIOs and top technology minds, bringing together the IT, data, and security communities of the industry.

Held as a “hybrid” in-person and virtual event, those not in Los Angeles can attend via Zoom or the MESAverse, MESA’s virtual work environment for its members and communities to watch live presentations, network, and step on the stage to share opinions.

The MESAverse uses ICVR’s RendezVu, a proprietary, interactive 3D-world application that will allow for hybrid live and virtual events and regular day-to-day interactions that go far beyond video conferencing.

The Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit event is produced by MESA in association with the Hollywood IT Society (HITS) and presented by Amazon Studios Technology, with sponsorship by Fortinet, Genpact, Prime Focus Technologies, Signiant, Softtek, Convergent, Gracenote, Altman Solon, AppTek, Ascendion, Coresite, EPAM, MicroStrategy, Veritone, CDSA, EIDR and PDG Consulting.

To register for the event, click here.

To find out more about upcoming MESA events or to get involved as a sponsor please contact [email protected].