TRACK 1: METAVERSE
TRACK 2: CLOUD + ARCHITECTURE
TRACK 3: PRODUCTION + WORKFLOW
TRACK 4: DATA + ANALYTICS
TRACK 5: AUDIENCE + INSIGHTS
TRACK 6: STANDARDS + AUTOMATION
TRACK 1: METAVERSE
11:15 – 11:45 a.m.
Building a Metaverse Strategy for Media and Entertainment Brands
Even as leading technology brands have started the work of creating their own metaverses, one thing is clear — media, publishing and entertainment companies will have a unique role to play in the evolution of these seamless, immersive online spaces. What would that role look like? And how can media and entertainment companies prepare themselves to tap into new growth opportunities in the metaverse? Join us for deep insights on the possibilities of the metaverse and the building blocks enterprises need to take advantage of them. And see how some early movers are leading the way.
Brajesh Jha, Senior Vice President & Global Head of Media, Publishing & Entertainment, Genpact
11:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
How the Metaverse is Setting the Stage to Transform CX
The advent of the metaverse means a new realm for customer experience (CX). As experiences in media and entertainment change shape, so will customer relationships. We explore how the metaverse will change customer relationships and customer support.
Ryan Lowe, Senior Manager Enterprise Sales, Zendesk
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.
Creating Impact-Driven Metaverse Experiences
For the foreseeable future, enterprises will be expected to make significant investments in building and operating Metaverses, either for their entire organization or for specific areas of business. Metaverses represent the convergence of physical and digital lives. These include digital-twin, fully interactive environments, as well as game-inspired activities that create engaging and immersive experiences. Softtek’s Digital eXtended Reality (XR) services unit employs Distributed Agile and Lean methodologies to identify productive applications for customer-defined Metaverses, enabled by proven processes designed to deploy enterprise-grade immersive solutions. This breakout session will provide demonstrations of Metaverse implementations, along with the application of Agile processes to develop, test, and deploy immersive content to environments managed on-prem or in the cloud.
Douglas Fajardo, Chief Executive Officer, & Chief Experience Officer, Xennial/Softtek
Diana Rodriguez, Director of Enterprise Lean-Agile CoE, Softtek
TRACK 2: CLOUD + ARCHITECTURE
11:15 – 11:45 a.m.
Analyze Your Move to the Cloud, It’s Still an On-Prem Play
With studios and production houses moving assertively towards cloud-based workflows, producers come to realize the true cost of doing business in the cloud: dollars and latency. Challenges such as public versus private clouds, and how best to support low-latency, high-throughput processes have already been addressed. The solution: Edge Data / Cloud Hybrids. Be it virtual or traditional, production already happens within Edge Data Centers. DIT Carts are micro data centers, supporting many processes such as Realtime Visual Effects, Video Assist and Collaboration, and Camera to the Cloud workflows. This workflow continues to depend on low-latency, ever-increasing processing demands, prior to any data reaching a public cloud provider. As a result, on-prem infrastructure gains more importance than ever, not less. This session discusses the functionality of on-premises infrastructure, the role and responsibility facilities have in knowing when to get their clients data to the cloud or on to a local private cloud. The ecosphere of virtual production doesn’t work in a legacy cloud and we’ll describe the value of a hybrid Edge Data/Hyperscale Data Center solution, the two working in concert together, each doing what they do best in support of the process.
Moderator: Sean Tajkowski, Technical Director, MEDCA
Panelists:
Jason Bautista, Solutions Architect, Enterprise Strategy & Technology, CommScope
Tony Grayson, General Manager, Quantum, Compass Datacenters
11:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
How AI and Other Advanced Computing Integrate into Production
Corporations are making considerable investments in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. How well these systems will work and integrate within business units across the organization and also with service provider partners begins with the design and installation of proper data center infrastructure, meeting data industry standards. Workflows in the age of UHD/4K require more connectivity and throughput. Your facility’s design, on-prem storage/compute and connectivity all lead directly to your ability to leverage AI/ML across your business. This session discusses the similarities that a remote or virtual production facility has with Multi-Tenant Data Centers and Edge Data Centers. When it comes to high speed, low latency connectivity, the design and planning approach, can take inspiration from these concepts and this is fast becoming a foundational requirement for any business plan that addresses growth or expansion in our industry.
Jason Bautista, Solutions Architect, Enterprise Strategy & Technology, CommScope
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.
Moving Hollywood to the Cloud: A Packing List
Get this packing list to make your transition to the cloud stays secure. What should your studio vendors prepare for? What resources will they need to keep your content secure? Join Richey May in this session to help your vendors’ move to the cloud safe and effective.
Alvin Tugume, Cybersecurity Engineer, Richey May
TRACK 3: PRODUCTION + WORKFLOW
11:15 – 11:45 a.m.
Better Data Management to Keep Virtual Productions on Time & on Budget
Virtual productions rely heavily on 3D assets. When you are shooting in a volume, the assets being rendered in real-time need to be right! The process of getting those assets pixel perfect starts early, and involves many versions, artists, and even different organizations. Come learn how the Perforce Versioning & Collaboration Suite can not only help in the early stages of a virtual production but also when you are shooting in a volume, keeping your production on track and on budget.
Katie Cole, Gaming Evangelist & Director, Product Marketing for Helix Core, Perforce
Jase Lindgren, VFX Specialist & Solutions Engineer, Perforce Helix Core
11:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
Post Production Workflow in 2022: Hybrid Teams and Management
This session will discuss the landscape for creative video editing and finishing workflow products currently used to build or upgrade post production workflows in 2022. We’ll cover hot topics like remote collaboration, cloud hybrid workflows, the future of editorial, shared storage, review & approval systems, and data security. This will be essential learning for any heads of post production, post production engineers, or managers of video facilities. Our goal is to help your team make better decisions while researching the equipment, the workflow, and the deployment of the right technology in your production!
Jeff Sengpiehl, Chief Technologist, Key Code Media
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.
On-Set Virtual Production and Data Infrastructure
No matter how much preparation, once on set, adjustments within the virtual environment imagery will likely be requested. Making artistic changes during active production is an ‘all hands’ effort. Artists across multiple vendors, operating from disparate locations and LED stage technicians delivering high resolution digital assets and environments to a volumetric stage, need no-nonsense inter-connectivity. Getting updates to the stage as soon as possible saves money and maintains creative flow. This exchange and more (camera to cloud) are supported by a facility’s in-house data center infrastructure, the fundamental layer of any data-centric workflow. The digital imagery displays and reacts in real-time on a VP set, integrating live action photography with in-camera visual effects (ICVFX). Soon Camera to Cloud. The high computing demands of the process are only as capable and reliable as the data center infrastructure that supports them. This session discsusses how in-house data center infrastructure helps producers and creatives optimize workflow efficiencies to maximize on-set virtual production outcomes.
Moderator: Eric Rigney, Executive Vice President, MEDCA
Panelists:
Edward Churchward, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer, Arch Platform Technologies
Jase Lindgren, VFX Specialist & Solutions Engineer, Perforce Helix Core
Hardie Tankersly, Vice President of Visualization Products & Marketing, Silverdraft
Tom Thudiyanplackal, Virtual Production Producer, Senior M&E Executive
TRACK 4: DATA + ANALYTICS
11:15 – 11:45 a.m.
Navigating Data with the Right Analytics Solutions
The data analytics marketplace can at times look like an obstacle course. With so many vendors claiming to have the right tool for nearly every problem—it can get very confusing very fast. So how can you choose the right option without worrying that you’ve just spent a ton of time and money on a solution that won’t get the job done?
Loc Nguyen, Vice President, Sales Engineering, MicroStrategy
11:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
Do Creatives Dream in the Cloud…or in a Cave?
We’ve solved the problem of moving massive amounts of data in the cloud but what about ideas? Speed to market will determine who wins and who loses in today’s content wars. Yet, the front end of the media supply chain is still mired in manual processes, stuck in physical spaces, and weighed down by fragmented tools with inconsistent metadata and security controls. Join this session to learn how six of the world’s largest studios harness global talent and hybrid teams to collaborate in the cloud, accelerate IP development, and unlock seamless cross-department ideation.
Jason Porath, Director of Strategic Accounts, Bluescape
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.
The Challenges of Getting Your Solution Security Approved
If you’re spending too much time answering security questionnaires in RFPs and wondering if there’s an easier way – in this session Chris Johnson, CEO of Convergent Risks, will talk through the challenges vendors face and the different security assessment modules that you can undergo to provide your customers with assurance of your security posture. These include the new cloud and application security assessment module, personal data privacy compliance, threat assessment testing, ISO and SOC2 readiness.
Chris Johnson, Chief Executive Officer & President, Convergent Risks
Janice Pearson, Senior Vice President, Sales & Strategy, XL8.ai
TRACK 5: AUDIENCE + INSIGHTS
11:15 – 11:45 a.m.
No Passports Needed: Content is Traveling Across Borders to Meet Audience Demand
As global demand for content and programming increases, a shift in what content resonates with viewers in a given country is changing. A recent Whip Media study surfaced that European audiences across France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK, are consuming less U.S. originating content – a downturn of 10%. Though the U.S. continues to be the dominant content supplier to Europe, competition for audiences is encouraging platforms to seek out compelling content, from a greater diversity of sources. A shift in what audiences want to watch is making way for new content to be discovered. For studios and distributors, enhancing the value of titles globally is becoming increasingly more important. This session will share emerging trends around the global distribution of local titles, content that’s attracting viewers’ attention, and what’s needed to make better content planning and strategy decisions to maximize revenue.
Alisa Joseph, Senior Vice President Business Strategy & Development, Whip Media
11:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
Winning the Battle for Consumer and Advertiser Attention with Data + AI
Every content company — and broadcasters and studios in particular — is in a fierce battle for audience attention for their direct to consumer businesses and their advertising ecosystem is under more pressure than ever before to drive performance based outcomes. The need to personalize the consumer experience is paramount to keeping audiences engaged and driving effective ad targeting solutions. Predictive analytics and real-time data science use cases can help media and entertainment companies increase engagement, reduce churn and maximize customer lifetime value. While there is tremendous opportunity around data and AI, many media organizations are struggling to fully capture this opportunity and move from experiments to production use cases. Join us as we discuss best practices and real-world machine learning use cases in the broadcasting and studio space as industry leaders move aggressively to personalize, monetize and drive agility around the consumer and advertiser experience.
Steve Sobel, Global Head – Communications, Media & Entertainment GTM, Databricks
12:10 – 12:40 p.m.
Content Moderation & Machine Learning – How AWS Algorithms Can Automate Solution to a Growing Problem
The phrase “every company is a media company” is not just an opinion; it’s a fact. Every individual and company is creating more and more content and distributing that content faster than ever. This increase in content creation and distribution makes it harder for human moderators to ensure that the content generated meets your company’s guidelines and is appropriate for your users. This session will cover how AWS machine learning algorithms can help automate content moderation to ensure that obscenities are detected at a fraction of the cost.
Joaquin Lippincott, Chief Executive Officer, Metal Toad
TRACK 6: STANDARDS + AUTOMATION
11:15 – 11:45 a.m.
How Standards Lead to Sustainable Growth
All for profit organizations are measured upon their growth year over year, but at some point sustainable growth can feel elusive, especially when you’re talking about massive scale, such as that in the entertainment industry. In this session, we connect the dots between sustainable growth and standards.
Hollie Choi, Executive Director, EIDR
11:50 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.
LMT – Let’s Move Together!
The LMT is moving fast – catch up with the latest. More languages added to serve M&E and beyond, hybrid languages, streamlined descriptions, and a glimpse into the future with the SMPTE register and validator. We’ll also kick off our new site! It’s been two years since we’ve been together in person; come see what all the fuss is about. And bring your questions!
Yonah Levenson, Founder & Co-Chair, Language Metadata Table (LMT) Working Group, MESA
Meg Morrissey, Co-Chair, Language Metadata Table (LMT) Working Group, MESA
