Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

Vice-Presidency in January, 1950. It will be noted from this that while the Engineering Committees do determine appropriate test methods, and sometimes set limits characteristic of good performance, the Society is never permitted to become involved in the application of these to the comparative rating of competitive merchandise. As has been implied, a major activity of the Engineering Committees is the determination of proposals to be recommended as American Standards. An American Standard can only be validated by the American Standards Association, according to a procedure which will be described later; but a great deal of spadework is required to reconcile competitive viewpoints and to phrase a proposal combining the resultant area of agreement with the technical accuracy necessary to a useful standard. In motion picture and related television fields, the spadework for a particular standard is done by one of the Engineering Committees of the SMPTE. This arrangement is a relatively recent one, and much simpler than before, as will be explained later. Also, since SMPTE as sponsor of ASA Sectional Committee PH22 is responsible for the general organization and work program of this Committee, the Engineering Vice-President is able to cooperate effectively within the ASA toward this same goal of a simplified Committee organization of maximum efficiency. Particularly with the expansion of the Society's interests into related fields of television, possibilities for conflict developed between the agenda of SMPTE Engineering Committees and those of other technical societies. This soon led to the formation of a steering committee, which now bears the impressive title "Joint Committee for Inter-Society Coordination," and is composed of two delegates each from IRE, RTMA, SMPTE and most recently NARTB. The several committees of SMPTE in television fields have been set up with the knowledge and guidance of this group, and their agenda coordinated with those of potentially conflicting Committees of the other Societies represented. Here too an unnecessary burden was formerly placed upon many industries asked to contribute the time and expenses of technical employees to the Committees of several societies simultaneously engaged in solving what seem to be the same problems. It is the purpose of the JCIC Committee to eliminate such waste, at least among the member Societies. The Chairmanship of this group rotates among the eight members on an annual basis, each Society being represented in turn. Mr. Axel Jensen started things off last year as the IRE representative, while the writer is serving for SMPTE during 1952. In the following paragraphs the origin and the work of each of the Society's Engineering Committees will be described in turn. From this it will be apparent that much besides American Standards proposals occupies these groups, and it is hoped that some useful measure of the important services rendered to the Society and to industry will be brought out. Color This Committee has been continuously active since its creation in 1929, and is thus one of the oldest committees of the Society. Dr. Herman H. Duerr of Ansco has just concluded two very capable terms as chairman, and has now been succeeded in this post by Dr. J. P. Weiss of Du Pont. The sixteen members of the Committee are chosen to represent the film and equipment manufacturers, as well as the studio users of color film. Although no American Standards have been needed recently in this field, the Committee has been actively concerned with such matters as a color process symposium, color sensitometry, color film sound 162 September 1952 Journal of the SMPTE Vol. 59