According to reports in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) have announced a partnership with the intent of merging within a year.
Wendy Aylsworth, president of SMPTE, announced the alliance at the organization’s Entertainment in the Internet Age conference on the campus of Stanford University.
Under a new agreement, the SMPTE will provide administrative support for the Hollywood Post Alliance as the two organizations plan further consolidation of resources. According to reports, the boards of both organizations have endorsed a roadmap that will lead to an eventual combination in which the HPA will become consolidated within SMPTE as a separate affiliate organization.
Aylsworth told Variety, “There are some individual members and companies that are in both organizations, but they have different memberships. The HPA is more connected to non-technical creatives and the arts and crafts surrounding the industry, and SMPTE has more of the engineering and technical side. So we think they’re very complementary that way.”
In November, the HPA will host its 9th Annual HPA awards at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The organization also produces the popular HPA Tech Retreat in Palm Springs, Calif. every year.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016, SMPTE is a global standards-setting body for the film and television industry with more than 6,000 members.
