The September meeting of the Toronto section of SMPTE marked the first meeting that Fred Benedikt acted in his new role as section chair. The outgoing and new executive was introduced.

Newly elected board members include Randy Conrod of Leitch Technologies, Bruce Cowan of Citytv, Mike Demming of Sony of Canada, David Hunter of Baton/CTV, Roger Keay of Rogers Communications, Tony Meerakker of Magnetic North and David Plant of Silicon Graphics.

Carolyn Kinzie has also joined the board as SMPTE student chapter advisor.

Continuing with the board will be Tom Allwood of deluxe toronto, who will assume the position of secretary/treasurer, Paul Thomas of DAVE, Reid Robertson of Panasonic Broadcast, Harvey Rogers of Alliance Broadcasting, Bruce Wiseman of Imagineering and Brad Fortner of Ryerson Polytechnic University.

Loreto Leombruni of Kodak Canada and Mark Ritchie of Heritage Resources Associates will rejoin the board in special advisor roles as will Walter Zessner as membership chair.

Also recognized were those who served with the section over the past few years. They included Michael Martin of Comlink Systems, Chris Bell of TMN Networks, Gord Harris of Imax Corporation, John Quanz of Sony and Diane Cappelletto of Kodak.

Ed Holmes of the Global Television Network, who just completed serving as Toronto section chair, will remain on the board as past chair. David Corley of DSC Laboratories and Fung Lam of Sony also sit on the Toronto board.

A special ceremony took place at the beginning of the meeting recognizing the contributions of both the SMPTE members and sponsors who took part in organizing and running the series of ‘SMPTE Toronto Experiences.’

Alliance’s Rogers, who championed the concept, recently stepped down as Experience chair. Rogers along with Cappelletto organized eight Experiences over a six-year period. Topics of the Experience series included The Post Experience, The Television Experience, The Movie Experience and The Non-Linear High Definition Experience.

Section members recognized for their efforts with individualized glass plaques included Cappelletto, Fortner, Ritchie and Rogers. Also recognized were Linda Grubb of Immad, John Howells of Sony, Jim Morrison of Imagineering and Michael Quast of Alliance Broadcasting.

Sponsors receiving glass plaques in recognition of their ongoing support of the various SMPTE Experiences included deluxe, IBM, Kodak, Panasonic and Sony.