Definition: SMPTE

(Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, White Plains, NY) A professional society for motion picture and TV engineers with more than 9,000 members worldwide. It prepares standards and documentation for TV production. SMPTE time code records hours, minutes, seconds and frames on audio tape or videotape for synchronization purposes.

The Society was founded as SMPE in 1916 by inventor C. Francis Jenkins, who had invented the first motion picture projector in 1895 and held patents for an underwater camera and a panoramic aerial camera. The 'T' was added in 1950 to recognize the TV industry.