CineEurope 2012: Digital Cinema Innovator Jerry Pierce Joins NATO as Technology Consultant

Jerry Pierce, former senior vp of Universal Pictures and founder/chairman of Inter-Society’s Digital Cinema Forum (ISDCF), has been named technology consultant for the National Association of Theatre Owners.

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“I look forward to helping NATO understand and navigate the changes in our industry from new laser light sources, expanded audio experiences, and new high frame rate projection technology,” he said.

Pierce was actively involved in the development and launch of digital cinema since joining the theatrical division at Universal during 2000.

He served as chairman of the digital cinema mastering group of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), where the initial industry-wide objectives where formulated; and on the management and technical committees of Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI). He also was a board member of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC (serving as chairman from 2003-2004), which hosted the digital cinema theater in Hollywood where many of today’s technical standards were first evaluated. As an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, he was part of the team that designed the Standardized Evaluation Material (StEM) movie that was widely used for digital cinema testing.

Pierce is a winner of ShoWest pioneer awards for advancing digital cinema and the recipient of Inter-Society’s 2012 Ken Mason award. He's currently a SMPTE Fellow and vp of the Hollywood Post Alliance board of directors.

Earlier in his career, he worked at Universal on the DVD format as part of the Universal/Panasonic/Warner Bros./Toshiba team. He holds a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford and worked for Stanford Research Institute.