SMPTE makes its standards catalog freely accessible

Category: Pulse
Status: discussion
Sources: SMPTE blog, discussion
Summary: SMPTE announced on 2026-06-17 that its entire standards catalog, including published standards, recommended practices, engineering guidelines, and registered disclosure documents plus future releases, is now freely available through the SMPTE Standards Library at pub.smpte.org. The thread reached the HN front page (235 points).
Why it matters: Free access to media-technology standards lowers a barrier for engineers implementing video, timecode, and broadcast interchange formats that previously sat behind paywalls.