HPA Tech Retreat UK has announced the TR-X and Supersession Programmes:

The "TR-X: The Reality of Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Realities" will take place on Tuesday, 11 July and require separate registration. Focusing on the curiosity, hope, hype and promise surrounding Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), this session aims to address the realities associated with these platforms. During the very timely TR-X session, learned experts will explain the complexities of VR, AR and MR. Attendees will learn how and why the brain responds to VR, including the psychological and physical responses. A planned case study, based on a well-known feature related VR experience, will explore real world application of the VR/AR/MR technologies. Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear experts in the field share a study about the missing elements that are needed to make VR work for real!

The "Supersession: The Format Explosion" will take place on Wednesday, 12 July, and is split into five sections with different speakers and topics. The first session will be "The Versioning Explosion", during which Eric Pearson, of Pixar Animation Studios, will discuss the detailed, collaborative work that goes into versioning their iconic movies. Exploring the creative decisions about what to version, the subtle nuances of tailoring each movie to the culture and customs of local territories, and the technical hurdles facing the industry’s most challenging version pipeline, this session will enlighten and enthral as we dive into Pixar's cinematic world. 

The second session will be "The Supply Chain Explosion", during which Jim Bottoms, and other industry leaders, will discuss how the huge number of formats and burgeoning data mining of content and audiences are affecting the supply chain. The third session will be "Exploding the Format: Lost in London", during which Chris Brandic, Nick Fuller and other panelists will explore the creative and technical thinking behind a live movie experience and how this was achieved in a single take, with a single camera, while racing around busy central London – streamed live to cinemas worldwide. 

The last session "Exploding the Archive", will feature Adrian Bull who will discuss how the implementation of digital cinema has resulted in a history of films being unavailable to theatres unless converted to a digital cinema package (DCP) format; and how digital restoration makes films more accessible while offering the opportunity to enhance content using modern display technologies. Panellists will consider the benefits of restoration, whether this constitutes enhancement or ruins the authenticity of a film, monetisation of the archive, whether now is the right time to be restoring films and many more questions.