Bill Baggelaar

Bill Baggelaar is the former Chief Technology Officer at Sony Pictures Entertainment. As a visionary senior executive in media technology, Bill sets technology strategy, leads research & development efforts, and leverages emerging technologies that shape the future of cloud-based production, post-production, and delivery of creative content.

Bill brings his extensive experience in production, visual effects, and post-production along with his work, collaborating with partners throughout the industry in developing and implementing key technologies. His work on IMF, 4K, HDR, and virtual production has been instrumental in driving the entertainment industry forward.

Bill is a highly respected, active leader in multiple industry organizations and initiatives. He is the co-chair of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Science & Technology Council and is the co-chair of the Academy’s ACES Project.  He also serves as the co-chair on the Television Academy’s Generative AI Summit. Bill is a member of SMPTE and active with the Advanced Imaging Society. In his efforts to provide a vision for the future of the entertinment industry, Bill was a co-author on the MovieLabs 2030 Vision whitepaper; “The Future of Media Creation”.

Baggelaar joined Sony Pictures in 2011, focusing his efforts on streamlining and advancing 4K HDR workflows from on-set capture through post-production. He led the studio’s transition to the file-based world of IMF (Interoperable Master Format) for UltraHD. He also headed the team at Sony Pictures to develop the world’s first 4K video service, Sony’s “4K Video Unlimited”.

Prior to 2011, while at Warner Bros, Bill held positions as the Head of Technology on several animated feature films, as well as VP of Technology, working on the tape-to-file transition and digital color-correction methods and tools to help streamline the post process for film and television.

Bill has held board seats with the Entertaiment Technology Center at USC, as well as with MovieLabs, a studio joint-venture focusing on entertainment technologies, which promotes collaboration to strengthen industry goals and helps identify emerging technological needs and solutions.