A new report from the DPP looking at trends in interoperability, from formal standards to open source, has found that the demand within the global media industry has never been greater.
According to The Truth About Standards, the industry recognises the need for standards, and “craves the confidence” that can be inspired by well-defined standards with broad backing.
However, the industry is frustrated by processes that are often seen as “slow, bloated, and resource intensive”, states the report.
The report summarises the results from a DPP survey that gathered views from over 150 companies across the media industry to explore the realities of standards adoption.
It states that companies want standards that meet their business needs, and are as widely adopted across the industry as possible. While respondents to the DPP’s survey said they are happy to adopt standards published by recognised standards bodies, real world implementation is ultimately more important, states the report.
“The standards community has an opportunity to evolve and become more relevant than ever,” adds the report. “It must learn from the best practices of software development and open source, not blindly try to apply old processes to new domains.”
“DPP members know that interoperability is crucial to an effective global media supply chain,” said DPP CTO Rowan de Pomerai, the report author. “But they also tell us that standards processes feel frustrating, political, and slow. So we set out to discover the right balance of standardisation to meet the needs of the modern media industry.”
The full report is available for DPP members to download here.