A Joint Task Force on File Formats and Media Interoperability has been launched, sponsored by the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers (IABM), American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), and Association of National Advertisers (ANA). The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is participating as an observer.
The Task Force aims to create greater efficiencies and cost savings for exchange of file-based content, and brings together manufacturers, broadcasters, advertisers, ad agencies, and industry organisations serving the professional media market.
The group’s initial focus will be to gather and analyse requirements for a machine-generated and readable file interchange and delivery specification, including standardised and common structured metadata, for the professional media industry. Use case examples include promo, spot and programme delivery from a provider to a broadcaster.
“The task force represents a diverse group of sponsor organisations with an extensive global reach, and together we will gather and analyse information not only about user requirements, but also about current standards and specifications,” said Clyde Smith, senior vice president of new technology, Fox Network and NABA technical committee member. “With this information we can rationalise the complexity of the current media landscape and make useful process and technology recommendations that improve workflow interoperability while reducing the attendant costs of file-based operations.”
The task force has published a survey designed to collect data on user requirements. Other activities will include the collection of data on existing products for transcode, transform, and file QC, and their ability to be driven by data from UML, XML, API, script, and other machine-to-machine communication mechanisms.
