The European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Dynamic Media Facility Joint Task Force has held its inaugural meeting.
Created to address the numerous factors involved in the shift to interoperable, software-defined infrastructure underway across the media and entertainment space, the joint task force (JT-DMF) is a partnership between the EBU and the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA).
Around 110 participants, including representatives of vendors and broadcasters, joined the wide-ranging kick-off meeting, which focused both on the technical and business aspects of the transition, acknowledging the impact on technology, business models, vendor relationships and organisational culture.
There was general agreement that producers and outlets are beginning to understand that the shift to software-defined infrastructure is becoming essential, rather than simply nice-to-have, if they are to effectively respond to evolving audience behaviour, a more complex distribution landscape and the inevitable cost pressures. DMF addresses these needs while incorporating many of the values summarised by the EBU’s M.A.R.S. strategy (Multilayer, Anywhere, Resilient, Sustainable).
In what was described as a “fairly unique collaboration'” participants from both the commercial and public service broadcast sector, along with technology provider,s formed a number of working tracks aiming to align on problem statements, strategies and roadmaps.
The tracks included:
- End-to-End synchronisation model: establishing uniform time-alignment of media essence in asynchronous, distributed DMF workflows.
- Compute resource management: enabling multi-vendor hosting of media functions on shared compute nodes.
- MXL flow discovery & connection: defining an architecture for how control protocols (e.g. via NMOS) discover and connect MXL flows.
- Business-level discussion: focusing on strategic, governance and business implications of shifting to DMF.
These tracks will begin their tasks in the coming weeks, said the EBU, following a timeline to ensure the global synchronisation model is defined, resource management priorities are set, MXL flows are connected and models elaborated for business and governance.
The JT-DMF will oversee integration and alignment with relevant ongoing initiatives. Enabling the rapid addition of newly defined capabilities, the open-source MXL SDK will remain central, providing the technical underpinnings for DMF architecture.
