SMPTE to Develop Mastering and Packaging Standard for Entertainment Distributed over Broadband

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Project Illustrates Society's Increased Focus on New Platforms

 

Last update: 7:17 a.m. EDT Oct. 7, 2008

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Oct 07, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers ( http://smpte.org), the leading international technical society for the motion imaging industry, is forming a technology committee to standardize mastering and packaging formats for content distributed over broadband networks. Such a broadband standard could fuel fresh business models by enabling consumers to purchase entertainment from any online destination and play it back on any device.

The committee's launch highlights SMPTE's interest in addressing the challenges of delivering professional content (including movies, television programming, online programming and music) no matter the distribution platform. Broadband 23B will meet for the first time on October 27, 2008 in conjunction with the SMPTE 2008: Annual Tech Conference & Expo ( http://www.smpte2008.org) in Hollywood, CA.

"The industry needs to adopt standard content and container formats for the entire electronic distribution ecosystem," said Wendy Aylsworth, engineering vice president, SMPTE. "More media than ever is flowing to consumers outside traditional TV and cinema channels, and currently, it can only be accessed on a limited subset of services and devices because there are no interoperability standards."

Broadband 23B will create a standard that will not only benefit consumers, but will also allow producers and distributors to easily and rapidly deploy content across all broadband services. In addition, it will work toward enhancing the consumer experience by establishing procedures for uniform captions, subtitles and more. The committee's activities will include: detailing the requirements for a universal file container; deciding upon its technical specifications; examining essence formats; developing content identification procedures; and defining structural and descriptive metadata.

SMPTE welcomes the involvement of organizations working in broadband content and distribution, and representatives from interested groups should contact the society's headquarters. Participation in Broadband 23B is open to all entertainment technology professionals, particularly those in the content creation, distribution, consumer electronics, IT and retail sectors. All interested parties are welcome to attend the inaugural meeting; conference registration is not required. However, the meeting's proceedings will remain private to SMPTE, and membership in the SMPTE Standards Community is necessary for ongoing participation.

Broadband 23B will meet at 5:15 PM, at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, CA. Register at www.smpte.org/standards/meeting_schedule/.

About the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is the leading international technical society for the motion imaging industry. As an internationally recognized and accredited standards-setting body, SMPTE develops standards, recommended practices and guidelines and spearheads educational activities to advance engineering and moving imagery. Since its founding in 1916, the Society has established more than 600 standards including the physical dimensions of 35mm film and the SMPTE time code. More recently, it codified the MXF file format to support the exchange of professional AV content and crafted the Digital Cinema Standards, which paved the way for digital movie theaters. Headquartered in New York, SMPTE is comprised of engineers and other technical specialists, IT and new media professionals, filmmakers, manufacturers, educators and consultants in more than 65 countries. They are joined at SMPTE by more than 200 sponsoring corporations, principal players in content creation, production and delivery for all platforms and in entertainment hardware and software. www.smpte.org.

About SMPTE 2008: Annual Tech Conference & Expo

SMPTE 2008: Annual Tech Conference & Expo takes place October 28 -- 30, 2008 at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, CA. It is preceded by the full-day symposium, Filmmaking and Live Event Broadcast, on October 27, 2008, at the same location. Produced by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), the leading technical society for the motion imaging industry, SMPTE 2008 is created by entertainment technology professionals, for entertainment technology professionals. It features educational sessions and a hands-on show floor that highlight new and emerging media technologies of practical use to content creation, management, distribution and display professionals. Register at: ( http://smpte2008.org/register).

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Wendy Aylsworth, engineering vice president, SMPTE