• Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • Media Info
    • Terms & Conditions for Advertisers
    • Mechanical Data

Broadband TV News

Independent. Since 2003

  • Home
  • News Line
    • Central & East Europe
    • People
  • TV
    • On Demand/VOD
    • IPTV
    • Cable
    • Satellite
    • Terrestrial
    • Distribution
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Columns
    • Chris Dziadul
    • Julian Clover
    • Robert Briel
  • Events
    • Events Diary
    • BTN Events
    • Events Coverage
    • Submit the details of your event
  • Features
  • Resources
    • White Papers

SMPTE partners with IRT for IMF interoperability plugfest

May 22, 2018 08.54 Europe/London By Robert Briel

SMPTE is collaborating with the Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) to conduct a face-to-face Interoperable Master Format (IMF) plugfest that tests the ability of vendors to create and play interoperable IMF packages.

IRT is the research institute of the public broadcasters of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Scheduled for May 29 at the IRT in Munich, the event will be held as a meeting of the SMPTE Media Packaging and Interchange Technology Committee (TC-35PM) Plugfest Drafting Group. A second face-to-face IMF plugfest, also organised by SMPTE, will take place 18-19 October in the Los Angeles area. To facilitate broad industry participation, SMPTE has scheduled the event before the SMPTE 2018 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition (SMPTE 2018), which will be held 22-25 October at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles.

While SMPTE has organised several IMF plugfests in recent years, and various industry groups have organised their own IMF plugfests, this event will be the first collaborative IMF plugfest. The SMPTE-IRT plugfest also will be significant in that it will bring together a wide variety of international content providers, distributors, broadcasters, and vendors.

“As a robust standard for the interchange of movie and broadcast content, IMF is being taken seriously by broadcasters, content providers, and distributors as a format for file-based distribution and exchange,” said SMPTE Director of Standards Development Thomas Bause Mason.

“While IMF has clearly demonstrated its value as a format for the mastering and distribution of content between business entities, further testing is critical to the format’s broad adoption by the broadcast community and to its future success as an industry standard. The participation of the IRT — and the consortium of broadcasters behind the institute — indicates the global industry’s embrace of IMF as a flexible yet stable framework for the interchange of file-based content, and we’re pleased to be working with the institute to move IMF forward.”

First standardised by SMPTE in 2013, IMF provides the media and entertainment industry with one interchangeable master format with a defined structure for the distribution of content between businesses around the world. Based on the SMPTE MXF standards suite, the format specifies how video, audio, and data essence — plus dynamic metadata — can be wrapped in MXF and synchronised using an XML-based composition playlist (CPL) to create a media program, such as a movie or a television episode, in multiple versions and languages. In turn, the IMF can be fed into a transcoder to create a wide variety of deliverables. In April of this year, the UK-based Digital Production Partnership (DPP) proposed an IMF profile as part of its delivery specification for broadcast and online.

On the picture Rico Zimmermann, IRT Project Engineer

During the SMPTE-IRT plugfest, IMF packages will be created by multiple vendors’ devices using agreed-upon test vectors and supplied source material spanning several IMF applications. A package created by one specific device will be tested by all other participating devices to verify whether or not the packages can be processed correctly and produce the same results. In the process, issues will be noted and solutions proposed that can be used to inform IMF users, as well as clarify or update the existing SMPTE standards.

Ahead of the SMPTE-IRT plugfest, a “virtual plugfest” will be conducted to allow vendors the opportunity to work with the source material ahead of time in their labs. More than 16 organisations have registered to participate in the face-to-face plugfest in Munich. SMPTE-IRT Plugfest results will be anonymised before being shared with SMPTE TC-35PM members. Individual results of a participant may be provided to IRT members at the sole discretion of each participant.

Brian Vessa of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is the SMPTE IMF Plugfest committee chair, with David Deelo, also of SPE, as co-chair. During the Munich event, SMPTE Standards Vice President Bruce Devlin, TC-35PM Chair Pierre Lemieux, and other SMPTE subject matter experts will discuss the nature of IMF and the format’s relevance to industry workflows and business models.

“Both the IRT and SMPTE have worked to grow IMF as a format and to sponsor plugfests that both inform document updates and empower industry users to build equipment that can create, play, and transcode IMF,” said IRT Project Engineer Rico Zimmermann.

“Together, we are continuing the important tradition of format testing and refinement. With the SMPTE-IRT plugfest in Munich later this month, we’re providing European broadcasters with a convenient opportunity to take part in this vital process.”

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Newsline Tagged With: IMF, IRT, plugfest, Rico Zimmermann, SMPTE, Thomas Bause Mason. Edited: 22 May 2018 08:54

Avatar photo

About Robert Briel

Arnhem-based Robert covers the Benelux, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as IPTV, web TV, connected TV and OTT. Email Robert at rbriel@broadbandtvnews.com.

Latest News

  • ServusTV to close German TV channel
  • Chris Licht to leave CNN
  • Wolfgang Metze named MD Private Customers at Telekom
  • WBD sees significant engagement in first two weeks of Max
  • NEM Dubrovnik keynotes have their say

Free Ebook

Whitepaper: Why Wi-Fi 6 is Key for ISP Success

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E client devices are entering the home in an unprecedented way, surpassing 50% market share since their introduction in 2019 (compared to four years for Wi-Fi 5). … [Download the eBook...]

Q & A

Q & A: MainStreaming CEO Antonio G. Corrado

Broadband TV News sits down with MainStreaming’s CEO, Antonio G. Corrado to talk, streaming, latency, and ANGA COM.

Broadband TV News

  • Subscribe
  • About us
  • Contacts
  • Logos & Pictures
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Advertising

  • Media Info
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Mechanical Data
  • Video Services

News

  • Latest
  • Central & East Europe
  • TV
  • Tech
  • Streaming
  • Cable
  • Satellite
  • Terrestrial
  • IPTV
  • Business
  • People

Events

  • Events Diary
  • BTN Events
  • Submit the details of your event
  • Media Meet & Greet

Broadband TV News

PO Box 499
Cambridge
United Kingdom
CB1 0AH
news@broadbandtvnews.com

Connect with Us

 

Copyright © 2023 Broadband TV News LLP · Log in

 

Loading Comments...