Task Force To Improve Exchange Of File-Based Content

A Joint Task Force on File Formats and Media Interoperability has been announced today 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 Task Force aims to create greater efficiencies and cost savings for exchange of file-based content, with an initial focus on gathering and analysing requirements for a machine-generated and readable file interchange and delivery specification for the professional media industry. "We believe that, by improving the specification and exchange of professional media between organisations, we can enable new and more efficient file-based workflows," said Clyde Smith, senior vice president of new technology, Fox Network and a member of the NABA technical committee that initiated creation of the joint task force.
"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.
"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," he added.
The task force has published a survey designed to collect data on user requirements. It asks participants to create a one-sentence 'user story' by identifying the nature of their work, the specific function they seek, and the business value that would be provided by that function.
"The work of this task force is critical to eliminate costly, time-consuming steps and to adopt new automated processes in the media and entertainment supply chain. Together, the work advances, efficient operations, and interoperability create the foundation for improved audience measurement," said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA.
Other task force 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.
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