Masstech Group And SGL Continue Advancing SMPTE Standard For Archival Interchange 


At IBC, Masstech Group and Software Generation Ltd (SGL) announced substantial progress towards the creation of a SMPTE standard that will allow for the interchange of material between archive management systems.


In 2006, SGL and Masstech recognized the need for a standard for archive material interchange, resulting in the formation of the V16 SMPTE committee. This SMPTE standard committee has earned wide spread industry support and has attracted a number of prestigious members, who bring experience from some of the industry’s leading broadcasting and manufacturing companies.


"Today’s broadcasters face an operational and possibly financial impact due to the fact that archive software companies sell proprietary formats and tape written by one manufacturer cannot be read by another," commented Cristian Saceanu, Director of Engineering, Masstech Group.
"SGL and Masstech, recognised this issue and we are pleased be working co-operatively with industry leading companies to develop a standard for interoperability between formats.”


"As responsible vendors we are ensuring that archived content is secure," explained Steve Atkinson, VP Americas for SGL. "We are committed to working cooperatively with all industry partners until we have ensured that broadcasters can acquire technologies from different vendors and be assured of immediate interoperability as well as long term protection of their investments."


The SMPTE V16 standard will provide a definition of an exchange format, to enable a video file written in this format would be readable by any archive management system. The format is also to be data tape drive independent.
Masstech Group and SGL have pledged their continued support for development and eventual adoption of this highly important standard. SMPTE V16 committee members from both Masstech Group and SGL will be attending IBC 2007 and are available on their respective exhibit stands for further information.
Visitors to IBC can see SGL on stand 8.131e.
(SP)