Fast Forward Video Launches JPEG2000 Alliance

Fast Forward Video (FFV) has announced the launch of the JPEG2000 Alliance, a consortium of broadcast industry leaders dedicated to ensuring that JPEG2000 continues to develop into a leading compression standard.
As the founding member and driving force behind the JPEG2000 Alliance, FFV will facilitate a kickoff session at IBC 2009 on September 11, between 11:15 to 12:45 in Room L of the Forum Centre.
Hal J. Reisiger, President and CEO of FFV, said: "As a company, FFV has always differentiated itself on image quality, and the JPEG2000 codec's wavelet-based, mathematically lossless compression is by far the best and most cost-effective solution for delivering superb video quality. That's why we have embraced the standard in our own solutions."
In addition to FFV, charter members of the JPEG2000 Alliance include 360 Systems, Analog Devices, Barco, Digital Rapids, Doremi Labs, the Fraunhofer Institute, Front Porch Digital, intoPIX, Media Links, Media Matters, and Miranda Technologies. In addition to developing their own JPEG2000 technologies and products, these companies will collaborate to ensure widespread acceptance, deployment and support of the compression standard for the benefit of the media and video industries. Activities will be centered on educating and creating awareness about the benefits of JPEG2000, promoting interoperability between standards and system devices, and promoting the development of tools by members and industry peers.
Reisiger said: "For instance, our digital video recorders are the first to provide direct importing of JPEG2000 files into popular nonlinear editing systems without time-consuming and quality-compromised transcoding. This is the type of innovation that we are hoping to encourage throughout the industry with the creation of the JPEG2000 Alliance."
Broadcast engineers, solutions developers and all other interested parties are encouraged to attend the JPEG2000 Alliance meeting on September 11. The hour-and-a-half meeting will feature a presentation of the topic of "Getting Better Broadcast Picture Quality With JPEG2000" and will include case studies and a Q&A session. Reisiger said: "We'd like to encourage attendance by anyone who is interested in learning about what differentiates JPEG2000 for superior broadcast picture quality and why they should consider it for their own applications or solutions."
Further information is available at: www.ffv.com.
(KMcA/GK)