Key Media Industry Organizations Launch Joint Task Force on File Formats, Media Interoperability
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.–The launch of the Joint Task Force on File Formats and Media Interoperability was announced by its sponsors, 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 (4As), and Association of National Advertisers (ANA). The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is participating as an observer.
Bringing together manufacturers, broadcasters, advertisers, ad agencies, and industry organizations (standards bodies and trade associations) serving the professional media market, the Task Force has an ultimate goal to create greater efficiencies and cost savings for exchange of file-based content. The group’s initial focus will be to gather and analyze requirements for a machine-generated and readable file interchange and delivery specification–including standardized and common structured metadata–for the professional media industry. Use case examples include promo, spot, and program delivery from a provider to a broadcaster.
“We believe that, by improving the specification and exchange of professional media between organizations, we can enable new and more efficient file-based workflows,” said Clyde Smith, sr. VP 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 organizations with an extensive global reach, and together we will gather and analyze information not only about user requirements, but also about current standards and specifications. With this information we can rationalize 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.”
In one of its initial actions, the task force has published a survey designed to collect data on user requirements. Open to any member of the media industry, the survey 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. In addition to analyzing and publishing this data within a formal report, the task force will analyze the data in terms of current, planned, and unplanned standards activities and publish recommendations for future activities.
SMPTE Issues Call for Papers for its Technical Conference and Exhibition
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.–The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), a leader in motion-imaging standards and education for the communications, media, entertainment, and technology industries, has issued a call for papers for the SMPTE 2014 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Oct. 21-23 in Hollywood, Calif. This conference is a mainstay technology event covering current and future developments in media technology, content creation, image and sound, over-the-top, and the allied arts and sciences.
“The quality, depth, and ingenuity of the papers presented at the Annual Technical Conference consistently make it an essential event for the industry’s foremost technology decision makers and thought leaders,” said Paul Chapman, program chair of the SMPTE 2014 Annual Technical Conference. “Many of the ideas and solutions presented at the conference will go on to shape the future of our industry.”
Proposed papers must be informational and must address technical theory, research, innovation, application, or practice specific to any of the evolving technologies associated with the media technology industry. Technical paper topics include, but are not limited to, 4K/8K UHDTV and beyond HD; postproduction; broadcast infrastructure, 3G, IP, and file-based workflow; cinematography and image acquisition; asset management, storage, and archiving; the “Internet of everything,” the second screen, and alternative content; audio/video processing and compression; content security; new techniques in audio; content distribution; display technology; advanced image processing; mobile, IP, and future distribution technologies; and restoration and preservation. Papers that are commercial or promotional in nature will not be considered, nor will those that already have been published. Student papers are strongly encouraged.
A complete and more specific listing of possible topics as well as instructions on submitting a topic heading, paper title, and one-page abstract is available at www.smpte.org/cfp2014.
Colorfront reaches the Cloud at HPA, NAB
BUDAPEST, Hungary–Colorfront, the Academy and Emmy Award-winning developer of high-performance, on-set dailies and transcoding systems for motion pictures, high-end episodic television and commercials, is showcasing the latest advances of its ground-breaking Colorfront Cloud Services at HPA’s Tech Retreat, Palm Springs, and at NAB 2014, Las Vegas.
Announced in October 2013, Colorfront Cloud Services enable powerful and streamlined distributed postproduction, and have been developed by Colorfront in collaboration with leading Hollywood studios and post facilities. Colorfront is now also working with leading broadcasters and content producers in the UK, Europe, Japan, Brazil and the US, as they adopt large-sensor cameras for Ultra HD production.
Colorfront Cloud Services combine core elements of Colorfront’s industry-leading Transkoder engine technology, which is optimized for use on flexible, high-performance, cloud-based computing options.
Landmark innovations include Colorfront’s demonstration of faster than realtime remote upload and processing of ProRes 4444 ARRI Alexa television footage, during Colorfront’s Supersession User-Group in Los Angeles last November. In December, the company successfully demonstrated realtime, digital cinema quality, 4K JPEG2000 playback directly from Amazon’s S3 (Simple Storage Service) public cloud storage to a 4K DCI cinema projector, at the CineGrid Convention in San Diego.
Most recently, Colorfront Cloud Services successfully rendered several hours of original 4K RAW camera footage to a range of broadcast deliverable formats, via Amazon Web Services’ GPU-enabled servers running Transkoder engine.
Colorfront will reprise all of these advances, plus new cloud-based EDL conforming and automatic visual effects pull capabilities, during HPA’s Tech Retreat, which wraps this week, and NAB 2014, April 7-10. A further highlight at HPA is the participation of Colorfront CTO Bill Feightner in a panel discussion entitled “Virtual/Distributed Post” on February 20.
Feightner noted, “We have uploaded 4K material to secure cloud servers in Ireland and achieved realtime playback in Budapest. The same speeds and capabilities are also available across the US, enabling fast access to production media securely from multiple locations. This great news for motion picture producers, and leading broadcasters are also now evaluating how Colorfront Cloud Services can be optimized for broadcast deliverables from the latest large sensor digital cinematography cameras manufactured by ARRI, Sony, RED and Canon.”
Colorfront Cloud Services can be implemented in several flexible ways. Users have the choice of basing their service around Colorfront’s own secure cloud service in Los Angeles, a preferred private data center or facility house, or a range of public, cloud-based servers, such as Amazon Web Services.
Encryption provides security of all production media. Users can securely upload original camera footage, and associated metadata, to a choice of cloud servers, and perform and automate a range of key tasks. Initial services offered include dailies transcoding, deliverables rendering, EDL auto-conforming and VFX pulls.
Colorfront has already achieved considerable success in motion picture and high-end episodic TV, with its primetime Emmy Award-winning On-Set Dailies and Express Dailies systems, which share many Transkoder’s key technologies. The 2014 Oscar-nominated movies Nebraska, Captain Phillips, Gravity, Prisoners, Rush and The Wolf of Wall Street, along with hit TV series Dracula, True Blood, Strike Back and Mad Men have all utilized Colorfront systems.
SGO’s MAMBA FX now available on Linux
MADRID–In response to market feedback, SGO has released its Linux version of MAMBA FX. With the ability to already run under Microsoft Windows, Mamba FX is now available on Linux for all 64-bit distributions on PC hardware of various configurations.
SGO’s CEO Miguel Angel Doncel said the development demonstrates “our passionate commitment in delivering the best to all compositors. To be able run Mamba FX on various platforms such as Linux really benefits our users. Many customers informed us that they needed to be able to operate Mamba FX on Linux for affordability and seamless flexibility. Mamba FX for Linux now delivers this.”
Mamba FX is SGO’s compositing software, successfully launched at IBC 2013, and displays an intuitive node-based graphic interface delivering an integral visual effects suite with unlimited compositing layers and effects. Although Mamba FX includes many effects as standard, it can also be extended with OFX plug-ins or additional options from SGO. These options include DCP creation and access to SGO’s unsurpassed stereo correction tools.
Tom Canavan named president of Media Links
BLOOMFIELD, Conn.–Media Links Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Global Links, which specializes in broadcast and network transport over IP solutions, has appointed Tom Canavan as president of the American Company.
Most recently, Canavan served as sr. VP, strategic development & services for Signiant, a provider of advanced file movement software for secure digital media exchange. During his tenure at Signiant, Canavan was responsible for multiple customer facing roles including executive relationships; leadership of the professional services organization; and development of strategic relationships within the media & entertainment industry.
Previously, Canavan served as executive VP, systems & technology services for Ascent Media Group, where under his leadership he led and grew the professional services business (originally A.F. Associates) into a $150 million diversified global organization. Canavan also served on the senior management team responsible for building Ascent Media into one of the world’s largest suppliers of creative and technical services for media.
Canavan replaces John Dale, previously president of Media Links Inc., who has been promoted into a global product management leadership role.
