Joint Task Force on Networked Media announces new coordination platform

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Video Services Forum (VSF), the sponsors of the Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM), have announced the next phase of this joint industry effort.

JT-NM strongly believes that open interoperability in professional networked media is essential, that this interoperability can be developed in a coherent way, that it will continue evolving in accordance with a pre-planned roadmap over the next few years, and that there is solid communications between different industry efforts that result in a strong foundation upon which we can build future media businesses.

In order to support that message, JT-NM is creating a clearinghouse that the sponsors and partner organisations can use to coordinate themselves, in order to facilitate a harmonised evolution of complementary Standards and specifications. This not only provides a platform for future business opportunities, but also helps to ensure that first investments in early solutions are protected.

JT-NM also recognises the increasing importance of the role of software and APIs in the professional networked media environment. Therefore the original JT-NM sponsors (EBU, SMPTE and VSF) have added the AMWA as an additional sponsor of the JT-NM group.

Areas of common focus and agreement of JT-NM Phase 3 include:

• Using common approaches for the key elements of interoperability identified in the JT-NM Reference Architecture,
• Recognising the need for wide and quick adoption of these common approaches,
• Sharing a common understanding of the steps required to evolve from current technology to professional networked media facilities.

The goals of this effort are to stimulate and align the different ongoing activities around the development of open standards and specifications for IP interoperability by:

• Continuously sharing the status and progress of the different ongoing activities in open interoperability,
• Identify the best way forward to enable universal, open interoperability,
• Providing opportunities for coordination between different activities,
• Developing a roadmap of the evolution of open interoperability as reference for the industry.

Participation in the JT-NM Phase 3 is open to entities responsible for an activity developing or  standardising open, interoperable solutions, or an entity responsible for promoting open* interoperability (one representative per entity) and who agrees to the areas of common focus and the goals described above.