EBU, SMPTE and VSF form networked media ‘joint task force’

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) have established a Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) in order to ‘stimulate new business opportunities through the exchange of professional media across networks, exploiting affordable IT-based technology.’

The Task Force will define a strategy to develop a packet-based network infrastructure for the professional media industry. To achieve this it will bring together manufacturers, broadcasters, standards bodies and trade associations with the objective to create, store, transfer and stream professional media.

The Task Force’s primary objective is to ensure interoperability in packet-based systems (networking, equipment and software) for professional media. This will mean defining an agile, on-demand, packet-based network infrastructure that supports a variety of distributed, automated, professional media (file- and stream-based) workflows for local, regional and global standards-based production, supporting any format, to reduce cost of ownership and content time-to-market.

The Task Force will take a leading role, coordinating the activities of its members and of constituent and allied organisations. It will adopt a three-phase approach to its Mission and Objectives, with each phase used as a gate for assessing whether sufficient progress has been made before advancing. The three phases are: 1) Define the business-driven use cases and requirements; 2) Define the framework and reference architecture; 3) Define and coordinate tasks required to realize the output of phases 1 and 2.

Dr Hans Hoffmann, EBU Head of Media Fundamentals and Production Technology, says that combining the forces of the EBU, SMPTE and VSF gives a clear, decisive signal to the industry.

“The time is right to define technologies for an all-over networked production environment encompassing live and file-based content exchange,” he remarks. “The findings of the Task Force and subsequent open systems standards will lead to a paradigm shift in how content is produced by broadcasters, with highly efficient and flexible production workflows and, ultimately, new business opportunities.”