AMWA Makes Three Changes to AS-11

LONDON—A trio of changes were announced by the Advanced Media Workflow Association for “AS-11, MXF for Contribution” media file format. The new changes include the addition of a UHD version for the U.K. Digital Production Partnership, three new international versions, and migration of specifications to a new rules based format.

AS-11 DPP helps deliver finished programs to media companies within the U.K. With UHD becoming a necessary element of broadcast, a new set of requirements from the DPP has been created as well as the publication of a new specification for the delivery of UHD programs.

AMWA has also created three new specifications for the delivery of finished programs in Nordic countries, Australia and New Zealand. With these new AS-11 specifications, AMWA has unveiled a new naming convention. AS-11 X1 is U.K. DPP UHD; AS-11 X2 is for HD Intra; AS-11 X3 is for HD Long GOP at European frame rates, initially for Nordic countries; AS-11 X4 is for HD Long GOP at U.S. frame rates, initially for Nordic countries; and currently in development is AS-11 X7 for SD D10 for Australia and New Zealand.

Previous AMWA specifications were text based, but these new specifications are being published in a new rules based format. The new specifications are machine readable, based on building blocks or rules for each of the video and audio elements that are then combined into the final specification. Future specifications will be added as necessary, but AMWA’s aim is to minimize the total number when possible.

In addition, AS-11 specifications are now being published on GitHub as code and moved through different maturity levels, going from “works in progress” to “proposed specification” to “specifications.” The new specifications announced above are currently works in progress.