ATLANTA, GA. and GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: The Advanced Media Workflow Association and the European Broadcasting Union are forming a new joint task force to address the TV production system integrations.
“The current situation is that we, as the EBU, see an increasing complexity in digital workflows and broadcasters report about system integration problems,” said Hans Hoffmann, EBU program manager. “The joint effort between the EBU and the AMWA to seek out to the industry for a common approach to integrate hard and software components in modern TV production facilities is a fundamental need of the whole media industry.”
Brad Gilmer, executive director of the AMWA said file format wrappers like AAF and MXF have helped a lot, “but users need systems that interoperate, and that is the focus of this new work.”
The Task Force will begin by developing a joint request for technology focusing on user requirements collected from EBU and AMWA members as well as other interested parties. Input is to be collected in an open public process. The plan is to publish the RFT in early 2010.
The groups said the industry’s response to the RFT will be weighed against the requirements. Input is expected to be based on existing technologies so the RFT phase can conclude in the third quarter of next year. Resulting guidelines and specifications are expected to be co-published by the two organizations some time in 2011.
Participants need not belong to both organizations. The task force will be chaired jointly by John Footen of National TeleConsultants;and Giorgio Dimino of the RAI, and facilitated by EBU Project Manager Jean Pierre Evain.
More information is available at: wiki.amwa.tv/ebu
