Looking to keep up with the times, the Society of Motion Picture and Television is forming a technology committee to standardize mastering and packaging formats for content distributed over broadband networks. Such a broadband standard would enable consumers to purchase entertainment from any online destination and play it back on any device.
The formation of the forward-looking SMPTE committee illustrates the organization’s desire to address the challenges of delivering content over any platform. The committee, called Broadband 23B, will meet for the first time on Oct. 27, 2008, in conjunction with the SMPTE 2008: Annual Tech Conference & Expo (www.smpte2008.org) in Hollywood, CA.
Broadband 23B will create a standard that will not only benefit consumers, but will also allow producers and distributors to easily and rapidly deploy content across all broadband services. In addition, it will work toward enhancing the consumer experience by establishing procedures for uniform captions, subtitles and more.
Participation in Broadband 23B is open to all entertainment technology professionals, particularly those in the content creation, distribution, consumer electronics, IT and retail sectors. All interested parties are welcome to attend the inaugural meeting, and conference registration is not required. However, the meeting’s proceedings will remain private to SMPTE, and membership in the SMPTE Standards Community is necessary for ongoing participation.
For more information, visit www.smpte.org.
