Source:
Convenor
of mpeg
Status:
Approved
by WG11
Subject:
MPEG Press Release
Date:
March
2001
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 N3958
March
2001 – Singapore
|
Source: |
Convenor
of mpeg |
|
|
Status: |
Approved
by WG11 |
|
|
Subject: |
MPEG Press Release |
|
|
Date: |
March
2001 |
Singapore,
March 2001–
At its 56th meeting, from 5-9 March 2001 in Singapore, MPEG issued a
Call for Proposals for Digital Cinema video coding technology. The technology
will be used to build a standard for the audio-visual aspects Digital Cinema.
Proposals are requested for both visually lossless coding (for distribution) and
truly lossless coding (for archiving). 19 Companies have so far pre-registered
as submitters. Subjective tests for the distribution format are scheduled to
take place at the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology
Center at the Hollywood Pacific Theatre in Los Angeles, California, USA.
MPEG
also re-issued its Call for Requirements for a Rights Expression Language and a
Rights Data Dictionary, and expects to publish a Call for Proposals at its July,
meeting in Sydney, Australia.
Working from 15 submissions in response to a Call for
Proposals, a first Working Draft for ‘Digital Item Identification and
Description’ (DIID) was issued. This part of the MPEG-21 standard will
uniquely identify multimedia content and elements within that content according
to international standards for identifiers (ISAN, the International Standard
Audiovisual Number). Also, the work provides for a high quality resolution
mechanism that allows robust and trustworthy retrieval of information associated
with the content, including rights information. Together with the MPEG-21 Rights
Language and Data Dictionary, these elements will provide powerful tools for
automated expression of rights pertaining to digital content/ This will
facilitate electronic trade of all such content.
As well, the second Working Draft of the MPEG-21
Digital Item Declaration was issued, giving a uniform and flexible abstraction
and interoperable schema for declaring Digital Items. Within the MPEG-21
framework, a Digital Item is defined as a structured digital object with a
standard representation, identification and description. It is also the
fundamental unit of distribution and transaction within this framework.
The five main parts of the MPEG-7 Standard (Systems,
Description Definition Language [DDL], Audio, Visual, and Multimedia Description
Schemes [MDS]) were promoted to Final Committee Draft (FCD). These
specifications represent stable technology, and multi-media industry can now
form its opinion on what MPEG-7 will deliver. The Audio and Video parts define
technology for audio and visual characteristics in content, such as color,
shape, sound effects, melody, etc. The MDS part gives structured schema for
hierarchically describing content, using metadata and the audio and visual
signal characteristics from the other parts. The DDL is a language to define new
Description Schemes or extend existing ones. ‘Systems’ provides technology
for packaging MPEG-7 Descriptions into transport ready binary form. Together
these five parts form a solid basis for many multimedia search, filter,
retrieval and management applications.
MPEG-4’s Registration authority for Intellectual Property
Management and Protection (IPMP) systems is up and running (www.ipmp-ra.org).
DRM providers can now register themselves and their systems through this
registration authority, which is run by CISAC, the International Confederation
of Societies of Authors and Composers. CISAC has been involved in MPEG since
MPEG-2, and active in the identification of rights embodied in MPEG encoded
content. Registration provides a unique number that can be carried in the
bitstream convey which IPMP system is needed to access the content. The activity on a more interoperable Digital Rights
Management solution in MPEG4 continues. The solution will be generic enough to
apply to other MPEG standards as well – MPEG-1 and
MPEG-2 content, but also MPEG-7 descriptions.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Platform,
3GPP, has adopted the MPEG-4 MP4 File structure for its Multimedia Messaging
Service (MMS). JPEG has chosen the MP4 file format for packing pictures and
annotations together. MPEG will assign a registration authority so that other
bodies can take the file format, brand it to their own needs, and use it without
conflicts with other MP4 file brands. MPEG-4 is extending the file format to
further facilitate streaming on RTP/UDP/IP protocols.
The MPEG-4 Audio 2001 Edition was issued at this
meeting. This document contains the full specification of MPEG-4 Audio with all
its amendments and corrigenda to date integrated in a single well-organized
document. This will be a great aid to implementers of the MPEG-4 Audio
technology.
MPEG will review the results of subjective audio and
video tests in July and decide whether new standardization efforts for coding
technology are warranted by these demonstrations of improved coding technology.
Part 8 of MPEG-4, the specification of how to carry
MPEG-4 content on IP networks, progressed to Committee Draft. Work on payload
formats progresses in the Internet Engineering Taskforce (IETF). These important
specifications are the result joint work between MPEG and IETF.
Further
information
Future MPEG meetings will be
held as follows: 16-20 July 2001 (Sydney, Australia), 22-26 October 2001
(Washington DC, USA), 3-7 December (Pattaya, Thailand)
For further
information about MPEG, please contact: