MPEG Industry Forum to expand its activities during New World of Digital Television

During the MPEGIF Master Class titled The New World of Digital Television, the MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF) announced that it will expand its scope of activities.

MPEGIF is an independent and platform neutral not-for-profit organisation facilitating and furthering the widespread adoption and deployment of MPEG and related standards in next generation digital media services.

It provides a forum to exchange information and views on technological, economic and regulatory issues that are relevant to these services. It also provides a powerful industry voice advocating the adoption of standards and consolidating the direction of the industry in the time of transition from analogue to digital television and media services. Its focus and constituency is derived from cable, satellite, telecommunication and new media service operators, channel owners, content providers, broadcasters, equipment manufacturers, system integrators, software providers, as well as industry advocacy groups, industry analysts, financial institutions and academic institutes.

“Almost a decade ago, in May 2000, it was an important and necessary step for the industry to establish our Forum creating a strong foundation for the global success and fantastic performance of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. Today, it is of similar significance and a logical action for MPEGIF to carry on with its successful activities and to embrace next generation media standards,” said Sebastian Moeritz, President of MPEGIF and CEO at dicas. “Capitalising on the unique experience and international recognition of MPEGIF and its member companies, we will encourage truly interoperable, robust and competitive systems for the creation, delivery and consumption of media content.”

“Clearly MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 has emerged as the undisputed successor to MPEG-2,” said David Price, Vice President of MPEGIF and Vice President at Harmonic Inc. “Although that battle is won, the war against the lock of proprietary technology is far from over. MPEGIF has a clear role in advocating standards based solutions in an increasingly complex video delivery ecosystem where IP transmission and time and place shifting becomes increasingly common.”

The following topics are specific areas of focus for the MPEGIF throughout 2009 and 2010. New, additional work items will be added as and when required.

  • MPEG-4/Scalable Video Coding (SVC)
  • 3DTV
  • Addressable Advertising: extension and adoption of cable Labs SCTE -104 for all multimedia
  • Simplifying competitive licensing
  • Quality of Experience / Quality of Service metrics
  • Royalty free DRM initiatives
  • IPTV ecosystem
  • Ultra HD (7680×4320)
  • MPEG/High-Performance Video Coding (HVC, H.265)
  • MPEG-7 / MPEG-21