Event Summary

Technical Presentation

This was an opportunity to get an exclusive on what was the most talked about demonstration at NAB this year.

Many Thames Valley-based manufacturers are involved in this unique project, with the full list being: EMC, Marquis Broadcast, Metaglue, Omneon, Open Cube Technologies, Pro-Bel, Quantum, Snell & Wilcox, Softel, and TMD.

At NAB, the AMWA (The Advanced Media Workflow Association - "Putting AAF and MXF to Work") - formerly the AAFA (Advanced Authoring Format Association) - was sponsoring the first public demonstration of a long-term project that has involved Turner Broadcasting System.

The aim of this project is to bring a fresh approach to MXF and to provide proposed workable solutions for key workflows - focusing on creating a single MXF master file from which multiple versions of a program may be created. This rationalisation project currently includes two key strands: MXF Mastering Format and the MXF Processor API.

Steve Fish gave us a glimpse of the paper he would be giving at NAB, and as well as explaining the rationale behind this critical issue for broadcasters, guests were invited to actively comment and scrutinise this project at not only this lecture, but at the demonstration being held at NAB.

A number of the manufacturers mentioned above joined Steve at the end of his presentation for a panel-style discussion and debate.