IPTV and Video Networks in the 2015 Timeframe: The Evolution to medianets

Interesting article which also addresses "the way out of the middleware maze".

Interestingly, the article states that "although it is unlikely that all aspects of IPTV middleware, such as DRM or user control interfaces, will be standardized to the point that open application programming interfaces (APIs) will be available for all capabilities, the primary objective of specifying a standardized framework architecture for middleware is to enable definition of some of the open APIs to enhance interoperability and thereby reduce development costs."

Well, that's exactly what ISO/MPEG's Advanced IPTV Terminal (AIT) standard is about. See my blog or http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/ for further details!

in reference to:

"The rapid progress being made in technologies that enable video content delivery over IP networks to consumers has prompted predictions that the evolution of IP-based next-generation networks will be largely driven by video service delivery requirements. This article surveys trends in the underlying technologies, extrapolating out to the 2015 timeframe, and drawing on the developments in standardization for IPTV, cable networks, and the IP NGN. These evolution trends lead to the notion of a medianet as a useful way to think of all of the enabling video and multimedia technologies. A medianet is essentially an IP network that is optimized to deliver video services to any or multiple display devices, and uses any of optical, cable, wireline, and wireless networks for this purpose."
- IEEE Communications Magazine (auf Google Sidewiki anzeigen)

W3C Launches Device APIs and Policy Working Group

W3C launched a new Device APIs and Policy Working Group, co-Chaired by Robin Berjon (Vodafone) and Frederick Hirsch (Nokia). The group's mission is to create client-side APIs that enable the development of Web Applications and Web Widgets that interact with devices services such as Calendar, Contacts, and Camera. Additionally, the group will produce a framework for the expression of security policies that govern access to security-critical APIs (such as the APIs listed previously). Per its charter, this group will conduct its work in public. Learn more about the Device APIs and Policy Working Group.

Hmm, they could be interested in the MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) which also specifies API that might be exploited by the W3C Device API.

MPEG news: a report from the 89th meeting in London, UK

A lot of interesting things happened at this meeting, notably the MXM Developer's Day, the Modern Media Transport workshop, MPEG-V and MPEG-U have been promoted to committee draft, and for MPEG High-performance Video Coding (HVC) enough evidence has been provided in order to start working towards a Call for Proposals (CfP).

The MXM Developer's Day was a great success with 45+ participants and all presentations are publicly available. Leonardo presented the MXM Vision while Filippo and Marius concentrated on the MXM Architecture and API respectively. This introductory session was followed by practical examples and demonstrations:

• Fully Interoperable Streaming of Media Resources in Heterogeneous Environments
• Including MPEG-4 3D graphics in your application
• An MXM-based application for sharing protected content

The workshop on Modern Media Transport (MMT) had even more participants (80+) and was clustered into two session. Session one was focusing on industry practice and presentations where given on how MPEG-2 TS and MP4 is being used. Furthermore, the DVB activity in the area of IPTV and InternetTV was presented. All the presentations will be publicly available through the MPEG Web site. The conclusion was that although MPEG-2 TS / MP4 is heavily used, it has some drawbacks due to their popularity. That is, MPEG-2 TS is running out of code points which is an issue. On the other hand, if MPEG is going to standardize something new, it has been recognized that it has to be to substantially better than what exists on the market with a high demand of backwards-compatibility to MPEG-2 TS. The issue will be further studied and stay tuned!

MPEG-V also known as Media Context and Control has promoted four parts to committee draft. The four parts are as follows:

• Part 1: Architecture
• Part 2: Control Information
• Part 3: Sensory Information
• Part 4: Avatar Characteristics

I've provided an overview during the final plenary and the presentation is accessible here.

MPEG-U is about Widgets and has been promoted to committee draft also. It seems to be an interesting activity which has a relationship to W3C's Widget activity. It will be interesting to see how these two standards co-exist.

Finally, the call for evidence for High-performance Video Coding (HVC) provided the following result: "Yes, we have enough evidence about improved compression technology (compared to AVC HP)". Thus, MPEG started working towards a call for proposals and a time schedule has been created. Furthermore, the future collaboration between MPEG and VCEG has been discussed.

That's it for now but I'll provide more details on the individual topics later. Please stay tuned!

CfP: MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) Developer's Day

1st International MPEG Extensible Middleware Developer's Day (MXMDevDay) 2009
30 June, 2009, Queen Mary University London, UK

Details will appear soon at the MXM Web site under http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org/.

The purpose of this event is to share with the software developers community the state of the art and the prospects of the MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM), a standard designed to promote the extended use of digital media content through increased interoperability and accelerated development of components, solutions and applications.

The MXM standard will promote the creation of a global market of applications, devices, and MXM components. As a result, we expect that innovative business models will be easily deployed.

The MXM developers day is particularly targeted to people:
— doing research and development of digital media architectures
— developing digital media applications and services
— developing digital media middleware
— interested in new opportunities in digital media
— developing and distributing open source software

Date & Venue
Tuesday, 30 June 2009, 9:00 – 13:00
Room 328, Francis Bancroft Building, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

Programme
Session 1 (09:00-09:45): Opening, Chair: Panos Kudumakis
The MXM Vision, Leonardo Chiariglione

Session 2 (09:45-11:15): MXM Overview, Chair: Christian Timmerer
MXM Architecture, Filippo Chiariglione
MXM API, Marius Preda

Coffee Break (11:15-11:45)

Session 3 (11:45-13:00): Software Development
MXM Reference Software
Selected MXM Applications

Registration
The event is free of charge but possible attendees shall register to this event via the MXM Web Site at http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org/.

Chairs

• Filippo Chiariglione
  CEDEO.net, Italy, filippo(at)cedeo(dot)net
• Panos Kudumakis
  Queen Mary University, London, UK, panos(dot)kudumakis(at)elec(dot)qmul(dot)ac(dot)uk
• Marius Preda
  Institut TELECOM, France, Marius(dot)Preda(at)it-sudparis(dot)eu
• Christian Timmerer
  Klagenfurt University, Austria, christian(dot)timmerer(at)itec(dot)uni-klu(dot)ac(dot)at