In the face of continuing technical discussions, ongoing product development and interoperability demonstrations at trade shows, the business pressure to adopt new technology is increasing, says Neil Dunstan.
The rate of change in the industry today makes it necessary for both end users and their suppliers to respond quickly and wisely.
So has the direction of this technology change been carefully planned? (Spoiler alert - The answer is “Yes.”)
The JT-NM was set up in 2013 to consider evolving user requirements and to identify gaps in current thinking. From this grew a Reference Architecture, as a common basis for future planning, and more recently a Roadmap, showing the expected progress through the various stages of a full technical transition over the next two to three years.
A number of technical trade associations joined forces to provide a co-ordinated approach to the new technologies. The Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) comprises of the following organisations:
The strength of this approach has been the close co-operation between end users and suppliers plus the huge expertise of the different, but complementary, technical trade associations that form the JT-NM.
The Video Services Forum concentrated on transport (for example, technical recommendation TR-04 which has led to SMPTE ST-2210) and the Advanced Media Workflow Association identified a need for software to identify and exploit the capabilities of products connected to a networked system.
This requirement led to the Networked Media Incubator project, launched in Sep 2015, which continues its work towards the family of Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS). The output of the first working group was IS-04 for Discovery and Registration of devices. Several groups are now running in parallel.
The NMOS specifications have their own roadmap charting work groups that are already in action plus those proposed over the coming year.
And along the way, valued input has also been contributed by the AES, AIMS, IABM and MNA, which has helped to ensure alignment across our industry.
So, does the work of the JT-NM or the AMWA cover areas that are crucial to your business? Only you can tell.
However, considerable thought and care has been applied by many industry experts working together to minimise the technical, operational and business risk for both end users and their suppliers.
If this subject is important to your business and you would like to add your knowledge and energy, please join us. Constructive input is always welcomed.
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