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By Nick Radlo for Digital Broadcasting.com

Table of contents
MPEG4 – Beyond the Internet
MPEG7 – Moving MPEG into Metadata
MPEG21 – An End to End Solution?

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – While the television industry is still getting to grips with the ramifications of introducing MPEG2 compression into the production chain within studios – which MPEG2's 4.2.2 profile is intended to foster – the MPEG committee has yet more developments on its standardization table.

IBC 2000 revealed a timetable of when and what can be expected from the new flavors of MPEG now vying for the industry's attention: MPEG4, MPEG7 and MPEG21.

MPEG4 is well on the way towards standardization in its original form, but new profiles are under consideration that could see it deployed for digital cinema use.

The standardization of MPEG7 is expected to be finalized by the end of 2001. MPEG21 is the latest MPEG kid on the block, currently at little more than concept stage, with further discussions taking place right now which should see its first draft out by December 2000.

MPEG4 – Beyond the Internet (Back to top)
MPEG4 was originally intended for very low bitrate compression of video signals between 64 Kbit/sec to 1.5 MB/sec – ideal for the internet – and versions one and two of the format are now ready, but MPEG4 has plenty of scope for further development, it seems.

With an imaging mechanism built around object based compression techniques, MPEG4 offers the opportunity to segment images and apply appropriate compression routines to different parts of the whole, then re-assemble them at the point of delivery, obtaining considerable efficiencies.

The visual coding techniques of MPEG4 are now set to receive new amendments that should lead to the development of a Studio Profile, focussed on digital cinema applications, that could see usable bitrates up to 600 Mbits/sec.

Currently, the status of this studio profile is that a draft call for requirements has been made, with the intention being that proposals for the studio profile of MPEG4 will be discussed at MPEG's meeting in Singapore in March 2001.

MPEG7 – Moving MPEG into Metadata (Back to top)
The move coincides with a preliminary call for new tools to further improve the video coding efficiency of MPEG4. MPEG7 is MPEG's answer to the demand for interoperability of metadata. It's a planned content description standard that is intended to work across most of the different metadata schemes currently under consideration – to ensure a high degree of interoperability of metadata between production and archive systems.

MPEG7's current objective is to standardize content based descriptors and description schemes that will make it much easier to search, filter, identify and deal with audio visual material held in digital form across a wide range of applications and generic tools for using such descriptors.

MPEG7 is only concerned with the description elements, not how those descriptions are used in information systems. The intention is to find the minimum sets required to ensure interoperability - with the goal of an international standard finally agreed by the end of 2001.

To achieve interoperability, the MPEG7 committee is collaborating with other bodies working on metadata schema such as SMPTE, Dublin Core, EBU W3C and TV Anytime.

MPEG21 – An End to End Solution? (Back to top)
The idea behind MPEG21 is to define and standardize a multi media framework that can work right through the value chain from producer to consumer, building an infrastructure for the delivery and consumption of multimedia content.

Based around the fact that the use of the Internet is fundamentally changing the business models involved in rights management, MPEG21 is intended as a set of standards that can provide a common infrastructure for trading digital assets.

The components of MPEG21 are likely to include aggregators, content providers, distributors, the consumer delivery chain and even regulators. A draft technical report on MPEG21 is already circulating, with the first call for proposals made this month at the MPEG21 committee's meeting in France. It's intended to complete a draft standard by December 2001.

Nick Radlo covers the European broadcast and production scene – you can reach him at nickradlo@compuserve.com.