While media convergence and related “smart” CE devices/services take center stage at CES, Hollywood is taking important steps toward addressing the digital production and distribution of media content.
The Hollywood tech community – under leadership of the major studios and the ETC@USC – published its Interoperable Master Format (IMF) in 2010, a proposed voluntary specification designed to serve as a standard digital distribution master. Recently, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) announced the creation of an IMF working group to move forward with standardizing the format.
CES continues to showcase an increasingly expanded array of connected, over-the-top, CE devices and platforms. Now more than ever, content creators are faced with the challenge of making media available via television, the Internet, mobile devices, gaming platforms, and more (not to mention HD, 3D, and Digital Cinema). Eliminating the reliance upon multiple forms of physical media to meet these needs, while successfully managing the growing number of file formats, will help streamline this process for Hollywood and, in the long run, help foster an improved experience for consumers.
Read more on this from Carolyn Giardina’s article in The Hollywood Reporter.
ETC has a page explaining the goals and background of the IMF project.