Interoperability problems with professional broadcast equipment from different manufacturers is a serious issue for many broadcasters. It leads to lost time, money and increased chances of on-air failure. To address complaints received from EBU Members working with state-of-the art HDTV equipment, the EBU is now launching a cross-industry forum on the 'Harmonisation and Interoperability of HDTV Production Standards' (P/HIPS).
Four core topics
| The forum has an aggressive time-schedule and aims:
1. To provide a solution for future interoperability between HDTV equipment employing MXF OP1a and OP Atom;
2. To establish an open discussion on the requirements for future HDTV compression formats in HDTV production (e.g. for news/mainstream/premium quality in 720p/50, 1080i/25, 1080p/25 and potentially, 1080p/50); and to ensure open and standardized formats.
3. To define the minimum requirements on Metadata provided at the source device (e.g. camcorder, live camera etc.), to determine how they can be transported through the production chain (HD-SDI) and how they can be delivered into an IT–based domain (files). |  |
4. To define an EBU position on the use of different levels with 3Gbit/s HD-SDI (1080p/50).
Industry support
Important manufacturers, such as AVID, GVG, Panasonic and Sony have already given commitment to support this EBU activity. The EBU Technical Committee (the highest elected technical body of the EBU) has fully endorsed the work and has assigned it the highest priority. The forum is chaired by Christoph Nufer (IRT). The Programme Manager in charge is Dr Hans Hoffmann (EBU). At the first meeting the exact tasks will be agreed on.
The first meeting will be held 16-17 Dec 2009 @ EBU HQ in Geneva (Switzerland).
You can register here (deadline: 30 Nov 2009).