Helping to pave the way to more efficient, cost-effective, and simplified approaches to building and refurbishing digital facilities, a joint European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Task Force has finalized a set of recommendations to help update synchronizing and time labelling standards for moving-picture, broadcast, and related content.
Synchronization and time-labelling methods for today’s television, audio, and other moving-picture signals have been in place for more than 30 years and were based on the requirements of analogue-only systems and video tape standards dating back to the 1970s. While still reliable, these methods are becoming increasingly inappropriate to support the requirements of a digital age, such as multi-format facilities, file-based workflows, and sophisticated acquisition and post-production technologies.
Two years of work
| The EBU/SMPTE task force report builds on nearly two years of focused industry research and substantive user input to provide a comprehensive set of recommendations for simplifying and codifying synchronization systems and time-related labelling in the digital era. It features input from broadcast, post production, movie studio, and cable professionals, as well as broadcast and network equipment manufacturers. The motion picture and television businesses today rely heavily on equipment and technologies developed by the IT industry. The recommendations of the Task Force seek to further leverage these benefits and to avoid the complex and expensive video-style infrastructures required by current synchronization techniques. |  EBU BPN 093 (Members only) |
Specifically, the report recommends innovative, user-defined approaches – such as evolving a single synchronization standard that can address all formats and uses today’s widely-installed Ethernet devices and infrastructures to minimize the need for dedicated interfaces and networks.
Ready to start standardising
New proposals could prevent expensive, wholesale equipment replacements; avoid multi-format workflow inefficiencies; and, overcome audio/video mismatches in fast-paced production environments. SMPTE will now take on board the findings of the Task Force and will establish concrete standards actions already at this September's meetings in Europe.