AAF Frequently Asked Questions
What is AAF?
The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) is a professional file interchange format designed to meet the needs of rich media content creation and authoring. AAF solves the problem of multi-vendor, cross-platform interoperability for computer-based digital production. AAF is intended to enable greater collaboration by separating the "recipe" of a production from the "ingredients". By preserving comprehensive source referencing, and abstracting the creative decisions that are made, AAF enables tremendous improvements in workflow and project manageability.
Why do we need it?
With the accelerating progress of digital technologies, an open interchange standard is essential to enable the digital production facilities of the future. The integration of multi-vendor products has proven to be a significant obstacle to the rapid acceptance of computer based digital tools for professional production. AAF represents a broad industry initiative to remove those obstacles.
How does AAF relate to Quicktime?
AAF and Quicktime are complementary technologies.
Quicktime is a technology that incorporates a file format standard optimized for play back and streaming media, with software for handling a variety of media formats, invoking effects, and playing Quicktime files. The metadata support in Quicktime is focused on information needed to play or stream the file.
AAF is not necessarily intended as a playable or streamable file. Media data is not even a necessary component of the file. An AAF file functions like a super EDL, cut list, or run down. The file includes sufficient source information for the program to be assembled automatically. When the AAF file includes media locators to accompanying media, complex edits can be transferred from one production department to another, or from production to publication without having to re-conform the edit.
How does AAF relate to streaming media formats?
AAF is an authoring format, and is not intended for content streaming or publication. AAF content can be published in any of the common streaming media formats, including Quicktime 4, Real, and WindowsMedia (ASF). AAF functions equally well with professional and broadcast formats, including ITU Rec 601 and SMPTE SDTI-CP.
How does AAF relate to OMFI?
The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) was developed with the Open Media Framework Interface (OMFI) as its starting point. OMFI was launched in 1993, and represents technology that has 7 years of development. AAF takes significant portions of OMFI and updates and extends the technology to fulfill the industry's needs for the future. More specifically, AAF is implemented in modern object oriented technology (C++); it uses an updated container format; it implements a vendor-neutral plug-in architecture; it supports a broader range of media formats and temporal data; and it allows the integration of 2D, 3D, text, HTML and XML objects.
Will there be OMFI/AAF conversion tools?
Bi-directional OMFI/AAF conversion tools will be available with the first releases of AAF-supporting products and as part of the AAF SDK.
How does AAF relate to SMPTE?
AAF is a software implementation of SMPTE Metadata and SMPTE Labels, designed particularly to make it easy to work with large collections of inter-related sets of Metadata and Essence. SMPTE "KLV" is at its heart.
Besides the formatting and manipulation of the Metadata itself, the AAF software toolkit provides added capabilities for management of metadata sets, user extensions and pluggable modules.
What progress is AAF making with international and industry standards bodies?
AAF is moving through the balloting process within the SMPTE/EBU taskforce. AES is considering AAF and the AAF data model. ISO/MPEG has incorporated elements of AAF in MPEG 4. And ProMPEG is incorporating AAF compatibility.
When will the first AAF products be available?
We expect to see the first AAF-supporting products in the first half of next year.
Why is the AAF Association necessary?
The AAF Association will ensure that AAF remains an open public standard without bias or prejudice. The AAF Association will also drive the continued advancement of the AAF technology in the future.
Who is on the board of directors of the AAF Association?
The AAF Association’s board of directors will initially be made up of representatives of its founding member companies (the AAF Promoters and AAF Adopters).
Who owns the AAF SDK?
The AAF Association will own the AAF specification and trademark, and will license and distribute the AAF SDK and reference implementation.
How will the AAF standard be developed in the future?
AAF development will continue through the efforts of Working Groups based on the Open Source model.
What Working Groups are being formed?
Working Groups will be formed based on interest within the association membership. Working Groups for Audio, 3D, and Interactive TV and web technology have already been discussed.
Who will be the Executive Director?
The Executive Director of the AAF Association will be chosen by the board of directors.
Does the formation of the AAF Association imply that the original Promoters are withdrawing from the AAF initiative?
No. The formation of the AAF Association is simply the next stage in the AAF’s evolution. The Promoters’ long-term goal, through the Multimedia Task Force, was to establish AAF as a file interchange standard with broad industry support. Having reached the milestone of completing Version 1.0 of the spec, SDK and Reference Implementation, Microsoft, Avid and the other AAF Promoters recognized that the formation of the AAF Association was the best way to achieve this long-term goal. We expect that the original Promoters will continue to be active on behalf of AAF both within the AAF Association and in the international standards arena.
How does AAF relate to the Internet and to Internet standards?
AAF is an authoring format, and may be expected to be most useful in the creation of Internet content and within web servers. AAF encapsulates HTML and XML content.
XML is the internet standard which comes closest to the capabilities of AAF. But AAF goes beyond XML in its abilities to describe complex data types and relationships, its user-extensibility, and its compactness. The AAF software toolkit includes translators for XML and XML DTDs.
What are the components of AAF?
What are the licensing arrangements for AAF?
All the components of AAF are available to any interested party under a no-charge, royalty-free license.
For more information, read the AAF Whitepaper.