1.1. What is the AAF Association?
The AAF Association Inc. is a broadly based trade association created to promote the development and adoption of AAF technology.

1.2. Who belongs to the AAF Association?
The AAF Association founders include Avid, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Cable News Network, Discreet, Four Media Company, Matrox, Microsoft, Pinnacle, Quantel, Sony, Turner Entertainment Networks, and the United States National Imaging and Mapping Agency. Follow this link for a list of current members.

1.3. When was the AAF Association created?
The association was incorporated in January of 2000. For more information, look at our Incorporation press release

1.4. What is the mission of the AAF Association?
The mission of the AAF Association is to facilitate the exchange of images, sound and metadata across platforms and applications.

1.5. How does the AAF Association intend to accomplish its mission?
By promoting the Advanced Authoring Format as a means of interchange of program content and metadata in a mixed-vendor environment.

1.6. Can anyone become a member of the AAF Association?
Yes. Anyone with an interest in the issues surrounding the exchange of program content and metadata in the rich media environment is welcome to join the AAF Association.

1.7. What are the benefits of becoming a member of the AAF Association
For the broadcast and post community, involvement with the AAF association provides a unique opportunity to influence working practices of the future. For manufacturers, involvement with the AAF Association means active participation in a project that will have a fundamental impact on the markets for their products, allowing the full benefits of digital working to be realized.

1.8. What classes of membership are available?
The AAF Association has three classes of membership – Principal, General and Associate. The Principal class of membership is no longer available and is limited to the founders of the AAF Association.

Note that in addition to the three classes of membership listed above, the AAF Association may also establish liaison relationships with other associations and standards bodies on a no-cost basis.

1.9. How does the AAF Association relate to work on the AAF Specification?
Work on the AAF Specification takes place in Working Groups established by the AAF Association using an Open Source model.

1.10. How can I join?
The easiest way to join the AAF Association is to go to our Web site, www.aafassociation.org, and click on the "Join Us" tab. You will select the class of membership you are interested in and then fill out a brief form. We will contact you to complete the sign-up process. You can also send email to [email protected].

1.11. What is the status of the AAF Association from a legal standpoint?
The AAF Association is registered in the state of Delaware as a non-profit corporation. See the Certificate of Incorporation at www.aafassociation.org/AAFAssociationCertIncorp.pdf.

1.12. Does the AAF Association have independent leadership?
Yes. The AAF Association Executive Director, Brad Gilmer has over 20 years of experience in broadcast operations and production. He is currently President of Gilmer & Associates, Inc., a consulting company that specializes in strategic business issues surrounding technology for rich media. Gilmer also chairs two committees of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

Gilmer was formerly Director of Engineering and Operations at Turner Broadcasting Systems in Atlanta. He writes a column for Broadcast Engineering magazine, and makes frequent presentations at all major industry conventions.

1.13. Who is on the board of directors of the AAF Association?
The founding members elect the AAF Association’s board of directors. The current board of directors includes Brad Gilmer, Executive Director of the AAF Association; Mike Rockwell, Avid; Andrew Oliphant, The British Broadcasting Corporation; Gordon Castle, Cable News Network; Ian Gordon, Discreet; Gavin Schutz, 4MC; Alain Legault, Matrox; Tom McMahon, Microsoft; Laurin Herr, Pinnacle; Jon Pannaman, Quantel; Peter Dare, Sony; Clyde Smith, Turner Entertainment Networks; and Steve Long, National Imaging and Mapping Agency.

2.1. What is the Advanced Authoring Format?
The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) is a professional file interchange format designed for the authoring environment. AAF solves the problem of multi-vendor, cross-platform interoperability for computer-based digital production. AAF does a number of things. 1) it allows complex relationships to be described in terms of an object model, 2) it facilitates the interchange of metadata and/or program content, 3) it provides a way to track the history of a piece of program content from its source elements through final production, 4) it makes it possible to render downstream (with appropriate equipment), 5) it provides a convenient way to "wrap" all elements of a project together for archiving. By preserving comprehensive source referencing, and abstracting the creative decisions that are made, AAF improves workflow and simplifies project management. For more information, see the AAF White Paper titled, "AAF - An industry-driven open standard for multimedia authoring".

2.4. When will products using AAF be available?
Products that use AAF will be demonstrated at NAB 2000 and will be shipping later in the year.

2.5. How does AAF relate to program content?
Program content or essence such as video and audio can be wrapped along with metadata in an AAF file. Alternatively, the metadata may be sent by itself, with external references to the original material. The AAF structure is designed so that, if program content is included, the AAF metadata header can be "snapped off", and the program content can be played directly, if that content is completely rendered and ready for air.

2.6. How does AAF relate to QuickTime?
QuickTime is a technology that incorporates a file format standard optimized for play back and streaming media. It handles 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.

2.7. How does AAF relate to streaming media formats?
AAF is an authoring format, and is not intended for content streaming. AAF content can be published in any of the common streaming media formats. AAF functions equally well with professional and broadcast formats.

2.8. How does AAF relate to OMFI?
AAF builds substantially upon the original capabilities of OMFI.

2.9. Will there be OMFI/AAF conversion tools?
Yes, bi-directional conversion tools will be available.

2.11. How will the next version of the specification be developed?
The AAF Association will organize Developer’s Conferences in autumn 2000 and 2001 to define the specification for new versions. These conferences will be open to every member of the AAF Association. Provisional specifications will be chosen at these conferences; but no specification will be adopted until there is a proven reference implementation with a suite of regression tests.

3.1. Where can I get a copy of the SDK?
A copy of the SDK is available on the AAF Web site at the SDK download page.

3.2 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.

3.3. What is contained in the SDK?
The AAF reference implementation, including source code and examples of the majority of the Utilities. The SDK includes installers for Windows(R) and MacOS(R) platforms.

3.4. 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.

3.6. Why is the AAF Association producing an SDK?
We want to ensure that different implementations of the AAF specification are interoperable. Paper specifications are not enough for this kind of technology. Developers need a reference implementation against which they can test and verify their own code.

3.7. What is the current state of the SDK?
Developer Release 2 is available as of NAB 2000.

3.8. What functionality can I expect from the SDK?
All object creation, initialization and management functions are supported, and some codecs and utilities are provided.

3.9. What significant changes are anticipated with future versions of the SDK?
This will be determined by the membership of the AAF Association. But we can expect continuing expansion of codecs, utilities and effects, and detailed consideration of 3D graphics.

3.10. What is the difference between a Developer Release SDK, and Release Candidate SDK?
A Developer Release is intended for use by developers of products, but it is not yet fully tested for interoperability and robustness.

Release Candidates are nearly final; they are the versions of the SDK which are being subjected to stringent testing just prior to final product release.

3.12. If I can get the AAF SDK free, why do I need to join the AAF Association?
You should join the AAF Association to get support for the SDK and to participate in the development of future capabilities of AAF. AAF is fundamentally a shared industry initiative, built out of the contributions of its members. No one is required to join; the association is open to everyone. Members share benefits such as access to the support network and participation in developer conferences and the technical committee.

3.13. What platforms are supported by the SDK?
Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows 2000, Macintosh (System 8.x onwards), and (from DR3), various UNIX flavors including IRIX (V6.5 and later) and Linux.

3.14. What do I have to have in order to run the SDK?
A Windows(R) , Macintosh(R) (or from DR3, UNIX) computer of at least the performance indicated in the AAF SDK Release Notes, and a C++ development environment.

3.15. How much work has gone into the SDK?
Across all AAF Association Founders, the size of the engineering team is presently more than 15 people.

3.16. Who wrote the current SDK?
The SDK was developed by Avid Technology Inc., with the assistance of Microsoft, Sony, Discreet and the BBC.

3.17. Can I make products using the SDK?
Yes

3.18. Can I charge money for products using the SDK?
Yes

3.19. Under what conditions do I have to pay for the SDK?
None

3.20. Can I download the SDK "just to take a look?"
Yes

3.21. Are there documents that support the SDK?
Yes, documentation for the SDK is available.

3.22. How do new changes get incorporated into the SDK?
Changes, and additions to the SDK are submitted at yearly Developer’s Conferences. Development work is then done through an Open Source process with checks and balances and testing defined by the Engineering Committee of the AAF Association. No change is made to the SDK without a Specification Update, a Regression Test, and proven cross-platform performance.

4.2. How does AAF relate to the Internet and to Internet standards such as HTML and XML?
AAF is an authoring format. As such, it will probably be most useful in the creation of Internet content. AAF encapsulates HTML and XML content and includes translators for XML and XML DTDs.

4.3. How does AAF relate to SMPTE?
The AAF Association will support the due-process standardization of AAF within SMPTE. AAF is a software implementation of SMPTE Metadata and SMPTE Universal Labels. The AAF Specification has been submitted to SMPTE as an input to the SMPTE Metadata Dictionary and as the starting point for due process standardization of "Complex Content Packages".

4.4. What progress is AAF making with international and industry standards bodies?
AAF is moving through the balloting process within SMPTE. AES is considering AAF and the AAF data model. ISO/MPEG has incorporated elements of AAF in MPEG 4. And Pro-MPEG is studying AAF compatibility.

4.5. Does AAF replace the "Complex Content Packages" referred to by EBU and SMPTE?
The EBU/SMPTE Task Force invented the terms "Simple Content Package" and "Complex Content Package". "Simple" packages were generally intended in for use in the "Broadcast" environment, while "Complex" packages were envisioned for use in the authoring application space. AAF is an implementation of the EBU/SMPTE Task Force "Complex Content Package".

4.6. Are AAF and EBU/SMPTE "Complex Content Packages" different?
Slightly. The reasons that AAF and CCP are different are:

4.7. What is "MXF" and how does it relate to AAF?
The File Interchange Working Group of Pro-MPEG is dedicated to producing a "Simple Content Package" that is compression-independent. Several other industry groups including the EBU and others are also thinking about the issue of "Simple Content Packages".

4.8. What is the relation between AAF and the BBC’s SMEF™
AAF provides a framework in which standardized and proprietary metadata can be linked together and linked to Programme Essence. The BBC's SMEF™ provides a set of standardized metadata for Programme Production that can be carried inside AAF files; other schemes provide sets of metadata for other applications - for example, MPEG-7 defines Description Schemes and Descriptors for the content of the essence itself. One of the strengths of AAF is that it enables metadata from different schemes to be linked to the same essence in a single file.