For Immediate Release

New File Format Brightens Up Dark Side of Digital Production

NAB2000, March, 2000 - The digital revolution promised many benefits.

We would get smarter, more powerful tools. We would develop better, smoother processes. We would deliver faster, more cost-effective, more amazing results.

All this happened, more or less. But the digital revolution brought a darker side as well.

Many producers found that working with digital created a number of new problems. Chief among these is the fact that many digital tools use a proprietary file format--which often makes moving files between systems a painful, tedious chore.

"Right now, most people use several different vendor's equipment," notes industry veteran Brad Gilmer. "Some systems are really good at audio, others at rendering or effects. But as soon as you end up in a multi-vendor environment, you face a dilemma."

The dilemma is this. At each step, creative people make decisions on how to put together a multimedia package from a variety of sources. As they work, their system records useful information about that content, and what they've done with it.

Call this metadata, or information about information.

Metadata can include information on audio and video formats, copyrights, camera setup, as well as Edit Decision Lists, transfer lists, timecode, and so on.

Most producers can successfully move audio, video, graphics, titles, and perhaps interactive content from one system to another. But there's no guarantee that any metadata collected by one system will be portable to another.

"You end up coordinating several different native file formats, because there's no one place where you can see what you did to create that content," adds Gilmer. "It seems there should be a better way."

An industry consensus

To deal with this growing problem, major players in the media industry came together in 1998 as the Multimedia Task Force.

Imagine Adobe, Avid, Discreet, Matrox, Microsoft, and Sony all sitting down at a table, then inviting major producers to join in. That's what happened--and what eventually grew out of their discussions was a consensus for a flexible new file format, named the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF).

"The AAF is an industry-supported standard that allows data to be effectively interchanged between platforms and applications," sums up Ian Gordon, Manager, R&D Technology Relations and Communications with Discreet.

The idea seems to be catching on. The original Task Force has evolved into a full-fledged trade association, called the AAF Association Inc. Early in 2000 it incorporated and named Brad Gilmer its executive director.

And it drew up this mission: "to facilitate the exchange of images, sound, and metadata across platforms and between applications."

This simple-sounding task would be devilishly difficult to achieve without the AAF.

A growing number of players are recognizing this fact, and lining up to support the new standard. Among them are Avid, BBC, CNN, Discreet, Matrox, Microsoft, Quantel, Sony, and the US National Imaging and Mapping Agency.

"The AAF is a major part of the vision that Microsoft has been investing heavily in for years," says Tom McMahon, Director of Advanced Systems Architecture with Microsoft. "We're a strong support of the AAF. Having a standardized content interchange format brings tremendous benefits to everyone in our industry."

The reason for this strong support is easy to see: the AAF shines light on the dark side of working digitally.

"Content developers are always looking for new creative tools to deliver imaginative content and lower costs. This often means using tools from different vendors," notes Discreet's Ian Gordon. "And that's where the AAF can deliver benefits."
Being able to transfer files and metadata between systems means at last users can equip studios with equipment from multiple vendors with no file exchange headaches.

"Four Media Company believes cross-platform authoring tools will be an important part of how creative companies assemble material in the future," says Gavin Schutz, Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Office of major production house Four Media Company. "The AAF Association can play a major role in bringing together computer, broadcasting, and creative communities on the technical aspects of program development."

And the broad makeup of the AAF Association means that the AAF is clearly seen as an open, non-proprietary standard.

"The fact that the AAF is actively supported by manufacturers, broadcasters, and post-production houses shows a recognition of a common interest," says Mark Horton, Group Product Manager, Editing with Quantel. "Everyone involved stands to benefit from co-operating to provide a pragmatic standard."

About the AAF

The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) is a multimedia file format that enables content creators to easily exchange digital media and metadata across platforms and between applications. The AAF simplifies project management, saves time, and preserves valuable metadata that was often lost when transferring media between applications in the past.

About the AAF Association Inc.

Founded in March 1998 and incorporated in January 2000, the AAF Association Inc. is a broadly-based trade association intended to promote the development and adoption of AAF technology throughout the media industry. With representatives from many major players in the industry, the AAF Association intends to help deliver the full benefits of digital media to content creators including film, television, and post-production professionals.