IBC, Amsterdam, September 14th 2001

QUANTEL AND AVID TECHNOLOGY NOW SHIPPING EDITORS USING AAF

The first post production systems to make use of the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) are now shipping - and will be on display on the showfloor at IBC 2001.

Quantel's Resolution Co-existent IQ universal platform for post is fully compliant with AAF - and Avid Technology is now supplying its Media Composer range of editors with AAF included. "It's great to see things moving for AAF - with products out and being delivered," says AAF Association executive director Brad Gilmer.

The Advanced Authoring Format has been designed for the interchange of video, audio and metadata in the post-production environment, with the aim of becoming the core open standard for multimedia authoring and post production. It enables content creators to easily exchange digital media and metadata across platforms and between applications. It's no less than a common language for the online editing world, enabling detailed frame accurate work to be exchanged between systems, including the tracking of multiple layers of edited and composited components.

Quantel's IQ was the first post production system to fully implement AAF, and its display at IBC 2001 shows how it can be used to facilitate a multi resolution production workflow. "The traditional EDL format is obsolete - we're now moving into a mixed resolution and mixed format world, and one of the key benefits of AAF is in addressing this far more complex workflow and the challenge of multi resolution production," says Mark Horton, Quantel group product manager, workstations.

The AAF Association and Pro-MPEG Forum are co-sponsoring The Industry Interoperability Suite at IBC 2001, which showcases a number of demonstrations of AAF enabled interoperability between platforms and applications. The suite also shows how AAF works with the Material Exchange Format (MXF), a common exchange file format. Sony Broadcast will demonstrate its new XPRI non linear editor, using extensions to AAF software to allow MXF to be seamlessly incorporated in the system.

Amongst other displays, Panasonic Broadcast and Avid Technology will be holding a joint demonstration to show how, using AAF, edited DV based material can be exchanged between Panasonic's Quickcutter/Newsbyte editing system and Avid's Newscutter system, allowing cuts made on one system to be read by the other. AAF will also be shown in demonstrations elsewhere on the IBC showfloor. BBC Technology will host a demonstration showing the interoperability AAF allows between the MPEG2 based browse editing system of the BBC Research and Development's ORBIT project, and the Incite non linear editing system, which is also implementing AAF.

"The AAF Association is delivering on its promise of enabling inter-operability for the post-production environment. The release of AAF SDK v1.0 in April 2001 gave manufacturers the practical means of incorporating the format in their products, and we encourage them to do so. We look forward to working with manufacturers on implementing and using AAF-based systems and with the AAF Association on enhancing the AAF technology yet further" says Phil Tudor from BBC Research & Development.

Most of the TV industry's leading broadcasters and equipment suppliers are involved in the AAF Association. Panasonic Broadcast has been elected to its executive board - and asset management companies Bulldog Group and eMotion have recently joined the AAF Association.

There are new features for the AAF software development kit (SDK), including the development of 'golden files' to help manufacturers implement AAF and refine its operating patterns - for instance how AAF should be used to exchange metadata. AAF has also appointed a software development engineer to support the AAF format, Jim Trainor, who will be conducting training sessions in implementing AAF at a Developers Conference for AAF scheduled for November 11-15th 2001 in Barcelona. The main focus of the Barcelona Developers Conference is training. Developers will receive intensive training in using AAF technology to create AAF files for interchange.

"It's great to see things moving ahead for AAF - with products using the format now out and shipping.

Our new software developer Jim Trainor is currently writing code and software samples in preparation for our Barcelona developers conference, where the contributions from our members are expected to make it an important event for the industry" says AAF Association executive director Brad Gilmer.

Note to Editors:
The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) Association is a cross industry, not for profit organisation introducing new solutions to the complicated world of multimedia authoring. Strictly neutral in terms of formats, it's dedicated to using open source technology. 45 organisations now belong to the AAF Association, which include manufacturers, broadcasters, post production houses and other support groups.

PRESS CONTACTS:

BRAD GILMER,  AAF Association Executive Director

MARK HORTON, AAF Association Marketing Director