The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are forming a new Joint Task Force to examine and standardize future needs for timing and synchronization in moving picture and related industries.

Current methods of timing and synchronization for television, audio and other moving picture signals rely on standards that have been in place for over 30 years. Whilst these standards have proven to be robust solutions that served the industry well, they are predicated on technologies that are becoming increasingly inappropriate for the digital age with, for example, networked content sharing or higher frame rate HDTV image formats, and they now impose unacceptable limitations for the future.

The Task Force will begin by focusing on user requirements. Based on the input to be received from broadcasters, the media and entertainment industries, the Task Force will publish one or more Requests for Technology (RFT). The industry's responses to these RFT will subsequently be evaluated against the known user requirements. The outcome of this process will be a set of specifications that will be passed to the appropriate SMPTE Technology Committees for due process standardization.

The Task Force will be chaired jointly by Dr Hans Hoffmann of the EBU Technical Department, and Peter Symes, SMPTE Director of Standards & Engineering. It will adhere to an aggressive time schedule intended to publish the final specification by the end of 2008.

The Task Force will initially be open to all interested parties, but it is possible that membership may be restricted for later meetings to ensure the necessary focus.

Lieven Vermaele, newly appointed Technical Director of EBU said "The focus on user requirements is the key element to ensure new solutions that will meet the needs of our Members and other organizations around the world." Gavin Schutz, SMPTE Engineering Vice President, said "Our partnership with EBU has always been important and productive; we look forward to applying the talents of both organizations to these issues."

An organizational meeting was held at the Institut National de L’audiovisuel (INA) in Paris, France on Wednesday September 12, 2007. It is anticipated that the first full meeting of the Task Force will be in New York on November 5 & 6, venue to be announced.

Links:

- SMPTE Home Page
- EBU Tecnical Home Page