An important milestone has been reached on the path to fully IT-based broadcast production systems with the publication of the FIMS 1.0 specification. The specification is the result of more than two years of hard work by a cross-industry group led by the EBU and AMWA, the Advanced Media Workflow Association. The importance of this work was acknowledged last month with the award of the IBC Judges' Prize to the FIMS partners.

FIMS - the Framework for Interoperable Media Services - is an open standard for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). An SOA-based approach replaces the tightly coupled devices and functions found in traditional systems with a set of "Media Services" that are interoperable, interchangeable and resuable. The interfaces between these different services and the centralized system that runs them are defined by FIMS.

Broadcasters that adopt FIMS will be able to overcome expensive, disruptive incompatibilities in IT-based broadcast production technologies. It will be easier for them to adapt to future delivery formats and platforms.

The FIMS 1.0 specification is now available, comprising Part 1, the General Description, and Part 2, a multi-section document describing the Base Schema and the Transfer, Transform and Capture Services. An accompanying package of schema files is also available for download. The documentation and files are available from both the EBU (as Tech 3356 - see Publications Library) and AMWA.

Next for FIMS

The work on FIMS continues, with new services on repositories and quality assurance in development. The framework will evolve over time according to the requirements that are submitted to the FIMS Business Board. This ensures that FIMS is developed according to the real world needs of users.

For information on joining the FIMS project visit the AMWA/EBU FIMS Wiki.

Photo: FIMS receives the IBC Judges' Prize, September 2012: Jean-Pierre Evain (EBU), Roman Mackiewicz (Bloomberg), Brad Gilmer (AMWA), and Michael Lumley (IBC).