Welcome

     As the movements toward the High Definition (HD) and the digital terrestrial are almost settled down in the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry in Japan, a new trend toward the file-based media production workflow has come as an urgent topic.

     Following such a trend, the MXF (Material eXchange Format), the M&E industry common media file format standardized by SMPTE in 2004, and the XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the de facto representation method of metadata for the media search in the industry, are the two key technologies.

     However, they are different from the traditional technologies the M&E industry has been familiar with so far, such as SDI (Serial Digital Interface) and RS422 protocol, in the sense that the products claiming to support them cannot always be easily connected without any problem. This is because of the layered structure in their specifications; the common basic layer independent of applications and the application specific layer on the top of the basic one, and the latter is often treated differently depending on specific products.

     The broadcasters in US and Europe, who adopted the file-based media production workflow prior to the HD, encountered this problem in their early stage and have been making a trial and error to resolve it. With the support of the MXF and XML professional experts, while some broadcasters are customizing those technologies to meet their specific requirements and develop dedicated applications for them, other broadcasters are conducting technically in-depth negotiations with manufacturers to request specific connections to certain products they desire.

     Furthermore, using the industry group such as EBU and AMWA as a workplace, some major stakeholders are gathering to discuss on how to use the MXF and XML for their specific purposes and developing the application specific standard specifications of MXF and XML – the industrial rule on how to use them.

     While the file-based media production workflow is just a method, not a purpose, for the media production, in order to successfully introduce them, we believe it is crucial to clarify its final goal, to master the technology basics as well as to watch the technology trends, and to learn the existing best practices, in the situation in which the technology systems to be required are changing drastically.

     We, the metaFrontier.jp, will commit and contribute to the development and promotion of the file-based media production workflow in the M&E industry by the best use of our in-depth technology understandings, matured expertise as well as broad experiences, and our valuable wide range of human network all over the world in the M&E industry.

January 5, 2012

Yoshi Shibata, President

metaFrontier.jp, LLC