The Material Exchange Format (MXF) and its Application

Metadata

Publisher: SMPTE — White Plains, NY, USA
Doc Type: Journal Article
Content Type: Original Research
Volume: 111, No. 9, pp. 378–384
Abstract: This paper describes the specification of the Material eXchange Format (MXF) currently under joint development by the Pro-MPEG forum1 and the AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) Association.2 As the name implies, the specification is focused towards the exchange of program material between devices that support the MXF. An MXF file is a “wrapper” for containing audiovisual material in a playable format. Each file contains a comprehensive metadata structure together with component parts that enable MXF files to be written and read directly by AAF-compliant tools. The entire data structure is based on approved SMPTE standards relating to metadata coding using the KLV syntax3 and standardized metadata dictionary items for interchange.4 The paper will also describe how the G-FORS project actively contributes to the MXF specification in order to achieve its goals of network file-based TV production. Details of the project and its use of MXF are included to demonstrate applications of MXF.
Publication Date: 2002-09-01
DOI: 10.5594/J18346
ISSN: Print: 0036-1682
Link: https://doi.org/10.5594/J18346
Author(s): Jim WilkinsonSony BPE, Basingstoke, Hants, U.K.
bio
Jim Wilkinson first worked in the area of broadcasting on DICE, video compression using DPCM at 34 Mbits/sec, and other video projects at the IBA's Engineering Headquarters in 1974. In 1979, he joined the newly created Advanced Development Laboratories of Sony Broadcast where he continues to work. Among his many activities and projects at Sony have been digital video recording, video bit rate reduction, digital image processing, digital audio, and metadata and file/stream formats. Wilkinson has participated in many standards activities in the SMPTE, AES, and EBU. He was a prolific member of the EBU/SMPTE Task Force and is very active within SMPTE engineering committees on the follow-up work now being undertaken, with particular emphasis on metadata and file/stream formats. He is chairman of the File interchange working group of Pro-MPEG (recently joined by members of the AAF Association and the EBU). Wilkinson is a Fellow of the SMPTE and member of the IEE and AES. In 1995, he was awarded the Alexander M. Poniatoff Gold Medal for Technical Excellence by the Society.
Bruce DevlinSnell & Wilcox Ltd., Petersfield, Hants, U.K.
bio
Bruce Devlin is the principal research and innovation engineer at Snell & Wilcox. He graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1986 and has been working in the broadcast industry ever since. He joined the BBC Research Department working on radio-camera systems before moving to France where his work on sub-band and MPEG coding led to the design of a satellite newsgathering chipset. In 1993, Devlin joined Snell & Wilcox where he initiated the company's work on compression coding. He holds several patents in the field of compression, has written international standards on MPEG interoperability, and leads collaborative projects towards the creation of an international standard for broadcast file interoperability. He is editor and document controller of the MXF File Format Specification.
Copyright: © 2002 Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Inc.

Bibliographic Reference(s)

1. Pro-MPEG Forum: www.pro-mpeg.org . EXTERNAL
2. AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) Association: www.AAFassociation.org . EXTERNAL
3. SMPTE 336M-2000, Television—Data Encoding Protocol Using Key-Length-Value. EXTERNAL
4. SMPTE RP210–2001, Metadata Dictionary Contents. EXTERNAL
5. EBU/SMPTE Task Force for Harmonized Standards for the Exchange of Program Material as Bit-streams, Final Report—Sept. 1998 : www.smpte.org and www.ebu.ch . EXTERNAL
6. SMPTE 326M-2000, Television—SDTI Content Package Format (SDTI-CP). EXTERNAL
7. G-FORS: www.g-fors.com . EXTERNAL
8. NUGGETS: www.ist-nuggets.tv . EXTERNAL

Source Data (JSON)

Full registry record with provenance metadata. Open directly: /api/doc/10.5594-J18346.json

Reference Tree

Explore all references and references to this document, as a navigable tree.

Open Reference Tree

Reference this Doc

Plain text (ISO 690 compliant)

Preview:

Jim Wilkinson and Bruce Devlin; The Material Exchange Format (MXF) and its Application, SMPTE Journal ( Volume: 111, Issue: 9, September 2002); SMPTE, 2002. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J18346

Snippet:

Jim Wilkinson and Bruce Devlin; The Material Exchange Format (MXF) and its Application, SMPTE Journal ( Volume: 111, Issue: 9, September 2002); SMPTE, 2002. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J18346

HTML (ISO 690 compliant)

Preview:

Snippet:

<span class="citation">Jim Wilkinson and Bruce Devlin; <cite>The Material Exchange Format (MXF) and its Application</cite>, SMPTE Journal ( Volume: 111, Issue: 9, September 2002); SMPTE, 2002. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5594/J18346" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5594/J18346</a></span>

SMPTE's HTML Pub

Preview:

Jim Wilkinson and Bruce Devlin; The Material Exchange Format (MXF) and its Application, SMPTE Journal ( Volume: 111, Issue: 9, September 2002); SMPTE, 2002
doi: 10.5594/J18346
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/J18346

Snippet:

<li>
Jim Wilkinson and Bruce Devlin; <cite id="bib-10-5594-j18346">The Material Exchange Format (MXF) and its Application</cite>, SMPTE Journal ( Volume: 111, Issue: 9, September 2002); SMPTE, 2002
<span class="doi">10.5594/J18346</span>
</li>