Using IMF for International Distribution? What Does That Mean?

Bruce Devlin, Raoul Cospen

IMF has nothing to do with the International Monetary Fund. It is an application specification (Interoperable Mastering Format) of the Material eXchange Format (MXF) being developed within SMPTE. The goal is to create a delivery format that meets the business needs of shipping versioned content across a country and around the world. This paper is presented in three parts: (1) a review of IMF technology and how it works, (2) a review of IMF workflows that could exist when an IMF ecosystem exists, and (3) some of the savings that might be realized by using IMF. The paper consider not only the file formats and processes, but also the preservation of multiplatform captions, metadata, and media life cycles within media asset management systems as well as the benefits that can be achieved by considering versioning from the initial concept of a program.

Print ISSN
Electronic ISSN
2160-2492
Published
2016-01
Content type
Original Research
Keywords
frame rate, conversion, files, OTT, versioning
DOI
10.5594/j18661