HEVC to be carried in MPEG-2 Systems and AVC File Format standards

GENEVA, CH − The 100th Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 30 April to 4 May 2012.

MPEG promotes ARAF (Augmented Reality Application Format) to the CD level

During its 100th meeting, the “Augmented reality application format” standard, ISO/IEC 23000″‘13 (MPEG”‘A Part 13), was promoted to the Committee Draft level. This standard compiles and extends existing MPEG technologies enabling them to: (a) model and efficiently code dynamic, interactive 2D/3D scenes with both natural and synthetic media in a way that is suitable for streaming; (b) access local and remote media resources and support client scene updates transmitted by the server; and (c) represent data from sensors and actuators embedded in the terminal and its environment. This new standard continues MPEG’s tradition of serving the multimedia needs of MPEG constituencies, among which are the broadcasting and mobile industries. During the same meeting, MPEG initiated MPEG-A Part 14, “Augmented reality reference model”, a technical report aimed at providing a common understanding of the augmented reality domain, and at specifying the involved actors, terms of reference and use scenarios.

HEVC to be carried in MPEG-2 Systems and AVC File Format standards

Anticipating the strong demand for the HEVC standard in the commercial market immediately upon its finalization, MPEG has launched new projects to extend its widely used transport standards, MPEG-2 Systems and AVC file format, to carry HEVC. These new extensions, which are approved as draft amendments to each of the transport standards, will support new features included in HEVC and enable the efficient carriage of HEVC bitstreams for various applications. They are expected to reach final draft amendment status in April 2013, shortly after the HEVC specification reaches its final draft international standard status.

New edition of MPEG-2 Systems

One of the most successfully deployed standards from MPEG has reached a historical stage at the 100th MPEG meeting. MPEG-2 Systems, ISO/IEC 13818-1, first published in 1996 has been revised as the 4th edition. Responding to the continuous needs of industry, MPEG has produced 7 amendments for AVC, SVC, and MVC data, as well as for the support of stereoscopic content, since the 3rd edition which was published in 2006. The new 4th edition will consolidate these previously approved amendments to provide better clarity and reliability, and will be available at the ISO website soon.

Future MPEG meetings are planned as follows:

No. 101, Stockholm, SE, 16-20, July 2012
No. 102, Shanghai, CN, 15-19, October 2012
No. 103, Geneva, CH, 21-25, January 2013
No. 104, Incheon, KR, 22-26, April 2013