国际货币基金组织:一个格式统治他们所有或只是一个格式?

The Interoperable Master Format (IMF) holds the promise of drastically reducing the number of different versions of a file that a video publisher needs to deliver to viewers—a promise so strong that the world’s leading video subscription service has been taking notice.

“A few years ago we discovered the Interoperable Master Format (IMF), a standard created by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE),克里斯·费特纳和布莱恩·肯沃西在一封电子邮件中写道 Netflix科技博客发帖 2016年末. “通过使用这个标准, Netflix is able to hold a single set of core assets and the unique elements needed to make those assets relevant in a local territory.”

“[Our global] supply chain needed an efficient way to vault our masters in the cloud that didn’t require a different version for every territory in which we have our service,费特纳和肯沃西写道.

那么，什么是IMF，它从何而来? 国际货币基金组织的好处和局限性是什么? 本文重点介绍了其中几个关键领域, including the use of an extensible markup language (XML) and the material exchange format (MXF), 作为IMF基础的音频和视频轨道容器格式.

“The goal behind IMF is to provide a single interchangeable master file format primarily for distribution,” 大卫Schleifer他是Primestream的首席运营官.

Schleifer, who provided a good bit of detail for last month’s article “MAM和DAM演化成云”， noted that Primestream strives to support the latest standards as a way to deliver new workflows and efficiencies their customers. 然而, he warned that IMF isn’t exactly a universal format when it comes to the acquisition and post-production processes.

“We do not currently see IMF as a format in the production process upstream from distribution,施莱弗说, ，而是作为最终产品的可交付物.”

理解IMF:点点滴滴

国际货币基金组织的一系列标准, 根据SMPTE, ，由传媒包装及交流委员会管理，下午35点. IMF是MXF和XML的超集, with the benefits of both in addition to the ability to move beyond MXF’s binary-based versioning (to what IMF refers to as the Composite Playlist, 或产线).

关于MXF的一个很好的概述，以及它与IMF的比较，可以在 Dalet的Bruce Devlin的博客文章. 这篇博文认为XML, 从微软文字处理软件到网站，它已经被广泛使用, 是一个更容易接近的选项来创建播放列表.

“There are maybe 20 or 30 really good MXF binary programmers in the world today,” writes Devlin. “XML更加通用, and there must be hundreds of thousands of top quality XML programmers out there.”

在本质上, IMF uses XML as a human-readable way to represent various content versions while, 据德夫林说, “maintaining the proven AS02 media wrapping to store the essence components.”

整个标准位于 2067年, 最近的版本被指定为2016年, 例如核心约束标准, 哪个是ST 2067-2:2016.

除了ST 2067-5的精华组件-包括音频, 基本元数据, 定时的文本, and video—the SMPTE family of IMF standards also maintains a series of profile lists (100-103, 以及关键的应用程序用例.

配置文件列表, 哪些是2014年最后更新的, 提供通用的图像或音频定义和宏, 以及常见的图像像素配色方案.

The applications are where the heavy lifting—or at least the previous thoughtful constructing of typical use cases for the IMF container format—is done.

例如, Application 2 is geared toward “studio applications where a TV or movie title is transformed into multiple content versions (airline edits, 特别版, 语言...) that are made available to multiple consumer distribution channels (internet, 光学媒体, 广播...) across multiple territories and over the span of many months to over a year.”

The Netflix Tech 博客 post explains one of the practical approaches to the Application 2 use case. 在他们的博客中, Fetner和Kenworthy指出，对于某些游戏来说, 比如netflix旗下的《欧洲杯在哪投注》系列, 视频资产在所有地区基本上是相同的, although key elements at the beginning and end of an 集 might change, 比如剧集后的标题序列.

“[W]e can hold the Primary AV and the specific frames that are different for, 说, 日本片名序列版本,费特纳和肯沃西写道. “This reduces duplication of assets that are 95 percent the same and allows us to hold that 95 percent once and piece it to the 5 percent differences needed for a specific use case.”

以IMF容器格式播放内容

而主要资产, 或本质, 国际货币基金组织集装箱中心的音频和视频, another powerful feature of the IMF family of standards is the ability to play back content.

ST 2067-3:2016 uses the underpinnings of XML to generate a CPL that acts as a “representation of a single version of a finished IMF composition (feature, 集, 预告片, 广告, 等.).”

The CPL contains the 信息 necessary to describe the composition and to synchronize its underlying essence for a series of use cases, 从播放或转码.

因为它使用XML, 它是可扩展的, 在播放列表的布局和新功能的添加方面, 也是人类可读的. As ST 2067-3:2016 currently stands, it is designed for file-based operations.

An example of a company seeing immediate benefit from IMF playback functionality is Prime Focus Technologies.

“PFT is a strong supporter of the Interoperable Master Format because it is aligned with two of our driving principles,” Ramki Sankaranarayanan领导他是Prime Focus Technologies的首席执行官兼创始人.

“The first of these is helping media enterprises better manage the business of content, and the second is using automation to boost efficiency and cost-effectiveness when syndicating across platforms, 地区, 和观众,Sankaranarayanan说.

Prime Focus has created an IMF-compatible player that provides the preview, review, and playback. 除了, 玩家可以分配, 通过流代理, 包括视频在内的CPL, audio, 和定时文本(e).g.，说明文字，字幕).

在国际货币基金组织储存资产

One area where IMF offers promise is the ability to move full packages of content around without requiring a relinking step that’s often necessary in many container formats.

参考Netflix技术博客, 以上, lowering overall storage requirements is a sizable benefit of avoiding duplication of assets.

但还有另一个好处, 其中IMF的作用几乎就像台式电脑上的文件夹, 在单个逻辑存储位置中保存多个资产.

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