News:

Context

Professional media assets, including audio-visual masters for television and motion pictures, are increasingly being stored in the cloud.

There is a corresponding growing interest in building web applications that allow end-users to manipulate these assets, e.g. editing, quality checking, versioning, timed text authoring, etc. While the web platform has evolved to support consumer media applications, professional applications require additional capabilities, including precise timing, high-fidelity timed text, efficient media processing solutions, wide color gamut and high-dynamic range, etc.

What is the purpose of this workshop?

The workshop connects the web platform and the professional media production communities and explores evolutions of the Web platform to address professional media production requirements, including:

  • Using Web technologies, like WebCodecs, WebGPU, and Web Audio for professional media production
  • Understand the unique performance and format requirements of professional media production workflows
  • Identify gaps in the web platform and standardization opportunities

The workshop is scoped to professional media production using the web platform, including editing, quality control, grading/color correction, dailies, visual effects, sound, mastering, translation and servicing. Cloud-based processes and desktop applications that do not use the web platform are out of scope. Similarly, applications that do not manipulate the content such as file sharing applications are out of scope.

Which topics will be covered?

We welcome proposals on topics at the intersection between Web and media production. The following topics have been proposed so far. Please submit a pull request or raise an issue on GitHub to suggest further workshop topics. You may also email François Daoust <fd@w3.org>.

  • Use cases for professional media production, e.g. localization, accessible essence authoring, quality check (QC), mastering, manufacturing, etc.
  • Support for professional media technologies:
  • Applying existing/upcoming Web technologies to professional media production scenarios: WebGPU, WebGL, WebAssembly, WebCodecs, WebRTC Encoded Media, Web Audio, etc.
  • Use of a Web application for client-side media editing versus use of a Web application for remote desktop access.
  • Accurate essence synchronization, frame accuracy for video and sample accuracy for audio.
  • Latency management when operating on media assets stored in the cloud through a Web based interface, as well as in live media production workflows.
  • Access to client capabilities, e.g. display capabilities.
  • Application of visual effects in real time.
  • Content security, including use of fine-grained access controls, content encryption and forensic marking, so as to track user interaction with in-production content and allow attribution of leaks.
  • Metadata creation and management in production workflows, including metadata about content provenance and authenticity.
  • With the awareness that tracking, attribution, and authenticity proofs, as above, can pose privacy harms, particularly outside of professional use cases, mechanisms for limiting their use outside of professional contexts, making it clear when they're in use, and making them opt-in.
  • Compatibility with legacy systems and standards, e.g. timecode.
  • Requirements for live and packaged media workflows.
  • Audio and video contribution using web technologies, e.g. WebRTC or WebTransport.

In media production scenarios, the term essence represents perceivable data that compose media assets, including picture, sound, timed text, and other forms of data that can be directly perceived.

How can I attend?

The attendance is free for all invited participants and is open to the public, whether or not W3C/SMPTE members.

Please register for the event before 5 November 2021 to be notified of the videos availability, of the forum set up to facilitate discussion among registered participants, and of the live sessions logistics. The Program Committee will only accept participants whose registration data shows relevant to the topic of the workshop.

This workshop, as other W3C meetings, operates under its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

How can I suggest a presentation?

To submit a talk for the workshop, please refer to our information for speakers.

What is W3C?

W3C is a voluntary standards consortium that convenes companies and communities to help structure productive discussions around existing and emerging technologies, and offers a Royalty-Free patent framework for Web Recommendations. We focus primarily on client-side (browser) technologies, and also have a mature history of vocabulary (or “ontology”) development. W3C develops work based on the priorities of our members and our community.

What is SMPTE?

SMPTE is a global society of media professionals, technologists and engineers collaborating for the advancement of all things technical in the motion picture, television and digital media industries. SMPTE is also an international standards organization, with standards, recommended practices and engineering guidelines that touch nearly every piece of motion-imaging content consumed by billions of viewers worldwide.

Program Committee

Chairs

  • Pierre-Anthony Lemieux (MovieLabs)
  • Chris Needham (BBC)

Committee

  • Paul Adenot (Mozilla)
  • James Cain (Grass Valley)
  • Hongchan Choi (Google)
  • Steve Cronan (5th Kind)
  • Chris Cunningham (Google)
  • François Daoust (W3C)
  • Bruce Devlin (SMPTE)
  • Qiang Fu (Bilibili)
  • Jim Helman (MovieLabs)
  • Paul Randall (AVID)
  • Steve Shapiro (The Walt Disney Studios)
  • Kevin Streeter (Adobe)
  • Ke Wu (Tencent Video)
  • Song Xu (China Mobile Migu)

Sponsor

Adobe

Interested in sponsoring the workshop?
Please check the sponsorship package.