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Team Comment on the "SMIL 2.0 Extension" Submission

W3C is pleased to receive the "SMIL 2.0 Extension for Professional Multimedia Authoring - Preliminary Investigation " Submission from Sony Corporation.

The SMIL 2.0 Extension for Professional Multimedia Authoring proposes several possible extensions to the current SMIL 2.0 modules.

The Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) enables simple authoring of interactive audiovisual presentations. SMIL 2.0, a W3C Recommendation is typically used for "rich media"/multimedia presentations which integrate streaming audio and video with images, text or any other media type.

Originally SMIL was designed for describing interactive multimedia on the Web. This proposal intends to seek out the possibility of SMIL for professional audio-video editing. Introducing SMIL-based content authoring into professional audio-video editing is also expected to enhance the possibility of SMIL-based contents on the Web.

Listing a number of requirements for professional multimedia authoring, possible solutions are proposed by adding new modules to SMIL and by extending the functionality of existing SMIL 2.0 modules.

The "SMIL 2.0 Extension" proposal covers the following areas of functionality:

• Extension of SMIL 2.0 Media Object Modules
  1. Professional Media Clipping
  2. Media Type Casting
  3. Media Track Identification and Destination
  4. Visual Area Clipping
  5. Media Transparency Modification
  6. Audio Level Control
• Extension of Timing and Synchronization Modules
  1. Media Time Destination
  2. Time Container Clipping
• Extension of Metainformation Module
  1. Support of any type of XML descriptions (e.g. MPEG7)
• Extension of Transition Effects Modules
  1. Audio Transition
  2. Effects on Time Container Elements
• Addition of new Transformation Effect Modules
  1. effects such as visualDeform, colorEffect, chromaKey, soundEffect, etc.

SMIL 2.0 Extension relates to the following W3C Activities

• SYMM(Synchronized Multimedia) Activity: This Activity hosted the SYMM Working Group for the specification of SMIL. It still hosts the the SYMM Interest Group as it serves as a pool of experts on multimedia synchronization, most of which have participated in the W3C SYMM Working Group
• HTML Activity: The HTML Working Group works to enable XHTML documents to include synchronized multimedia components, in particular to develop an XHTML+SMIL profile, and to enable the use of XHTML as an integral component of multimedia presentations.

Next Steps

The submission recommends to resume the SYMM Working Group to extent the current SMIL 2.0 Specification.

The work on SMIL 2.0 closed in the beginning of 2002. Therefore the submission will be brought to the attention of the SYMM Interest Group. This Group points out specific requirements in the area of multimedia for future work on SMIL in particular with respect to the relation between SMIL and other W3C Recommendations.

The Synchronized Multimedia Activity encourages the use of <symm@w3.org> for the discussion of future work. SMIL 2.0 Extension for Professional Multimedia Authoring is intended as a contribution to future work in this area and might be taken up by a future Working Group developing further features in the area of Synchronized Multimedia.

W3C members and other parties interested in SMIL are also encouraged to contact the submitter or to discuss this and other ideas on the mailing list <www-smil@w3.org> for possible future work.

Disclaimer: Placing a Submission on a Working Group/Interest Group agenda does not imply endorsement by either the W3C Team or the participants of the Working Group/Interest Group, nor does it guarantee that the Working Group/Interest Group will agree to take any specific action on a Submission.