Report of the meeting of the SC-07-01 Working group on Audio Metadata held in New York, NY, US, 2017-10-20.
The meeting was convened by chair Tormod Værvågen.
Attendees were Paul Jessop, Tom Duffy, Jeff Berryman, David Ackerman, Charles Van Winkle, Paul Treleaven, Kent Terry, Kazuho Ono, Junichi Yoshio, Adam Olson, Jeff Willens, Tormod Værvågen, Richard Cabot, Chris Chambers - by electronic link, Ultan Henry - by electronic link, Mark Yonge - by electronic link
The agenda and the report of the previous meeting, held in Berlin, Germany, 2017-05-22, were approved as written.
AES31-4-R Review of AES31-4-2015: AES standard for network and file transport of audio - XML Implementation of Audio Decision Lists
Scope: This document specifies the mapping between EDML elements, described in AES31-3, and their XML counterparts described in the included schema. The complete schema is included along with an XSLT document which provides a reference transform back to EDML for backwards compatibility.
AES31-4-2015 published, 2016-02-08 – No further comments
AES57-R Review of AES57-2011, AES standard for audio metadata - audio object structures for preservation and restoration
Scope: To collect information on all metadata issues pertaining to digital audio objects and all aspects of the digital documentation of digital audio objects. This scope includes field structures to describe and provide access to the audio content contained in digital files. It includes transfer, preservation and restoration information.
AES57-2011 reaffirmed 2017 - No further comments
AES60-R Review of AES60-2011, AES standard for audio metadata - Core audio metadata
Status: Revise to harmonize with EBU T3293 V1.8
Still concerns that some part of the technical metadata descriptions and documentation strings in the EBU T3293 schema might be ambiguous, but no examples given. This is especially in the description of the new EBU audio model.
The group will check the extend of this problem and propose changes to the EBU T3293 schema accordingly with the goal to minimise the problem.
EBU Core is defined by a normative xml schema, with a guidance document. Same situation with AES57, and the way this was done was explained.
There was consensus that this can work also for AES60.
Development Projects:
AES-X098C Administrative metadata for audio objects - Process history schema
Scope: To collect information on all metadata issues pertaining to digital audio objects and all aspects of the digital documentation of digital audio objects. This scope includes field structures to describe and provide access to the audio content contained in digital files. It includes transfer, preservation and restoration information.
After a long period of work, this document has never reach the state of being ready for publication and the project was supposed to be closed.
The standard has some overlap with other descriptive metadata standards, and the chair T. Værvågen propose to model X098C as an extension of AES 60/EBU core/EBU CCDM before next meeting.
AES-X155 AES standard for audio metadata - Production recording metadata set (iXML)
Scope: This document specifies a format for communicating file- and project-based production metadata between various stages of production and post production workflow. It may also have utility in other areas. The format, iXML, uses the XML standard for communication of tagged metadata. The XML-formatted metadata may be written to a data chunk inside a Broadcast Wave file, such as AES31-2, or some other suitable file type. iXML standardises the interchange of production information, and provides an extensible framework to add new private or public data as needs develop, while permitting the specification to be expanded in a consistent and compatible manner.
Deferred to 2017/18 to await harmonization with updated AES60.
AES-X224 Best Practices for the Management of Embedded Metadata in Audio Files
Scope: To create a guide for manufacturers of audio hardware, software and computer platforms describing best practices for the management of metadata embedded in audio files.
No work has been done with this since the last meeting. It was discussed how the group can involve more people, like students, that can work on this document.
Liaisons:
No further liaisons to discuss.
New Projects:
No new projects.
New business:
There was a brief discussion around the table about the unstandardized MD5 chunk in BWF. Awaits a written description on the reflector.
The next meeting will be scheduled in conjunction with the AES 144th Convention in Milan, May 2018
