Report of the meeting of SC-03-07 Working Group on Audio Metadata of the SC-06 Subcommittee on Network and File Transfer of Audio, held in Paris 2005-05-22

The meeting was convened by chair C. Chambers

The agenda and the report of the previous meeting, 2005-10-28, were accepted as written.

Development Projects

AES-X071: Liaison with SMPTE Registration Authority
Project scope: to formalize a working relationship with the SMPTE Registration Authority

Assigned to: SC-03-07, Initiated: 1997, Intent: Liaison, Target: Continuing Current goal: Status report, Goal date: Continuing

Status: The Secretary reported that the work on the metadata dictionary in W25 is nearing completion. A discussion ensued on the development of this dictionary and the importance of this to the AES standard work. Liaison continues.

AES-X114: Metadata review
Project scope: to study and report on the methods and techniques for attaching and implementing metadata through all aspects of interfacing real-time and file-transfer audio, including, where related to audio, other metadata related to other media. The scope includes metadata for professional recording, sound reinforcement, production, broadcasting, and transmission as well as the exchange of metadata and associated audio among different organizations. It also includes the development of techniques, such as UML, to aid the description of the relationships and flow of metadata requirements in an open and recognised way.

Assigned to: SC-03-07, Initiated: 2001-01, Intent: Review, Target: Continuing Current goal: Status report, Goal date: Continuing

Status: It was reported that AES52 has now been published. This standard provides a method to embed a unique ID into an AES3 audio stream. This will allow AES3 streams to be managed by media asset management systems as well as being positively identified within systems.

It was reported that the EBU have published Tech 3001, Metadata for non-tape based camcorders. This work will be maintained by the EBU P/MAG group. This document has links to show which items map into RP210 (the SMPTE metadata dictionary) and which also map into the P/META structure. Tech 3001 and RP210 were then discussed in some detail at the meeting, which are both available from their respective web sites. The meeting encouraged everyone interested in Media metadata to study these documents.

It was proposed that the AES could map many of the audio metadata requirements into the main body of the SMPTE dictionary and any audio metadata that does not map into the main part of the dictionary could be documented by the AES and registered in the "Class 13" area of the dictionary. The meeting agreed that the AES should pursue this as effort allows.

AES-X134: Core audio metadata XML definition
Project scope: "To study and produce a standardised set of XML tags, along with their definitions, that describes the core set of metadata to accompany professional audio when being transferred by file or streamed formats."

Assigned to: SC-03-07, Initiated: 2002-09-23, Intent: Report, Target: 2005 Current goal: PTD, Goal date: 2006-05

Status: PTD expected. It was proposed that the scope of this project should be amended to add "and to define these within the SMPTE metadata dictionary."

NRK discussed the proposals they had tabled earlier. This is Dublin core elements that are being mapped to EBU P/META attributes and is the subject of ongoing work. These could also be adopted by the AES if they were though useful for audio media production. NRK are hoping the get agreement from EBU P/MAG for their proposal to become a P/Meta sub-set. If this were accepted, the way the sub-set would be imported into XML would have to be studied but as P/Meta already has an XML representation, this could give some useful guidance.

It was hoped that a meeting could be held in October to look at this proposal in some detail to develop a basic structure for the AES.

It was also hoped that someone could be found to help push this work forward.

AES-X138: IFPI Liaison

Assigned to: SC-03-07, Initiated: 2003-03, Intent: Liaison, Target: Continuing Current goal: Status report, Goal date: Continuing

Status: Continuing

Liaisons

There is informal liaison with the EBU P/MAG group as at least one member of this group is also a member of that EBU group.

New Projects

No new projects were received or proposed.

New business

There was no new business.

The next meeting will be scheduled in conjunction with the AES 121st Convention in San Francisco, USA. 2006-10.