[M4IF News] MPEG Industry Forum to Promote All Emerging MPEG Standards

Tue Jul 8 11:56:07 EDT 2003

New Readers,
M4IF just issued a press release on the expansion of its scope. See below.
The release can be found on the business wire, here:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?bw.070803/231895538
The release is also on our website:
http://www.mpegif.org/public/documents/vault/mp-out-30049.php
Best Regards,
Rob Koenen
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MPEG Industry Forum to Promote All Emerging MPEG Standards
Business Editors/High-Tech Writers
SAN RAMON, Calif. & GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 2003--
MPEG-4 Industry Forum (M4IF) Expands Scope to Include MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 and
Changes Its Name to MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF) 
At its Annual Meeting in Montreal on 27 June, the MPEG-4 Industry Forum
(M4IF), an industry-based MPEG standards advocacy group, unanimously
approved expanding its scope to include the promotion of the MPEG-7 and
MPEG-21 standards. Starting on July 1st, the first day of the Forum's new
membership year, M4IF's official name is "MPEG Industry Forum" (MPEGIF). The
Forum will continue the M4IF name, website and logo for its MPEG-4
activities. MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 community members helped prepare the
necessary changes to MPEGIF's Statutes.
MPEGIF's goal has been updated to read: "To further the adoption of MPEG
Standards, by establishing them as well accepted and widely used standards
among creators of content, developers, manufacturers, providers of services,
and end users."
Building on M4IF's success as a focal point for MPEG-4 developments and
information, the decision to expand its scope came from the membership's
desire for a single, strong organization to educate industry on the benefits
and synergies of the MPEG standards. MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 are complementary to
MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, not their successors.
MPEGIF decided to maintain the same $3,000 USD annual fee ($300 USD for
not-for-profits) for all of its members, regardless of their area of
interest, and now accepts membership applications from companies and
organizations working on MPEG-7 and MPEG-21.
MPEGIF will expand its current marketing efforts to reflect its new scope.
MPEG-4 will remain the primary focus of most members, and the Forum will
continue to market the M4IF brand name and the MP4 logo. MPEGIF is building
MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 web presence modelled after the popular www.m4if.org
website.
The 4th "Workshop and Exhibition on MPEG-4" (WEMP) is scheduled for Spring
2004 in Europe, under the working title "Workshop and Exhibition on Emerging
MPEG Technologies." Like MPEGIF, its expanded focus will cover the emerging
MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 standards, as well as the new Advanced Video Coding
standard (AVC, also known as H.264 and MPEG-4 AVC).
"I am excited that, with our expansion, we have fulfilled the wish expressed
by our membership and industry over a year ago," said MPEGIF President Rob
Koenen. "Our constituency strongly believes in the MPEG standards which,
together with other open international standards, provide highly valued
interoperability to end-users and industry."
About MPEGIF
MPEGIF represents almost 100 companies from diverse industries evenly
distributed across North America, Europe and Asia, addressing MPEG adoption
issues that go beyond the charter of ISO/IEC MPEG. Activities of the forum
include marketing, a comprehensive MPEG-4 interoperability program
(including AVC), logo certification, presence at trade shows, several
working groups and an annual conference. For more information visit:
http://www.mpegif.org.
About MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is the interactive coding standard for all digital multimedia
platforms. Developed by the "Moving Picture Experts Group" that designed
MPEG-2 (the digital television standard), MPEG-1 and MP3. Object-based and
extending beyond video and audio, MPEG-4 supports rich, interactive,
standards-based multimedia from low bandwidths to transparent quality.
About MPEG-7
MPEG-7 is a recently finalized MPEG standard for description of multimedia
content. It will be used for indexing, cataloging, advanced search tools,
program selection, smart reasoning about content and more. The standard
comprises syntax and semantics of multimedia descriptors and descriptor
schemes. MPEG-7 is an important standard because it allows the management,
search and retrieval of ever-growing amounts of content locally stored,
on-line and in broadcasts.
About MPEG-21
MPEG-21 is an emerging MPEG standard describing how different elements to
build an infrastructure for the delivery and consumption of multimedia
content -- existing or under development -- work together. MPEG-21 addresses
management of and access to content.
MPEG-21 includes a universal declaration of multimedia content, tools
facilitating the dynamic adaptation of content to the delivery network and
to consumption devices and conditions, and various tools for making Digital
Rights Management more interoperable.
    --30--PW/sf*
    CONTACT: MPEGIF
             Martin Jacklin, +41 (79) 291 1882 (Media, Switzerland)
             martin.jacklin   m4if.org
             Paul Ritchie, 925/275-6654 (Executive Director, USA)
             paul.ritchie   m4if.org
    KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
    INDUSTRY KEYWORD: SOFTWARE E-COMMERCE INTERNET ELECTRONIC
GAMES/MULTIMEDIA
    SOURCE: MPEG Industry Forum
tel. +1 408 855 6891
gsm. +1 408 823 7512