MPEG Industry Forum

A lot of news this week around Apple's release of its online music store, using MPEG-4 AAC audio coding. The popular iPod now supports AAC in MP4 file format. Many tools in the Apple ecosystem were released with support for MPEG-4 AAC. QuickTime 6 already supported the format. (Brief note on the side: MPEG AAC was developed by MPEG, not by Dolby. The wording in Apple's press release is unfortunate, leading to misrepresentation in the press.)

the 2003 edition of Broadcast Asia 2003, scheduled for June 17-20 in Singapore, has been cancelled. CommunicAsia2003 will also be cancelled. This is a severe blow to one of the Asian region’s most widely attended shows. Given the situation around SARS in Singapore and other parts of Asia, exhibitors and visitors alike had expressed concerns about their safety at the show. The next BroadcastAsia is scheduled to take place from 15-18 June 2004.

M4IF will hold its next (annual) membership meeting on 26 and 27 June in Montreal. Contact Paul Ritchie if you are a non-member interested in joining M4IF and want to sample this meeting. SARS concerns have been raised, and we are monitoring the situation closely. M4IF's Board emphasizes that no SARS cases have been reported in Montreal and that the city is 600 km. from Toronto.

Kind Regards,
Rob Koenen

For Members (Go To Member Part of Website)

M4IF Members can now advertise on M4IF's website with a modest but attractive 130x130 pixel banner. Three ads are already up. M4IF's website has well over 10,000 unique sessions weekly, and usage is still growing. Contact Peter Haighton for details.

Recent News on MPEG-4 (Archive of MPEG-4 News)

VBrick Systems Wins N+I ‘Best Of Interop’ [CRN, 01 May 03] - "VBrick Systems' VBXcast MPEG-4 video appliance was awarded the NetWorld Interop "Best Of Interop" Grand Prize in a competition that pitted products from hundreds of networking and wireless vendors against one another."
Video Chip Market Booms [Electronic News, 01 May 03] - "In terms of units, the MPEG-4 market will explode from 6 million units in 2002 to nearly 90 million in 2006, while the standard is becoming the de facto one for portable and streaming video applications, according to [research firm the Information Network]"
Apple's music: Microsoft's sour note? [CNET News, 30 Apr 03] - An analysis of the landscape of open standards vs. proprietary systems in the context of Apple's iTunes music store, which uses MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC).
X3D Interactive Profile For MPEG-4 Call For Implementations [Web3D Consortium, 29 Apr 03] - Late find, it's been up for a while.
Memory architecture gets focus from IMEC [EE Times, 29 Apr 03]
Apple Sticks With Akamai [boston.internet, 29 Apr 03] - "Akamai has the scalable infrastructure to support the incredible momentum surrounding QuickTime 6 and meet the growing demand for high-quality, MPEG-4 based content," said Philip Schiller, an Apple senior vice president."
Apple's Making Serious Music [siliconvalley.internet, 28 Apr 03]

Recent Member Press Releases (Archive of MPEG-4 Press Releases)

Via Licensing Expands Call for Essential MPEG-4 Audio Patents [Via Licensing, 29 Apr 03]
Apple Introduces New iPods [Apple, 28 Apr 03]
MPEG-4 Industry Executive Shawn Ambwani joins Nextreaming [Nextreaming Corporation, 28 Apr 03]
Apple Launches the iTunes Music Store [Apple, 28 Apr 03]

Other Recent Press Releases (Archive of MPEG-4 Press Releases)

Archos Ships Video AV120 and its Digital Video Recorder Module -- The Ultimate ... [Archos, 02 May 03]
mac:method Updates AACelerator With iTunes 4 Support [The Mac Observer, 02 May 03]
Totally Hip Releases LiveStage Professional 4.1 for Mac OS X, Adds ... [Totally Hip, 30 Apr 03]
Wildform Updates Flix Pro - Version 3.2 adds MPEG-4 import [Creative Mac, 30 Apr 03]

Upcoming events and M4IF conference calls (Full M4IF Event Calendar)

13 May 03 - M4IF Board Conference Call
15 May 03 - M4IF Interop WG Conference Call

05-08 May 03 - Streaming Media NY (Significant discount for M4IF members applies)
12-14 May 03 - KNK's MPEG-4 Seminars Sunnyvale, CA, USA
15 May 03 - KNK MPEG-7 Seminar, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
15-16 May 03 - TV Meets the Web, Amsterdam, NL (with panel on standards)
16 May 03 - Advanced Video Coding (H.264/MPEG-4) by KNK Seminars Sunnyvale, CA, USA
20-22 May 03 - Mediacast 2003, London, UK
17-20 June 03 - Broadcast Asia, Singapore IS CANCELLED
20 June 03 - KNK's AVC|H.264 Seminar, Toronto, Canada
26-27 June 03 - Annual M4IF meeting, Montreal, Canada
23-27 June 03 - Apple WWDC, San Francisco, US
21-25 July 03 - 56th MPEG meeting, Trondheim, Norway
17 July MPEG-4 Session at Macworld, San Francisco, CA, USA
11-22 Aug 03 - Audio Coding Workshop, Palo Alto, CA, USA
11-16 Sept 03 - IBC 2003, Amsterdam, Netherlands

We would like to make the Calendar more global. If you have other MPEG-4 events - wherever they are - please send name, date, place and link to [email protected]

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