The SMPTE Data Coding Protocol and Dictionaries

TLDR: This report will explain key aspects about the SMPTE metadata work including the use of the Key-Length-Value (K-L-V) data coding protocol and the metadata dictionary and suggest that broadcast and similar operations will make significant moves into remote file and ‘web’ style access to program material through networked connections to libraries and on-line servers.

Abstract: This report is a review of the work of the SMPTE to standardize the use of metadata in broadcast and related industries. It will explain key aspects about the SMPTE metadata work including the use of the Key-Length-Value (K-L-V) data coding protocol and the metadata dictionary. Much of the SMPTE work is coordinated with other ongoing metadata work in such fora as the EBU, IFTA and MPEG-7 as all sections of the content production industry recognize that coordination of metadata activities is vital for its future cooperative development. he metadata work started in late 1997 within the T EBUBMPTE Task Force which had a mandate to recommend the future directions of the broadcast industry based on the clear trends towards digital equipment and the storage and transmission of digital television. This was not focused on emission where there were other standards bodies, but on program production and cataloging. The Task Force published its final report in September 1998’ and this work has laid the foundations of the metadata standardization activities within SMPTE which are the subject of this overview report. Metadata has been used for many years in all forms of transmission and storage. In broadcast operations, clapperboards and tape labels provided the core metadata describing such key metadata types as ‘program name,’ ‘episode,’ ‘recording time,’ and other similarly important labeling information. More recently, tapes have been bar-coded and the bar-code linked to a computer database for use in tape library systems. But much of this work has been limited to localized operations and not easily transferable between organizations. With increasing digitalization of whole systems based on compressed video and audio, there has been a trend towards the use of networking technologies through the use of ethernet, fibre-channel, and ATM connections. This, and other trends, suggests that broadcast and similar operations will make significant moves into remote file and ‘web’ style access to program material through networked connections to libraries and on-line servers. For such a vision to materialize, users recognized that a common method of defining metadata structures and types was required and the result of this is the ongoing SMPTE work to standardize both the metadata items and the methods of transferring the metadata over connections between various equipment.