Advanced Television

SMPTE publishes ASPEN

April 8, 2016

The ASPEN Community has announced that ASPEN has achieved a significant milestone as it has been published by Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), a specialist in motion-imaging standards and education for the communications, media, entertainment, and technology industries. Adaptive Sample Picture Encapsulation (ASPEN), which was submitted to SMPTE as a Registered Disclosure Document (RDD 37) is now published in the SMPTE digital library.

ASPEN is an open framework that enables independent flows for video, audio, and metadata in an IP-based broadcast and media facility. ASPEN expands on the MPEG-2 Transport Stream (IEC 13818-1 or ITU-T Rec. H.222.0) standard to include uncompressed UHD/3G/HD/SD video over TS. The ASPEN framework also utilises open standards for transporting audio (SMPTE ST 302) and metadata (SMPTE ST 2038). SMPTE 2022-2 is used to encapsulate the transport streams into IP.

“The ASPEN framework takes advantage of IP to allow for independent video, audio, and metadata flows while utilising the proven MPEG-2 Transport Stream architecture to enable facilities to move to IP today,” said Mo Goyal, co-chair of ASPEN Community. “The publication of the RDD-37 also enables the ASPEN Community to promote interoperability, and encourages others to participate, to provide the industry a comprehensive open format solution.”

“As the number of global installations continues to grow, achieving this milestone is very exciting. The publication of the SMPTE RDD-37 reinforces our commitment to supporting open-formats in the IP transition. Driven by business and competitive decisions, a great many of the leading media companies in the world have already installed and launched services utilising our IP-based systems. Our customers cannot stall or pause in their competitive environment; they need to execute quickly and carefully. ASPEN is the open framework that enabled that to happen. The fact that it is not only an open format but a published format within SMPTE, is great news to all of the current users and the industry at large!” said Romolo Magarelli, CEO of Evertz.

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