When I was a kid and was free from school, I used to help my mother in a market place close to our town where she run a bench. Our primary task was to sell wares (of course). The task second in importance was to make sure that the wares on display did not “inadvertently” end up in the pockets of some onlookers. We, the sellers, applied the caveat venditor (let the seller beware) principle and bewared. I happened to…

2018/05/10 Thirty years ago this day, in Ottawa, ON, some 29 experts from 6 countries attended the 1st meeting of the Moving Picture Experts Group, to become universally known as MPEG. Twenty-five days ago, in San Diego, CA, 20 times the MPEG experts of the 1st meeting attended the 122nd MPEG meeting. These 30 years have been an incredible ride. MPEG’s mission is to produce digital media standards and MPEG did it through without exemption. Here are some facts MPEG…

MPEG has developed standards that are used daily by billions of people. A non exhaustive list includes MP3, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG-2 Systems and Video, Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MP4 File Format, DASH. Other MPEG standards were widely used in the past but their use is gradually fading out, such MPEG-1 Video, and MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2. This because MPEG is always ready to exploit the latest technology innovations to create new standards that offer new advantages because they…

In a now distant­ past companies used to be run by engineers. If a company had the right product – backed by good research and developed, indeed, by engineers – people would buy it. Then having a good product was not sufficient and many companies decided that the company had to be run by marketers. Then having a good marketing was not sufficient and so many companies decided that accountants should run them. Eventually many companies were run by lawyers…

Some readers of this blog may not remember - or be aware of what was - the world of media standards before MPEG came to the fore. Thirty years ago competences were scattered in ISO, IEC and ITU in ways that may appear illogical today but responded to the logic “I and my industry peers gather in one place and develop standards for our own needs”. For instance, there was a committee in charge of audio recording, another for cinematography…

In an earlier post I described the “crisis” and how it was created, and hinted at possible ways to solve this crisis and avoid possible other future crises in other areas. As I remain skeptical that the crisis will be overcome, I want to remove any doubt about who should be blamed for the failure, certainly not MPEG. About ISO (and IEC) The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), is an international non-intergovernmental organisation, made up of members from the national standards…