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…

Why this post? Because there are rumours spreading about a presumed “MPEG-Video collapse” and Brownian motion-like initiatives trying to remedy – in some cases by the very people who have contributed to creating the “crisis”. Who is the author of this post? Leonardo Chiariglione, the founder and chairman of MPEG, but I am writing in a personal capacity. Why is MPEG important? In its 30 years of operation MPEG has created digital media standards that have enabled the birth and…

I want my standing to be clear: at the age of 16 I was distributing European propaganda leaflets to my classmates. The decades since then did not pass in vain, but my position has not substantially changed. I would also like to tell you how I tackled mykids’ education: I spoke English to them, but in the family I spoke the local Piedmontese dialect. Why? Because I thought – and think – that we belong to a greater whole whose de…

Table of contents Introduction A little bit of history Video and audio generate a lot of bits More challenges for the future Even ancient digital media need compression There are no limits to the use of compression A bright future, or maybe not Acknowledgements Introduction People say that ours is the digital age. Indeed, most of the information around us is in digital form and we can expect that what is not digital now will soon be converted to that form. But…