INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR STANDARDISATION
ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE NORMALISATION
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
CODING OF MOVING PICTURES AND AUDIO

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
N3047
Dec 1999 / Maui, HI, USA

Title: Press Release of the 50th MPEG Meeting

MPEG-4 Version 2 Final

MPEG Issues Call for 'Textual Format'

Maui, HI, USA, 12 December 1999 – At the 50^th MPEG meeting in Maui, Hawaii, USA, MPEG-4 Version 2 achieved the status of 'Final Draft International Standard'. This means Version 2 is final. Version 2 adds new tools and profiles to Version 1. In the visual area V.2 adds 3D Mesh compression, body animation at very low rates and better compression tools for conventional video. In Audio, V.2 adds more error resilience and low delay tools. To the Systems part of the standard, V.2 adds the MP4 file format, MPEG-J(ava) API's, new audio spatialization tools and ways to include 'textures' (screens) from other applications into an MPEG-4 scene. Also, V.2 includes a specification of how to carry MPEG-4 data streams and scene description on MPEG-2 Systems.

MPEG has issued a call for a textual format for MPEG-4. This textual format should complement the current binary specification, and is meant to ease the exchange of MPEG-4 content among authors. As much of MPEG-4's scene description is based on VRML, this format will be developed jointly with the Web3D consortium, the consortium that develops the VRML standards. The answers to the Call will be evaluated during the March 2000 meeting in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands.

MPEG-21 is a new work item , initiated in Maui. MPEG-21 looks at the delivery of electronic content, trying to fit together the many pieces of the puzzle that already exist. Based on this 'big picture' MPEG will see if additional MPEG specifications and standards are needed. An open workshop with many participants from industrial fora is planned for 20 and 21 March, co-located with the MPEG meeting.

The Version 2 coding tools have undergone a performance verification test for coding of monophonic audio signals in the range of 6 kbit/s to 64 kbit/s and stereophonic audio signals in the range of 64 kbit/s to 96 kbit/s. The coding tools tested were Harmonic and Individual Lines plus Noise (HILN) coding, Bit Sliced Arithmetic Coding (BSAC), Low Delay Advanced Audio Coding (AAC LD) and the Error Robustness tools comprising Error Resilience (ER), and Error Protection (EP). It was found that, relative to Version 1 tools, Version 2 tools provide new capabilities (parametric signal representation, allowing independent speed and pitch modification, fine step bit rate scalability, very low communications delay, and robustness to channel errors) while still providing comparable audio quality and comparable levels of compression.

The work on MPEG-4 is not completed with Version 2; more additions are coming. An important new feature is the 'FlexTime model', an advanced synchronization model that will permit synchronization of multiple streams and objects, such as video, audio, text, graphics or even complete programs, originating from multiple sources. The most immediate advantage will be for emerging Internet, enhanced broadcast or mixed Internet/broadcast applications where multiple sources need to be synchronized at the consumer device. The FlexTime model lets content producers specify simple temporal relationships among selected MPEG-4 objects, such as "CoStart," "CoEnd," and "Meet." They can also specify flexibility constraints for MPEG-4 objects, as if the objects were on 'stretchable springs'. This allows synchronization among multiple objects according to the specified temporal relationships, while stretching or shrinking them in time, if necessary within specified bounds.

The MPEG-4 tools for fine-granularity scalability (i.e. scalability with small steps) have been proven to be efficient and stable in a standalone environment. Further research is ongoing with respect to the stability in combination with other MPEG-4 tools (especially Temporal Scalability, which is required for streaming applications). The Video Group expects a stable solution by March 2000, such that an amendment could be initiated at that time. The present Working Draft 3.0 containing these tools is publicly available at the MPEG Web site (see below).

Following many claims about fantastic new compression schemes for moving video, MPEG has decided to issue a 'Call for Evidence'. Parties that believe to hold technology that outperforms MPEG-4 are invited to bring or submit evidence to the Bejing (July 2000) meeting. If the evidence is convincing enough, MPEG may decide to schedule formal subjective tests, and, depending on the outcome, it may proceed with standardizing such new compression technology. Although MPEG is eager to learn about better coding schemes, no convincing evidence has been seen despite of the many claims. MPEG assumes no significantly better compression methods exist, until such evidence is delivered.

MPEG-7

The MPEG-7 Standard will be issued in 7 parts: 1) Systems, 2) Description Definition Language, 3) Visual, 4) Audio, 5) 5. Multimedia Description Schemes, 6) Reference software and 7) Conformance. All of these parts (expect Conformance) went to the first stage of Working Draft in Maui. After a number of further WD releases, these parts are planned to go to Committee Draft in October 2000, the first stage that will be balloted by National Standardization Bodies.

Experiments for further exploration and optimization have been defined for the Visual features color, texture, motion and shape. Also, a large number of validation and core experiments. Validation experiments take MPEG-7 technology and apply it to 'real-world problems' (audiovisual databases, office usage, TV-related applications, etc.). Core Experiments compare multiple competing proposals, with the aim of choosing among them.

MPEG-2

The amendment that defines transport of MPEG-4 streams on MPEG-2 Systems was approved. Another amendment was approved that defines "Synchronized Download Services, Opportunistic Data Services and Resource Announcement in Broadcast and Interactive Services".

A new amendment was started to enable backward compatible carriage of extra display information in MPEG-2 Video streams. This has become necessary because MPEG-2 is increasingly being used in new (computer) environments. The amendment covers e.g. information about 'valid regions', pan-scan information, frame/filed duration. The amendment also clarifies usage of the existing syntax to signal, e.g., progressive display.

Future MPEG meetings will be held in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands (20-24 March 2000), Beijing, China (July 2000), France (October 1999), Israel (January 2001).

For further information about MPEG, please contact:

Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione (Convenor of MPEG)
CSELT
Via G. Reiss Romoli, 274
I-10148 Torino, ITALY
Tel.: +39 11 228 6120; Fax: +39 11 228 6299
Email: leonardo.chiariglione@cselt.it

or

Rob Koenen (Chairman MPEG Requirements Group)
KPN Research, Netherlands
tel. +31 70 332 5310
fax +31 70 332 5567
Email: r.h.koenen@research.kpn.com

This press release and much other MPEG-related information can be found on the MPEG homepage:

http://www.cselt.it/mpeg

The MPEG homepage has links to other MPEG pages, which are maintained by some of the subgroups. It also contains links to public documents that are freely available for download to non-MPEG members.

Journalists that wish to receive MPEG Press Releases automatically can contact Rob Koenen.

Information about the Web3D consortium and VRML (the Virtual Reality Modeling Language) can be found at:

http://www.web3d.org

For more information, check the full Press Release of the 50th MPEG Meeting.