This standards meeting round was held as an online event. The working group meetings were held May 20th – 24th. The associated convention will be will be later than usual – 15th to 17th June in Madrid – details here.
The IABM has produced a report of the standards meetings that can be downloaded from this webpage (member login required). Below is a short Executive Summary of the meeting round.
A project that was started at the last meeting round will standardize the transport of high quality audio on UWB networks. The benefit of using UWB is high resolution and very low latency. An application area is wireless microphones because it has proved highly robust.
There are also a number of projects in the Audio Applications of Networks working group:
- AES67 – related projects. A substantial revision to AES67 was completed at the end of 2023, published early 2024. It is unlikely that further revision will take place in the near-term, though a list of proposed improvements still exists (if the proposers wish to take them forward).
- Audio Metadata Transport (for AES67 streams). This project is no longer held up waiting for a SMPTE metadata transport document on which it is based (ST 2110-41, now published). The project chair announced at this meeting that he will call a telecon very soon to resume the work.
- Open Control Architecture (OCA, AES70). A revision to the 3-part AES70 suite is posted for public call-for-comment here, closing 31st May. It includes substantial improvements that make the suite more robust and easier to understand. AES70 is becoming popular as a control protocol for audio-only applications but does not include video control, preventing it being a contender for our industry generally.
- A document on using AES70 for managing AES67 and ST 2110-30 Media Stream Connections has been completed and will go for public call-for-comment just after the main AES70 suite completes that process – probably mid-June, for 6 weeks. There is also a similar document for managing MILAN media stream connections (application outside of Broadcast and Media) and a NEW document is starting for managing Audinate Dante R connections.
A working group is documenting the characteristics of the various topologies of balanced analog audio interfaces to help preserve quality in interconnects and avoid damage when connecting to unbalanced equipment.
A working group on Digital Library and Archive Systems has been re-established and it met at this round. It is close to completing a standard on Digital Archiving of Professional Audio Production Formats, to avoid that information on analog formats being lost. We are monitoring its work in case it proves relevant for IABM members.
