Many people are familiar with audio and video codecs, but who knows how many other technologies are required to enable audio or video streaming? One such technology, largely unknown but nonetheless indispensable, is the Common Media Application Format (CMAF), developed by the leading standardization organization in the media world: MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). MPEG was honored with the Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award for the CMAF standardization in early December and colleagues from Fraunhofer IIS were amongst the awardees for their significant contributions to the CMAF development within the MPEG Systems Working Group.
The Common Media Application Format was developed by ISO/IEC SC 29 WG 11 (MPEG) to overcome the fragmented media streaming landscape at the time. In the 2010s, service providers needed to encode and package their content several times, for different devices and streaming protocols, e.g. Apple’s HLS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, or MPEG-DASH. CMAF defines a unified container, segmented mp4 files, as well as standardized coding constraints on the packaged media codecs (AVC, HEVC, xHE-AAC, MPEG-H Audio, …). Additional constraints on the container make CMAF suitable for switching, splicing, adaptive streaming etc. These files can then be streamed using any of the above streaming protocols, without the need to re-encode and re-package the content. This significantly reduces operating costs for streaming services (CDN, etc.), simplifies workflows and increases compatibility across devices in general. Today companies like Netflix, Disney+, or Hulu, among many others, have adopted CMAF into their production and distribution workflow.
Fraunhofer IIS has been part of the CMAF standardization since day one. As co-editor of the CMAF specification, we provided all media profiles for legacy AAC, xHE-AAC, and MPEG-H Audio, making sure that all MPEG Audio codecs are well fitted for adaptive streaming services that are based on CMAF. This work required close coordination among the experts, over the course of several MPEG meetings in many different countries, with lively discussions well into the night, until consensus could be reached.
During the award ceremony on December 4th in New York City, Ingo Hofmann, head of the Multimedia Transport Group at Fraunhofer IIS, was awarded the Emmy on behalf of the whole team at Fraunhofer IIS that contributed to the effort.
MPEG has previously received six Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). These brought technologies into the spotlight that deserve recognition, because without them today’s seamless AV streaming would not be possible. Fraunhofer played a central role in several of these developments, thereby significantly shaping the technical foundations for streaming and digital broadcast worldwide.
For more information, please have a look at the MPEG press release.
Images: Copyright: NATAS/Joseph Sinnott
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