New Alliance for IP Media Solutions launched

A group of broadcast and media industry suppliers including Lawo, Grass Valley, Imagine Communications, Snell Advanced Media and Nevion have come together to form the Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS).

The new, independent trade association’s mandate is to bring IP solutions to market that offer ‘complete interoperability, are based on open standards, and integrate seamlessly into media workflow environments to foster industry innovation and efficiency.’

Its efforts will be focused on promoting the adoption, standardisation, development and refinement of open protocols for media over IP, with an initial emphasis on VSF TR-03 and TR-04, SMPTE 2022-6 and AES67.

As broadcasters and other media companies look to use IP workflows to speed and streamline the movement and management of increasingly complex content and adapt their businesses to better compete with other content options such as over-the-top (OTT), open standards are the key to protecting current investments and ensuring long-term interoperability.

Specifically, AIMS will prioritise three key strategies:

  • Initiatives that facilitate the education and adoption of open standards
  • Facilitation of activities that accelerate the development of solutions that support these open standards
  • Nurturing the creation of new standards by supporting standards bodies with participation and testing in real-world environments

Andreas Hilmer (pictured at IBC 2015), director of marketing and communications at Lawo, said: “AIMS’ support of open standards and technical recommendations such as TR-03, TR-04 and AES67 afford us an opportunity to eliminate the fragmentation of implementations that our industry has endured over the last 20 years – our chance to avoid repeating expensive and time-consuming mistakes of the past."

AIMS provides specific guidance in its bylaws to its members and to the media industry via the AIMS Roadmap. The organisation endorses an IP transition plan that includes support for SMPTE 2022-6, AES67 and VSF recommendations TR-03 and TR-04.

Membership in AIMS is available to all individuals and companies that support open standards and share a commitment to the group’s founding principles.

http://www.aimsalliance.org