Report of the meeting of the SC-02-12 Working Group on Audio Applications of Networks of the SC-02 Subcommittee on Digital Audio, held in New York, NY, USA, 2017-10-20.
The meeting was convened by chair Morten Lave.
The formal notice on patent policy was read.
The report of the previous meeting, held in Berlin, Germany, 2017-05-21, were approved as written.
The agenda was approved.
Projects assigned to this group but not mentioned here had no action requested or required - see www.aes.org/standards/meetings/project-status.cfm for details.
Open Projects:
AES64-R: Review of AES64-2012, AES standard for audio applications of networks - Command, control, and connection management for integrated media
It was reported that the few customers already using AES64 have no investment in keeping it a standard. Lave will initiate a 4 week comment period on retiring AES64 as it is superseded by AES70.
AES-X226 AES67 protocol implementation
This project will be closed when the new revision of AES67 is approved as it will contain the conformance statements which are the scope of this project.
AES70-1-R Review of AES70-1-2015: AES standard for audio applications of networks (framework)
AES70-2-R Review of AES70-2-2015: AES standard for audio applications of networks (class structure)
AES70-3-R Review of AES70-3-2015: AES standard for audio applications of networks (TCP/IP networks)
The AES70-1..3-R review of the AES70 standard is ongoing and maintained by SC-02-12-L. The group met before this meeting in Berlin and documents are available in the repository.
Berryman reported that the SC-02-12-L task group has received recommendations for a revision. It has reached a stable point and a feature list referencing all the changes to the existing standard has been uploaded together with the revision.
There is one philosophical point outstanding which is time sensitive execution of commands. At the moment AES70 does not support that. During discussions a number of ramifications have been identified. The resolution is:
1) Look for existing standard solutions doing this
2) Look at existing proprietary solutions
3) Do it from scratch but not in this new revision.
A reasonable target for a finalized revision draft is the end of this year.
The group is also looking into whether it should have classes for representing metadata (not streaming but file based) and tunnel it as XML. A suggestion came up during the meeting about not limiting the representation to XML and allowing other representations such as Jason. This issue is not considered for the upcoming revision though.
The effort to have a microphone profile created is still ongoing and not target for the upcoming revision. (I don’t believe profiles are targeted for the standard anyways but for recommended practices).
AES67-R - Review of AES67-2015 High-performance streaming audio-over-IP interoperability
The SC-02-12-M task group had submitted a revision for review. During the review so issues were discovered. These issues have been resolved and a new draft will be published for review by the SC-02-12.
It was also reported that after having completed 3 plug-fests the group is trying to schedule a 4th. The next one should include video. It could potentially be at the Houston FOX facility. A data has not been settled on yet but the aim is January-February 2018.
X243 – project to produce a recommended practice, Using AES70 for connecting AES67 streams.
This project has been discussed in this forum before but it has not been decided whether this project should reside in SC-02-12M or SC-02-12L.
It has been agreed that SC-02-12-M is looking at it but it does not have an official home. It was reported that AES70 has done their work with the generic CM-3 connection management object. The OCA Alliance has created an AES67 profile and now it is up to SC-02-12M to potentially adapt it.
As projects are not required to have a task group the project will simply be assigned to SC-02-12.
AES-X238 Media network directory architecture
A call for comments was sent out in August. Only one comment was received so this has not caught enough people’s attention. The comment period will be extended to the end of the year.
AES-X242 Streaming audio metadata over IP
The proposal was presented and is available on the reflector. During the discussion it was noted that this could be an opportunity for a joint AES/SMPTE standard. It will be brought up in the informal liaison with SMPTE.
This project currently has no home and the SC-02 will decide on that shortly. A task group will be created mainly to isolate reflector traffic. It will likely be SC-02-12R. The scope is already done and the intend of the project is to produce a standard.
The SC-07-01 which is the working group on Audio metadata will receive a formal announcement when the new task group is created.
AES-R16 AES Standards Report - PTP parameters for AES67 and SMPTE ST 2059-2 interoperability
Published and to be marked as completed
Liaisons:
AES-X075 Liaison with IEC TC100 for IEC 61883
To be retired
Liaison with MPEG
Nothing to report.
Liaison with IEC62379-1
No further progress since Berlin.
Liaison with Ethernet AVB related working groups
The process is ongoing to establish an informal liaison with the AES67 group within the AVNU Alliance.
Liaison with mobile
The 5th generation of mobile is getting a lot of hype. 3PP has a release every year, they are ready to release the new radio, more bits through the ether (release 15), release 16 which is in the early stages is about network bandwidth slicing.
Release 17, could be interesting, work starts in 2019, there is a good chance that this will be about using the bits more intelligently, lower latency and fixing mobile problems with IP which would likely be the same problems identified when doing audio over IP. Early days yet though but interesting to follow where it goes.
Strengthen liaison with SMPTE
Currently have an informal liaison with SMPTE which could be strengthened going forward.
Consider updates to move SMPTE ST 2059 and AES standards on synchronization closer.
Maybe try to publish at the same time. Kevin Gross continues to participate in that group.
New Business:
Regarding the IP showcase and JT-NM. Olsen and Holden have been active in pushing IBC and NAB and raising awareness. Unfortunately AES67 was completely left out of the showcase. The group has recognized that this is an oversight and they seek to correct that.
The showcase from IBC is being done in a small format at the upcoming SMPTE meeting. Unfortunately, there was too short notice to do a similar one at the co-located AES/NAB show (this convention) but the target is to do one next year at this location doing the 2018 co-located AES/NAB conference and to make sure Audio over IP (AES67) get included.
The group decided to propose R12 and R15 for stabilization.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be scheduled in conjunction with the AES 144th Convention, to be held 23 to 26 May 2018 in Milan, Italy.
