The IMF of Interoperable Master format is a standard developed by the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers®), the development body for motion-imaging standards. IMF represents a single, master file format used by businesses around the world for the distribution of video content. How are Dan Goman and his team at OWNZONES leveraging the format? By providing the media content supply chains and the media and entertainment industry with an efficient platform that uses it for efficient packaging and delivery of the content.
Multiple components package
IMF is made up of multiple components that create a whole IMF package. The package can roughly be divided into two types of files:
1) Master components
- Video files,
- Audio files,
- Data files (subtitles and closed captions),
- Dynamic metadata, and
2) Composition Playlist (CPL) - the human-readable XML similar to an Edit Decision List (EDL) which also references track files via UUID.
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What the IMF can do
The unparalleled IMF is all about providing content-creating businesses with a format that can be used to make tailored versions of the same content for different markets and audiences. Each market has its own rules and regulations and thanks to the elastic quality of the format, content owners and OTT service providers like Netflix can make compliant versions of the content in a timely manner.
With the IMF format, there is no need to create multiple master copies thanks to the ability to separate the requirements of each market. By creating individual CPLs that use master components as a basis, content creators and distributors can easily make versions fit for different audiences.
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Dan Goman and the future-proof solution
The brains behind the cloud-based solution for fast and effective delivery, storage, and localization of content, Dan Goman and his team believe that their state-of-the-art IMF solution will help content owners monetize their content faster.
Other benefits of the new SaaS platform are:
- It sets your content up for the future because the format and way of distribution provide the user with the flexibility, accessibility, and ability to create different versions of the content in the most time-efficient manner;
- Saves costs because IMF eliminates the extensive manual effort needed and means less overhead costs like software and on-prem server storage and workstations;
- Gives the user full control over the access and management of their content;
- Provides unmatching flexibility in terms of additional changes such as fixes and compliance edits and delivery to multiple and new destinations,
- Employs AI for live quality control also available for in-person QC.
All of these combined and without capital expenditure needed for on-prem servers result in up to 40% cost savings, according to one of the film distributors Dan Goman and OWNZONES are collaborating with.
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Final thoughts
In conclusion, adopting the IMF standards by the M&E industry is beneficial for all parties involved in content creation and distribution. Apart from reducing costs of transfer, storage, and content management, IMF makes the B2B content distribution workflow efficient timely which further results in the effective delivery of compliant content to targeted audiences.
