Mezzanine Film Format Plugfest

The adoption of the Digital Cinema projection has opened new opportunities for the distribution of films. The digitization of commercial film collections and film heritage is developing rapidly. Up to now there has been no specific format for the interoperable exchange and conservation of cinematographic works with the highest required quality.

In February 2011, at the request of the French Centre National du Cinema, the Commission Supérieure Technique started to work on the technical recommendation CST-RT021. The goal of this recommendation is to ensure that the commercial exploitation of digitized cinematographic works on modern digital distribution channels is made possible with the required quality.

The first version of the CST-RT021-MFFS specification has been published. It has been designed to be consistent with current developing standards, specifically the SMPTE Interoperable Master Format (Technical Committee 35 PM). The expert group led by CST is proposing that film laboratories, audio-visual equipment manufacturers and all interested parties participate in a Plugfest to test the specification.

This event will allow testing the wrapping, encoding of image and sound and colour coding detailed in the CST-RT021-MFFS, in order to ensure the interoperability of commercial solutions.

Source: ETSI