About The Book

Standards are a vital element of broadcast infrastructure from acquisition right through to delivery and consumption - without them broadcast systems would be impossible to specify and manage.

Standards are the shared specifications by which broadcasters ensure that technology from different vendors will co-operate. However, there is a commonly held false assumption that two devices which state compliance with a particular standard will be compatible - the assumption is often false because many standards describe a collection of optional parameters which are open to different interpretation and implementation by vendors.

To make good use of standards, system designers & engineers need to understand what the standards contain and how they must be used.

By their nature many standards contain a level of technical detail which does not need to be understood to aide day-to-day system design and operation.

Some standards documents are not openly accessible. These articles extract and distil the information that is relevant to system designers & engineers and presents it in accessible language.

This series draws together the full spectrum of standards from various bodies, into a single reference work.

The author Cliff Wootton is an industry veteran who sits on many of the standards committees and has written numerous books on broadcast technology.

The Broadcast Standards Articles

There are currently 26 articles in this series and it will continue to grow throughout 2025. Here is a list of articles with simple descriptions of their content:

Part 1 : An Introduction To Standards
Standards can be complex but they make everything work consistently and reliably. It will be a very long and at times deeply technical journey. We begin with an overview of standards and why we need them.

Part 2 : Standards For Broadcasting & Deployment
An overview of the standards relating to production and transmission or playout. Here we prepares the ground for subsequent more detailed articles which will explore the following subject areas: ST 2110, higher bit rate codecs and profiles that are non-lossy, standards relating to exchanging material between different NLEs and Vƒx, and the AMWA workflow standards.

Part 3 : Standards For Video Coding
An overview of the various codec specifications currently in use. ISO and non-ISO standards are covered alongside SMPTE 2110 elements to contextualize all the different video coding standard alternatives and their comparative efficiency.

Part 4 : Standards For Media Container Files
The various codecs in common use and their symbiotic relationship to the media container files which are essential when it comes to packaging the resulting content for storage or delivery.

Part 5 : Standards For Audio Coding
The various AES, MPEG, Proprietary and Open Standards that pertain to audio.

Part 6 : About The ISO 14496 - MPEG-4 standard  
The various parts of the MPEG-4 standard and how it is much more than a video codec. MPEG-4 describes a sophisticated interactive multimedia platform for deployment on digital TV and the Internet.

Part 7 : ST2110 - A Review Of The Current Standard
Of all of the broadcast standards it is perhaps SMPTE ST 2110 which has had the greatest impact on production & distribution infrastructure in recent years, but much has changed since it’s 2017 release.

Part 8 : Standards For Designing & Building Workflows 
Content/asset management systems and their workflow. Most broadcasters will invest in a proprietary vendor solution. This article is designed to foster a better understanding of how such systems work, and offers some alternate thinking for those interested in building their own systems.

Part 9 : Standards For On-air Broadcasting & Streaming Services
Traditional on-air broadcasters and streaming service providers use many of the same standards to define how content is received from external providers and how it is subsequently delivered to the consumer. They may apply those standards in slightly different ways.

Part 10 : Embedding And Multiplexing Streams 
Combining multiple synchronized audio visual streams is fundamental to broadcast and there are a number of standards to consider.

Part 11 : Streaming Video & Audio Over IP Networks
Streaming services deliver content to the end-users via an IP network connection. The transport process is similar to broadcasting and shares some of the same technologies but there are some unique caveats.

Part 12 : ST2110 Part 10 - System Level Timing & Control
How ST 2110 Part 10 describes transport, timing, error-protection and service descriptions relating to the individual essence streams delivered over the IP network using SDP, RTP, FEC & PTP.

Part 13 : Exploring MPEG4-Part 10 - H.264/AVC
The H.264/AVC codec has been very successful. Here we dig deeper into how profiles and levels work to facilitate deployment of delivery systems and receiving client-player designs.

Part 14 : About High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)
Here we look at the HEVC codec which is based on earlier work by MPEG on AVC and prior coding technologies. New techniques are employed to reduce the coded output size even further.

Part 15 : ST2110-2x - Video Coding Standards For Video Transport
SMPTE 2110 and its related standards help to construct workflows and broadcast systems. They coexist with standards from other organizations and incorporate them where necessary. In an earlier article we looked at the ST 2110 standard as a whole. This time we focus on the parts of ST 2110 that are concerned with video transport.

Part 16 : About MP3 Audio Coding & ID3 Metadata
The MP3 audio format has been around for thirty years and has been superseded by several other codecs – so here we discuss why it still has a very strong position in broadcast. We also discuss ID3 metadata tags which often accompany MP3 files.

Part 17 : About AAC Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding improves on the MP3 Perceptual Coding solution to achieve higher compression ratios and better playback quality.

Part 18 : High Efficiency And Other Advanced Audio Codecs
A discussion of advancements in AAC coding, alternative coders for special case scenarios, and their management within a consistent framework.

Part 19 : ST 2110-30/31 & AES Standards For Audio
The ST 2110-3x standards which deploy AES3 and AES67 digital audio in an IP networked studio. Many other AES standards are important as the foundations on which AES3 and AES67 are constructed.

Part 20 : ST 2110-4x Metadata Standards 
Our series continues with Metadata. It is the glue that connects all your media assets to each other and steers your workflow. You cannot find content in the library or manage your creative processes without it. Metadata can also control the end-user playback experience..

Part 21 : The MPEG, AES & Other Containers
How raw essence data needs to be serialized so it can be stored in media container files. We also describe the various media container file formats and their evolution

Part 22 : Inside AIFF Files
Compared with other popular standards in use, AIFF is ancient. The core functionality was stabilized over 30 years ago and remains unchanged.

Part 23 : Media Types Vs MIME Types  
Media Types describe the container and content format when delivering media over a network. Historically they were described as MIME Types.

Part 24 : Timed-text & Subtitles Overview
Carriage of timed-text must be closely synchronized to the AV stream to ensure it is presented in a timely manner so here we describe the standards that enable this for both broadcast and internet delivery.

Part 25 : Designing Client-Side Video Players
Here we chart the historical development of client-side video players, describe the building blocks used to create them and the relevant standards.

Part 26 : An Introduction To Metadata
How metadata facilitates your asset workflow and distribution. It keeps track of your products in the archives so they can be re-purposed and monetized later.

These Appendix articles contain additional information you may find useful: