SMPTE Makes Standards Freely Accessible

SMPTE Opens Its Standards Library

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has made its entire library of technical standards freely accessible to the global media technology community. This move is designed to lower barriers to entry for developers and engineers, fostering innovation in media production and distribution.

Modernization of Standards Development

SMPTE is transitioning its standards development and publication processes to a modern software engineering workflow. This shift includes several key technical initiatives:

  • GitHub-based Workflows: The organization is adopting GitHub for version control, issue tracking, and automation.

  • Structured HTML-based Authoring: SMPTE is moving away from static documents toward structured HTML authoring to improve accessibility and searchability.

  • Integrated Publishing Pipeline: A new pipeline has been implemented to streamline the creation, review, validation, and release of standards documents.

Impact on the Media Technology Community

Removing the paywall for standards allows developers to implement specifications without the financial burden of purchasing individual PDFs. For example, community members have noted that in the past, specific standards like the 430.10 standard were required for building cinema integrations.

Industry professionals have compared this move to the success of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standards, noting that the no-cost availability of technical specifications is a critical driver for explosive development in new technologies.

Community Perspectives and Discussion

Technical practitioners have expressed strong support for the move, emphasizing that open access to standards is essential for interoperability and rapid innovation.

"It's time the whole would gets on board with open standards that are truly open... one of the biggest reasons for the success of the IETF standards was the no-cost availability of all their standards."

While some have questioned the immediate impact given that SMPTE does not hold patents, the consensus among developers is that removing the cost of access is a fundamental step toward modernizing the media technology ecosystem. Other contributors have suggested that this shift should serve as a model for other standards bodies such as the AES (Audio Engineering Society) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

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