EPFL and Ecma International host the 2nd International Workshop on Standards and Technologies in Multimedia Archives and Records (STAR 2013)

GENEVA & LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The ability to effectively manage and protect digital multimedia content in creation, collection, preservation, and dissemination is increasingly crucial as digital technology continues to produce vast amounts of valuable and irreplaceable knowledge and information. The amount of such digital multimedia information is already huge, but as we speak it is still growing at unbelievable speed and to gigantic amount of such information.

“We are very glad to have the STAR Workshop again and hope that one of the outcomes will be to know better what is still needed for the standardization of long-term multimedia archives that are expected to last for many decades and even for centuries.”

Can data generated yesterday be searchable and displayable by hardware and software today and in future? Will digital content created today be accessible and presentable throughout its lifecycle (i.e. also tomorrow)? How to deal with the large number and quite different incompatible multimedia archives? How to ensure some level of interoperability among them? What are the requirements for multimedia long term archival in general? What do we cover today in standards and what and where are the gaps?

To address these questions a first edition of STAR workshop was organized in 2010 and brought together archive professionals with technical experts working in the research, development and standardization in order to assist the alignment of user needs with the availability of technical solutions. The second edition of the workshop in 2013 aims at continuation of this effort. As in its first edition, the program of the workshop includes invited presentations as well as selected submitted contributions. A discussion panel on key challenges and trends in multimedia archives is an integral part of the workshop.

Invited presentations highlights

Special Session on Montreux Jazz Festival Digital Archives
Special Session on JPEG 20th Anniversary
Special Session on JPEG Extensions for Preservations
Advanced Preservation of Digitalized Frescos
Archival and Preservation Standards
High Dynamic Range Image and Video Formats and Applications
Privacy Protection of Digital Archives

More information is available at: http://star.epfl.ch.

Attendance at STAR workshop is free of charge, however all participants are kindly asked to register online at http://star.epfl.ch.

Professor Touradj Ebrahimi head of Multimedia Signal Processing Group at EPFL said: ”Efficient archival of digital media is an interdisciplinary effort. It spans from hardware and software issues, all the way to interoperability and standardization considerations. STAR provides the right environment for exchange of knowledge, know-how, best practices, and information on current and emerging tools, activities and projects on archival and preservation of digital content.“

Dr. Istvan Sebestyen, Secretary General of Ecma International, added: “We are very glad to have the STAR Workshop again and hope that one of the outcomes will be to know better what is still needed for the standardization of long-term multimedia archives that are expected to last for many decades and even for centuries.”

About Ecma International

Since its inception in 1961, Ecma International (Ecma) has developed standards for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Consumer Electronics (CE). Ecma is a non-profit industry association of technology developers, vendors and users. Experts from industry and other organizations work together at Ecma to develop standards. Ecma collaborates with, and contributes to the technical work of, ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC JTC 1 and ETSI; Ecma makes significant use of the fast-track process to elevate its specifications to the status of International or European Standards through the standardization process in these organizations. Ecma publications can be downloaded free of charge from the Ecma International website www.ecma-international.org.

About EPFL

The Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is one of the two Federal Institutes of Technology in Switzerland with the main emphasis on teaching and research in Engineering Sciences and Technologies. Multimedia Signal Processing Group (MMSPG) of EPFL is headed by Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi and is active in research and teaching in the field of multimedia signal processing. The research topics focus on three highly interconnected disciplines of multimedia, namely, compression, processing, and security. Further details available from MMSPG website: http://mmspg.epfl.ch