A decade-long effort to develop a harmonized OTT streaming media data format standard led by Dr. Youngkwon Lim of Samsung Research America has been recognized by the content industry with a prestigious award. The MPEG Systems group chaired by Dr. Lim has been named a winner of the 76th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for Standardization of the Common Media Application Format (CMAF).

The OTT industries has largely been divided into two technologies for streaming media data formats since its beginning and has suffered from market fragmentation ― namely, MPEG-2 Transport Stream and ISO Base Media File Format.

As its name implies, CMAF was developed as a data format that can be commonly used across the entire industry for large-scale video distribution services over the internet, including applications such as adaptive streaming, broadcasting, and video downloads. The award is proof that the standard development was successful and that the industry appreciates the CMAF standard.

“As the chair of the MPEG Systems, I have always strived to develop standards that eliminate market fragmentation, and this award is another honorable recognition of those efforts,” said Dr. Lim with the excitement. While serving as chair, the MPEG Systems group has already received a total of three Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards before this one ― for the ISO Base Media File Format in 2021, MPEG-DASH in 2022, and the MPEG Open Font Format, also in 2022.

“Samsung Research and its overseas R&D centers are committed to leading and contributing to the development of MPEG Systems standards, and this award demonstrates how successful those efforts have been so far,” said Master Kwangpyo Choi of Samsung Electronics’ Technology Standards Research Team.

MPEG Systems is a working group under ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, specialized in developing standards for multimedia storage and delivery. Among the many standards developed by MPEG Systems, MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS), ISO Base Media File Format, MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) and MPEG Media Transport (MMT) are a short list of those widely used across the industry.