Are you or have you been an MPEG member?
Yes, I acted as a delegate of a long term MPEG member : Telefonica, in the past.
What do you think makes MPEG special?
MPEG appeared early (in terms of the video industry), and early is always the best moment for standardization. It gathered the right partners and gained momentum fast. Better than other industry standards MPEG had always the right balance between openness (having always interesting free profiles) and rights exploitation. It has also been a forum for patent alignment in a ‘friendly’ manner (if that is possible). All in all it has been considerably more successful than others in keeping traction with manufacturers and content creators.
What do you think is the most important MPEG impact?
Being able to maintain an MPEG profile at the forefront of every video industry age.
Do you think MPEG is a good conduit for research?
Among MPEG partners you will find the best video That is a first step for serious progress. Those researchers not always collaborate in a joint project inside MPEG, but they are open to discuss new directions for video research at any MPEG networking event. That openness is a serious push for research in the video industry as a whole.
Can you comment on your MPEG experience?
I used MPEG papers in a research lab for many years (20) and even took part in meetings as a national delegate. A great experience.
Are you satisfied with MPEG standards?
Mostly yes. The whole video compression issue got much more complex than it used to be over time, specially with MPEG 4 part 10 (H.264) and HEVC (H.265). Nowadays it is really hard to introduce significative gains in the standard without rewriting huge parts of the basic model. That is not a MPEG flaw, but probably the result of a big success in video research of which MPEG has been first actor. But, nevertheless, it gets harder to understand, comprehend, test and implement any new release of MPEG. That is the only criticism I have : it has become difficult to handle, while at the same time the industry demands improvements at the highets pace we have ever seen.
Do you think MPEG standards are the right choice?
MPEG standards are good for the industry. Right choice?. In my view the best choice is no choice, but have all that you can do in paralell. There are interesting standards out of MPEG. Why not give them a try at the same time. When it comes to choices I would point out that MPEG consortium is a mature organization, so yes, it is a good choice if you look for a quick alignment in commercialisation and clearing out patent disputes. Others (non MPEG) may come up with something of greater merit eventually, but it is almost impossible today that a single team , not using previous patents, can create a whole end to end video system. So having the right forum, and the right organization to come to agreements is a big bonus.
What do you expect from MPEG in the future?
I expect MPEG to just go on with good practices. I would not expect any U-turn, neither in organisation model nor in research capacity. There are challenges ahead both in terms of research investment and commercialisation model. Would MPEG be able to compete with all-for-free video schemas? I do not know the answer, but that is something that for sure must be discussed inside MPEG consortium.
