The Material Exchange Format (MXF) and its Application

This paper describes the specification of the Material eXchange Format (MXF) currently under joint development by the Pro-MPEG forum
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and the AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) Association.
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As the name implies, the specification is focused towards the exchange of program material between devices that support the MXF. An MXF file is a “wrapper” for containing audiovisual material in a playable format. Each file contains a comprehensive metadata structure together with component parts that enable MXF files to be written and read directly by AAF-compliant tools. The entire data structure is based on approved SMPTE standards relating to metadata coding using the KLV syntax
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and standardized metadata dictionary items for interchange.
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The paper will also describe how the G-FORS project actively contributes to the MXF specification in order to achieve its goals of network file-based TV production. Details of the project and its use of MXF are included to demonstrate applications of MXF.