UMID Applications in MXF and Streaming Media

This paper reports on work in the SMPTE standards community to enhance applications of the Unique Material Identifier (UMID) in the material exchange format (MXF) technology. While the latest SMPTE RP 205 specifying the UMID Application Principles was published at the end of 2014, the UMID Resolution Protocol is still under standardization. This paper demonstrates how various kinds of UMIDs in an MXF file are to be utilized to enable various UMID applications based on the UMID Application Principles. Furthermore, thanks to a type of UMID attached to every frame in an MXF file, there is a way for the UMID to be employed consistently and seamlessly between the worlds of an MXF file and a media stream composed of a sequence of frames. Some guidelines are proposed to maximize the interoperability of UMID applications in MXF and streaming media.