1        Introduction

2        Proposal summary

2.1        Motivations of the proposal

2.2        Design Goals

2.3        Main elements

2.4        Benefits

2.5        Implementation

3        SC 4x organisation

3.1        Title and scope

3.2        Transfer of work and responsibilities

3.3        Structure

3.4        Organisational chart

3.5        Secretariat

3.6        Meetings

3.7        Terms of reference and programs of work

4        SC 29 organisation

4.1        Title and scope

4.2        Structure

4.3        Organisational chart

4.4        Terms of reference and programs of work

1          Introduction

MPEG and JPEG as SCs is an improved version of the Italian National Body (ITNB) proposal, officially supported by 7 other National Bodies, in response to JTC 1’s request to SC 29.

Thirty years of successful standards prove that MPEG and JPEG have served and continue to serve their constituencies well. As an example, MPEG standards outnumber those of any other JTC 1 SC, and MPEG standards-enabled devices and services are worth more than 1.5 T$ p.a.

Success has brought organisational issues, e.g. WG 11 has an attendance of 600 ex­perts to its meetings. The simplest way to tackle these issues is to promote WG 11 to a new SC 4x and apply WG 1’s struc­ture to SC 29.

After 16 months of efforts, 4 SC 29 meetings and 1,000+ emails exchanged, not acting would mean ineffectiveness. Splitting MPEG into pieces with an unproven management potentially affecting thousands of companies and billions of consumers would be a dangerous gamble. Playing safe is the proposal of MPEG and JPEG as SCs: the two WGs have proved their value and should continue their mis­sion unscathed in future-proof organisations that respond to the actual con­stituen­cies’ needs.

2          Proposal summary

2.1        Motivations of the proposal

1. With their autonomously conceived standards, marked with the successful JPEG and MPEG brands, WG 1 and WG 11 have innovated the imaging industry and the broadcast, broadband, mobile and physical distribution industries, respectively, becoming the reference committees of those industries;
2. For a long time WG 1 and WG 11 have been operating as virtual subcommittees, each with a structure of interacting subgroups covering their areas of expertise, including individual strategic planning functions, while SC 29’s role is confined to administrative issues;
3. WG 11 has shown that it can develop even non-media standards jointly with other committees while being in different organisational entity;
4. WG 1 and WG 11 have had limited interactions and a common 1% of the combined member­ship because the industries they serve are different;
5. The MPEG reference industries’ need for more standards has caused a sustained increase in WG 11 members (~1500 registered, ~500 attending);
6. It is a recognized good practice in ISO to create new SCs to enable efficient working frame­works for well-defined and autonomous standardisation activities (as was done for SC 29).

2.2        Design Goals

MPEG and JPEG as SCs has been driven by the following design goals:

1. Leverage what exists and works with no room for conjectures, because we deal with a reorgan­isation of a size never attem­pted in JTC 1 before affecting groups of high industrial importance;
2. Maintain WG 1’s and WG 11’s momentum leveraging their individually recognised brands;
3. Guarantee seamless continuity of operation of current projects;
4. Enable an effective liaison level instrumental to developing standards for and/or with a range of other committees;
5. Preserve their key success factors;
6. Withstand standards fragmentation of efficient delivery of moving pictures and audio.

2.3        Main elements

The main elements of the organisation that satisfies the design goals are:

1. WG 1 becomes SC 29 with the title JPEG Coding of digital representations of images and WG 11 becomes SC 4x of JTC 1 with the title MPEG compression and delivery of Moving Pictures, Audio and Other Data with scopes within the approved SC 29 scope and work programs verbatim the same as the current WG 1 and WG 11 work programs;
2. Subgroups of WG 1 and WG 11 become Advisory Groups (AG) and Working Groups (WG) of SC 29 and SC 4x, respectively. Common projects of SC 4x and SC 29 with other committees and between themselves will be carried out by Joint Working Groups;
3. Per its scope, SC 4x may create, in addition to genomics, WGs/JWGs for compression of other types of data than media in agreement and collaboration with the relevant committees.

ITNB and other NBs are willing to take the SC 4x Secretariat responsibility. If selected by JTC 1, ITNB will nominate the current WG 11 convenor as SC 4x chair and will simultaneously nominate a member of the WG 11 management team, from a country other than Italy, as chair elect. Nomination will be based on criteria of 1) continuity of WG 11’s vision and strategy, 2) full mastering of the scope of SC 4x and record of performance in the currently held position. The nomination of the Chair elect will be made simultaneously with the Chair. Appointment of the cur­rent WG 11 subgroup chairs as convenors is encouraged.

2.4        Benefits

The MPEG and JPEG as SCs proposal

1. Adds formal SC governance to the well-honed WG 1 and WG 11 structures;
2. Preserves the WG 1 and WG 11 ecosystems and their proven ability to serve their reference industries;
3. Formalises WG 1’s and WG 11’s high-profile standard reference roles for the image, and moving pictures and audio sectors, respectively;
4. Fortifies the relationship with their client industries thanks to the status of WG 1 and WG 11;
5. Retains and improves all successful features of WG 1 and WG 11, in particular their structures and modi operandi;
6. Allow NBs more opportunities to exert a direct impact on MPEG and JPEG work.

2.5        Implementation

The proposed organisation is implementable in a short time and without affecting the work program. Assuming approval by the relevant committees on 26 March (SC 29), 8 May (JTC 1) and 25 June (TMB), the 1^st SC 4x meeting could begin on 11 October 2020.

3          SC 4x organisation

3.1        Title and scope

Upon approval by JTC 1 and ratification by the TMB, SC 4x will assume the following

1. Title: MPEG compression and delivery of moving pictures, audio and other data;
2. Scope (equivalent to the scope of WG 11 approved by the SC 29 CIB): Standardisation in the area of efficient delivery of moving pictures and audio, their descriptions and other data
   • Serve as the focus and proponent for JTC 1’s standardisation program for broadcast, broadband, mobile and physical distribution based on analysis, compression, transport and consumption of digital moving pictures and audio, including conventional and immersive, generated or captured by any technology;
   • Serve as the focus and co-proponent for JTC 1’s standardisation program on efficient storage, processing and delivery of genomic and other data, in agreement and collaboration with the relevant committees.

Excluded: subject matters covered under the scope and existing work programs of JTC 1/SC 29 (as effective after creation of SC 4x) and SC 2.

3.2        Transfer of work and responsibilities

1. Responsibility for all standards already developed and being developed by WG 11 is transferred to SC 4x (SC 29/WG 11 N18755);
2. All current WG 11 liaisons are transferred to SC 4x (SC 29/WG 11 N18763);
3. Current SC 29 agreements with ITU-T SG16 on video coding JCT-VC (SC 29/WG 11 N11112) and JVET (SC 29 N17240) are assigned to SC 4x in lieu of SC 29.

3.3        Structure

1. WG 11 subgroups become:
2. SC 4x Advisory Groups (AG) – do not produce standards;
3. SC 4x Working Groups (WG) – produce standards;
4. Minor adjustments to WG 11 subgroup structure made to strengthen productivity:

1. New Market needs AG created to enhance alignment of standards with market needs (to be installed at an appropriate time after establishment of SC 4x);
2. Genome Coding moves from a Requirements activity to WG level;
   3. SC 4x retains WG 11’s collaborative stance with other committees/bodies, e.g. Collaborative Teams with ITU-T on Video Coding and Joint Working Groups with ISO/IEC committees to carry out commonly agreed projects;

3.4        Organisational chart

Joint Working Groups (JWG) may be established if the need for common standards with other ISO/IEC committees is identified.

SC 4x will constantly monitor the state of standards development and adapt its structure accor­dingly, including by establishing new WGs, e.g. on standards for compression of other data types.

3.5        Secretariat

1. As the ISO/IEC directives require that NB accepts to be the secretariat of a new proposed SC, ITNB is willing to assume the SC 4x Secretariat (see SC 29 N18149);
2. To expedite a smooth transition of the large WG 11 work plan to SC 4x, ITNB will, if selected by JTC 1:
3. Nominate the WG 11 convenor as SC 4x chair and, simultaneously, an “SC 4x chair elect” from a country other than Italy based on criteria of
   • Continuity of WG 11’s vision and strategy;
   • Full mastering of the scope of SC 4x;
   • Record of performance in the currently held position;
4. Call for nominations of convenors. Proponents of MPEG and JPEG as SCs will nominate the current subgroup rapporteurs, including the leader of the Genomic Coding activity in Requirements;
5. Call for nominations of convenors for
   • Technical Coordination;
   • Market Needs;
   • One AG/WG convenorship position left open by the chair elect;
6. In the future ITNB agrees to nominate as SC 4x chair a candidate which is an expression of the SC 4x community (e.g. candidate recommended by chair and convenors or preferred by SC 4x NBs, such as 2^nd option of 3.5.2. and 3.6.2. of SC29 Ad-hoc Group on Leadership).

The proponents invite other National Bodies, besides Italy and China, to express their interest in taking the SC 4x secretariat.

3.6        Meetings

1. For the time being, to effectively pursue its standardisation goals, SC 4x will continue its practice of quarterly meetings collocated with its AGs and WGs (same time/place) organised as an “SC 4x week” as follows

It should be noted that the structure of the typical “MPEG week” remains unchanged. Extended plenaries are joint meetings of all WGs/AGs. SC 4x plenaries are held on the Sunday before and after the extended plenary on Friday to deal with matters such as liaisons, meeting schedules etc. that used to be handled by WG 11 plenaries.

2. WGs and AGs could have longer meeting durations (i.e. start before first SC 4x meeting);
3. WGs and AGs will carry out a thorough review of all details of meeting sessions, agendas, document registration etc. with the involvement of all affected experts;
4. Institut Mines Télécom’s unique services offered for the last 15 years would be warmly wel­come to preserve and continually improve SC 4x’s operating efficiency with the invol­vement of all WG/AG members.

3.7        Terms of reference and programs of work

The Terms of Reference/Programmes of Work of the SC 4x AGs/WGs are almost verbatim the Terms of Reference/Programmes of Work of the SC 29/WG 11 subgroups. New Terms of Reference are provided for those AGs/WGs not present or without an organis­ational identity in SC 29/WG 11.

4          SC 29 organisation

4.1        Title and scope

(the following is a first attempt at defining the SC 29 title and scope after creation of SC 4x)

Upon approval by JTC 1, SC 29 will change its title and scope as follows:

1. Title: JPEG coding of digital representations of images
2. Scope: Development of international standards for

• Efficient digital representations, processing and interchange of conventional and immersive images
• Efficient digital representations of image-related sensory and digital data, such as medical and satellite
• Support to digital image coding applications
• Maintenance of ISO/IEC 13522

Excluded: subject matters covered under the scope and existing work programs of JTC 1/SC 4x

4.2        Structure

1. WG 1 subgroups become:

1. SC 4x Advisory Groups (AG) – do not produce standards;
2. SC 4x Working Groups (WG) – produce standards;
   2. SC 29 may set up Joint Working Groups, e.g. with SC 4x and TC 42, to carry out commonly agreed projects;

4.3        Organisational chart

(the following is a first attempt at defining the SC 29 structure after creation of SC 4x, using the current SG structure of WG 1)

3. SC 29 secretariat: JPNB will continue to hold the SC 29 secretariat (Manager’s declaration);
4. SC 29 meetings: similar organisation as currently done by WG 1.

4.4        Terms of reference and programs of work

The Terms of Reference/Programmes of Work of the SC 29 AGs/WGs are verbatim the Terms of Reference/Programmes of Work of the SC 29/WG 1 subgroups.