Probably not many know that MPEG started as a subgroup of JTC 1/SC 2/WG 8 (SC 2 is the subcommittee in charge of character coding). When WG 8 became SC 29 the WG 8 subgroups (JBIG, JPEG, MPEG and MHEG) became working groups: WG 9, WG 10, WG 11 and WG 12. Later JBIG and JPEG merged to become WG 1 and MHEG accomplished its mission.

For many years MPEG (WG 11) and JPEG (WG 1) have been the two WGs of SC 29. In 30 years the size of MPEG has grown 20-fold, fed by the success of its standards and its ever-growing scope of work. JPEG has not seen a similar growth, but it is a WG of respectable size.

Probably not many have heard about SC 29, because this subcommittee has always played a bureaucratic role. At the time, we plan for hashtag#MPEGFuture there is a basic question we need to answer: should we build the future on the MPEG track record that has created the digital media industry as we know it, or on “The structure”, namely SC 29? https://lnkd.in/ebJNrPm analyzes the issue from a “commercial company” perspective.

MPEG is not a commercial company, but its obligations vis-à-vis the industry put it in a very similar position. hashtag#industry hashtag#position hashtag#standards