SMPTE 21DC meets in December. Since the last meeting in September, significant work has been put into a solution for the TI Series 2 security messaging problem. A revision to SMPTE 430-6 Auditorium Security Message (ASM) has been drafted and will be proposed for ballot. For users of digital cinema equipment, servers that support the revised version of ASM will correctly communicate with both TI Series 1 and Series 2 projectors. Servers that have the original version of ASM will only communicate with Series 1 projectors. The ripple of this revision will be substantial. Assuming the revision goes to ballot, it could take 5-6 months before it becomes a standard. This standard will require a similar change in the DCI specification and DCI test plan. The certification testing process will be revised. It could take a good part of 2010 for all of these changes to take place.
In the area of closed captions, we should have word in this meeting as to the final status of the SMPTE CC Output documents from SMPTE headquarters. (SMPTE 430-10 and 430-11.) The documents are in final formal ballot in SMPTE for standards publication approval.
Additional work is expected in the area of additional frame rates. Additional standards are being added to address frame rates used in other countries, as well as frame rates used by other forms of content, including 60 fps.
A new area of work has been proposed for cinema audio. Brian McCarty, of Coral Sea Studios in Australia, is proposing to rewrite SMPTE 202m, the standard that defines the X-Curve response used in cinemas around the world. Dolby knows as little about this proposal as I do. We will learn soon enough.
