Achieving full media interoperability using information systems and indexing schemes

This paper aims to bring a user organisation's perspectives of the application environment of the descriptors and description schemes that MPEG-7 aims to create, together with a proposed implementation strategy. The aim is to reflect the diverse needs of the parties requiring media interoperability in the BBC: the creators of media content, its users and their business managers, as well as the information architects and technical architects. The paper sets the context for the successful preparation of the technical, business and process systems that will be required to create the commercial environment in which MPEG-7 schemes will be welcomed. Underlying the whole approach by the BBC is the creation of a data model which spans the business from the point of programme proposal preparation through to delivery to the audience; the model is known in the BBC as the Standard Media Exchange Framework, or "SMEF".