[codec] Liaisons sent to ITU, 3gpp and ISO/IEC

[Jonathan Rosenberg <[e-mail]>]

This is to let folks know that we've just sent liaison statements to 
ITU, 3gpp and ISO/IEC informing them of our status and inviting comments 
on the Opus codec. The liaison text is the same (except for name of the 
SDO). Here is what was sent:


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The IETF codec work continues to make progress, and we wanted to give 
the ITU an update on our activities.

The working group has three document deliverables – a requirements 
document, a guidelines document, and the actual codec specification. The 
codec working group has completed its specification of the requirements 
(http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-codec-requirements-04), and this 
document has been passed to the IESG for consideration as an 
informational document. The codec working group initiated a working 
group last call (WGLC) on the guidelines document 
(http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-codec-guidelines-02)  on July 6, 
2011. The WGLC period has ended, and the codec group will now proceed to 
incorporate any final comments and discussion arising from our 
face-to-face meeting at the Quebec City IETF the week of July 25, 2011.

Work on the codec specification itself has progressed nicely. By working 
collaboratively, the group has combined aspects of CELT and SILK to 
produce Opus (http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-codec-opus-07). 
Testing has taken place on this combined codec, including numerous 
listening tests, which you can find documented here 
(http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-valin-codec-results-00 )  The 
bitstream has been unchanged for several months, and the design team 
believed the codec was complete by June 2011. Consequently, the codec 
group issued a WGLC for the codec on July 8, 2011. The document will 
also be discussed at the IETF meeting the week of July 25, 2011. The 
CODEC working group would like to invite experts from ITU-SG16 to 
provide any comments they might have on the document. The chairs will 
hold the document from being passed to the IESG for a period of 4 weeks, 
commencing today, awaiting any input from SG16 (and from anyone else, of 
course).

It is also important to note that several IPR claims have been made 
against Opus, including one from Qualcomm 
(https://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/search/?option=document_search&document_search=codec-opus) 
. All but the Qualcomm license declarations grant royalty free access. 
The IETF, as a matter of policy, makes no judgment on the validity of 
patent claims made against its documents. Instead, it relies on 
individual contributors to make their own assessments, and then act on 
them accordingly.

-- 
Jonathan D. Rosenberg, Ph.D.                   SkypeID: jdrosen
Skype Chief Technology Strategist 

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