[dispatch] Proposed charter for CELLAR: Codec Encoding for LossLess Archiving and Realtime transmission

[Tessa Fallon <[e-mail]>]

After presenting on FFV1 and Matroska at IETF 94 this past summer, we have
incorporated feedback and input from IETF members to draft a new charter
for a proposed working group that includes FFV1, Matroska, and FLAC.

I look forward to discussing the proposed charter, which is included below.

Best wishes,

Tessa Fallon
*_________________*

*Proposed Name*: CELLAR: Codec Encoding for LossLess Archiving and Realtime
transmission

The preservation of audiovisual materials faces challenges from
technological obsolescence, analog media deterioration, and the use of
proprietary formats that lack formal open standards. While obsolescence and
material degradation are widely addressed, the standardization of open,
transparent, self-descriptive, lossless formats remains an important
mission to be undertaken by the open source community.

FFV1 is a lossless video codec and Matroska is an extensible media
container based on EBML (Extensible Binary Meta Language), a binary XML
format. There are open source implementations of both formats, and an
increasing interest in and support for use of FFV1 and Matroska. However,
there are concerns about the sustainability and credibility of existing
specifications for the long-term use of these formats. These existing
specifications require broader review and formalization in order to
encourage widespread adoption.

There is also a need for a lossless audio format to complement the lossless
video codec and container format. FLAC is a lossless audio codec that has
seen widespread adoption in a number of different applications
including archival
applications. While there are open source implementations of the codec, no
formal standards for either the codec itself or its use in container
formats currently exist. Review and formalization of the FLAC codec
standard and its use in Matroska container formats is needed for wider
adoption.

Using existing work done by the development communities of Matroska, FFV1,
and FLAC, the Working Group will formalize specifications for these open
and lossless formats. In order to provide authoritative, standardized
specifications for users and developers, the Working Group will seek
consensus throughout the process of refining and formalizing these
standards. Existing specifications can be accessed here:

Specifications:
FFV1: https://mediaarea.net/temp/ffv1.html
Matroska: http://matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html
EBML: http://matroska-org.github.io/libebml/specs.html
FLAC: https://xiph.org/flac/format.html

Development Versions:
FFV1: https://github.com/ffmpeg/ffv1
Matroska:
https://github.com/Matroska-Org/foundation-source/blob/master/spectool/specdata.xml
EBML: https://github.com/Matroska-Org/ebml-specification

The Working Group will seek consensus and refinements for specifications
for both FFV1 and Matroska in order to provide authoritative, standardized
specifications for users and developers. Backward compatibility with
existing versions 0-3 of the FFV1 and Matroska specifications will be an
important goal, while also reviewing and refining the current version 4
under active development. Although not encouraged, non-backwards-compatible
changes to the input specifications will be acceptable if the Working Group
determines that the modifications are required to meet the group's
technical objectives, provided that the reasons for these changes are
clearly documented.

*Deliverables:*

   - Informational specification for Matroska container format versions 1,
   2 and 3 to IESG for publication


   - Standards Track specification for Matroska container format version 4
   to IESG for publication


   - Informational specification for FFV1 video codec versions 0, 1 and 3
   to IESG for publication


   - Standards Track specification for FFV1 video codec version 4 to IESG
   for publication


   - Standards Track specification for FLAC audio codec to IESG for
   publication