Microsoft Corp has announced a new multimedia file format strategy for Windows in a move to embrace streaming media distribution and professional media authoring. The new strategy will integrate support into Windows for two formats, the Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) and the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF). AAF was announced on Friday and is a file format to enable the exchange of rich media among digital production tools and content creation applications. It is the result of collaboration with eight media software and hardware companies: Adobe Systems Inc, Avid Technology Inc, Digidesign, Matrox Video Products Group, Pinnacle Systems Inc, Softimage Inc, Sonic Foundry Inc and Truevision Inc. AAF has been written to enable developers to work with a broader range of tools so they can choose the tools they want without having to convert their multimedia files from one format to another. ASF is a streaming format for sending media files from server to client, developed as part of a cross licensing deal with video streaming specialists RealNetworks Inc, and with input from Adobe Systems Inc, Intel Corp and Viv Software Inc among others. It is a similar format to Apple Computer Inc’s QuickTime, which was adopted as an ISO standard over ASF as the basis of its MPEG file format (CI No 3,343). ASF and AAF succeed the Audio Video Interleaved (AVI) file format, and Microsoft is pushing for them to become the new default multimedia file formats for Windows. A specification for AAF is available free from Microsoft’s web site. A software development kit and Windows support for AAF will be available by early 1999. Microsoft and its supporters are approaching standards bodies such as the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers and the International Standards Organization to get the new formats adopted as standards.
