Axmedis

AXMEDIS is a research project partially supported by the European Commission under the Information Society Technologies (IST DG-INFSO) programme of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). It stands for "Automating Production of Cross Media Contentfor Multi-channel Distribution".

In Brief

The AXMEDIS framework supports the whole content production 'food chain' for cross media content creation, aggregation, adaptation, protection and multichannel distribution, with a strong focus on automation.

The market of digital content is rapidly changing. Users are becoming more interested in using more interactive and intelligent content, that example can:
* include/describe/package several kinds of media (audio, video, games, documents, etc.), reproducing in a single digital object the interactivity and much more powerful entertainment capabilities than DVDs;
* provide enhanced interactivity such as navigating and selecting content elements to be played, making queries into the content elements, reacting to user commands and changes, providing annotations, etc.;
* be exchanged and distributed among different devices/tools: PC, mobiles, smart-phones, STB/PVR, HDR, PDA, game station, etc.;
* be obtained from several different interoperable distribution channels based on Internet, P2P, wireless mobile, satellite and/or terrestrial networks, etc.;
* change content behavior according to the context and/or to the user profiles, context, device capabilities, etc.;
* protect and manage the IPR, that means that the content format has to support some DRM model and that this support a set of business models, for example: renting, pay per play, subscription, advertising, etc.;
* be stored in media centers to be redistributed to other devices;
* present some autonomy of control, asking to the user to provide information and data;
* provide autonomous capabilities for example to create an electronic guide, to issues content usage licenses, ask at the user to provide content, etc.;
* be personally produced at home and/or shared in the network. These new forms of content and content usages can be fully exploited for digital content distribution, and are opening paths for a larger set of new applications and markets beyond the limitations of the physical media. With AXMEDIS the combinations of digital content formats and digital distribution channels are creating new applications including: user content, shared content, IPTV, DVB, VOD, POD, WEBTV, etc., for PC, PDA, mobiles and STB/PVR. Recent distribution models have been enabled by a set of new technologies grounded on content formats, content processing and adaptation capabilities, content protection models and solutions, hardware capabilities, and new solutions for Digital Rights Management, DRM.

Project aims

According to the official AXMEDIS project website the main aims of the project are to:- reduce the costs of cross media (Multi-media) production and distribution- search for and integrate objects and components through a query support system- manage and monitor distributionThese objectives are being pursued by integrating research results, algorithms and tools.

AXMEDIS object

An axmedis object is an MPEG-21 multimedia object which can virtually contain any kind of multimedia resource, metadata and rights-related information supporting the MPEG-21 "Rights Expression Language" (REL).

AXMEDIS content format supports from simple files to complex collections of multimedia for a large range of applications, from business to business to personal and/or global scale production, protection and distribution, with and without DRM. AXMEDIS format and solution can be used:
* for describing and/or packing and may be protected any kind of digital content, with standard, custom and extended metadata;
* for cultural heritage valorization and distribution, educational and infotainment content: lessons, coursewares;
* for content distribution: VOD, IPTV, WEBTV, etc.;
* for modeling content for PC, PDA, P2P, Kiosks and mobiles with interactive parts;
* as intelligent content having the possibility of defining the internal business model and actions on the content itself, dynamic modeling of content behavior;
* as interchange content format, wrapping any kind of files, including SMIL, HTML, FLASH, MXF, etc., for safer audio/visual sharing;
* for sharing content among B2B actors of the value chain, in protected and non protected versions;
* for leisure and entertainment content: video, TV, games, etc.;
* for distributing and protecting governmental, military, clinical information;
* for packaging, protecting and distributing newsML;
* for creating audio guides for PDA and mobiles
* for producing content with advertising (customized and/or real time personalized advertising inside the package or linked to outside);
* for producing and delivering personalized content inside the package or linked to outside;
* for managing personally produced content from final users and customers;
* to provide multichannel experience and distribution: different content on different channels at the same time for multichannel experience of the user.The above mentioned scenarios and many others can be realized thanks to AXMEDIS technology and tools of: AXMEDIS content format, DRM, controlled P2P, and Content Processing, seeAXMEDIS Technical Notes http://www.axmedis.org/documenti/documenti.php

Main Tools

The AXMEDIS framework consists of a set of different tools. Following is a (non exhaustive) overview of major tools.

AXMEDIS Editors

These tools enable the manual editing of AXMEDIS MPEG-21 objects.

AXMEDIS Players

These tools are needed to play axmedis objects. There are various flavours of the players for different devices for PC (standalone, browser plug-in, skinned), mobile, PDA, set top box.
* PC Windows players, capable of executing SMIL, HTML, MPEG-4, video, audio, documents, images, etc., and JavaScript. PC player may provide different skin; Most of the AXMEDIS players can be customized in terms of GUI and functionalities. AXMEDIS Skin based player can be easily customized by a designer changing the graphical look and feel.
* Active X for IE player to integrate the player into WEB pages and other applications, for example .NET based; See the CrossMedia Finder of AXMEDIS as example.
* PDA Windows Mobile 5 and 6 player, supporting: SMIL, HTML, MPEG-4, video, audio, documents, images, etc.;
* STB/PVR player based on (i) Linux, supporting audio visual, SMIL and HTML and on (ii) Kreatel STB;
* Pure java player for mobiles, supporting: SMIL, images and audio visual;

AXMEDIS Content Processing, AXCP

These tools are used for the automatic creation, aggregation, processing and distribution of multimedia content with the AXMEDIS format. This is done via scripts written in enhanced Javascript. These tools include a Javascript Integrated development environment (IDE), a scheduler and a GRID environment.AXMEDIS AXCP can be used to automate your content production, protection and distribution as stated above and in more details into the technical note: [http://www.axmedis.org/documenti/view_documenti.php?doc_id=3624 AXCP Technical Note]

AXMEDIS P2P: AXEPTool

The AXEPTool is a BitTorrent based legal P2P client for sharing AXMEDIS content. AXMEDIS P2P Controlled Network, for content distribution via P2P. It utilizes BitTorrent Technology with query support and cataloguing servers, for protected or non protected content. It has capabilities of automating content publication, controlling P2P network, and extracting statistical data and reports. The AXMEDIS P2P solution allows to control the network by means of control nodes that can be geographically distributed [http://www.axmedis.org/documenti/view_documenti.php?doc_id=3612 AXP2P technical Note]

AXMEDIS DRM, MPEG-21 DRM

AXMEDIS DRM which adopts MPEG-21 DRM, including servers and licensing tools and allowing DRM, detection of attacks, black list management, collection of actions logs containing traces about the rights exploitation, tools for administrative management, etc. [http://www.axmedis.org/documenti/view_documenti.php?doc_id=3616 AXMEDIS DRM Technical Note]

Cross Media Finder

AXMEDIS Cross Media Finder: an integrated portal for demonstrating AXMEDIS content and distribution: [http://variazioni.axmedis.org:8080/CrossMediaFinder/ AXMEDIS Cross Media Finder technical note]

Consortium

The AXMEDIS project gathers many partners consisting of leading European digital content producers, integrators, archives, distributors and researchers.

Project partners

*Advance Concepts for Interactive Technology GERMANY
*Associazione dei Fonografici Italiani ITALY
*Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Fondazione ITALY
*British Broadcasting Corporation UNITED KINGDOM
*COMVERSE LTD ISRAEL
*Consorzio Pisa Ricerche ITALY
*Societa consortile a responsanilita limitata Centro di Ricerca, Sviluppo e Studi Superiori in Sardegna ITALY
*Dipartimento di Italianistica, Università degli Studi di Firenze ITALY
*Dipartimento di Sistemi e Informatica, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, DISIT Lab. (project leader) ITALY
*ELION Enterprises Ltd ESTONIA
*Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne SWITZERLAND
*Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
*EUTELSAT S.A. FRANCE
*EXITECH srl ITALY
*FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. GERMANY
*Foundacio Barcelona Media University Pompeo Fabra SPAIN
*GIUNTI INTERACTIVE LABS S.R.L. ITALY
*HEWLETT PACKARD ITALIANA S.R.L. ITALY
*Kaunas University of Technology LITHUANIA
*MBIGROUP ITALY
*OD2 UNITED KINGDOM
*Peking University CHINA
*Sociedad Digital de Autores y Editores SPAIN
*SEJER REPRESENTING BORDAS AND NATHAN FRANCE
*STRATEGICA (spin-off of Consorzio Pisa Ricerche, CPR) ITALY
*TEO LT, AB (formerly Lithuanian Telecom) LITHUANIA
*Telecom Italia ITALY
*TISCALI S.P.A. ITALY
*ICSRiM, University of Leeds UNITED KINGDOM
*Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya SPAIN
*The University of Reading UNITED KINGDOM
*Video Reklamos Studija LITHUANIA
*XIM LIMITED UNITED KINGDOM

Affiliated Partners and Subcontractors

*PSItrust/focuseek ITALY
*SOCIETA' ITALIANA DEGLI AUTORI ED EDITORI ITALY
*HEXAGLOBE FRANCE
*RIGEL ITALY
*GESFOR SPAIN
*PENTEX ITALY
*ALBENIZ Foundation SPAIN
*maat Gknowledge SPAIN

Conferences and Workshops

Since 2005 the AXMEDIS consortium has been organizing international conferences about cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, protection and rights management interoperability.

External links

* [http://www.axmedis.org AXMEDIS website]
* [http://www.axmedis.org/tiki/ AXMEDIS Wiki]