2024-03-27 Virtual Production

MetaRex needs you - come and see why at W.1931

Bruce Devlin @in
Project Smpte Osvp

MetaRex on the set

The award winning , philanthropic, non-profit MetaRex project makes metadata flow. In the rapidly changing world of On Set Virtual Production we already have too many incompatible formats and protocols and the poor setup and data wrangling crew perform miracles on every shoot do get things stable and keep them stable until it’s time for tear down.

Play the video on the left to hear the views from the SMPTE RIS OSVP experts on the debate between Standards & Products. We believe, like many of the points raised in the video, that products will lead the way and standards will eventually follow.

But why is MetaRex useful?

Our MetaRex initiative is just plumbing to help the product innovators concentrate on great story telling products, confident that the metadata they rely upon will get to where it’s needed quickly, accurately and in a way that can be transformed easily depending on the use-case they haven’t imagined yet.

The MetaRex container wraps up any metadata and then the container is put on a network or storage system. We now have one, unified, free mechanism for handling any metadata. This allows single way to get a clear definition of what the metadata is, what version of the metadata was used, what is its specification, can it be automatically QC’d with a schema and are there any services available to be sure it’s right before it’s too late?

As the SMPTE Rapid Industry Solutions On Set Virtual Production project enters its publication phase and we start to see harmonized metadata schemas and new protocols appearing, there will be a need to manage the transition to this new world. MetaRex aims to provide the plumbing to allow multiple variants of the same metadata values to be managed on a single network without insanity taking over.

We Need You!

We’ll be showing MetaRex use-case examples for Virtual Production at NAB. You’ll be able to play with the examples online - even if you’re not at the show.

Most importantly - we need you! We need more backers to get the project over the finish line. Ideally we’d like 2 more silver backers or 15 more regular backers so that we can finish this phase of delivering our free software and make it production ready for you to use.

So who benefits? Everyone Benefits!

MetaRex enables a generic metadata supply chain with the rigour that we

are starting to develop with video and audio.

  • Content Creators can now track and convert metadata from camera to screen
  • Product Vendors can now integrate more metadata types for less initial and significantly less engineering costs
  • Data Warehousing can benefit by integrating disparate timeline metadata with the same ease as static metadata
  • Metadata Producers can benefit with greater access to more networks and file formats with no extra effort
  • Metadata Consumers can benefit by simultaneously managing and using multiple transformed variants of source metadata without increasing costs
  • The Industry can benefit by spending the money saved by MetaRex on creating rich, metadata driven workflows instead of just leaving the metadata on the floor
  • The planet might benefit if we spent microWatts of energy remembering the source metadata rather than spending kiloWatts of energy guessing what was lost by using an AI algorithm

The MetaRex project needs you! Please become a backer - We’re offering a 10% discount until April 30th 2024. We will happily shout your company’s name across the globe if you can help us get the project over the finish line.

Don’t forget to come and see us at NAB 2024 on the Signiant booth W.1931

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