SMMCore standard
The SMMCore standard (Singapore Multimedia Metadata Set) is the national metadata standard used for B2B content exchanging in Singapore. In 2008, realizing the need for the adoption of best practices and standards for managing the storage of digital content through a set of metadata framework, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) organized an industry roundtable, where Mediacorp chaired the Metadata Standardization Subgroup, working with other industry players, such as Disney and Ascent Media to define a set of best practices for metadata used in the local media industry. Initially, SMMCore was built on the foundation of PBCore. However, with its second revision in 2011, harmonization work has been carried out with European Broadcasting Union (EBU), where the SMMCore framework has been revised to be built on the foundation of the EBUCore. The benefits of harmonization are multiple: support from a larger metadata community of experts, access to knowledge on semantic web and linked data for which EBU and therefore SMMCore are ready, adoption by the industry, sharing resources in research, development and maintenance of the metadata specifications.
Scope
The subgroup identifies seven groups of first level elements, which are,
- Identifier Group - e.g., smmcoreIdentifier, smmcoreSource
- Title group - e.g., smmcoreTitle,smmcoreAlternateTtile,smmcoreVersion
- Description group – e.g., smmcoreDescription
- Audience Group – e.g., smmcoreAudience (genre, rating)
- Rights Group – e.g., smmcoreRights(rights,rightsLink,rightsHolder,coverage,rightsId,rightsClearanceFlag,contactDetails)
- Instantiation Group – e.g., smmcoreFormat(fileInfo,videoFormat,audioFormat,subtitleFormat)
- Others Group – e.g., smmcoreAssociateData,smmcoreAssetData,smmcorePublicationHistory,smmcoreContributor
A common library of basic attributes groups and derived data types are defined as well.
Methodology
The subgroup adopted the approach of identifying the market participants and their transactional requirements gathered from a survey conducted, and then using an established standard as a baseline to get started.
Contributors
The SMMCore specification was created with contributions from the following people:
Release 1.0
- Yeo Kim Pow – Mediacorp
- Wang Yin - Mediacorp
- Kenneth Lee – The Walt Disney Company
- Daniel Anco - Ascent Media
- Patrick Kennedy – Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Release 2.0
- Yung Shing,Toh - Mediacorp
- Nedved,Yang - Mediacorp
- Evain Jean-Pierre - EBU
- Yoshiaki SHIBATA - metaFrontier.jp
- Masahito Kawamori - Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
- Byunghee Jung - Korean Broadcasting System
- Li Qingguo - SARFT