TABLE OF CONTENTS MPEG-4, the multimedia standard that allows us to create, deliver, and consume audio-visual content in various qualities for various devices, and the only standard that offers the opportunity to create interactive content, has arrived, and is playing a significant role in today s technology landscape.
After years of work by many dedicated engineers and scientists in the standardization bodies, a big chunk of media-compression technology has been standardized and published. But it isn t over yet. MPEG-4, the international open standard still continues to grow, new technologies are continuously added, and new application possibilities are envisioned. At the same time, it is now the task of even more engineers and developers to combine the bits and pieces of specified technology and continue turning the standard into profitable products and services. To make this commercialization process successful, it is of the utmost importance that marketing strategists and business executives pick up a basic understanding of the technical opportunities offered by MPEG-4, in order to actively contribute their visions and to spawn their business ideas.
It is, however, not an easy task for people who are not concerned with developing media-compression technology on a daily basis to see all the potential and business opportunities slumbering in the technology that has been standardized. Not everyone has an engineering or science degree or has the time to stick her nose into literally hundreds of pages of specification documents. Picking up magazines and reading articles and press releases doesn t necessarily help much, either,...
