1. ITU-T Study Group 16 Multimedia Services, Systems and Terminals
Pierre-André Probst /Switzerland

2. Contents Terms of reference Management Team SG Organization Statistics
Highlights of achievements / Projects / FGs
Workshops
Future work
Conclusions

3. Terms of Reference
Studies related to service definition and multimedia systems (MM), including the associated terminals (including facsimile terminals), modems and signal processing.
Lead SG for:
MM services, systems and terminals
E-business and e-commerce

4. Management Team Chair: P.A.Probst CH Vice-Chairs: M.Matsumoto J
F.Tosco (until December 2002) I
J.Magill (until August 2003) UK
S.F.de Campos Neto (until February 2002) B
M.Wreikat (until February 2002)
JOR
WP Chairs:
S.Okubo (from October 2002)
S.F. de Campos Neto (until February 2002) J.Magill (until August 2003)
TSB
F.Bigi (until June 2001)
S.F. de Campos Neto (from February 2002)
COUNTRY: should be the letter acronym, e.g. USA, I (for Italy), J (Japan), etc, as used in the ITU list of participants
Delete UNUSED rows in the PowerPoint table

5. Study Group Structure
WP1 - Modems and facsimile terminals Terminal and interworking aspects of modems and facsimile, MM facilities for customers with disabilities like text telephony.
WP2 - MM-platform and interworking MM systems characteristics and their interworking over different platforms (PSTN, ISDN, IP-based networks, Mobile).
WP3 - Media coding Algorithms for speech, audio and video coding and associated software tools.
WP4 - MM framework Lead SG activities (Mediacom 2004: coordination of MM standard development in and outside ITU-T) and overall MM services and applications aspects, including end-to-end architecture.

6. Statistics (I) Sixty-nine Rapporteurs meetings held
Eight normal and 429 delayed contributions received
Six SG meetings and two WP meetings held
SG participants :
Max: 187 ( )
Min: 109 ( )
Average: 134

7. Statistics (II) 69 new & 136 revised Recommendations approved
22 Questions assigned by WTSA-2000
Four new or revised Questions during study period
20 Questions proposed for the next study period

8. Highlights of achievements (I)
Modems, facsimile terminals and accessibility to MM systems: - Support of modems connections over IP-based networks (V.150 series). - Improvement of facsimile terminals standards (colour fax: T.42) and real-time communication for Group 3 facsimile over IP based networks (T.38). - Promotion of text conversation standards and development of protocols to support these facilities in and over IP based networks.

9. Highlights of achievements (II)
MM Platform and Interworking (1/2): - New version of Media Gateway Protocol (H.248) and development of new packages (41 in total). - MM Systems over ISDN (H.320): introduction of support for H.264 and use of additional video channels (H.239). - MM Systems over IP-based networks (H.323): development and approval of Version 5 which includes a number additional functions, enhancement to H.323 related Recs like H (call signalling) and H.460 series (generic extensible framework). - Security for MM systems (H.235): further development to Version and approval of Version 3, which includes RAS and NAT/Firewall related aspects.

10. Highlights of achievements (III)
MM Platform and Interworking (2/2): - Directory services: development of a new series (H.350) allowing the use of LDAP and X.500 directory services for MM conferencing (7 Recs covering H.323, H.320, H.235, SIP and non-standard protocols, call forwarding and preferences). - Mobility management for H.323 systems: development of a new series of Recs (H.500) addressing mobility management of H.323 terminals and users (H.510), security procedures (H.530) and intra/inter domains management related aspects (H.501). - Reference architecture for controlling the QoS and service priority of MM services in heterogeneous networks: approval of a new Rec H.360.

11. Highlights of achievements (IV)
Media coding (1/2) - Development of a new generation of video coding standards (H.264) in cooperation with MPEG for all applications (distributive and interactive communications) on different platforms (fixed and mobile including IP-based networks), bit rate reduction of more than 50 % for the same level of quality (adopted by the DVD-Forum for High Definition-DVD standard). - Still image coding: continuation of the collaborative work with JPEG (maintenance of the T.80 and T.800 series of Recs). Cooperation to be strengthened in future (e.g joint meeting in 2005). - Wideband speech coding around 16 kbit/s: alignment of G with 3GPP AMR-WB specifications (Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband)

12. Highlights of achievements (V)
Media coding (2/2) - 4 kbit/s speech coding: considerable efforts spent to identify and assess two possible candidates towards a single standard. No consensus was possible among the proponents, the work is suspended since October Variable bit rate coding of speech signals: definition of target performance objectives to support a large number of applications (3G wireless services, VOIP, very low bit rate PSTN, CME, PCME, …), corresponding Recs are planned for 2005/ Maintenance of existing standards and of software tools for audio coding development

13. Highlights of achievements (VI)
MM Framework (MEDIACOM-2004) (1/2) - Development and approval of basic Recs for triple-play service deployment based on xDSL technologies in the access network: - creation of a Focus Group in accordance with A.7 - development and approval of two Recs covering the Architecture (H.610) and AOMP aspects (H.611), based on technical specifications prepared in the FS-VDSL Focus Group. - TDR/ETS: considerable efforts spent to identify the MM needs of the different players involved in ETS and TDR, approval of a new question (Q I/16) and creation of the PCP-TDR (Partnership Coordination Panel) as informal platform to contribute to the coordination in the development of ETS/TDR standards in and outside ITU-T among the various organisations involved in this field.

14. Highlights of achievements (VII)
MM Framework (MEDIACOM-2004) (2/2) - e-Health: approval of a new question (Q J/16: MM Framework for e-Health application) to study the standardisation of MM service facilities to support the various e-Health applications (e.g. telemedecine) and creation of an informal platform (eHSCG: e-Health Standardisation Coordination Group) to exchange information and identify possible standardisation issues among the different communities involved in this area. - Development of a Metadata Framework to allow content and/or broadcast program information to be delivered over different networks and terminals (F.MDF).

15. Highlights of achievements (VIII)
Lead SG Activities: Multimedia (MEDIACOM-2004) - Project Steering Committee mechanism used for the coordination with IETF (e.g. H248, H.350) and MPEG (e.g. H.264). - Coordination of SG16 involvement in the IP, GII and NGN projects. - Organisation of and participation to several workshops (see next slide). - Workshop follow up on SG16 relevant issues (updating of the work programme and of the questions).
Lead SG Activities: e-commerce and e-business -relevant issues of MM transactions have been addressed in the work on SG16 questions (e.g. under Q G/16 on security) - participation to the UN-ECE MoU management team meetings - new set of questions includes the trends towards “e-everything”

16. Workshops (I)
IP-Networking and Mediacom [with SG13] (Geneva, April 2001)
Multimedia in the 21st century (Porto Seguro, Brazil, 4-5 June 2001)
Multimedia Convergence (IP Cablecom / Mediacom 2004/ Interactivity in Multimedia) [with SG9 and ITU-R SG6] (Geneva, March 2002)
Satellites in IP and Multimedia [lead SG13] (Geneva, 9-11 December 2002)
Telecommunications for Disaster Relief [with SG2] (Geneva, February 2003)

17. Workshops (II)
Standardization in E-Health [with ITU-D] (Geneva, May 2003)
Next Generation Networks: What, When and How? - "Encompassing Services, Transport Convergence, mobility issues and more..." [Lead SG13] (Geneva, 9-10 July 2003)
Accessibility I: ITU Takes Deaf People's Accessibility Needs Into Account - a plenary Session within the Telecommunications for the Deaf (TDI) Conference (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 2003)

18. Workshops (III)
Accessibility II: Communication by all means: Accessibility for all in telecommunications enabled by multimedia standards - a special session at the Telecom 2003 Forum) (Geneva, October 2003)
Standardization in Telecommunications for motor vehicles [with SG12] (Geneva, November 2003)
High-level workshop on International Standards for Medical Technologies - World Health Organization (WHO) [lead WSC = ITU + ISO + IEC] (Geneva, February 2004)

19. Workshops (IV)
H.350, Directory services for multimedia networks [organized by ViDeNet/Internet2] (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, 25 March 2004)
All Star Network Access [lead SG15] (Geneva, 2-4 June 2004)
Home Networks Home and Services [with SG9] (Tokyo, Japan, June 2004)
Advances in the Emerging Standard H.264/AVC [organized by US International Society for Optical Engineering – SPIE] (2-6 August 2004)

20. Future Work (I)
MM service capabilities trends: - Large offer of multimedia services and applications (“Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone”), increased complexity of customer segmentation. - Convergence with broadcasting at the service and network levels. - Increased customer needs for higher bandwidth and terminal/service/users mobility (fix/mobile convergence). - Importance of content creation and delivery.

21. Future Work (II)
Impact on SG16 future work: - Address the higher layers capabilities for ubiquitous services (e-everything) - Decoupling between the higher and lower layers of the NGN (architecture) - Continue to address the interworking issues (evolution of platforms) - Strengthen the coordination efforts (MEDIACOM) within ITU-T/ITU and with other SDOs and Forum/Consortia and make extensive use of existing tools (A-Series of Recs.)

22. Acknowledgements To SG16 customers ! To the management team of the SG,
To the TSB counselors,
To the TSB secretariat,
To the TSB Director,