Designing a Verification Tool for Easier Quality Assurance of Interoperable Master Format Packages

Abstract: With today's global distribution of movies, series, documentaries, and more, the need for a standardised system for storing content has emerged. Over-the-top media services such as Netflix, HBO, and Amazon Prime are storing large amounts of content, and by providing it internationally, the content multiplies when it has to conform to regional standards and regulations. The organisation Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) has, in the light of this, created a standard called the Interoperable Master Format (IMF). This component-based media lowers storage costs drastically by only storing and managing the media elements that are unique between versions. In management of media content, one of the tasks is verification, a process where the content is checked for errors. By incorporation this process into an IMF workflow, the efficiency could be considerably improved. The objective of this thesis is to explore the use of IMF today and design a tool used for verification of IMF package data, solving present problems in the verification workflow. By looking more deeply into the IMF standard and the needs of people working with verification, a prototype could be created that attends to the needs of the user while simultaneously conforming to the IMF workflow. The prototype was received well by design experts and there is a potential of the further development of it.