Adobe on Monday unveiled plans for a new open video format at the National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow in Las Vegas, Nev. Adobe said it plans to leverage its Digital Negative Specification (DNG) first introduced for still images.
Adobe will lead the initiative to define the industry-wide open file format for digital cinema files, but the company won’t be working alone. There will be a coalition of camera manufacturers, including Panavision, Silicon Imaging, Dalsa, Weisscam and ARRI, along with software vendors, including Iridas and The Foundry, and codec provider CineForm.
By introducing CinemaDNG Adobe hopes to streamline workflows and ensure easy archiving and exchange.
With more filmmakers making the move to digital cinema cameras, Adobe sees several advantages for the industry moving forward with an open standard. Incompatibilities due to multiple formats and proprietary technologies are two issues Adobe sees as eroding some of the advantages of going digital.
Adobe also said could have benefits for manufactures, as well. By not having to develop conversion utilities and specialized formats, manufacturers can save money on development costs.
Adobe gave no timeframe on when the initiative would be finalized.