AXMEDIS is a set of European Union digital content standards, initially created as a research project running from 2004 to 2008 partially supported by the European Commission under the Information Society Technologies (IST DG-INFSO) programme of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). It stands for "Automating Production of Cross Media Content for Multi-channel Distribution". Now it is distributed as a framework, and is still being maintained and improved. A large part of the framework is under open source licensing. The AXMEDIS framework includes a set of tools, models, test cases, documents, etc. supporting the production and distribution of cross media content.
Summary
The AXMEDIS framework supports the whole content production 'food chain' for cross media content creation, aggregation, adaptation, repurposing, protection and multichannel distribution, with a strong focus on automation.
The market for digital content is rapidly changing. Users are becoming more interested in using more interactive and intelligent content, that example can: include/describe/package several kinds of media (audio, video, games, documents, etc.), reproducing in a single digital object the interactivity and much more powerful entertainment capabilities than DVDs; provide enhanced interactivity such as navigating and selecting content elements to be played, making queries into the content elements, reacting to user commands and changes, providing annotations, etc.; be exchanged and distributed among different devices/tools: PC, mobiles, smart-phones, STB/PVR, HDR, PDA, game station, etc.; be obtained from several different interoperable distribution channels based on Internet, P2P, wireless mobile, satellite and/or terrestrial networks, etc.; change content behaviour according to the context and/or to the user profiles, context, device capabilities, etc.; protect and manage the IPR, that means that the content format has to support some DRM model and that this support a set of business models, for example: renting, pay per play, subscription, advertising, etc.; be stored in media centres to be redistributed to other devices; present some autonomy of control, asking to the user to provide information and data; provide autonomous capabilities for example to create an electronic guide, to issues content usage licenses, ask at the user to provide content, etc.; be personally produced at home and/or shared in the network. These new forms of content and content usages can be fully exploited for digital content distribution, and are opening paths for a larger set of new applications and markets beyond the limitations of the physical media. With AXMEDIS the combinations of digital content formats and digital distribution channels are creating new applications including: user content, shared content, IPTV, DVB, VOD, POD, WEBTV, etc., for PC, PDA, mobiles and STB/PVR. Recent distribution models have been enabled by a set of new technologies grounded on content formats, content processing and adaptation capabilities, content protection models and solutions, hardware capabilities, and new solutions for Digital Rights Management, DRM.
Aims
According to the official AXMEDIS website the main aims are to: reduce the costs of cross media (Multi-media) production and distribution search for and integrate objects and components through a query support system manage and monitor distribution These objectives are being pursued by integrating research results, algorithms and tools. AXMEDIS is a powerful cross media format, in which any kind of content can be hosted for its direct access. It has been derived extending MPEG-21 format with a powerful binary file format based on ISOMEDIA, and several metadata, descriptors and tools.
Objects and their file format
An Axmedis object is an MPEG-21 multimedia object which can virtually contain any kind of multimedia resource, metadata and rights-related information supporting the MPEG-21 "Rights Expression Language" (REL).