ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, entitled Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information, is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It develops and facilitates international standards, technical reports, and technical specifications within the field of audio, picture, multimedia, and hypermedia information coding. SC 29 includes the well-known JPEG and MPEG experts groups, and the importance of the standards developed by SC 29 have been recognized by at least 15 Emmy Awards.
The international secretariat of SC 29 is the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) of Japan.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 was established in 1991, when the subcommittee took over the tasks of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2/WG 8. Its title, "Coded representation of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information", has not been changed since its inception. Within its first year, SC 29 established four working groups, a secretariat, and working group conveners, and held its first plenary in Tokyo, Japan. Its founding chair was Hiroshi Yasuda of NTT, who continued to serve in that capacity through 1999. Subsequent chairs have been Hiroshi Watanabe of NTT (2000âÂÂ2006), Kohtaro Asai of Mitsubishi Electric (2007âÂÂ2017), Teruhiko Suzuki of Sony (2018âÂÂ2020), and Gary Sullivan of Dolby Labs (2021âÂÂpresent, originally from Microsoft before moving to Dolby in 2023).
In 2003, SC 29 was the inaugural recipient of the Lawrence D. Eicher Award, an award that has been given by ISO to only one technical committee or subcommittee each year, which "recognizes the significant contribution and superior performance of an ISO technical committee (TC) or subcommittee (SC) to the development of ISO International Standards".
As of May 2024, SC 29 is responsible for 617 currently published standards and updates of standards, including standards for JPEG (ISO/IEC 10918-1), JPEG-2000 (ISO/IEC 15444-1), MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 11172-1), MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC 13818), MPEG-4 (ISO/IEC 14996), MPEG-4 AVC (ISO/IEC 14496-10), JBIG (ISO/IEC 11544), MHEG-5 (ISO/IEC 13522-5), etc.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 has received ten Emmy Awards in recognition of the standards it has developed.
In addition, on at least four other occasions, Emmy awards were also given to participating companies and other related organizations for the development or implementation of SC 29 standards.
Additionally, the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award (a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award) was presented in 2017 to Leonardo Chiariglione, the co-founder (with Hiroshi Yasuda) and longtime chairman of MPEG, in recognition of his 30 years of leadership in establishing worldwide standards for digital video compression and transmission in SC 29.
The scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 includes the development of standards for "efficient coding of digital representations of images, audio and moving pictures" and other digital information, along with supporting media systems and associated quality of experience and performance metrics.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 has eight active working groups (WGs), each of which carries out specific tasks in standards development within scope of the subcommittee. It also contains five advisory groups (AG) for coordination and to provide expertise on particular subjects. Working groups and advisory groups can be created or disbanded by decisions of the subcommittee and are ordinarily chartered for renewable three-year terms. The focus of each working group is described in the group's terms of reference. The active advisory groups and working groups of SC 29 are:
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 works in close collaboration with a number of other organizations or subcommittees, both internal and external to ISO or IEC, in order to avoid conflicting or duplicative work. Organizations internal to ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to SC 29 include:
Some organizations external to ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, include:
Countries pay a fee to be a member of an ISO/IEC JTC 1 subcommittee.
The 31 "P" (participating) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakstan, Korea (Republic of), Lebanon, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey.
The 17 "O" (observing) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 are: Argentina, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, and South Africa.
As of May 2024, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 is currently responsible for 617 currently published standards within the field of coded representation of audio, picture, multimedia, and hypermedia information, including the following selected examples: