Press Release
At its 151st meeting, MPEG promoted three standards (among others) to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS), driving innovation in Systems and Graphics coding:
- Open font format
- Video based Mesh Coding
- Low Latency Point Cloud Compression
At its 39th meeting, JVET (SC 29 WG 5) issued a Joint Call for Evidence (CfE, on behalf of its SC 29 and ITU-T SG21 parent bodies) as a public document. The CfE requests information regarding the existence of video compression technology that has compression performance or additional functionality beyond that of VVC, where the tradeoff in terms of encoder and decoder implementation cost is also an important criterion. Evidence about technology with capability for runtime-constrained encoding, as well as support for functionality that may not be sufficiently supported by existing video compression standards are also part of this CfE. Submissions are expected to be received by the time of the 40th JVET meeting in October 2025. Depending on the evidence shown, an open Call for Proposals (CfP) on submission of technology proposals for a next generation of video compression standards will be issued afterwards. Both further improvements on conventional technology (based on traditional signal processing) as well as technology based on neural networks and artificial intelligence are welcome to be submitted in this context.
Work towards next edition of VVC software
Availability of reference software helps implementers of encoding and decoding devices to be following the specification of a video compression standard. At its 39th meeting, JVET (SC 29 WG 5) issued the International Standard (IS) for the second edition of Reference Software for Versatile Video Coding (ISO/IEC 23090-16 | ITU-T Rec. H.266.2), adding better support for multi-layer coding configurations and other functionality, providing implementation of additional SEI messages, and including miscellaneous encoder improvements as well as various cleanups of the software implementation.
MPEG reaches Initial Milestone for emerging application of ISOBMFF
Continuous efforts of the many experts of MPEG Systems (WG3) have resulted in a pivotal role of ISO/IEC 14496-12 ISO Base media file format in supporting various media applications. We are now starting to support emerging applications like smart glasses. As such new type of devices are distinguished from the conventional ones by their capabilities of supporting stereoscopic video and overlay of graphics information in 3D space, two new amendments have been promoted to Committee Draft Amendment (CDAM) stage at the 151st MPEG meeting.
The ISO/IEC 14496-15 7th edition Amendment 2 Improvement of carriage of L-HEVC in ISOBMFF improves support of storage of HEVC bitstream with more than two layers such as Multi-View HEVC supporting stereoscopic video. One of the important enhancements provided by the amendment is better support of smooth transition between monoscopic video and stereoscopic video with a single bitstream.
The ISO/IEC 14496-12 8th edition Amendment 2 Carriage of depth and alpha adds enhanced support of the depth and alpha sequences. They were defined in ISOBMFF as auxiliary media accompanied to a video stream. New amendment allows general use of such media independently. It also adds a capability to associate the metadata required to interpret those depth and alpha sequences.
Both amendments are expected to reach the final milestone, Final Draft Amendment (FDAM) in late 2026.
MPEG reaches Final Milestone for Fifth Edition of Open Font Format
At the 151st MPEG meeting, MPEG Systems (WG 3) promoted the 5th edition of ISO/IEC 14496-22 Open font format to the final stage of standard development, Final Draft International Standard (FDIS).
Extensive work by the dedicated experts on improving readability and applicability of the open font format standard has resulted in the development of the font format standard. The latest edition of ISO/IEC 14496-22, the 5th edition, not only enhances the legibility of the specification but also transcends previous limitations, notably the 64K glyph encoding constraint in a single font file. By surpassing this barrier, the new edition facilitates the comprehensive coverage of the entire Unicode repertoire, accommodating diverse world languages and writing systems, including multiple glyph variants, within a singular font file. Moreover, the latest edition introduces more space-efficient composite glyph representations, along with a myriad of novel features and capabilities tailored for variable fonts. This innovation culminates in substantial reductions in font file sizes and empowers the creation of parametric variable fonts utilizing higher order interpolations.
The importance of textual representation within multimedia content cannot be underestimated. In recognition of this, MPEG Systems will continuously pursue the improvement of this important standard.
MPEG starts to enhance storage and delivery of new type of volumetric media
To support interoperable storage and delivery of volumetric media such as Video-based point cloud coding (V-PCC) data and MPEG immersive video (MIV) data, ISO/IEC 23090-10 Carriage of visual volumetric video-based coding data has been previously developed. To widen the support of volumetric media, MPEG Systems (WG3) has promoted the 2nd edition of the ISO/IEC 23090-10 to Committee Draft (CD) stage at the 151st MPEG meeting.
New edition adds support of new volumetric media type recently developed by MPEG, ISO/IEC 23090-29 Video-based dynamic mesh coding (V-DMC). At the same time, the new edition will be structured to improve extensibility without losing consistency across various volumetric media types by clearly separating common technologies and media type specific technologies.
This new edition is expected to reach the final milestone, Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) in late 2026.
MPEG Launches Lenslet Video Coding Standardization
At its 149th meeting, MPEG issued a Call for Proposals (CfP) on Lenslet Video Coding (LVC), aiming to establish a standard that significantly improves the compression efficiency of lenslet video content captured by plenoptic cameras. The CfP targeted technologies that could utilize the spatial-angular redundancies inherent in lenslet images while ensuring compatibility with existing video codecs such as Versatile Video Coding (VVC).
At the 151st MPEG meeting, two responses to the CfP were evaluated. Both proposals introduced a codec-agnostic module within the encoder and decoder architecture and provided a sub-bitstream structure compatible with VVC, fulfilling a key design goal of modular integration.
The two proposals, while technically distinct, were found to be highly complementary. One proposal adopted a microimage cropping and alignment strategy, effectively extracting only the most relevant pixel data for multiview rendering. This approach resulted in an average bitrate savings of 20% while preserving Multiview PSNR (MV-PSNR) across various sequences. The other proposal took a novel approach using disparity-based pixel shuffling followed by filtering, optimizing the representation for compression at low bitrates. Although it incurred some MV-PSNR degradation for a few datasets, subjective evaluations confirmed strong visual quality improvements, particularly for low bitrates.
Subjective testing, conducted by MPEG Visual Quality Assessment Advisory Group (AG 5)d, further validated the visual quality of the proposals. These tests demonstrated that the perceived quality gains aligned well with the objective metrics, reinforcing the complementary strengths of the two approaches.
The responses were rigorously evaluated against the LVC requirements, including support for dynamic scenes, diverse spatial-angular resolutions, lossy compression with bitrate control, and metadata handling such as lenslet parameters and camera configurations.
Encouraged by these compelling results, MPEG Video Coding Working Group (WG 4) has initiated a new project to develop a standardized Lenslet Video Coding solution, selecting the two proposals as the foundation for the Test Model. A working draft and Common Test Conditions document are expected to follow soon after the 151st meeting. WG 4 will continue to refine and optimize the LVC solution, gathering further insights to improve compression efficiency and visual quality. The LVC standard is projected to reach Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) status in 2027.
This new standard will provide an interoperable framework for efficient storage and transmission of light field content, meeting the demands of future visual applications, and 3D imaging.
MPEG issues Updated Call for Proposals for Audio Coding for Machines (ACoM)
At the 151st MPEG meeting, MPEG Audio Coding (WG 6) issued an updated call for proposals (CfP) for technologies and solutions enabling efficient compression for audio coding for machines. Traditional coding methods aim for the best audio under certain bit-rate constraints for human consumption. MPEG-ACoM aims to define a bitstream and data format for compressed audio, multi-dimensional streams, or features extracted from such signals that is efficient in terms of bitrate/size and can be used for machine analysis tasks or hybrid machine and human consumption. In addition, such a data format can be used to transport recorded audio data from sensor networks to machine listening units.
Applications for machine listening are in industrial, surveillance, control, medical, and multimedia applications. This call focuses on lossless audio coding enabling the use of the same compression scheme for all applications. This CfP welcomes submissions of proposals from companies and other organizations.
Registration is required by the 1st of November 2025; the submission of bitstream files, results, and decoder packages is required by the 1st of December 2025; and the submission of proponent documentation is due by the 9th of January 2026. Evaluation of the submissions in response to the CfP will be performed at the 153rd MPEG meeting in January 2026.
The CfP and related documents are available at https://www.mpeg.org/standards/Explorations/46/ and https://www.mpeg.org/.
MPEG Audio Media Authenticity
At its 150th and 151st meeting, MPEG Audio Coding (WG 6) advanced Amendments of ISO/IEC 14496-3 (MPEG-4 Audio), ISO/IEC 23003-3 (MPEG-D Unified speech and audio coding) and ISO/IEC 23008-3 (MPEG-H 3D audio), which include functionality enabling Media Authenticity, to Committee Draft Amendment (CDAM) status.
As digital media continues to proliferate and evolve, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of audio content has become critically important. These latest amendments to the MPEG Audio standards introduce options to enable verification of the authenticity of audio streams in a very bitrate-efficient manner, helping to safeguard against tampering and unauthorized alterations.
Crucially, the technology underpinning Media Authenticity in MPEG Audio is designed for seamless interoperability across the digital media ecosystem. It enables the robust linking of Media Authenticity metadata to other content layers, such as video and systems, ensuring that the integrity of multimedia experiences is preserved across formats and modalities. Furthermore, the solution is architected to reference external systems, facilitating comprehensive provenance and verification across distributed workflows and platforms. This holistic approach positions the MPEG Audio standards suite as a cornerstone for trust and reliability in next-generation media.
The committee draft status marks a milestone in the development process, indicating that the amendment has undergone initial review and is now ready for further scrutiny and refinement by industry experts. This achievement underscores MPEG’s commitment to advancing the reliability and security of digital media.
The standards are expected to be finalized and reach the status of Final Draft Amendment (FDAM) early 2026..
MPEG Advances Standards for 3D Graphics Codecs
At its 151st meeting, MPEG Working Group 7 (WG 7) approved the promotion of two major standards to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) stage, reflecting continued progress in efficient 3D graphics representation. These standards — ISO/IEC 23090-29 (V-DMC) and ISO/IEC 23090-30 (L3C2) — target diverse application domains, from high-quality immersive media experiences to real-time autonomous systems.
• Video-Based Dynamic Mesh Coding, ISO/IEC DIS 23090-29 – Video-based Dynamic Mesh Coding (V-DMC)
Dynamic 3D meshes are increasingly used in immersive applications such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), free-viewpoint video, real-time communication, and 3D content storage. These dynamic assets often feature time-varying connectivity and rapidly changing geometric and texture information, posing significant challenges to existing compression methods.
V-DMC offers a major advancement by using established video coding techniques to compress both the geometry and attributes of animated 3D meshes. By leveraging inter-frame prediction and temporal redundancy in mesh sequences, V-DMC enables high compression efficiency and compatibility with existing video processing infrastructure.
This standard is the result of a global Call for Proposals issued by MPEG, followed by extensive collaborative development and evaluation involving both objective measurements and visual quality assessments. The selected technologies were chosen for their ability to meet the evolving demands of 3D content creators and system integrators. V-DMC marks a significant step toward interoperable, scalable, and efficient dynamic mesh transmission, paving the way for richer and more realistic interactive experiences.
• Low Latency Point Cloud Compression, ISO/IEC FDIS 23090-30 – Low Complexity, Low Latency LiDAR Coding (L3C2)
LiDAR sensing has become central to perception in autonomous vehicles, drones, robotics, and smart infrastructure. These applications often demand that point cloud data be processed and transmitted in real time, requiring compression that is both efficient and latency-aware. While the existing MPEG Geometry-based Point Cloud Compression (G-PCC) standard provides powerful general-purpose tools, it is not optimized for real-time constraints due to its multi-pass coding architecture and high computational complexity.
The newly finalized L3C2 standard directly addresses these limitations. It enables low-latency, low-complexity compression of LiDAR-acquired point clouds by coding geometry and attributes jointly in a single pass, synchronized with the data acquisition process. This structure eliminates costly preprocessing steps and significantly reduces encoder and decoder complexity—making L3C2 particularly well-suited for embedded systems, real-time decision-making, and wireless transmission in constrained environments.
MPEG “Biomedical and General Waveform Signal Coding”
MPEG Audio Coding (WG6) is pleased to announce the start of the joint work with ITU_T SG21 Q6 (VCEG) on “Biomedical and General Waveform Signal Coding,” now at the Committee Draft (CD) stage. This project aims to create a compressed coding format for medical waveform data—such as neurophysiology and electrocardiography data—as well as general scientific signals like seismographic data.
Currently, no existing codec efficiently compresses neurophysiology or electrocardiography data, or similar biomedical waveforms. Standard audio codecs are not suitable for these signals due to psychoacoustic masking and limits on channel count and block size. There is a clear need for a new standard supporting efficient lossless and near-lossless compression and transmission of biomedical waveform data.
This compressed format is intended for use in medical applications such as DICOM, and broader scientific fields. This initiative is a joint effort with ITU-T SG21 Question 6 (VCEG) through the H.BWC work-item, ensuring collaborative and interoperable development.
MPEG Audio Coding welcomes input from the medical, scientific, and technical communities as the Committee Draft progresses. Interested parties are encouraged to participate in the work.
MPEG Announces MPEG Genomics Hackathon to Apply AI for Innovative Uses of Microbiome Data
MPEG is proud to announce a hackathon for advanced applications using genomics data encoded using the MPEG-G standard series (ISO/IEC 23092). The goal of the hackathon is to make use of microbiome data using AI to generate innovative insights. The microbiome refers to the community of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea) living in a particular environment, in this case the microbiome associated with humans. In humans, key microbiome sites include: gut, skin, oral cavity, nasal passages, and urogenital tract and data from various sites is provided to the hackathon participants.
The hackathon is based on a longitudinal microbiome study led by Stanford Medicine and the data collected as part of the study. The hackathon will have a duration of 3 months and has already begun, with the first participants signing up on June 20. The hackathon is comprised of 2 challenges with cash prizes for the top participant submissions in each challenge.
Challenge 1 is a Microbiome Classification Challenge, where participants are tasked with classifying microbiome samples by body site and individual — using sequencing data in compressed MPEG-G format.
Challenge 2, with the potential for new clinical insights and building on the first challenge, explores the immune system (cytokine profiles) interactions with the microbiome over time. Participants can uncover patterns, confirm scientific findings, or propose novel hypotheses.
Results from participants will be ranked, with the highest scores given to the most innovative submissions.
The hackathon is sponsored by Philips with substantial contributions from Leibniz University Hannover, CIMA University of Navarra, Stanford Medicine and Fudan University, Intelligent Medicine Institute. You can join the hackathon, explore novel data formats, and help advance microbiome research through AI here: https://zindi.africa/competitions/mpeg-g-microbiome-classification-challenge