WAVE Project

The WAVE project focuses on commercial internet video and web applications, and developing interoperability tools for global compatibility.

Generally, the WAVE Project will not create new protocols or other standards, instead referencing accepted industry standards where possible, such as HTML5, MSE/EME, DASH and HLS.

In addition, a complete, normative streaming player environment specification and interoperability tests are essential for quickly deploying internet-delivered 4K Ultra HD content in quantity and to enable the broadest deployment of full-HD services.

WAVE also hosts the CMAF Industry Forum (CMAF-IF), which is focused on promoting CMAF industry interoperability and support.

WAVE Project Task Forces

The Content Specification Task Force: This group will identify requirements on content streams, centering their work on the MPEG CMAF proposal and work in progress, plus test suites to validate content streams against these requirements.

The HTML5 API Task Force: This group will identify requirements for the HTML5 app environment on the device side, plus test suites to check device user agents against these requirements.

The Device Playback Capabilities Task Force: This group will identify requirements for hardware capabilities to support the APIs, plus test suites to verify device behavior against these requirements.

The CMAF-IF: The CMAF specification is maintained and published by MPEG (formally, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 29/WG 11 – Coding of moving pictures and audio). Much of the technical discussion of CMAF topics that are outside MPEG scope (including definition of media profiles) has been taking place in CTA WAVE Task Forces. WAVE is also creating the necessary test infrastructure. Accordingly, CTA WAVE created the CMAF Industry Forum (CMAF-IF) group to host and foster even more discussion of CMAF topics for industry's benefit. See the CMAF-IF Wiki for more information.

Streaming Media Industry Standards: The WAVE Project is improving the way commercial internet video is delivered from origin to destination, with multiple task-specific groups. The Common Media Client Data (CMCD) and Common Media Server Data (CMSD) groups handle metadata between the content server and the client player, enhancing performance, reliability and error cause tracking while respecting individual privacy. The Common Access Token (CAT) group is building an interoperable authentication token specification for authentication with multiple content delivery networks in collaboration with the Streaming Video Technology Alliance. The Streaming Media Tracing group is working to develop a suite of related specifications designed to maximize the observability of end-to-end streaming media delivery for a wide variety of use cases, also in collaboration with the Streaming Video Technology Alliance. The DASH-HLS Interoperability group handles interoperability of an encoded and packaged segmented media presentation that is used with both DASH and HLS streaming formats.