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AXMEDIS is a consortium and a solution based on the AXMEDIS project partially funded by the European Commission in IST FP6 and including about 35 partners and affiliated partners such as University of Florence, TISCALI, AFI, SEJER, ILABS, EUTELSAT, HP, Telecom Italia, Telecom Lituania, Telecom Estonia, EPFL, FHGIGD, ACIT, Technical University of Catalonia, University of Leeds, STRATEGICA, EXITECH, XIM, University of Reading, KTU, MBI, PKU, SDAE, SIAE, ANSC, ETRI, HEXAGLOBE, GESFOR, ALBENIZ, PENTEX, RIGEL, etc. AXMEDIS has produced innovative research results exploited in new tools and solutions that have been used for developing real trial and demonstrators for automated content production, protection and distribution.


The AXMEDIS Framework is an open solution which builds on new technologies and tools to:

• reduce costs and increase efficiency for content production, protection (multiple and interoperable DRMs), management and multichannel distribution. It offers effective automation for:
  • integrating your Content Management Systems (CMSs), with the distribution systems by automating the communication and maintenance of content and information between the two systems;
  • content gathering and ingestion processes from local and remote CMSs as well as file systems;
  • composition, supporting parallel processing, GRID technology, and optimisation techniques for content ingestion, production, protection and formatting;
  • managing the workflow processes at content-factory level and between different content-factories;
  • the overall process allowing content production on demand.
• support the whole value chain, including composition, packaging, integration, aggregation, synchronisation, formatting, adaptation, transcoding, indexing. Additional features include the integration of both protected and non-protected components within an object, definition of relationships with other resources, metadata integration and remapping/transcoding, protection, license production and verification;
• allow the convergence of the media and interoperability of content to enable multi-channel distributions. The framework supports content distribution:
  • on different channels such as satellite data broadcast, Internet, cellular network, wireless, traditional supports such as CDs, DVDs;
  • via different communication technologies, particularly with Peer-to-Peer? (P2P) for both B2B (Business-to-Business) and B2C (Business-to-Consumer) levels;
  • to different devices such as PC, PDA, interactive TV (i-TV), set-top box (STB), etc.;
  • with different transaction models on the same channels and content, and with flexibility.
• adopt new methods and tools for innovative, flexible and interoperable Digital Rights Management (DRM) in order to facilitate smooth transition from paper contracts to digital licenses. For examples:
  • the exploitation of MPEG-21 REL (Rights Expression Language) with specific extensions and enhancements;
  • the support of different business and transactions models and their integration;
  • the integration/interoperation of different DRM models such as MPEG-21 REL and ODRL OMA (Open Mobile Alliance).
• harmonise B2B and B2C areas for DRM, bringing the DRM model in the B2B area, supporting production and protection models in the whole value chain;
• increase content accessibility with a P2P platform at B2B level, which can integrate content management systems and workflows.

AXMEDIS implements the AXMEDIS Framework for all, especially small and large industries sharing a common interest in the exploitation of new technologies and solutions. The AXMEDIS Framework can be used to setup and built a large range of applications and services in the area of content production, protection and distribution, examples are also reported in this document. With the flexibility of AXMEDIS framework and dynamic plug-in technology, you can customize your applications and processes according to your needs. Moreover, accessing to the AXMEDIS Framework also means the full access to all the source code or client and server applications.

The AXMEDIS digital content and content components is an open format capable of integrating any kind of cross media format (video, images, animations, games, learning objects, multimedia, audiovisual, document, audio, etc.) in any digital format, any kind of metadata including identification, classification, categorization, indexing, descriptors, annotation, relationships and play activities and protection aspects.
The AXMEDIS format permits the combination of content components and their secure distribution in respect of the copyright laws, supporting a large variety of DRM rules and models according to concepts of interoperability among DRM models (mainly, but not only, based on MPEG-21, with both binary and XML low level formats). AXMEDIS is open to any DRM model and solution.
Within the AXMEDIS content any type of cross media content can be included from simple multimedia files to games or software components, for leisure and entertainment, infotainment, and also for managing protected governmental content, healthcare information, business of value information, etc.

• AXMEDIS Cross Media Content: Examples
• AXMEDIS Object Model.

This document describes the AXMEDIS open architecture and framework:

• All the AXMEDIS specification is public and its specific use is royalty free. Any company or third party can use the document to create an AXMEDIS compatible solution;
• All AXMEDIS client tools are accessible and are free of charge.
  • Tools to be installed
  • Tools examples
  • o Videos and tutorials
• All the source code of AXMEDIS Framework is accessible if you get affiliated with AXMEDIS such as SIAE, ALBENIZ, RIGEL, PENTEX, HEXAGLOBE, FOCUSEEK, GESFOR, etc. The affiliation fee is low and affordable for all. If you are an institution the Affiliation if FREE of charge if you collaborate to improve the framework in somehow, and you will become an AXMEDIS sustainer and developers;
• The affiliation to AXMEDIS can also be obtained by contributing work or results to the community which improve and extend the AXMEDIS Framework, becoming an AXMEDIS sustainer and developers;
• The AXMEDIS plug-in technology is public. The source code for creating new plug-ins is public without need to be affiliated.
  • AXMEDIS Affiliation webpage
  • AXMEDIS Affiliation Agreement Document
• In AXMEDIS the focus is on interoperability and openness of content model, including multi-channel distribution;
• In AXMEDIS the focus is on interoperability of DRM model, including multichannel distribution.

More technical information on AXMEDIS architecture and framework and about how to access at the AXMEDIS framework getting affiliated to AXMEDIS are available on http://www.axmedis.org/.