12th April, 2011

The Las Vegas Convention Center, 3150 Paradise Road Las Vegas, NV, USA

• The Foundry Visionmongers Ltd, represented by Bruno Nicoletti,
• GenArts Inc, represented by Gary Oberbrunner and Steve Hayes,
• Assimilate Inc, represented by Gerk Huisma,
• RE:Vision Effects, represented by Pierre Jasmin,
• Sony, represented by John Freeborg, Dennis Adams, and Michael Howard
• Boris FX, represented by Boris Yamnitsky

• Jian Liang from China Digital Video
• Scott Johnston from Fleeting Image

• Reappointment of Directors
  • Peter Husima, Bruno Nicoletti and Gary Oberbrunner were reappointed directors on a unanimous show of hands of the members.

• Company Accounts presented : approved

• Method for ratifying extensions approved, with modifications. Discussion about conflict resolution method, and early unanimous approval for simple extensions. Gary Oberbrunner to document and add to the standard. See addendum below.

• GPU extension: currently working between GenArts and Assimilate. Latest spec to be sent out by Gerk Huisma, beginning the 30-day (or 90-day) extension ratification process. Discussion about error handling and CPU fallback; Gerk believes the latest draft handles that.

• Stereo (multi-view) extension: Committee formed, consisting of Sony, The Foundry and Assimilate. This will be hammered out from several private extensions that already exist by Sony and The Foundry.

• Sony proposed several extensions, of varying levels of difficulty.
  • BGRA pixel order: GenArts to work with Sony on this extension
  • Stereo 3D: see below
  • Rich Text string params: simple enhancement
  • Render Quality: simple enhancement
  • Help button and About box: GenArts, The Foundry and Sony to discuss proposal
  • Localization fix for Progress Suite: minor fix
  • Windows Native GUI (HWND): This was not as popular as the others; Sony may create as a private extension first

• Sony's minor compatible extensions will be added to the wiki; Pierre will read through them, distill, and suggest to API members a small set of yes/no to vote on.

• China Digital Video thought an extension would be needed to handle multiple disjoint frame ranges in GetFrameRange; Bruno said the current spec allows that (though some plug-ins may not implement it correctly). Pierre volunteered to improve documentation for GetFrameRange to address this.

• It was decided to produce new versions of the spec at minimum 6-month intervals, targeting June and December so as not to overlap with NAB or IBC, and allow new features based on new extensions to be released at those trade shows.

• Naming scheme for private extensions suggested: use company name as prefix to avoid conflicts, Java-style, as in com.genarts.ExtensionName.

• Some discussion was held around joining the Visual Effects Society as a parent organization, to provide stability and legitimacy. It was decided not to pursue that at this time, but establish friendly relationships where possible. The original hope was that joining a parent organization might give us some resources for getting things done, but it wasn't clear to the membership that this would help. Membership needs to pitch in to help.

• There was discussion of how we broadcast meeting announcements. We need to ensure the word gets out as widely as possible.

• Gary to get doc updates and doc build scripts from Bruno so docs can be rebuilt by more than just one member.

• It was decided to move the source code for the standard and associated libraries to git, either github or some other open source repository. This should make it easier for all to contribute changes and updates. GenArts and The Foundry to cooperate on this.

• Finally, as a reminder, any company interested in developing plugins or hosting them or both can become an official member - Steve Hayes stevehayes@genarts.com is to be contacted about that.

1. Proposal
   • Any member may propose an extension for discussion
   • Committee is formed to create detailed spec
   • Committee must contain:
     • at least two members (two different companies)
     • original proposer
     • identified host and plug-in sponsors (may be from same company)
2. Test implementation
   • Before final ratification, every extension must have:
     • Complete API spec
     • Working, demonstrable host/plug-in implementation
     • At least one Host sponsor (member of Committee)
     • At least one Plug-in sponsor (member of Committee)
     • Published source for simple reference plug-in
3. Comment period and Ratification
   • There are two comment periods: initial 30 day period, and 90 day period.
   • Both periods start simultaneously after announcement by the committee of working demonstration and published spec.
   • If all members vote unanimously to ratify an extension after the 30 day period, the extension is immediately ratified.
   • Otherwise, after 90 days a vote is taken, and a majority vote ratifies the extension.
   • Comments during both periods are open to entire membership.
   • Any API changes from comments during the comment period must be implemented by sponsors prior to ratification.
   • If change requests are disputed, majority vote of all members is taken to approve/disapprove.
     • Disapproved change requests go back to the committee for further discussion.