Internet Streaming Media Alliance

The Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) was Founded in December 2000, by Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, IBM, Kasenna, Philips, and Sun Microsystems. It is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to accelerate the market adoption of open standards for streaming and progressive download of rich media over all types of Internet Protocols (IP). The ISMA is a diverse alliance with representatives from all points of the streaming work-flow.

While standards already exist for audio and video codecs (e.g. MPEG) and for real time streaming transport over IP networks (e.g. RTP) putting these together requires selecting profiles, describing payload formats, and resolving various options. ISMA specifications typically adopt existing specifications in order to form a complete solution. However, when specifications don't exist, the ISMA will create them. The ISMA also performs interoperability testing, allowing its members to ensure that their products conform to ISMA standards and interoperate.

The ISMA has released several specifications for the transport of rich media over IP:

* ISMA 1.0 - details how to stream MPEG-4 Part 2 video (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile) over IP networks.
* ISMA 2.0 - details how to stream H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video and HE AAC audio over IP networks.
* ISMACryp - specifies an end-to-end encryption system for ISMA 1.0 and 2.0 streams.
* ISMA Closed Captioning - specifies how to carry closed caption (line 21) data as a third stream over IP network.

Current work in the ISMA focuses on enabling advanced IPTV systems and creating specifications for transport and presentation of rich media in enterprises.