The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) today announced the launch of a new Pro AV Working Group tasked with promoting the adoption of one set of media-over-IP protocols for the professional AV and installed systems market. AIMS has appointed David Chiappini as chair and Scott Barella as deputy chair of the new working group.

The AIMS Pro AV Working Group will define an open-standards approach to addressing the pro AV world’s move toward IP media. The group’s efforts will be based on evaluating and recommending existing standards and specifications from AES, AMWA, VSF, SMPTE, IEEE, and IETF that already have been broadly adopted by the media and entertainment industry, incorporating pro AV-market-specific features including security, HDCP support for protected content, and IO control. The anticipated result of the Pro AV Working Group’s efforts is a flexible, future-proof method for meeting the video, audio, and data requirements of current and future pro AV solutions.

Chiappini, the new working group’s chair, is vice president of research and development for AIMS member Matrox. He has served in a variety of roles at Matrox since 1994 and currently manages the engineering teams behind the Matrox pro AV and broadcast products lines. Chiappini has extensive expertise and experience in the AV-over-IP movement, and he is involved in developing compressed and uncompressed products for that space.

Barella, who is CTO at PESA, provides leadership and insight for the company’s delivery of robust security components to video, audio, and data signals in the Ethernet fabric, as well as compression and distribution technologies. In addition to his new role as deputy chair of the Pro AV Working Group, he also serves as the AIMS Technical Working Group deputy chair. Barella has a strong background in broadcast systems design and architecture, OEM manufacturing and design, systems integration, and operations, with particular emphasis on IP video.