The Advanced Authoring Format – an industry initiative, launched in March 1998, to create a file interchange standard for the easy sharing of media data and metadata among digital production tools and content creation applications, regardless of platform. It includes EBU/SMPTE metadata and management of pluggable effects and codecs. It allows open connections between equipment where not only video and audio are transferred but also metadata including information on how the content is composed, where it came from, etc. It can fulfil the role of an all-embracing EDL or offer the basis for a media archive that any AAF-enabled system can use.
After years of development it is now used in equipment from a number of manufacturers including Quantel.

Website: www.aafassociation.com