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​​​​Joint Video Team (JVT)

The Joint Video Team was a group of video coding experts from ITU-T Study Group 16 (VCEG) and ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 29 / WG 11 (MPEG) created to develop an advanced video coding specification. Formed in 2001, the JVT’s main result has been ITU-T Rec. H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10, commonly referred to as H.264/MPEG-4-AVC, H.264/AVC, or MPEG-4 Part 10 AVC. The first version of the standard was completed in May 2003, and several enhancement projects have been completed by JVT since then, with addition of the scalable video mode in mid 2007 and the multiview coding extension in early 2009.

Widely adopted by the telecom, broadcast, and digital storage media industries, H.264’s High Profile received a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in August 2008. Shortly thereafter, at the International CES trade show in January 2009, the development of the standard was also recognized with paired Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards presented to VCEG and MPEG in January 2009 by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The receipt of both types of engineering Emmy awards for this technology was an extraordinary level of recognition that may be unprecedented.

At the meeting of the JVT held in November 2009, the work within its existing charter was considered largely completed. The VCEG collaboration with MPEG continued within the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) established in January 2010 and chartered with developing a next generation of video coding technology (High Efficiency Video Coding, HEVC), and subsequently with the Joint Video Experts Group (JVET) for the Versatile Video Coding (VVC). Since July 2020, the JVET became the platform for development of joint video compression standards between ITU-T SG16 and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29​.

Emmy Award to ITU, ISO and IEC

Hollywood presents Primetime Emmy Award to ITU, ISO and IEC. Left to right: Malcolm Johnson, ex Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU; Scott Jameson, ex Chair of ISO/IEC JTC 1; Ajay Luthra, Thomas Wiegand and Gary ​J. Sullivan, co-chairs of the Joint Video Team.

Press releases on JVT
ITU-T Contacts for JVT
H.264 & JVT in the press
Additional Information