SMPTE OSA: 2025 Recap and 2026 Outlook

SMPTE Open Services Alliance (OSA) is a specialized group of organizations that aim at enabling improved open interoperability among service-based applications, specifically on cloud, multi-cloud, and on-prem platforms. One of the signature projects of OSA has been the creation and implementation of Catena, an open-source, secure protocol for control of media devices and services. It will standardize the control plane, and the initial documents for the protocol were released in 2025.

“We have had a very busy year with the production of a five-document suite around Catena (ST 2138),” said Chris Lennon, Executive Director of SMPTE OSA. “Much work remains, but things are well on their way, with 2138-10 posted as a PCD and 2138-50 just about to be. The 2138-11, -12 and -19 documents are not far behind.”

Lennon shared both Catena and the OSA mission at many of the industry’s biggest events, even presenting Catena at the 2025 Media Technology Summit in Pasadena, California. He hopes to bring more brilliant minds to the table, not just for Catena, but to create more open-source cloud based protocols that will streamline workflows and create more efficient user experiences.

What does 2026 hold?

“Most participants see the next logical step to be a plugfest around ST2138, giving implementers who want to try it out an opportunity to test out its interoperability across vendors,” said Lennon “We hope to do this around mid-year. We also have work on a Global Service Repository in our queue, and we’ll be starting meetings again for our Best Practices for Live Stream Distribution project. 2026 will be a big year!”

SMPTE has stood up the Catena Github repository here: https://github.com/SMPTE/st2138-a.

Those interested in participating is OSA can contact Chris Lennon at clennon@m.smpte.org.