Registered Disclosure Documents

What Are Registered Disclosure Documents?

SMPTE Registered Disclosure Documents (RDDs) provide an easy way to open technology up to the media industry. RDDs are documents within the scope of interest of the Society, submitted by any sponsoring business or organization that wishes to make a disclosure available to the public and to use the Society’s publication and distribution mechanisms for this purpose. A SMPTE RDD can help ensure accessibility and stability for a particular product, interface, or control specification. With the Society’s backing, an RDD also affords the sponsor the benefit of both SMPTE’s distribution capabilities and its reputation as a well-established and accredited international standards organization.

Examples of suitable RDDs might include, but are not limited to, specifications of existing products, instructions for interfacing to products, instructions for controlling products and systems, and descriptions of design approaches intended to encourage the design of similar or compatible systems.

What SMPTE RDDs Are Not

SMPTE RDDs are not standards documents and do not represent findings, representations, or recommendations by the Society. They cannot be used as normative references in engineering documents.

How to Create a SMPTE RDD

Any interested party may request initiation of a new SMPTE RDD, provided the following criteria is met:

  • Public interest — There shall be no evidence that the document is contrary to the public interest. 
  • Technical adequacy — There shall be no evidence of technical inadequacy.
  • Comparative ratings — Documents shall not relate to a comparative rating of competitive systems or products.
  • No advertising — The documents shall not contain any advertising or marketing content.

The bullet points below describe the process of creating a SMPTE RDD, from application to publication. 

  • Apply for a RDD by filling out the New Projects Worksheet (AG08).
  • Create a cover sheet for the RDD (see Operations Manual section 7.3.2 “Format of Document”).
  • Submit the AG08 form and the cover sheet to SMPTE Director of Standards Development
    and copy the SMPTE Standards Vice President
  • Pay the administration fee for a SMPTE RDD. (See below.) Include contact information for the recipient of the SMPTE invoice in your email to the SMPTE Director of Standards Development.
  • Along with your payment, submit a Release of Copyright form. (Available by request to the SMPTE director of standards development.)
  • Once the payment and the Release of Copyright are received, the SMPTE standards vice president will assign your RDD to a SMPTE Technology Committee (TC), and SMPTE will create an associated project on its Workspace collaboration platform.
  • A SMPTE RDD document number will be assigned to your RDD.
  • Optionally, by request, a Drafting Group area can be made available on the Workspace collaboration platform if you plan to hold group meetings and need facilities to do so.
  • At this point, you can submit the draft of your RDD. There is no required template or format for the body of an RDD, but the document should contain technical information, not advertising material.
  • A TC (RDD) ballot will be conducted after submission of the RDD to allow members of the assigned TC to comment on the work by considering the above RDD criteria.
  • Any comments received during a successful TC (RDD) ballot need to be addressed but do not need to be resolved. Any comments can be added to the document without changing the original text of the RDD.
  • You are encouraged to disclose any intellectual property rights (IPR) on the cover sheet of the RDD document.
  • The next step is an audit of the Standards Committee (ST) to evaluate if the SMPTE process was followed correctly. Any audit comments can be addressed.
  • As a final step, the SMPTE RDD will be prepared for publication and published in the SMPTE digital library, hosted on the IEEE Xplore platform.

More details and the complete process of SMPTE RDD creation are available in the SMPTE Standards Operations Manual (OM) under section 7. 

Please Note: To create an RDD in SMPTE you have to be an SMPTE member and a member of the SMPTE Standards Community (SC). Please see the SMPTE store to find more information on how to become an individual or corporate member and on how to pay the Standards Participation fee to become an SC member. 

How Much Does It Cost to Create a SMPTE RDD?

A one-time payment of $5,000 USD is required to start an RDD. Payment by credit card is the preferred payment method.

How Can I Get More Information?

Please use the email form below to contact SMPTE for additional RDD information, or to get started with an application for an SMPTE RDD.