This week’s TSC meeting was a broad strategy discussion to reassess the direction of the ACES project, focusing on how to better balance long-term vision with practical implementation needs.
These strategy discussion aim to better define what ACES is, what it should prioritize, and how work should be organized going forward.
If you have thoughts or comments or ideas for the project, please feel free to comment on this post, reach out on the ASWF slack, or open an issue on Github.
As a reminder, TSC meetings are held every other week and are open to anyone. But try to let us know in advance if you have a topic so we can allot time on the agenda for it.
Calendar | Past meeting notes
For more detail, you can also review the full meeting notes (& access the recording) here,
Key Themes
Renewed Focus on Adoption & Communication
- Need clearer messaging around ACES 2.0 improvements
- Address outdated perceptions from earlier versions
- Emphasize key components like LMTs and AMF as core parts of the ecosystem
- Interest in forming a dedicated outreach/education group
Improving Tools for Implementers
- Strong need for better documentation, reference resources, and validation tools
- Growing importance of AI-assisted development, which depends on accurate, structured, and accessible technical information
- Discussion around ACES potentially serving as a more authoritative “source of truth” for color transforms
Clarifying Scope and Measuring Success
- Need to better define what ACES does and does not do
- Clarify responsibilities between ACES, implementers, and vendors
- Establish clearer success metrics for the project
Evolving Technical Priorities
- Interest in formalizing ACEScct as a standard 10-bit encoding
- Continued discussion around the role of CTL as a reference vs. production tool
- Identified gaps in workflows such as AMF adoption and film scanning (ADX) guidance
Organizing the Work
There was agreement on the need for further talk to discuss how to act on:
- Forming focused working groups (e.g., implementation, testing, documentation, outreach)
- Defining clear ownership, scope, and deliverables for each group
- Improving tracking and visibility of ongoing work (e.g., via GitHub projects)
Meeting Structure Going Forward
To better support both strategy and execution, TSC meetings will shift to an alternating format:
- Strategy-focused discussions (every 4 weeks)
- Project updates / technical discussions (every 4 weeks)
Additional Notes
- Next meeting (April 14) will focus on project updates
- Work is actively progressing in areas like LMTs and AMF tooling
- CTL repository transition updates