Are Cart Chunks a public standard? I thought it was a proprietary format of Orban?
No. Geoff Steadman and Dick Pierce were associated with Orban when the standard was first launched, but they always intended the Cart Chunk to be a public-domain standard. The problem they were trying to solve was the ability to integrate editing systems and on-air systems from many different manufacturers, and not force other manufacturers to conform to several incompatible, proprietary interfaces. From the beginning of the process, they sought the advice, comments and active participation of many manufacturers, including competitors. Once a reasonable working consensus was formed, they then sought to have the format sanctioned by an independent standards organization, the Audio Engineering Society, where it has now been formally ratified as AES Standard AES46-2002.
