The AVS Workgroup, together with Lenovo, Hisense, Amoi and other institutions, held the China Digital Audio and Video Standards and Industry Forum. Leaders of relevant ministries and commissions, experts in the field at home and abroad, industry leaders and more than 100 representatives participated in the one-day forum. During the forum, the AVS Workgroup and the IGRS Workgroup announced their close cooperation. Instead of reports, the forum adopted a moderate-led dialogue, in which everyone spoke freely and discussed more in-depth issues. Under the chairmanship of Professor Gao Wen, Su Zhongmin, Director of the Standardization Administration of China, Gui Wenzhuang, Director of the High-Tech Research and Development Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lin Ning, Secretary-General of the National Information Technology Standardization Committee of China, Chang Limin, Director of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Information Industry, and Yuchi Jian, Director of the High-tech Development and Industrialization Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, discussed the policy environment for the development of the audio and video technology and industry. Dr. Leonardo, Chairman of ISO/IEC JTC1 MPEG Expert Group, Sun Huifang, Executive Director of MREL, Dr. Wang Xin, Chief Scientist of ContentGuard, Shen Shengmei, Director of Panasonic Singapore Laboratory, Sun Yuning, Vice President of Lenovo Research, and Jim Alkove, Chief Architect of Microsoft Media DRM, had an in-depth discussion on the latest development of audio and video technology and standards under the auspices of Professor Yang Shiqiang, Leader of AVS System Group. The China Digital Audio and Video Industry Festival was chaired by Professor He Yun, the Co-leader of the AVS Video Group, Cliff Reader, the Chief Consultant of the AVS Workgroup and Former Head of the MPEG US delegation, Xu Mengxia, Professor of Peking University, Dr. Ouyang He from Amoi Electronics, Dr. Tian Shumin from Hisense Group, and Xu Jiaquan, Deputy General Manager of Haier (Beijing) IC Design Co., Ltd. discussed the industrialization of AVS together. The good expectations of the industry for the audio and video industry and the specific product timetable made everyone feel that the industrialization of AVS had come.

The 7th Meeting of AVS Workgroup was held at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Workgroup completed the final draft (FCD) of the first part (System) and the second part (Video) of the AVS standard, and submitted them to the Ministry of Information Industry and the Standardization Administration of China for approval. The verification software supporting the draft for approval had also been basically completed, and would be finalized by the end of the year. The meeting emphasized the importance of copyright management and protection technology to the AVS Workgroup, and suggested that Wen Jiangtao, Zhao Li and Liu Wenyu be the convener of the Copyright Protection Group. The Workgroup had 70 members.

The 6th Meeting of AVS Workgroup was held at Zhejiang University on Oct. 9-10. A total of 47 proposals were received at this meeting, and 8 output documents were formed. 127 experts from 47 institutions including Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University, Philips, SVA, LG, SONY, Amoi Electronics and ST attended the meeting, and conducted in-depth discussions on the progress and development direction of AVS. Professor Gao Wen, Leader of the AVS Workgroup, made arrangements for the recent schedule and the next work plan of AVS. Dr. Huang Tiejun, Secretary-General of the Workgroup, presided over the revision and passed the new charter of the Workgroup. The Video Group, Audio Group, System Group, Implementation Group, Requirements and Testing Group, and Intellectual Property Group respectively reviewed their technical proposals and technical reports. The conference decided that the Video Group set up the transformation and quantization AdHoc group to ensure the completion of the FCD documents for AVS1.0 video in the near future; the Requirements and Testing Group establish a streaming media AdHoc group to speed up the collection and arrangement of data.

The first Shenzhen Digital Audio and Video Technology and Standards Industry Forum was held in Shenzhen. As an important part of AVS Forum 2003, this forum was jointly sponsored by AVS Workgroup, Shenzhen Int'l Technical Innovation Research Institute, Shenzhen Digital TV Research, Development and Industrialization Office, and undertaken by Shenzhen Int'l Technical Innovation Research Institute. Li Wuqiang, Deputy Director of the High-tech Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, presided over the meeting. Xu Shuncheng, Director of the National Audio, Video and Media System and Equipment Standardization Technical Committee, Bi Kaichun, Director of the High Technology Division of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Information Industry, Liu Yingli, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen, and Wang Shuguo, President of Harbin Institute of Technology, attended the forum. Ni Guangnan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Gao Wen, Leader of the AVS Workgroup, Cliff Reader, Consultant of the AVS Workgroup, Lu Hanqing, Leader of the AVS Requirements and Testing Group, and Huang Tiejun, Secretary-General of AVS, respectively made speeches on Several Issues in the Development of the Computer Field, AVS Standards, Intellectual Property Rights in Video Coding, Application of AVS in Communications and Internet and Application of AVS in Digital Broadcasting and Optical Disc. Everyone agreed that it is necessary to speed up the resolution of common core technical problems required by China's digital audio and video chips, software, equipment and systems, and jointly promote and formulate China's own digital audio and video standards. The participants also exchanged views on how Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region can take the initiative to seize market opportunities in the application of AVS, so that related local industries can develop by leaps and bounds.

The First Digital Audio and Video Technology and Standard Industry Forum (AVS Forum 2003) was held in Tianhong Hotel, in Universiade Village, Beijing. With the theme of "Seizing the Opportunity and Realizing the Leap-Forward Development of the Digital Audio and Video Industry", the forum was co-organized by the AVS Workgroup, China Electronics Enterprises Association, and China Audio Industry Association, Computerworld, China Electronics News, and Information Technology & Standardization. Su Zhongmin, Assistant Director of the Standardization Administration of China, Han Jun, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Information Industry, Mei Jianping, Director of the Information Office of the High-tech Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Academician Li Guojie, Director of the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences attended the meeting and delivered important speeches. More than 200 delegates attended the meeting. The forum was divided into three topics: "AVS Standard and Intellectual Property", "AVS Application: Broadcasting, TV and Storage", and "AVS Application: Internet and Communication". The speakers of the three topics were: Gao Wen, Cliff Reader, He Yun, Pan Xingde and Chen Xuemin; Du Dongping, Wang Guozhong, Lyu Rui, Du Jun; Zhang Xianghui, Zou Wen, and Zheng Xiaojun. Wu Feng, Zeng Yongqin, Li Bo, Yu Lu and other speakers jointly answered the questions of the media and representatives. Academician Ni Guangnan, Gao Wen, Chen Xuemin and Lu Hanqing summed up the forum together.

The 5th Meeting of AVS Workgroup was held at Beihang University, with Professor Li Bo as the host. The system, audio and video plans were determined, and the draft standard of the Workgroup was scheduled to be completed in Oct..

Entrusted by the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Information Industry, the High-tech Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the High-tech Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Information and Electronics Engineering Division of the Chinese Academy of Engineering held the Digital Audio and Video Coding Technology (AVS) Evaluation Meeting in Beijing on July 12, 2003. The evaluation committee composed of 23 experts including 10 academicians carefully understood the formulation process of the digital audio and video coding technology (hereinafter referred to as AVS) standard, listened to the AVS technical report, the AVS patent analysis report, the AVS and MPEG-2 comparative test report, and watched the system demonstration. The evaluation committee believed that the industrialization of AVS could save a considerable amount of MPEG-2 patent fees. The compression efficiency is twice as high as that of MPEG-2, saving channel resources and optical disk storage resources, and providing a technological source for leapfrog development for China's digital TV and other audio and video industries and related chip industries. It was suggested that relevant departments should fully consider the existing AVS technology foundation in China when formulating the policies for digital TV industry, and at the same time speed up the industrialization and application of AVS technology and standards.

The Radio and Television Measurement and Testing Center of National Radio and Television Administration tested the AVS system, with the MPEG-2 system as the reference system. The test image sequence adopted four 720-60P high-definition test sequences recommended by the international Standards Workgroup in this field. The final evaluation result of the test report: “When the compression code rate is twice lower than that of the MPEG-2 codec system, the image quality of the tested AVS audio and video coding (software) system is better than the image quality after the MPEG-2 coding”

At the JVT working conference held in Geneva, the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was identified as the maintenance and testing unit of the JVT video coding software, and Doctoral Candidate Ma Siwei was specifically responsible for the maintenance and testing tasks.