Rainer Schaefer is General Manager Media Services and Platforms TV at the IRT (Institut für Rundfunktechnik), the research institute of all public service broadcasters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In this role, he is coordinating a series of projects with IRT’s broadcasters and is also responsible for metadata. From 2011 until early 2018, he led a group on harmonisation of distribution metadata. During his career, he worked in several positions as hard- and software developer, project leader, senior engineer and as head of the TV production systems section. Currently, he is vice chair of the board of the FKTG (Fernseh- und Kinotechnische Gesellschaft) in Germany.