On September 22, 1997, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers assigned the UPF an official Study Group (ST13.14). Titled "Requirements for a Universal Preservation Format" and chaired by Dave MacCarn, the group first met to establish an agenda and to hash out a statement of objectives, which includes gathering input from the archival community through the surveys and meetings like this.
On December 9th, Dave MacCarn and I attended the first SMPTE work study forum. Joined by Robin Dale of the Research Library Group, we met with about 20 SMPTE engineers at the Sony headquarters in San Jose, California to discuss the components of the UPF in respect to the stated needs and concerns of archivists, as expressed in our User Survey.