Validation test of NR metrics, J. noref
Closed Solicitation Posted
- Solicitation number
- NTIA0000-25-00384
- Agency
-
Office of the Secretary
Department of Commerce
- Responses due
- Set-aside
- Total Small Business
Opportunity facts
- NAICS code
- 541990 All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Place of performance
- Boulder, Colorado 80305, United States
- Points of contact
Notice details come from SAM.gov. Updated .
About this opportunity
The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) is seeking a contractor to produce a comprehensive video test footage collection for validating no reference (NR) video quality metrics as part of an International Telecommunications Union validation test nicknamed J.noref. The contractor must produce a minimum of 400 unique 5-second videos using 16 diverse digital cameras including DSLRs, smartphones, action cameras, spy cameras, dash cams, tablets, and professional camcorders, capturing 25+ scenarios designed to stress cameras under various conditions such as different lighting levels, camera motions, focal distances, and scene complexities. All videos must meet specific technical requirements including 1920 x 1080 resolution, landscape orientation, 24-60 fps frame rate, and standard dynamic range, with footage licensed for free distribution on the Consumer Digital Video Library for research and development purposes. The contract will be evaluated using a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) approach under a Firm Fixed Price delivery order structure. Critical dates include a question submission deadline of 2:00 PM ET on September 5, 2025, and a proposal due date of 12:00 PM ET on September 11, 2025, with quotes remaining valid for 120 calendar days.
This opportunity is designated as a Total Small Business set-aside with no incumbent contractors identified in the solicitation materials. While no specific award values or budget ranges are disclosed in the available documentation, the scope involves producing over 400 videos across multiple scenarios using 16 different camera types, representing a substantial video production effort. The work will be performed in Boulder, Colorado, and the videos will be used by NTIA to conduct experiments where human panels assess video quality, with the results shared globally with researchers and made available on the Consumer Digital Video Library platform. Technical quotations are limited to 5 pages with no page limit for pricing submissions, and all materials must be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word, Excel, or text-searchable PDF format. The contract specialist for this procurement is Mit Pancholi at mpancholi@doc.gov, and the project builds upon a 2015 NTIA/ITS study that compared the performance of 23 digital cameras across various photographic scenarios.
Notice text
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which gets its charter from the United Nations (UN), is performing validation tests of no reference (NR) metrics that assess the quality of a video stream using only pixel values, resolution, and frame rate. Despite 30 years of research into NR video metrics, no such metric has been proven accurate enough for commercial deployment. U.S. industry is very interested in this type of metric because it could enable automatic feedback loops in cameras and various video systems. The NR metric would allow the camera or video system to detect quality problems, understand why the quality is bad, and automatically fix the problem.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s NTIA/ITS is participating in this validation test of NR metrics, nicknamed J.noref. We need a set of footage to be used in an experiment that will contain 400+ short videos. Those videos will show various responses of modern video cameras, to scenes and filming scenarios chosen to solicit different responses from the cameras. After the purchase is produced, NTIA will conduct an experiment where a panel of people will assess the quality of the videos. The NR metrics then try to estimate the quality of each video. The videos will be shared with other researchers around the world. The videos will also be shared for research and development (R&D) purposes only (no commercial applications) on the Consumer Digital Video Library (CDVL, www.cdvl.org).
This purchase is inspired by the 2015 study, Impact of Camera Pixel Count and Monitor Resolution Perceptual Image Quality (Conference Paper) - ITS, performed by NTIA/ITS, Intel, and the University of Ghent. That study compares the performance of 23 digital cameras, each used to photograph the same scene. Figures 1, 2, and 3 show the types of scenes selected and the range of camera impairments that were produced. The full set of images can be viewed by creating a free account on CDVL, logging in, and then searching for “CCRIQ”.
The goal is to compare the quality response of different cameras in responses to major variables (e.g., scene complexity, camera motion, in-view motion, lighting, and focal distance).
Files
| File | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| RFQ - SAM - New Video Content ITU Testing.docx | DOCX document | |
| SON - New Video Content ITU Testing.pdf |
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