Video Coding Experts Group

The Video Coding Experts Group or Visual Coding Experts Group (VCEG, also known as Question 6) is a working group of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) concerned with standards for compression coding of video, images, audio signals, biomedical waveforms, and other signals. It is responsible for standardization of the "H.26x" line of video coding standards, the "T.8xx" line of image coding standards, and related technologies.

Administratively, VCEG is the informal name of Question 6 (Visual, audio and signal coding) of Working Party 3 (Audiovisual technologies and intelligent immersive applications) of ITU-T Study Group 16 (Multimedia and related digital technologies). Its abbreviated title is ITU-T Q.6/SG16, or more simply, ITU-T Q6/16.

The goal of VCEG is to produce ITU-T Recommendations (international standards) for video coding and image coding methods appropriate for conversational (e.g. videoconferencing and video telephony) and non-conversational (e.g., streaming, broadcast, file download, media storage/playback, or digital cinema) audio/visual services. This mandate concerns the maintenance and extension of existing video coding recommendations, and laying the ground for new recommendations using advanced techniques to significantly improve the trade-offs between bit rate, quality, delay, and algorithm complexity. Video coding standards are desired with sufficient flexibility to accommodate a diverse number of transport types (Internet, LAN, Mobile, ISDN, GSTN, H.222.0, NGN, etc.).

In 2023, VCEG began working toward standardization of coding technology for biomedical signals and other waveform signals.

Question 6 is part of Study Group 16, which is responsible for standards relating to multimedia service capabilities, and application capabilities (including those supported for next-generation networking). This encompasses multimedia terminals, systems (e.g., network signal processing equipment, multipoint conference units, gateways, gatekeepers, modems, and facsimile), protocols and signal processing (media coding).