The VCX Forum successfully concluded its annual Face-to-Face Meeting in Tampere, Finland, from June 3rd to 5th, 2025. Sponsored by BusinessTampere, this year’s gathering brought together over 60 participants—both in-person and online—for a focused three-day exchange of knowledge and collaboration.

From cutting-edge technical sessions to cross-industry guest lectures, this was no ordinary meetup—it was a convergence of expertise shaping the future of image quality standards across smartphones, webcams, extended reality (XR), and smart home security cameras. During all sessions, members worked closely to align on test methods, validate scoring models, and share practical feedback from lab implementations. With a diverse agenda covering device assessment, networking, and connecting the neighbouring industry, the event reaffirmed the Forum’s role as a collaborative backbone for imaging quality standardisation.

Technical discussion

One of the primary goals of PhoneCam team was to finalize the 2025 version of the scoring protocol. The upcoming VCX PhoneCam v2025 protocol reflects a major leap in aligning objective image metrics with real-world perception. With broad consensus achieved through months of validation and member input, the updated version is now being prepared for public release. Members reviewed the latest LUT refinements, metric behavior under various lighting conditions, and supporting documentation. Plans for the next version—expected to address video performance and more advanced scenes—were also discussed.

In the WebCam session, discussions centered on refining existing KPIs and exploring more realistic and user-relevant test scenarios. Celebrating five years of development, VCX-WebCam is evolving to include scene-based testing and expanded refining performance indicators, ensuring webcams meet the demands of our increasingly remote and video-centric world. Proposals included evaluations of auto-framing performance, lighting adaptation, and camera behavior in dynamic settings. A new subjective study is also in progress to validate perceptual alignment with current metrics. The VCX-WebCam protocol, now in version 1.2, continues to be adopted both publicly and internally by member labs and manufacturers.

Efforts to develop a new XR evaluation protocol also progressed. While XR devices pose fundamentally different challenges—such as wide field-of-view optics, stereo vision, and real-time motion alignment—the group reached consensus on core testing priorities and agreed to move forward with early prototype setups.

A notable moment from the meeting was the smart home security camera session, which included a guided technical tour of the Amazon Ring lab. VCX members had the opportunity to examine real-world testing environments with different camera-challenging scenes. The visit sparked productive dialogue on how different environments and system setups could shape future VCX testing approaches. The attendees exchanged insights on test setups and, in addition, co-conducted a live subjective study on-site.

Labs, Certification & Transparency

Three new labs earned official VCX certification, expanding our global testing network. Members also reviewed updated documentation, scoring traceability tools, and inter-lab validation practices—reinforcing our commitment to openness and repeatability.

Sharing Knowledge as a Community, Beyond Competition

Perhaps most meaningful of VCX Forum association is the way in which members set aside competitive dynamics to exchange technical knowledge, propose solutions, and build consensus. The VCX Forum continues to function not just as a standards body, but as a community of practice committed to improving user experiences through shared engineering excellence.

Members held a cross-discussion on the evolving role of AI in imaging pipelines. While not yet part of VCX scoring systems, the forum acknowledged the growing need to eventually address how AI-driven functions—such as face tracking, HDR fusion, or synthetic detail enhancement—can be tested in a reproducible and transparent manner.

The event concluded with the members' Annual General Meeting, which included the election of a new Board of Directors.

The next Face-to-Face Meeting is anticipated for 2026, with discussions underway to bring the event to Asia. Until then, members will continue advancing technical efforts through regular working group calls and collaborative initiatives.


Warm regards,

Benjamin Pak Coordinator