The Media Device Control (MDC) specification defines a platform and protocol agnostic framework for the control of network-attached devices over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The framework, known as the Media Device Control Framework (MDCF) defined by SMPTE ST 2071-1, can be implemented with nearly any Internet Protocol based transport protocol, but in order to support interoperability between implementations a single, minimal compliance, transport protocol must be defined. This single, minimal compliance protocol is referred to as the Media Device Control Protocol (MDCP). The Media Device Control Protocol (MDCP) is based on existing industry standards, simplifying the implementation and reducing the cost to implement, while supporting the implementation of vendor specific APIs, third party APIs, protocol extensions and the implementation of many existing standards relating to the control of media devices. Additional protocols may be implemented, but all implementations must implement the Media Device Control Protocol (MDCP) as it is defined within this document. These additional protocols should provide an additional means for controlling devices, but must not be required nor expose functionality that is not available via the Media Device Control Protocol (MDCP).