criteria for adopting a media asset management system · 2014-01-15 · but, media management is...

Digital Archive and Asset Management - Technology & Application

SMPTE 142nd Technical Conference Seminar Workbook and Exhibition, Pasadena, California

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Criteria for Adopting a Media Asset Management System

142nd SMPTE Technical Conference and Exhibition

Janet Gardner VP, Professional Services, eMotion, Inc. Copyright reserved to eMotion, Inc

Abstract:

The rise of digital and new media has created the opportunity for a content creating production and broadcasting companies to more effectively manage media assets, reduce or impact rising production and post production costs, and develop new distribution and revenue streams. With the aggressive move to digital production, effective media management and distribution is critical. Media Asset Management Systems (MAMS) represent the promise and vision of a new environment rife with shared media and unlimited value creation. But, media management is about more than managing media creation. Media Management is about managing the business and workflow of media in all phases from pre-production through production, distribution and reuse. In the following we review a set of media management criteria for defining and installing a media asset management plan and infrastructure within a production and/or broadcast organization. The ability to do so is heavily driven by the state of both the media asset management technology as well as all the surrounding infrastructure, distribution and workflow technologies. In addressing the long term strategic goals surrounding digital media management we must consider the current requirements in environments with a strong foothold in physical media and a traditional production workflow and distribution model. We discuss how a media asset management infrastructure can be integrated into the production environment with including an adoption roadmap that is driven by the state of technologies and the industry trends. We review technologies, from real time encoding from live data feeds, to integration into non-linear edit bays by seamless drag and drop of projects into a MAMS, through to management of a project workflow out to use of the production material for new media ventures. In parallel, technology maturity is driving when and where to integrate media asset management system technology within the industry, considering immediate tactical needs as well as long term strategic visions. High Level Vision for Production and Media Asset Management

Industry Drivers, Trends and Challenges

The following points describe a set of challenges facing the industry today. The challenges are focused on an organization’s primary assets – the media and the people that create and distribute the media. This list is not intended to be all encompassing. It is intended to touch on the primary topics that, if effectively addressed, will help to enable a company to achieve their short-term and long-term goals, which include greater market and mind share and an associated increase in revenue. These challenges include:



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1. Scaling to meet the needs of increased production and programming demands.

• Included with this is the need to be able to scale – in production and post, print, distribution, advertising, and numerous other areas centered on in-demand media and programming.

• The amount of media is expanding rapidly and in many forms – digital creation and editing, documents and images, graphics, and animation. These assets need to be under effective management in order to be effectively leveraged. Current tape library and archive systems are stretched in their capacity to manage diverse and increased volumes of media – including digital content in many formats.

2. Expanding competition: changing business demands and models will evolve, requiring more cost effective programming and production.

3. Branding to own a market.

• Expanded competition is here today. With the drive towards digital cable, the audience for programming is becoming fragmented. Offered more options, the consumer is forcing broadcast organizations to more aggressively brand and market their identities in order to maintain both strong consumer and advertising shares. This requires strong planning, focus, and collaboration.

4. Migration to a fully digital infrastructure – a tapeless environment.

Broadcast and Cable Industry Vision

Lead by the movement towards digital production and distribution, as well as expanded competition and new distribution avenues, the influences driving the broadcast industry today are vast. To achieve a competitive advantage, an organization needs to leverage their media and production operations towards a more efficient, cost-effective production process, delivering better media and programming to audiences more quickly. In order to achieve the business goals, an organization must leverage combined technology and business solutions. These combined and enabling solutions must deliver on the following promises:

Reduce production time and provide greater quality, allowing a greater competitive advantage enabled by:

- Shared and accessible media across an organization. - Integrated workflow from media acquisition through distribution.

- Company-wide approvals and collaboration any time, anywhere. - Digital, tapeless production and distribution.

Find and access media any time, anywhere.

- A digital infrastructure to effectively support the sharing of media across an organization. - Access to media outside the walls of an organization, using both new distribution

channels and additional methods of collaboration, resulting in reduced overall time and costs.

- Access to media throughout an organization to allow for greater leveraging in branding across the organization.



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Use of company-wide media management from the onset of production to drive programming at reduced costs.

- The media archive becomes a natural byproduct, providing greater leverage of existing media.

- Integrated media management during the production life-cycle – video editing, graphics creation and editing, photographs and management, press/print – will reduce costs while enabling consistency in image, message, and branding.

- Desktop content authoring is enabled by the ability to search and retrieve media at the desktop from the MAMS and the corporate infrastructure.

- An effective media management solution will scale to meet the diversity of media types, as well as workflow requirements, within an organization.

- Tracking the full production process with all of the media elements, people, and collaborative efforts such as approvals, will allow an organization to both understand the full cost of doing business as well as optimize the production process at appropriate points.

- Access to media and in-house knowledge of the depth and diversity of media will enable new business opportunities and thereby new revenue streams.

Introduce new distribution channels to consumers and new audiences:

- Digital content can be pulled or pushed, leveraging the managed media and the distribution infrastructure.

- Support for new types of Business Models and Channels – allowing leverage of a broadcaster’s brand to push out to other consumer and business to business avenues.

Adoption Assumptions and Approach

Technology Adoption Life Cycle Overview In order to achieve an environment capable of delivering upon the Vision, many technology and industry events as well as adoption must occur. The technologies are diverse and in many cases highly interrelated. The technology adoption life cycle is the mechanism we will use to explore the industry and its maturity as it applies to the roadmap for adoption of media management. The technology adoption life cycle is divided into five different categories. A gap exists between each category, which represents a disassociation between each group and the group to its left. The presentation and consideration of the technology for adoption occurs differently in each group, as the reasons, risks, and acceptance criteria are different in each group. The groups further to the left are more willing to take a higher risk for potentially higher reward than the groups to the right. Technologies and solutions already proven in an industry, such as broadcast and production, are more readily adopted due to lower risk. These technology solutions also are typically available at a lower cost of entry. In our discussions to follow, once a technology has crossed the chasm into an early majority (3) category, the cost of entry is typically significantly reduced, as the amount of custom development to deliver a solution should also be significantly lower. Ideally all technologies under consideration



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would already have achieved this level of adoption. Where they have not, strong consideration should be give to the risk/reward tradeoffs, ensuring that both the organization and the technology warrant early adoption.

As described by Geoffrey Moore, the approach is used by technology companies to focus products against one or more industries. In our approach, we invert this in order to evaluate a set of technologies against an industry and solution space. Here, the life cycle does not focus on the state of technology alone. It is specifically applied against the state of the technology for Production and Broadcast. The technologies and product offerings applied generally across all markets will typically very in their classification. Our representation will allow us to focus on how an organization will fare in adoption against technology within its own market. A brief description of each of the categories will help. Further detail on each category can be found in “Crossing the Chasm”, G. Moore, Harper Business. Depending on the technology considered, most production and broadcast organizations falls either in the Early Adopter or the Early Majority category.

1. Innovators Pursue new technology aggressively. Technology centered. 2. Early Adopters Visionaries in companies. Appreciate potential competitive advantage of

technology to their business. No well-established references available. 3. Early Majority See value of technology but very practical. Want to see well-established

references before investing substantially. Vertical. 4. Late Majority Similar to early majority but require established standards in the technology

area. 5. Laggards Extremely conservative view. Only fully proven technology is acceptable.

Interrelated Layers for Technology Adoption In the following sections, we will examine both technology and organizational influences and trends as a series of layers that directly impact an organization’s ability to deliver on the Vision. The layers themselves are highly interrelated – requiring organizational, infrastructure, workflow, and technology considerations. The maturity of the technology within each layer, and its dependencies on other layers, helps us to delineate which technologies to bring in at what time in the overall life-cycle to achieve the Vision. The layers are: • Media Management

• Production (workflow, software and systems, media)

• Distribution

• Infrastructure



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These layers represent the dominant areas for consideration. Other elements come into play but are excluded for the sake of discussion at this time. In each layer outlined, we discuss the trends and how technologies within the layer relate to other technologies. The goal is to discover where one can achieve the Vision without significant custom development of all the components. We have used the technology adoption curve to evaluate the technologies in each layer and their maturity. Technology solutions identified within the Early Majority area on the curve are ripe for adoption at a lower cost of entry. In some areas, we are recommending the early adoption of technology where the reward outweighs currently perceived risks.

Approach for describing technology and maturity for adoption within each layer

Each of the above layers is broken into a set of categories. Within each category we explore the technologies that exist within it, predicting how each technology will fare over five years as we explore how the technologies evolve. Based upon these predictions, we can create a roadmap for overall adoption with reasonable assurance of the risks and rewards.

Each technology within its associated categories is identified against the adoption curve as one of the following: Innovator (1), Early Adopter (2), Early Majority (3), Late Majority (4) or Laggard (5) for a given point in time.

Media Management Trends and Adoption Software to manage media libraries has existed for well over fifteen years. Software applications that provide out of the box capabilities for managing physical media easily exist within the Late Majority category of the adoption curve. Other technologies are not yet as mature. For example, Digital Media Asset Management System (DMAMS) technology that also supports current library system requirements is not as mature, falling within Early Majority and Early Adopter, depending upon whether one is considering use as an archive or as a production media management system. Media management trends are broad. Those trends that are perceived to directly affect adoption are listed below.

• Web – intranet/Internet supporting - Web Casting/Multi-casting

- Digital media availability – preview quality over the web

• Hosted Services for Stock Footage – Stills and Video

• Migration to a Digital Infrastructure for studios and production houses - Digital capture through digital delivery – tapeless

• New revenue opportunities leveraging existing media

• Legal implications for Rights and Clearances as well as new revenue opportunities for selling outbound rights

• Media management throughout the full production life-cycle

• Complete tracking of elements – from acquisition to play to air to sales

• Delivery of companion material to over-the-air programming supporting back-end management of related media

• Access on-demand to previously aired media as part of media-rich programming



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In exploring the state of technology solutions, we have broken up media management into five primary categories, with each category broken out into a set of technologies. Each technology is then explored to predict how it fares within the technology adoption curve, both today as well as into the future. Based upon these predictions, we can create a roadmap for overall adoption with reasonable assurance of the risks and rewards. The roadmap in included in the section titled Recommended Adoption Path.

Still Image Management

Management of photographs in both digital and physical systems has been well established. Movement into hosted services and stock image systems pushed the current technologies well into the early majority even for digital still management. The categories explored are:

- Physical Stills Management

- Digital Stills Management

Adoption of a solution to get images under management could occur today with hosted services, an image archive solution, or overall in the scope of the larger media management strategy. In any event, the technologies to bring the images under management and available to those across an organization can be put in place today.

Document Management

As with stills management, document management has been an established technology in many different markets for some time. Products such as Documentum, FileNet, and others are currently in use. Application of these technologies has not typically been considered in Production and Broadcast organizations, as the requirements tend to center around management of scripts, approvals, contracts, etc. Consideration of the state of technology as it applies to document management for production and broadcast can be explored. In parallel, to document management systems, management of documents such as scripts is being considered in the broader MAMS that are focused on production.

- Physical Document Management

- Digital Document Management

For the sake of production and broadcast organization requirements, document management falls into two categories: 1) document management around a production – such as scripts, markups, etc.; 2) document management around more complex documents, such as Contracts within a Legal department. The latter could be accommodated with a more robust document management system today. But, as technologies surrounding rights and clearances are evolving, we would recommend waiting on the integration of a complex document management solution until a later time.

Graphics Management

Graphics management focuses on digital graphics management as well as project and program workflow. We distinguish graphics management from still and document management with the inclusion of workflow due to the complexity of the systems used to create much of the digital content. The categories considered are:

- Digital Graphics Management

- Project/Program Workflow Management



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Currently, graphics management occurs by managing files on a file system or through the management of physical media, such as Video and MOs, on which the graphics have been laid off. Graphics output from the Paintbox and the HAL are proprietary, with limited ability to share across other types of applications. However, in order to maintain their market share, many of the graphics providers, such as Quantel, are loosening up their formats and working with third parties to enable sharing and transformation of the media, as well as managing the graphics. Technologies such as Proximity and BroadNet are two such examples that have proven to be effective in the management of the media elements across multiple systems. Integration of these technologies with a broader media management capability will provide significant savings in time and effort, for both Production and Media Center staff. In addition to the technologies that deal with the different media types, the underlying infrastructure must also enable connectivity between the different graphics bays. One without the other will not enable the expected benefits.

Video and Audio Management

A distinction is made between management of media for archive and the management of media during the production process. Management for deep archive is a well-proven technology; management during the production process is not. The categories considered include:

- Physical Audio and Video Management

- Digital Audio and Video Management for Archive (MAMS for Archive)

- Digital Audio and Video Management for Production (MAMS for Production)

Physical audio and video management is well established through software media library systems such as Nesbit and Vault. These systems do not address the management of digital media, nor are they designed to scale to do so. They satisfy an immediate need for many organizations and, as with other technologies that exist in the Late Majority stage of the adoption curve, their cost of entry is also low.

Digital audio and video archive management has been proven and is the basis for many large, revenue-generating systems commercially deployed today. For example, the eMotion PictureQuest, and soon to be FootageQuest, web commerce systems are deployed on top of MediaQuest – a MAMS for archive – including management of territorial and ownership rights. As digital archive systems, the use of these MAMS for physical asset management is not as strong as for digital in support of physical media checkout, transfer, etc. Considerations must be given in their adoption to the actual media use by end users and consumers.

Digital audio and video management for production assumes the ability to manage physical and digital media – including checkout and in, duplication (digital and physical), raw stock management, generation of labels for physical media, output of media to viewers of low- resolution to high-resolution digital content, and tracking of usage – to name a few. The model in this environment must support a production workflow where requests are made and fulfillment is completed – be it for physical or digital media, or Rights and Clearances requests that must be fulfilled by a Legal department. Commercial media management systems to support a production workflow exist and are currently in the Early Adopter phase. These systems will become the core of how an organization can manage their media throughout the production, approvals, and distribution process in the future.



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Rights and Clearances Management

The management of both the legal Rights and Clearances around the media, as well as those surrounding Talent (consent and release rights) must be considered. A distinction is made between the rights acquired by a company to use someone else’s media (inbound rights) versus the selling of the rights of use for media owned an organization (outbound rights). The categories explored are:

- Consent and Release Management Software

- Acquired media rights Management Software (inbound)

- Sold media rights Management Software (outbound)

Consent and release management is important as many of the programs produced by an organization require that Talent agree to the use of the media in advance. The agreements also can specify residuals based upon the media use. Today, software that supports consent and release management against talent and media exists in the innovator region, moving toward the Early Adopter category within the MAMS for Production. The goal in the future would be to support integration of the MAMS and consent and release management with the trafficking/play to air systems. This could enable the automatic tracking of both risks and payments due to Talent against residuals, reducing liability introduced by unintended breach of contract with Talent. Eventually this could be integrated with larger AFTRA systems (beyond 5 years).

Acquired media Rights and Clearances technologies exist today. Jaguar is one of the dominant products in the industry. In order to support growing requirements they are reengineering their product and processes, as the market and technology base has changed since its initial development a number of years ago. Other competitors in this arena for complete Rights and Clearances solutions have closed their doors. Many of these systems today have been developed within entertainment organizations as one off systems.

Introduction of basic Rights and Clearances support and tracking exists today in MAMS for Archive such as MediaQuest, by eMotion, Inc, and is evolving in the MAMS for Production technologies. The capabilities vary within these systems in support of rights and clearances. Support for requesting the rights to media within production to completion of the fulfillment of that request by Legal is being implemented in products such as Cinebase3, by eMotion, Inc. This enables support for MAMS for Production that is in development. As a result, these technologies currently fall in the Early Adopter category, but some components of them actually still sit in the innovator category. Clarification of the requirements for an organization in this area will help ensure that effective near term support exists, and that long-term goals can be achieved.

Sold media rights management software, referred to as outbound rights management, supports the selling of media owned by an organization to other organizations or consumers. On the delivery and tracking of payments owed, some software has proven to be effective – such as Intertrust and Reciprocal. The complexity of how these technologies fit into the larger applications internally drives this into the Early Adopter category today as well. The push for B to B commerce has enabled the core technologies to be proven.

Media Management Technology Maturity Predictions – 1-5 Years

In the following table we look at each of the above categories and technologies and define where they fall into the overall Technology Adoption life cycle, both today and



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over the next five years. This information is referenced in the Media Management Adoption Recommendations section to define an example roadmap from which one can move forward in acquiring and deploying solutions leveraging these technologies across all layers, with the expected benefits. The initial year reflects the expected state of the technology between the middle to the end of 2001. The table describes only the categories of the Media Management Adoption, it does not attempt to show all the dependencies across layers. The numbers in the chart refer to where in the Adoption Curve the technologies surrounding media management for production currently reside. Innovator, (2) Early Adopter, (3) Early Majority, (4) Late Majority, (5) Laggard The + or – symbol represents where within the category we would position the maturity of the technology. For example, a 3- reflects that the technology has recently crossed the chasm, and is still early in the early majority category.

Media Management Adoption Today 2002 2003 2004 2005

Still Image Management

Physical Stills Management 3+ 3+ 4 4 4

Digital Stills Management 3- 3 3+ 4 4

Document Management

Physical Document Management 3 3 3+ 4 4

Digital Document Management 3- 3 3+ 4 4

Graphics Management

Digital Graphics Management 3- 3 3+ 4 4

Project / Program Workflow Management 2+ 2+ 3- 3 3

Video and Audio Management

Physical Audio and Video Management 4 4 4 4 4

Digital Audio and Video Management for Archive 3- 3- 3 4 4

Digital Audio and Video Management for Production 2 3- 3 4 4

Rights and Clearances Management

Consent and Release management software 1 2 3 3+ 4

Acquired media rights management software 2 3- 3 3 4

Sold media rights management software 2 3- 3 3+ 4

With the above table we see that many of the technologies that are being considered already fall into the early majority category (3). Technologies surrounding media management within the production and rights and clearances are not as mature, in most



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cases defined as Early Adopters (2) for 2001 and venturing into Early Majority (3) by 2002.

Production Trends and Adoption Production refers to the process from creation or shooting of the original content to final completion and review/approvals of the final product. The definition is purposefully left broad in order to touch upon the full life cycle of content creation. The following are the major trends affecting the evolution of technology and workflow within Production and Broadcast. Many others exist, but this provides a strong basis for our discussion.

• Movement to Digital Media Asset Management

• Goal to become a tapeless environment

• Desktop rough cut editing – decentralizing the editing process

• Collaborative Reviews and Approvals

• Integrated Production Workflow

• Integrated Edit Bays with graphics, images, (etc.) network

• Production for new media – the web

• More timely acquisition of source material – from Catch Servers for spots, the Internet, etc.

Production is defined by six categories for the discussion surrounding adoption. Notice that the categories touch upon areas in the media management and distribution layers. This Production layer provides process flows critical within a production organization. It also defines the requirements that are provided by the other layers. The categories for Production trends are:

• Non-linear editing

• Infrastructure for tapeless production

• Graphics production

• Interactive/On-line production

• Production management

• Digital media on demand As within the Media Management Technology layer, there are a number of categories that are under consideration as applied to current technology adoption and maturity and looking out five years. The categories are described below with technology elements listed and a brief description of the categories in the overall MAMS adoption and roadmap. The focus is on production efforts that significantly touch media throughout the production life cycle. Support from the other layers is essential, as this Production layer represents the business requirements that must be support by a MAMS in Production.

Non-linear Editing

Technologies and work processes surrounding the post-production editing of material to create final masters and product. The technologies being considered include:



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- Suite-based (Avid, Media100)

- Integrated/Networked Non-Linear Suites

- Rough Cut Desktop Editing

- Tapeless Digital Production

Many of these technologies are well proven and adopted today. Others, such as integrated non-linear edit suites, are in the early majority category but, due to legacy systems, have not yet ingrained themselves within the post environment as much as expected.

Support for desktop rough cut editing requires that the original media, or a lower resolution proxy representation, be available digitally on-line. To effectively support this, a media management system of some form needs to be able to feed the desktop with requested media. Although rough cut editing is very viable today, within the context of an overall production workflow within an organization it still falls into the Early Adopter category.

Tapeless production is the Industry’s vision for digital production. Enabling full tapeless production will require significant infrastructure, workflow, and media management capabilities. The technology is evolving to make this feasible on a larger scale, but the significant barriers to entry today are cost and infrastructure.

Infrastructure for Tapeless Production

Tapeless production is the Industry’s vision. As stated above, enabling this through the appropriate infrastructure is non-trivial. As we chart out the current maturity of the technologies listed below, the timeframe for full tapeless production of more than Internet or on-line content is still in the Innovator and Early Adopter stages. A path that will ensure that an organization can leverage both their media management infrastructure and their underlying production infrastructure can be defined to speed the adoption timeframe. For this to happen, technologies and standards such as AVID’s OMM standard must be completed and be available on the market to allow MAMS to integrate effectively.

- OMM w/MAMS

- Networked Storage Integration (i.e. Unity)

- Scheduling System Integration

- Digital Content Formats (See Distribution)

Graphics Production

Graphics production covers the full life-cycle management, from definition of the requirements against a project or program through final approvals. As with non-linear editing, being able to manage the full production life-cycle requires networked systems, support for workflow across the production/project teams, and full digital graphics production. All of these exist today at some level of maturity beyond the Innovator category. Digital graphics production in our definition extends to support sharing and management of the media during the production process. As such, it is defined in the Early Adopter category today.

- Full Digital Graphics Production

- Graphics Networked Into Post Production

Graphics networks are already enabled today, improving the ability to share and collaborate on production efforts. Combined with effective management of the media during the graphics



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production process across into other organizations, such as post-production and editing, the ability to leverage all the media elements during production will significantly improve overall productivity.

Interactive / Online Production

The Internet and new media distribution capabilities have helped drive the ability to carry out digital production on the desktop. Although these tools and capabilities are not mature enough today to allow an organization such as an organization to do all production on the desktop, they are mature enough to help explore how production and post will evolve. Today’s new media production tools require that media exist digitally – limiting the leveragable content to that which can be quickly found or which already exists and is available at the desktop. Combined with an effective MAMS, new media production can significantly improve overall production life-cycle productivity.

- New Media Production (Web, etc)

Production Management

Production management refers to all stages of the overall workflow, from beginning of a show or project content meeting, through final distribution, to on-air, consumer, or other distribution sources. Many technologies fall into this category. For the sake of clarity we are focusing on only three at this time.

- Project/Program Workflow Management

- Electronic Collaboration

- Approvals Management

Project/Program workflow management is the core enabler. Today this exists in an organization through different processes established within various organizations – no software technology enables this. MAM Systems for Production, such as Cinebase3 with the Production focus, are helping to enable production workflow through their offering. Support for more complex workflow management as it applies to production is still emerging. Continued evolution of the underlying support for production workflow tracking and management will be key to ensuring that a MAMS for production can help an organization achieve their overall vision, inclusive of the underlying MAMS support.

Electronic collaboration is proven today in entertainment. Support for electronic collaboration in complex production workflow is still evolving, but will quickly emerge.

Approval management concerns the workflow and process of an organization. Technologies exist today that enable information to be captured regarding the state of a project or media. The next level is to support automatic approval management by more intelligent approval products which would integrate workflow engines in the media and project management process. Escalation and triggers would automatically inform and account for the status of the different approvers, linking the approval outcome back to the original media as well as to associated projects. The fundamental technology is available today but, as applied towards the production process, no commercial offerings exist because the definition of what the industry wants is still vague. We believe we will see the offering in this area evolve quickly as the industry more clearly defines the requirements.



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Digital Media on Demand

Production includes the need to get media to the appropriate location at the appropriate time in the needed format. This includes distribution, infrastructure, and the needed transformations, or trans-coding, of that data. Commercial support exists today for digital delivery, assuming the needed infrastructure is in place. Effective trans-coding linked back into media management and delivery is still in the Early Adopter category, but is expected to quickly migrate into the Early Majority category as production workflow with MAMS technology is readily enabled.

- Trans-coded on the fly to desired format

- Digitally delivered to selected location

Production Workflow Enabling Technology Maturity Predictions – 1-5 Years

In the following production adoption table, the product offerings are not as mature as in the Media Management section. Production workflow applies technology to a specific set of business requirements. The move into digital production and digital distribution has helped push the adoption of emerging technologies. But these are still evolving as the production market is defining its needs and workflow surrounding integrated digital production – which is itself still emerging. We believe that enabled by a back-end MAMS for production, support for technologies such as AVID’s OMM (when it becomes available as a completed standard), integration with graphics management tools, and digital delivery of media all will be possible, with configuration and minor customization, within the next one to two years. Critical to the success of adoption with the production space is both the infrastructure for the distribution of the media and the effective management of both digital and physical media. Beginning with a MAMS for production, and expanding within the following year, post-production with digital distribution during the production process appears very viable given the state of technology maturity across all layers.



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Production Adoption Today 2002 2003 2004 2005

Non-linear Editing

Suite based (Avid, Media100) 4 4 4 5 5

Integrated / Networked Non-Linear Suites 3 3 4 4 5

Rough Cut Desktop editing 2 3 3 3 4

Tapeless Digital Production 2 2 3 3 3

Infrastructure for Tapeless Production

OMM w/ MAMS 1 2 3 3 4

Networked Storage integration (OMM) 3 3 3 4 4

Scheduling System integration 2 2 3 3 3

Digital Content formats (See Distribution)

Graphics Production

Full Digital Graphics Production 2 3 3 4 4

Graphics Networked into Post Production 3 3 3 4 4

Interactive/Online Production

New Media Production (Web, etc.) 3 3 4 4 5

Production Management

Project / Program Workflow Management 2 2 2 3 3

Electronic Collaboration 2 3 4 4 4

Approvals Management 1 2 3 3 4

Digital Media on Demand

Trans-coded on the fly to desired format 2 3- 3- 3 3

Digitally delivered to the selected location 3 3 4 4 4

Distribution Trends and Adoption Distribution addresses the movement of media during production as well as after finished content and programming has been completed. It is tightly related to the other three layers, but also represents the basis for sharing and collaborating between internal and external organizations within an organization. Some of the technologies and trends explored in this section are far reaching, speculating where in five years both infrastructure and distribution methods and technologies will take us.



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• Emerging digital distribution technologies - Catch Servers from Agencies to Production/Broadcast houses

- DTV, DBS, Digital Terrestrial Cable, Internet video streaming

• Internet age broadcast services - multicasting, datacasting, interactive TV, webcasting, pull model

• Hosted Services for Stock Footage - Stills and Video

• ASP Services introducing Service based support for Store and Forward models Distribution trends are heavily driven by digital production and the supporting infrastructure within production facilities. Delivery of media to internal customers, as well as delivery to the consumer, is critical. Distribution is fundamental to delivering new media and finding additional revenue streams, both to business and consumers. In the following sections, we describe a diversity of categories within the distribution layer that influence the ability to achieve the vision of how media management can drive new opportunities and increase production productivity.

Emerging Digital Distribution Technologies

Emerging distribution trends are changing the competitive landscape, forcing companies such as an organization to consider how to retain current audiences as well as how to capture new audiences. Drivers influencing how quickly the market and surrounding production needs include the following:

- Catch Servers from Agencies to Production/Broadcast houses

- Digital TV (DTV)

- Digital Broadcast Satellite (DBS)

- Digital Terrestrial Cable

- Internet Video Streaming

Broadcast Services - Internet Age

The Internet has extended the notion of broadcast, pushing into new venues and new types of production. Technologies that are driving how quickly new content and programming will be adopted in different markets are listed below. With these new services comes a new production model where media can be readily repurposed for the creation of new programming, branding across media offerings as well as creation of supporting material to enrich the user experience. All of these technologies are driving what is needed within distribution, media management, and production.

- Multicasting

- Datacasting

- Interactive TV

- Webcasting

- Pull model – On-demand access to previously aired material

Technologies such as Tivo and Replay TV are leading the way in pull technology and changing the way we think of a cable/broadcast provider. With these technologies supporting material, new advertising and revenue generating models are evolving that will affect all aspects of both production and broadcast companies – of which an organization is both.



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Hosted and ASP Services

Hosted services around stock images and footage are proven today. Strengthened by the distribution network provided by the Internet, ASP services are quickly emerging. These services provide new services beyond media sales, and help to enable “store and forward” without requiring the organization to own a complete “store and forward” infrastructure.

Catch Server services also are commercially viable today, with companies such as DG Systems. Although used most often for promo and advertising agencies to distribute spots to their customers, they are expanding into full programming. Linked with Catch Server services, the market will begin to converge as various media types are supported by multiple providers. Examples include those servicing short format finished media such as promos and spots, as well as those servicing longer format or even digital dailies content.

- Stock Footage

- Stock Images

- Catch Server Services

- ASP to Manage Transmission Services for Store and Forward

Digital Video Format Standards (TREND)

Support and adoption for video format standards is critical to the success of a media management infrastructure to serve an organization. Standards are moving targets and low-resolution media standards are well adopted. The choice of which format to use for what purpose is critical to consider in moving forward with a MAMS solution for Production support. In the table describing the current maturity, we see that both preview and MPEG-2 formats are established and being leveraged across many product offerings. How these standards relate back to available players and media use is a consideration that is driven heavily by an organization’s production process. The choice of what format to use when supporting high resolution digital video during the production process is dependent on many factors – the least of which is whether the high resolution video is going to be maintained as the primary storage for that media moving forward. The debate of what format to encode and manage as high-resolution will continue to rage until digital resolution equals that of original media such as film.

- Preview Resolution (Real or Quicktime)

- MPEG2 Frame Accurate Rough-Cut Res

- High-Resolution Digital Video

Centralizing Broadcast Operations

Definition of how a broadcast organization will distribute finished material (programs, spots, press, etc) to its affiliates and partners introduces another set of considerations in adoption. Combined with emerging digital distribution technologies, this will provide access to a number of consumers previously unprecedented.

- Central Broadcasting

- Store and Forward (Catch Equipment)

Distribution Technology Maturity Predictions – 1-5 Years

In the distribution adoption table below we see that the product offerings’ maturity levels vary widely. But, we also see that they mature rapidly. Driven heavily by new



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distribution channels enabled by digital broadcast and the Internet, the ability to get the media to consumers is improving rapidly. This combined with an underlying MAMS and digital infrastructure to manage the media as it is sent or received will empower an organization. It will improve production workflow as well as offer new revenue opportunities as a result of new consumers and new advertising avenues. Decisions surrounding broadcast distribution to affiliates through central broadcast versus store and forward will continue to evolve as technologies such as PVDs and pull models also evolve.



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Distribution Adoption Today 2002 2003 2004 2005

Emerging Digital Distribution Technologies

Catch Servers from Agencies to Production/Broadcast houses 3 3 4 4 4

Digital TV (DTV) 3 3 4 5 5

Digital Broadcast Satellite (DBS) 3 3 4 5 5

Digital Terrestrial Cable 2 2 3 3 4

Internet video streaming 3 4 4 5 5

Broadcast Services - Internet Age

Multicasting 3 3 4 4 4

Datacasting 2 3 3 4 4

interactive TV 2 2 3 4 4

Webcasting 2 3 3 4 4

pull model - On Demand access to previously aired material 2 2 3 4 4

Hosted & ASP Services

Stock Footage 3 3 4 4 4

Stock Images 4 4 4 4 4

Catch Server Services 3- 3 4 4 4

ASP to manage Transmission Services for Store & Forward 2 3 3 4 4

Digital Video Format Standards (TREND)

Preview resolution (real or quicktime) 4 4 4 5 5

MPEG2 Frame Accurate Rough Cut Res 3 3 3 4 4

High Resolution Digital Video 2 3 3 3 3

Centralizing Broadcast operations

Central Broadcasting 4 4 4 4 5

Store and Forward (Catch Equipment) 3 3 3 4 4

Infrastructure Trends and Adoption Infrastructure refers to the systems, software, and digital pipes that exist within an organization for access to and distribution of media and information. This includes the physical network infrastructure that supports the actual work processes between departments/groups and physical systems capabilities. This also includes the software



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applications and hardware “black boxes” that allow an organization to operate both in the Production environment as well as in the programming and play to air world. Many different technologies and layers exist within the infrastructure itself. Here we have attempted to cull down the trends and technologies to a manageable set – realizing that each set has significantly greater depth that could be explored. • Broadband and the Web

• Digital Content and Distribution Capabilities

• Gigabit Ethernet

• Store and Forward Support – Catch Servers

• Connections between production, post, and advertising agencies for digital delivery and review of media

• Personal Video Recorders (TiVo, ReplayTV) with Preference Engines

• Improved compression encoding and delivery technology – MPEG-2

• Move to Digital Distribution Infrastructure is described by three different categories within the layer. Much of the technology within this layer already is viable and is evolving to support the required bandwidth and stability needed to support full digital production and distribution. Infrastructure is the linchpin that will allow the Vision to come to fruition – pulling together all the other layers. The categories discussed within the Infrastructure layer are discussed with their technologies. As these technologies are more a staple of the broadcast industry, they are not elaborated individually.

Digital Media Storage

- Shared Fixed Storage (rotating media) – Peer

- Shared Fixed Storage (rotating media) – Server

- Storage Area Network Nodes (rotating media)

- High Capacity Magnetic Tape and CD

- High Capacity Read Only DVD

- High Capacity Read/Write (CDR)

Networks

- 10 Mb Ethernet

- 100 Mb Ethernet

- 1 Gb Ethernet

- VPN (bandwidth TBD)

- WAN

- LEO (Low Earth Orbit) VPN

Video Server / PVD

- Catch Servers

- Streaming media (24 Kbps - 200Kbps) Browse/Proxy NTSC

- Streaming media (200 Kbps - 500Kbps) Browse/Proxy NTSC

- VOD MPEG1 – MPEG-2 (1 MBps - 10 Mbps) NTSC



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- VOD MPEG2 (10 MBps - 50 Mbps) NTSC

- MegaVOD (15MBps) HDTV (Holographic Digital Television)

Infrastructure Technology Maturity Predictions – 1-5 Years

The infrastructure within a large organization in many cases is the slowest to evolve, as the investment to do so is large. Yet when the infrastructure does develop it enables the rest of the organization to evolve to new levels. Implementation of an infrastructure to enable the movement of high-resolution digital media throughout an organization, both during and after the production process, is the goal. Extension of this capability with the support of external services or direct connectivity is also essential in order to streamline the production process while enabling new distribution channels. Supporting digital media production within an organization requires a network capable of delivering content to different locations: edit bays, desktops, outside production houses, marketing, etc. The initial implementation of an infrastructure would be to support production. More specifically, even post-production (including graphics, audio, video, and stills) would currently require a Gigabit Ethernet connecting the different islands of production and post-production. When the management of high-resolution media on the network during production is possible combined with media management capabilities, we recommend starting with management of high-resolution media online only during the production process, as storage costs for high- resolution media is significant. As storage costs decrease, the management of more of the high-resolution media online would be cost effective (such as 50mb per sec MPEG). In addition, the availability of enough bandwidth to support reviewing of low-resolution previews of media at the desktop for searching and selection is also needed in a short time frame. If this is enabled within the same time frame as the implementation of the MAMS for production, an organization will be able to significantly improve production productivity, communications, and the reuse of media. Adoption recommendations are included in the overall Recommended Adoption Path example to follow. This includes staging of management of medium resolution and high-resolution digital content within the MAMS and across the infrastructure. As we have discussed within previous layers, fundamental to the success of the MAMS in production is an infrastructure that can support the workflow and its associated demands.



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Infrastructure Adoption Today 2002 2003 2004 2005

Digital Media Storage

Shared fixed storage (rotating media) - peer 5 5 5 5 5

Shared fixed storage (rotating media) - server 3 3 4 4 5

Storage Area Network nodes (rotating media) 2 2 3 3 4

High capacity magnetic tape and CD 4 4 4 5 5

High capacity read only DVD 2 2 3 3 4

High capacity read/write (CDR) 3 3 4 4 5

Networks

10 Mb Ethernet 5 5 5 5 5

100 Mb Ethernet 4 4 4 5 5

1 Gb Ethernet 2 3 3 4 4

VPN (bandwidth TBD) 3 3 4 4 5

WAN 4 4 4 4 5

LEO (Low Earth Orbit) VPN 1 1 1 2 3

Video Server / PVD

Catch Servers 3 3 4 4 4

Streaming media (24 Kbps - 200Kbps) Browse/Proxy NTSC 3 3 4 4 4

Streaming media (200 Kbps - 500Kbps) Browse/Proxy NTSC 2 2 3 3 4

VOD MPEG1 - MPEG2 (1 MBps - 10 Mbps) NTSC 3 3 3 4 4

VOD MPEG2 (10 MBps - 50 Mbps) NTSC 1 1 2 2 3

Mega VOD (15MBps) HDTV (Holographic Digital Television) 0 0 0 1 1

Recommended Adoption Path for Media Management The following table illustrates an example of a recommended staging of technology adoption for the next five years within an organization that crosses between the Early Adopter and the Early Majority areas. This staging will allow an organization to achieve the Vision described in this document, while also being sensitive to costs and risk. The initial three years are reasonably predictable given the current state of technologies and an organization’ infrastructure. Looking out five years becomes more speculative, as the infrastructure and foundations are moving in Internet time and rapidly changing, enabling new capabilities.



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The table is based upon the assumption that an organization, for most technologies in this area, exists within the early majority section of the adoption curve. Technologies that provide strong risk/reward benefits as a combination of their maturity and an organization’s timing are being considered as Early Adopters. No technologies are being considered that are in the innovator area of the adoption curve at this time. As there are strong interrelationships between the different technologies, many of the recommendations by layer can not be considered independent of technologies in other layers. For example, in order to enable desktop screening of low and medium resolution media, the appropriate infrastructure throughout a facility must be in place. In some areas, the staging for one year is in support of the expected capabilities that can be provided in the next. The integration of the MAMS with Avid through OMM to support the drag and drop of digital content during creation will require the non-linear edit bays – and ideally the graphics workstations – networked by gigabit Ethernet before 2002.



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Topics 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Media Management

MAMS –Library Systems Replacement w/ Rich Media Support (Physical and Digital)

Basic Consent, Rights & Clearances (R&C)

Media Transfer Support (physical and Digital)

Digital Media Mgmt Integration with Non-Linear (OMM)

Traffic & MAMS Integration Assessment

Extended R&C

‘New Media’ Project Support

High Resolution Media Mgmt During Production (Start)

Transcoding on the Fly for Digital Delivery (low/med res)

Traffic & MAMS Integration

Approvals Support Against Media

Extended R&C

Extended Rich Media Logging

ScheduALL Integration

Transcoding on the Fly for Digital Delivery (high res)

Scheduling System Integration

Sold Media R&C (Optional*)


Intelligent Staging of Media Where Needed (store & forward, pull, etc.)

Residuals R&C Integration (Talent)


Production Analysis of Production Workflow w/ Projects and Programs

Unity Integration w/ AVID

Graphics Mgmt (Proximity)

Electronic Collaboration

Rough Cuts on the Desktop

New Media Desktop Production

Integrated Production and Media Workflow with MAM

Digital Approvals* Tapeless Digital Production (Video and Graphics)

Digital Delivery and Transcode of Media where Needed

Distribution MAMS at the Desktop

Low & Med Res Preview Distribution

Catch Server Support for Promos

Webcasting for ‘New Media’

High Resolution Video Destinations from MAM (internal)

Electronic Review & Collaboration Outside (low & med)

Webcasting Extended

Electronic Review & Collaboration Outside (High Res)

Interactive TV Support via ‘New Media’

Pull Model Support for Programming and Rich Media

Infrastructure Gb Ethernet in Production/ Post

Unity Storage

HSM Storage

Gb Ethernet in Internal

SANs Storage

Continued HSM Storage

Broadband Connectivity Outside

HSM Storage Extended

Connectivity Extended (ex: Store and Forward Support)

HSM Storage Extended

Connectivity Extended

Initial One to Three Years As production and distribution are the business focus, we recommend that over the first two to three years an organization focus heavily on media management surrounding the content creation and all stages surrounding its workflow. The natural byproduct of the management of media throughout this process will be a rich archive of raw stock, finished programming, stills, graphics and other forms of content created throughout the organization. Branching out into automation, play to air, scheduling, etc. will follow, by which time the industry surrounding MAMS, through its natural evolution, will be more integrated into these larger environments. Managed by a Media Center, a centralized MAMS will have distributed media, media stored in different ‘libraries’ or digitally stored in different content stores on or off site.



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The production process itself is inherently distributed throughout its workflow. With a Media Center as the focal point for media management, the overall infrastructure, distribution, and workflow can be expanded out to facilities outside of initial facilities. As media is managed throughout the production process, a comprehensive archive will evolve.

JANET GARDNER: As Vice President of eMotion's Professional Services organization, Ms.Gardner oversees the engagements and engineering team that handles the entire lifecycle of custom software development. In this role, she developed the strategy for use of a Needs Assessment to enable strategic consulting for customers, defining their media management adoption path. Under her management, the Professional Services group has delivered application solutions to entertainment, broadcast and government customers including E! Entertainment, Cinetel, Lifetime, Vin de Bona, Discovery Channel and others. In addition to this, her responsibilities include engagement with Product Management, Engineering and Sales to help define the solution space for application of core technologies - enabling product sales against a defined market set as well as helping to define the company positioning for the Cinebase product offerings both to end users and to the investment community. Prior to this, Ms. Gardner headed the Object Technology Practice with American Management Systems' Insurance and Financial markets and was the Director of Consulting and Training at Advanced Databases, Inc. She has been an active participant and leader in the object technology and object database fields for over 10 years and has spoken at such prestigious conferences as Object Expo, Object World and Seybold. Ms. Gardner worked with interactive video, computer graphics and design patterns in the advancement of computer based interactive eductation. Ms. Gardner received her MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS and BARCH from Ball State University. She has conducted numerous speaking and teaching engagements surrounding the topics of technology adoption, object oriented database technology and object oriented project management lifecycle.



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criteria for adopting a media asset management system · 2014-01-15 · but, media management is...

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