2011 DAMMY Award Nominee Submissions

Nominated for: Best Strategy Ease of Use for End-User Interface

 

About Symphony Repertoire
Symphony is a custom suite of web based applications designed and developed specifically to automate the daily operations of Concord Music Group’s internal divisions including Art, A&R, Finance, Licensing, Production, and Scheduling, across offices in Los Angeles, Berkeley, Cleveland, and Boston. The system supports over 8 distinct user types.

The Challenge
The objective of this suite of web applications is to replace a group of decentralized legacy tools with a modern system that integrates all major aspects of record label operations, and unifies them around the label’s most important assets — its catalog.

The first and most critical application in the suite is Symphony Repertoire — the meta-data store and media asset management layer. The specific challenge in designing this application was to handle both meta-data and media assets in a unified interface that opened creation, management, and distribution functions to team members across the enterprise. Doing so required an interface that was both simple and intuitive — even for non-technical users.

The Solution
Today, Repertoire serves as the central repository for all assets in the Concord catalog, including albums, tracks, merchandise, and works, along with its accompanying meta-data, including information on artists, songwriters, and publishers, as well as product and project management infrastructure.

Repertoire also manages audio, video, and still images, combining the meta-data layer with digital media assets making for a rich and efficient content experience that has enabled Concord’s Licensing division to create and leverage catalog assets quickly and easily. Today, the Licensing group can create and share a compilation album with a partner or potential licensee in under five minutes. Full support for distribution through both digital and brick-and-mortar channels on the album, track, and label group level is also integrated into the system.

Going one layer deeper, Repertoire provides critical visibility into the performance of Concord’s catalog through integration of data feeds from Nielsen SoundScan, internal inventory management systems, internal and partner sales systems, social media networks, and industry organizations like the RIAA.

Highly advanced search capabilities, including live, fully faceted search across seven different record types, inline media and meta-data preview, customizable result displays, and filtering, ensure that critical records are only a click away.

The integrated music player lives inside a tray that can be neatly tucked away when not in use, allowing for a persistent and seamless music listening experience even while navigating through complex, multi-page workflows.

Creating and editing of records is simple — a switch of the ‘View/Edit’ toggle makes all meta-data editable inline, with full auto-suggest support, drag-and-drop track and resource lists, and the ability to add new discs and new tracks on the fly.

Implementation
Repertoire was conceived and designed in close integration with actual users. Application of lean UX and data-driven design principles allowed for rapid, iterative deployment of new features. A/B and multivariate testing were employed extensively by the design team in order to refine user interactions and conversion funnels for user goals and objectives. The entire system was built from the ground up by a small team: a product manager, a user experience designer, a visual designer, and two engineers.

Timeline
The Discovery Phase of the project began in September 2010 when our squad of engineers and designers was embedded within the client organization in order to both examine problems first hand and concept potential solutions in real-time. Using agile design and engineering methods, allowing for rapid deployment of new features and functions, the application was launched in Q1 2011.

The Results
For the first time, team members across the Concord organization have a unified view into their entire catalog supported by real-time statistics and metrics, all through a powerful, modern, and usable interface built with best in class development techniques and leveraging HTML5 and CSS3 — making the entire system fully compatible across modern desktop browsers as well as mobile form factors.

Today, Repertoire is the final destination for all meta-data and all media assets across the entire catalog of albums, tracks, and merchandise, and provides real-time access to the Concord library of content to users in cities across the United States and within different divisions and departments of the organization.

The system has realized tangible results via process simplification, increased efficiencies, and cost-reduction across the organization.

Nominated for: Best Strategy or Solution for Digital & Media Asset Management during the Acquisition of Content

 

Production stage with Multi camera File based origination using green screen. Stage engineering tied directly into the DAMS or mastered on P2 then uploaded. DAMS connected by Fiber to 8 edit bays. For international stakeholder approvals, system is tied into online video approval process using ipad, iPhone, smart pads and Internet. Comments are sent back to editor's timeline. Final output to Internet, DVD and Tape or file based. Content is used for international commercials, training, LA live courtyard large screens, Soccer games, and Internet public and internal facing pages. Our shows reach 72 countries, translated into 18 languages.

Nominated for: DAMMY of the Year

 

Henrik de Gyor is nominated for 'DAMMY of the Year' based on being: -Author/blogger behind Another DAM blog read by admins, vendors, DAM users and potential users globally. -Podcaster/host behind Another DAM podcast with interviews from professionals across many industries. -Speaker/moderator at a number of DAM conferences, DAM meetups and DAM webinars each year. -Mentor to DAM professionals globally who has generously devoted his time helping many individual professionals in working and thriving with Digital Asset Management. -Organizer of a DAM meetup group in Washington DC area to gather those in that area who thought they were alone in the field of DAM. -Daring enough to ask the hard questions regardless of the audience and explaining what questions should be answered when working with Digital Asset Management.

Nominated for: Best Strategy or Solution for Digital & Media Asset Management during the Acquisition of Content

 

UPS/Viewcast Digital Asset Management Case Study

Challenge

Atlanta, Georgia – based UPS (NYSE:UPS) is the world’s largest package delivery company and a global leader for transportation and logistics services in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide.  UPS manages a complex array of operations and facilities, with nearly half a million employees.  To communicate globally, communications professionals must overcome differences in language, culture, and time zones to maintain brand consistency for a company that has been in business since 1907.  In order to accomplish this communications goal, during the past year UPS and its vendor Viewcast created a custom technical solution that enabled two very different DAM systems to pass content to each other in a unique acquisition process.

In the fall of 2010, UPS launched its first global advertising campaign – a unified set of graphics, images, and messaging that could be used in all of its markets.  Centered around the tagline “We Love Logistics”, the campaign looks to unify the brand identity in all countries, and to capitalize on service features unique to UPS. While the majority of campaign elements are generated by Ogilvy, UPS communications and marketing employees and many other partner agencies need access and visibility to brand guidelines, graphics, images, and other source materials in order to extend the global campaign into local markets.

Campaign assets need to flow from the ad agency DAM into the UPS DAM, so that materials can be tracked and shared with all communication partners.  The ad agency DAM is managed by Redworks, an Ogilvy company. These assets need to have metadata and rights information travel along with them from system to system in order to document proper usage.  Previous to this project, neither UPS nor RedWorks had handled such a large and layered transfer of information and assets. Adding to the complexity of the issue were disparate programming languages, metadata standards, and areas of technical expertise.  To best serve the UPS communications audience, the UPS DAM had to transition from an archive to an upfront consideration in advertising accounts management.

In order for the acquisition and distribution of new advertising content to be successful, a point to point tunnel with a transform tool needed to be built that would take SQL fields from the advertising system and translate them into the appropriate XML tags for the UPS DAM.  The differing nature of the metadata models meant that multiple SQL fields must be conditionally merged and mapped to XML tag(s) often with considerable intelligence.  In addition, this transform tool would have to handle the linking structure of thumbnails for display, hierarchical relationships within record sets, and recognize which of the 11 different metadata models in the UPS DAM to which the asset belonged.  While each of these 11 different models contain a set of attributes based on Dublin Core that are common to all assets in the system, the models also contain metadata descriptors unique to each item type – such as frame rate for the video metadata model, or controlled vocabulary for photograph keywords.

Without a process and application that could allow acquisition of assets from one DAM to another, the global campaign would be confined to what items could be produced by the ad agency itself – a costly and inefficient solution.  Solving the DAM to DAM communication challenge allowed for the distribution and repurposing of approved creative assets around the world.

Solution

In order to ingest the new advertising content into the UPS DAM, several actions were required:

1. Both UPS and RedWorks would commit to a new acquisition step in accounts management
2. Both UPS and RedWorks would have to alter their metadata models to accommodate new types of information
3. Viewcast, the UPS DAM vendor, would create a tunnel and build and manage the workflow process for UPS
4. Assets would be organized and cataloged by RedWorks in such a way that they can be easily consumed by another DAM system
5. Both RedWorks and the UPS DAM team would audit the ingest process in order to assure that assets loaded correctly

The metadata that existed in the RedWorks DAM was very different from that usually captured in the UPS DAM.  With the majority of the UPS DAM system’s growth occurring after the company’s 100th anniversary, the UPS DAM metadata was heavily focused on digital preservation standards and implemented strategies based off those used in the archives and library communities.  By contrast, RedWorks’ internal DAM system was built as a rapid media delivery system.  The UPS DAM metadata concentrated on long-term stability, rights management, and providing as many user search engine choices as possible. Core to the RedWorks DAM metadata was campaign focused marketing, technical terms familiar in the design world, and digital assets findable by their context within a specific campaign.  For example, a specific picture of a UPS vehicle within the UPS DAM would have metadata that included the location where the vehicle was photographed. The same vehicle image in the RedWorks DAM metadata would include the location where a designer used that photograph to make a brochure, and the locations where that brochure was then distributed.  In the UPS DAM, a brochure appears as a separate record – a pdf that included the distribution information, but would link back to the photograph as a referring file.  In the RedWorks DAM, the brochure might only exist as an InDesign file of many components.

Over several months, both the RedWorks and UPS teams worked to change their metadata models so that a SQL field to XML tag crosswalk would be possible.  UPS added new fields for “Creation Region” and “Media Channel” in their document model.  Ogilvy hired an experienced cataloger to work with UPS assets.  Of special concern to UPS were the complex rights statements associated with media being both created and used globally.  While the Berne Convention laid out clear rules for capturing images of people worldwide with regards to model releases, the tangle of international copyright laws concerning stock photography, paid talent, and location releases brought new levels of complexity to managing assets in the UPS DAM.

Part of the solution to the copyright management challenge of a global advertising campaign was solved by the existence of the UPS DAM itself.  Previous to the “We Love Logistics” campaign, UPS communication professionals could check boxes on their search results screen that filtered assets by two options: either “own outright” (meaning UPS owned all rights to the item, and it was free for any use) or “limited rights – see notes”.  If an item had the “limited rights – see notes” option, the notes field for the item would usually contain a UPS email address where more information could be found about use limitations.  As less than 10% of items in the UPS DAM had this statement, and half of those assets were connected to sponsorships such as NASCAR, no further refinement was needed.

Once the new advertising assets populated the system, the two limited rights options would not be distinct enough to give end users the information they needed about an asset.  A new copyright statement field was added that could accommodate the blocks of text needed to explain the complexities of assets that might contain half a dozen locations, photography both from UPS and stock houses, music licenses, UPS employees and paid actors, and multiple persons that might be considered “creators”.  As always, supportive documentation needed to be scanned, uploaded, cataloged separately and then associated with each file as either a child, parent, or related file, and the UPS DAM team did this for over 2,000 files in the first half of 2011.

So complex were copyright laws associated with the ingest of a worldwide campaign that a rights manager was appointed within RedWorks to help UPS with their releases and copyright concerns.  The rights manager, a long-term Ogilvy employee, has in-depth experience of the copyright issues associated with large campaigns.  The rights manager and the UPS DAM team speak at least once a week regarding questions and concerns relating to the rights of images and how they may be used.

The transformation workflow for the point to point tunnel between the UPS DAM server and RedWorks was designed by a project manager at Viewcast.  The UPS DAM team contracts with Viewcast not only for its DAM solution, but for daily system IT support.  Separate SOW’s are opened for special projects like the transform. The UPS DAM is isolated from other UPS networks, so a secure tunnel and Virtual Private Network (VPN) could be offered to a vendor without fear that other data or systems might be compromised.  With a secure tunnel, RedWorks can enjoy the transfer of cataloged assets through the transform with the literal click of a button, without the fear of slow connections or file size restrictions.

Establishing this tunnel across VPN from the Redworks DAM server to the UPS DAM server involved UPS collaborating with three separate vendors simultaneously. Redwork’s IT department, Viewcast, and the DAM hosting provider, were all needed in order to put the point to point tunnel in place.  Once established, Viewcast, Redworks, and the UPS DAM team created a metadata crosswalk that mapped advertising attributes to UPS attributes.  After creating the tunnel, consultants at Viewcast wrote and edited the transform tool that used the crosswalk to move both descriptive and technical metadata embedded in assets from RedWorks to the UPS DAM.  Five months of collaboration, problem solving, and testing were needed before transfers from one system to the other became routine.

Every other week, the UPS DAM team and RedWorks cataloging team have a status meeting to go through master lists of advertising assets produced for the “We Love Logistics” campaign. The DAM team manager checks these lists against reports and presentations given on advertising activities, from television commercials in four languages to email coupons sent out to small business owners in China. After arrangement and description of these items, RedWorks pushes the assets from their DAM to the server that hosts the UPS DAM with a one click process.  Compound digital assets coming into the hotfolder have been packaged by the advertising agency in a file folder structure specifically designed for assets from the global campaign.

The transform then maps metadata from SQL fields to XML tags and separates out the XMP information that is attached to the main asset and maps it to the appropriate UPS attribute. Additionally, there may be other file parts that Redworks must create to make these assets viewable on UPS Brand Exchange, the UPS DAM portal.  For example, if the main asset is a UPS landing page (the web page that a customer is redirected to upon clicking an advertisement) the advertising agency creates a PDF representation of the landing page and a zip file containing all the parts needed to recreate that landing page.  When ingested into the UPS DAM, the transform tool picks up the XMP from the PDF and creates two assets.  The transform then populates the same metadata to the zip file as the PDF and links it to the PDF as a child asset.  When an end user searches for the landing page on UPS Brand Exchange, the PDF of the web page will appear in the search results and the zip file will appear as a child asset in a related files tab in the asset details screen.  The zip file itself does not appear in search results and is only viewable from the asset to which it is linked in order to ensure that search results do not become cluttered with code and duplicate landing page parts.  By engaging the transform tool to copy catalog both the easily viewable PDF and its zip of source files, the UPS DAM ensures that even if the parent/child relationship between them were somehow broken, the identical metadata records could be used to re-link the two assets.

On the other end of the transform the UPS DAM Specialist in charge of the global campaign assets talks daily with the RedWorks asset management team, confirming file transfers and checking records for completeness.   The UPS DAM Manager maintains the relationships between all the collaborating vendor teams and UPS, and the DAM Supervisor assists system end users accessing the assets. All of the media, regardless of type, is captured, cataloged, rights managed, and made available to UPS communicators to reuse or stored for archival purposes.  Because of the sheer volume and scope of the “We Love Logistics” campaign, this continues to pose new challenges to the UPS DAM team each week, and every new acquisition and distribution challenge requires its own answer – in the form of new Access Control Lists (ACLs), new ways of organizing complex digital objects, and flexible technical and descriptive problem solving from Viewcast and UPS.

End users have been enthusiastic about downloading, repurposing, and tracking campaign results through the DAM.  The DAM Supervisor makes metrics on the download of campaign assets available monthly, and many teams have been happy to see quantifiable results of their work.  In particular, the use of the UPS DAM by Public Relations (PR) in conjunction with this campaign has shown remarkable benefit for campaign tracking purposes.  Previous to Q3 of 2010, the UPS PR team had an internal website with simple file sharing capabilities.  Coinciding with the start of the new ad campaign, the new PR portal on UPS Brand Exchange launched, backed by the UPS DAM. Each week UPS PR professionals from around the globe use an upload and reporting tool to show how the “We Love Logistics” campaign has been used in different media markets.  They can also search and view PR reports from other countries to compare market reception.  For the first time, a record of an asset’s lifecycle from acquisition to archive is captured in one system from which metrics can be obtained.

Results

The “We Love Logistics” campaign was the first experience UPS Communications professionals had working with uniform advertising materials worldwide.  Previously, a UPS communicator working in Eastern Europe would have to find a translator to read materials used by their counterpart in South America; now, the communicator could go to the UPS DAM portal (http://www.upsbrandexchange.com) and look up all translations of the ad and read it for themselves.  While the campaign unified the UPS customer experience worldwide, it also worked to unify UPS communications professionals.  Collateral produced from the campaign for customers was also made available through the DAM, and repurposed for employees in many locations.  Other firsts for this campaign and the DAM were the sharing of television and radio commercials, a karaoke version of the jingle for employees, and greater Public Relations (PR) visibility.

With the acquisition of campaign elements in their raw forms from RedWorks, derivative assets contributed from employees, and the capture of the media’s reaction to the campaign by PR, UPS has managed to gather media related to a global campaign in one DAM.  This complete record of a campaign – from working files to product to press clippings – has provided UPS communications professionals with an in-depth view of how the company can most effectively communicate with both customers and employees.  By becoming part of account management in the up front asset acquisition process, the UPS DAM team has moved advertising content capture from an afterthought to an up-front consideration, with measurable ROI for the company.  Each download saves UPS significant time and money by amortizing initial creative costs and having assets available on-demand to communications employees and their vendors.

ROI has been determined using statistical analysis of the items from the “We Love Logistics” campaign that have been downloaded from the DAM by UPS communications professionals.  A valuation of US $75.00 is given for every image download and US $510.00 for every video download.  Communicators do not need to download assets in order to view or watch them. Download valuations are based on a formula of cost avoidance.  All numbers below reflect activity from the first year of the campaign, and are current through September 15, 2011.

• Initial cost for the DAM vendor and agency system set up: $190,000
• Number of campaign assets captured in UPS DAM:  4,551
• Number of campaign asset downloads: 22,315
• Number of times campaign photographs downloaded:  6,419  (6,419 x $75 = $481,425)
• Number of times campaign videos downloaded: 1,105 (1,105 x $510 = $563,550)
• Savings from photograph and video downloads: $1,044,975
• Total cost avoidance (savings minus initial cost): $ in the first year: $854,975

Nominated for: Best Strategy Ease of Use for End-User Interface

 

FilmFlip.com
Viasat Sport
Viasat sport is one of the biggest TV stations in Scandinavia, providing multiple TV channels to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries from play-out centers in Copenhagen and London.  Due to the volume of materials entering the system, Viasat Sport needed an asset management process to handle the workflow of ingest and distribution of files both internally and externally. Viasat implemented FilmFlip to create a simplified workflow for everyday users and, just as importantly, reduce the work load and hence cost for the operations support and IT departments.

MCR (Master Control Room)
ioGates created a central installation of the FilmFlip MAM software using existing within Viasat Sport servers and storage systems. Initially the system was dedicated for use within MCR (Master Control Room) where FTP traffic and media management is at a maximum.  By re-directing all incoming FTP accounts to a single FilmFlip account deletion management, storage and system complexity were all greatly improved. This made ioGates the central point for all FTP transfers coming to Viasat Sport. MCR staff subsequently has only one place to look for files and only one FTP account to manage. ioGates’ FilmFlip automatically creates a preview of all incoming files that are immediately available for viewing by MCR operations staff.  This allows for visual viewing of all materials ready for distribution; this has reduced file turnaround times and greatly reduced errors caused when dealing with obscure file names only.  Finally programming ioGates Distribute module with all Viasat Sport file destinations and relevant formats, from FTP, Website friendly files, Newspaper image and video files, high quality broadcast files for On-air server playout, NLE editing formats ect., all managed through a web browser from anywhere on the system by anyone with relevant credentials. At ioGates we are very sensitive to IT security needs and structures; as a result the system has been designed to support the most stringent security needs, even by military organizations.  The use of ioGates’ FilmFlip has reduced related support issues almost 90% for FTP server handling, deletion management, file type confusion and correct distribution of files entering and exiting Viasat Sports MCR facility.

Commercial department
News of the workflow and accuracy improvements within MCR quickly spread and resulted in the commercial department adopting the system. ioGates can create any numbers of account where each account has their own unique library running on the same system structure.  Each department or operation can make use of larger system cost reduction while maintaining all their specific workflow and security needs and yet allowing easy access by other departments to finished and authorized materials.  After evaluation the commercial department’s workflow was very simple; receive commercials by FTP from various sources, have the planning and legal departments approve the commercials and then distribute to the on-air servers ready for playout by automation and traffic. The unique FTP operation FilmFlip provides proved very successful for the commercial department. Only one FTP account was now needed for all files being received allowing the planning department to view commercials immediately upon arrival. ioGates’ FilmFlip has the ability to burn in time code and title- safe in any preview format, this allows the planning department to immediately put up any problems, before commercials are sent to on-air servers and greatly reduces the complexity of receiving files from disparate providers. Viasat Sport does not have any ability to implement external clock numbers, as a result commercials are uploaded by names assigned by they supplying post house.  Obviously Viasat Sport must keep track of both the original file name and internally generated ID numbers Viasat Sport use for scheduling and traffic/automation systems. ioGates’ FilmFlip maintains and inserts any number of meta data fields and information.  This allows the planning department to input Viasat Sport internal ID number schemes and use this ID number throughout the facility and for transfers to on-air servers.  Searches are easily performed within FilmFlip for either the original file name or the ID clock number for tracking and management purposes.  This approach alone has greatly simplified commercial management and tracking within the facility.

Promo department
The Viasat Sports promo department adopted FilmFlip very quickly once they saw the benefits enjoyed by the Commercial Department.  The Promo Department creates many promos (as do all promo departments) that need approval by the myriad of Sports clients.  By using ioGates’ collaboration and sharing service Viasat are now able to share files and indeed any folder within the FilmFlip library with any one with just a click.  Clients are provided a link, via e-mail, allowing them to click and immediately see quality proxies (with audio) of their files with no special software or dedicated system structures needed: everything is managed within FilmFlip providing all with a simple, seamless experience. The Promo department also has all the tools they need to convert files to any format needed simply by "drag and drop" through the use of the in-built "convert" menu.  With suitable privileges managed by Viasat, clients can either stream materials immediately or download the format they need for further work or analysis. It needs to be stressed here that clients privileges are managed directly by Viasat Sports hence only those formats agreed to with Viasat are available to “clients”.  Again this has reduced the use of FTP account and support issues tremendously while providing a much needed distribution, collaboration and management tool set previously unavailable.

Conclusion
After the MCR and Commercial Department started using ioGates’ FilmFlip, 4 more department within the Viasat Sports organization realized the power of FilmFlip and implemented their own accounts to support their specific method of operation.  Archive, Graphic, Support, Golf and Promo departments all are using FilmFlip. We are proud that ioGates has had a significant impact on the daily workflow and have helped Viasat with the transition to a more FTP friendly and file based workflow. Every user can now convert, share and manage full broadcast files without further intervention. Although the original implementation of FilmFlip was to improve FTP management and provide a simpler workflow for MCR, the acceptance throughout Viasat has been overwhelming, all within 6 weeks!  We at ioGates are pleased to have been a part of the workflow and FTP improvements within Viasat Sport organization.

Lastly, ioGates’ FilmFlip employs web services.  This means that FilmFlip can be hosted in the cloud or privately on premise.  The net result is that with suitable access privileges, Viasat Sport are able to make FilmFlip available to anyone around the world simply through the use of an internet connection and a web browser!  It cannot get any simpler than FilmFlip.

Nominated for: DAMMY of the Year

 

Hotclick is a suite of tools that enable anyone to easily tag information, products and affiliate products to videos they embed, post and share. Now bloggers can monetize the products and services they chronicle. Teachers can add relative and meaningful data to captivating content and see what their students are and aren’t learning. Small business can enable their consumers to resell their products to other consumers. Hotclicks simple UI is simple enough for any user and robust enough for enterprise accounts.

Nominated for DAMMY of the Year

“Paul Nicholson, VP of Print and Broadcast at Showtime Networks is a visionary and leader in the DAM world. Paul’s vision was to create a portal site that is driven by metadata, easy for users to access, and deliver the data in DVD, CD, or a simple download – Paul’s attention to detail  has been the key to the success for Showtime Network.  We are honored to work with such a high caliber person in his design and vision for Showtime Networks.”
- Jason Bright, CTO/President MediaBeacon

Showtime Networks
Paul Nicholson, VP of Print and Broadcast

Paul Nicholson had the vision for a DAM that could manage itself through data.  Paul’s vision became reality.  The portal and interface is driven by the data in the files.  Search like Google, use the faceted search tool, preview the multi-media before its’ downloaded! And have the portal intuitive, as it’s all about the users having a great experience.

Showtime’s interface means no training.  No need for people to add metadata.  The data is auto-populated on demand from databases that carry the information in real time. No need for someone to add the metadata by hand.   Separate databases are used in real time by real people provide the data to the digital assets. And no mapping is required.

Showtime’s new interface is HTML5 utilizing MediaBeacon’s Google Widget Toolkit. The data is driven from the digital assets and the database.  The faceted search tool provides easy access to the data without having to map any data.  Customers can search, find, preview, download, the multi-media ad’s that support the Showtime Networks array of shows across the cable networks.

 

 

 

 

 

Nominated for:  Best Storage, Archive, and/or Preservation Solution

TEDIAL MAJOR DIGITISATION PROJECT FOR RTVE

Tedial products installed as part of this project: Capture, ingest management; Tarsys Media Asset Management (MAM); Media Process Manager (MPM); and Ficus Business Process Manager (BPM) providing a complete solution for digitising and processing RTVE’s media.

Tedial project for RTVE:

Two years ago Spain’s national broadcaster Radio y Televisión Española (RTVE) announced plans to undertake one of the most ambitious digitisation projects in the broadcast sector and certainly the largest in the Spanish speaking world. Its aim was to digitise its entire tape archive spanning more than 50 years dating back to beginning of Spanish television transmission. In time and technology terms this equates to more than one million hours of videotape containing 800,000 hours of content in various formats including Telecine (one/two inches), Umatic and Betacam SP to be digitised over a four year period. This material will then be repurposed for various mediums including digital TV and mobile internet.

RTVE required a file-based workflow that could automatically digitise and restore material, control tasks, convert digitised material to a common file format and store the material to achieve a seamless solution from ingest and archiving to browsing and delivery. The broadcaster appointed Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica as the systems integrator who put out a tender for a MAM supplier who could integrate all the elements involved in the production chain to optimise and automate operational procedures. This included two news production sites in Madrid and Barcelona, a third site in Valencia where the material would be ingested and digitised and two further sites owned by external service providers to RTVE where material will also be digitised and incorporated back into its workflow.

After a rigid tender process the MAM contract was awarded to Tedial who met RTVE’s objectives by defining the digital workflow and associated business processes in conjunction with Telefonica and RTVE. The system, which is in the final stages of acceptance will enable the broadcaster to take full advantage of a file-based workflow with process-oriented tools that allow operators to define tasks according to business requirements rather than technical processes

RTVE’s MAM system is made up of three layers of layered logic Tarsys Media Asset Management (MAM); Media Process Manager (MPM); and Ficus Business Process Manager (BPM) providing a complete solution for digitising and processing its media. The system also integrates with a Front Porch DIVA archive.

This pioneering layered logic approach provides an enterprise-level integration bus based on IT architecture. Traditionally, MAM providers use wired logic connecting the system peer-to-peer. In this way when a change is made to third-party solutions the infrastructure falls down. The middle layer - the MPM - integrates third-party systems, which means there’s no impact on the overall workflow structure should a replacement be required in the future. This not only helps when making future changes to the overall system it also helps when upgrading the software of a key component.

Based on object-relational database management technology the Tedial MAM system allows the creation of dedicated database models for special events or production areas in the organisation. It also enables the linking of databases that are traditionally incompatible (e.g. automation, traffic, news, video servers, HSM and MAM) thereby harnessing their combined potential.

On ingest into the MAM system material is encoded to MXF OP1a, at 30 Mbit/s or 50Mbit/s or to XDCam HD as required. It also storyboards each tape and generates a browse resolution version in H.264. During ingest Tedial MPM’s unique analysis tools scan on-the-fly all media files to check whether they meet with the specified SMPTE standard. They also perform parsing to fix any minor syntactical file inconsistences, like incorrect or missing metadata in headers and trailers, which are often the source of unexpected incompatibility issues in tapeless systems. In addition to this, MPM analyses that media complies with RTVE’s corporate profile to ensure all-important file consistency and compatibility is always achieved.

The Ficus BPM system, which forms the overarching layer, ensures each individual step of the digitalisation process is systematised and automated whenever possible, and the usage of available resources and workloads are optimised accordingly.  Ficus ensures operators interact in a coordinated way by producing work orders based on the user’s profile, his/her specific responsibilities and by taking into account the global priorities, resources available, deadlines, etc. of the entire production chain. Ficus also provides a link to RTVE’s Arca IBM’s web-based client application, which includes the radio archive of more than two million audio clips.

What further sets this technology apart from other MAM systems is its ability to deliver media to any area of RTVE’s production chain whilst carrying out all the media processing, so that it arrives in the most efficient way in the correct format for the device that’s going to use it. This is done automatically.

Specialised workflow software needs to go beyond the simple definition of the steps that are required to complete tasks. By taking this a step further the MAM system can combine media processing tools such as transcoders and automatic media moving to ensure that operators involved in the workflow automatically have the required clips and segments in the right format before they begin working on their tasks. Thus they don't waste time searching for or processing media; they are free to solely focus on their creative work. This way workflows truly increase productivity output, reduce time and require fewer staff to carry out activities.

The overall solution will allow any RTVE user access, from a single application, to millions of pieces of audiovisual content in a professional format. It will then seamlessly handle the recovery of that content to the transmission or production area as required, giving immediate access to the whole of the archive, when and where it is necessary.

This project has huge significance both from a pioneering technology standpoint and from a heritage stand point. Once the material is digitised it will provide Spanish people with access to important historical information spanning a century that would otherwise have eventually disappeared. This ambitious project shows that the coveted aim of having an efficient  full tapeless production facility operating at a low cost is within reach of every broadcaster.

Nominated for: DAMMY of the Year and Best Strategy or Solution for Digital & Media Asset Management during the Acquisition of Content

HOW IT STARTED...

Steve Cronan, Founder and CEO of 5th Kind (formerly OTC Productions), thought he had put his web engineering days behind him when, in 2001, he signed on as the IT and Digital Asset Manager for the Matrix Sequels.  On his first day he was handed a four-inch stack of paper referencing every item contained on the Matrix archive tapes – located inconveniently in a cave, in Utah (approximately 8000 miles from the production in Sydney, Australia).  As Steve spent time with each of the film’s departments, from Art and VFX, to Producers and Directors, he was able to experience the full production life cycle from start to finish over a 1.5 year period.

(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3163175/)

Applying his deep knowledge of Web and Network Engineering, Steve began studying all aspects of the workflows for each individual user, department, production, studio and vendor as they all tried to communicate huge amounts of information and meta data with each other via email, phone, SMS, fax, FTP, paper, network drive, etc. He then set out on a mission over the last decade to consolidate all these forms of communication into a single platform that was built to store and secure any digital file.

Combining all of his web, hardware, software and production experience Steve has been able to develop a product that services all the needs of a studio from the initial script to final distribution to airlines and everything in between. Providing all the security, sharing, search, tracking, approvals, distribution and communication needs into a single platform. His experience has also made him a key player in the industry being invited to talk on panels like Siggraph about meta data standards and a lead consultant on projects such as Warner Brothers NGP (Next Generation Production). Below is a list of some of Steves highlights over the last decade.

1. INTRODUCING THE FIRST ON-THE-FLY SECURITY TO GLOBAL PRODUCTIONS

From early 2001 through to late 2002, Steve managed the Matrix’s network infrastructure and IT support team and at the same time, began development of an asset system that would forever change production workflow and communication systems. The core objective of the matrix system was to look at the end to end asset problem and to streamline management of 2 films, a video game and an 8 episode anime across production offices in three locations and 15 VFX vendors in eight countries. There was another layer of complexity the system needed to solve, enabling the tracking and viewing of millions of files, that had to be organized, tagged, searchable and secure. It was on this production that Steve wrote his first system to solve all of the aforementioned challenges. This system introduced the first secure on-the-fly visual watermarking to the production world and allow production to manage assets for some of the most complex VFX shots to this day.

http://forum.cgarena.com/viewtopic.php?t=383

2. AUTOMATING THE WATERMARKING, ENCRYPTION AND GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION PROCESS WITH BULLET PROOF SECURITY

Over the next two and a half years, Steve applied his learnings from the Matrix sequels and developed a new system from scratch which was first used on Superman Returns. To ensure the relevancy and success of the system, Steve spent six months working alongside VFX to develop specific modules to address their needs, including automated burn-in watermarking, PGP encryption and SFTP transfer process.

3. SYNCRONIZING THE DISTRIBUTED PRODUCTION

After installing the system on several international productions including: Speed Racer, Ironman, Hulk, Where The Wild Things Are and The Dark Knight, Steve relocated to Los Angeles, CA in 2007, where he formalized his progressive systems services as an independent company, OTC Software(5thkind). Working directly with the productions, OTC Software(5thkind) began building out the platform to develop advanced collaboration and distribution layers to work seamlessly with an enhanced data synchronization layer. This revolutionary development enabled productions to run multiple nodes in multiple locations and keep the distribution productions in sync with full automated replication.

http://www.imdb.com/company/co0249000/

4. STREAMLINING THE GLOBAL STUDIO

In 2008 and 2009, Steve started getting more involved in the entertainment community. Steve was first invited to speak at the Art Directors Guild’s 5D Conference and was subsequently invited to trade shows around the world to discuss and educate the industry on Centralized Production Asset Workflow Systems.

http://vimeo.com/7736699

http://www.ibc-tvnews.com/cgi-bin/video_play.cgi?id=606

In 2009 Marvel and OTC Software(5thKind) entered into a minimum five year partnership, in which OTC Software(5thKind) would manage digital assets for all Marvel Studios movies and animations. The human resource structuring, hardware planning and workflows established by Steve and the Marvel Studios team, are now considered by many studios as best practice for studio level asset management. Steve continues close collaboration with Marvel Studios to further improve and  integrate production into the Studio’s digital workflows like never before. Marvel currently holds over 1 million assets, 850 companies, 4000 users, distributes up to 45,000 files a week to over 30 countries.

In this period also Steve introduced the first known, browser integrated upload software that could handle files through the web greater than 2GB and allow you to tag, share and distribute whilst uploading. We increased our file type support to 250 image types and 50 video codecs and added a new transcoding engine that could convert to H. 264 at up to 170fps.  This was the first known web system to handle these size files and convert video at those speeds to allow it to scale to the needs of a studio like Marvel.

5. AUTOMATING THE LAB AND COLLABORATION WORKFLOWS

In 2010, OTC Software was re-branded to 5th Kind and announced a partnership with Aardman Animations to manage all aspects of their digital production workflow. The 5th Kind system not only tracks puppets, mouthpieces, vfx, shots and plates for Aardman Animations, it also automates the entire pipeline from camera to director, editorial, VFX and allow global web review within minutes. This pipeline is one of the most automated complex pipelines in production and has allow Aardman to evolve form a film to digital studio in a single bound. Aardman currently has processed over 1.5 million frames and shared amongst 400 users in 5 countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_encounter#Fifth

He also spoke to the FxGuide Video Podcast  about how to manage assets at the studio level.

http://www.5thkind.com/index.php?page=fxguide

6. COLLABORATING REAL TIME

As a company built on innovation in 2011 Steve lead 5th Kind to release an integrated instant messenger and one-click voicemail. One-click voicemail allows users to draw on a frame within a video, leave an audio comment, share it with a user and with one click, the recipient will be able to go directly to the frame within the video, see the visual annotation and play the audio annotation. New mobile interfaces were added to allow review and approvals on the go as well as ipad interfaces which could be used on set to track camera, lens, lighting color etc.. meta data.

Steve also continued to work with studios on next generation projects to automate and manage the complete pipeline. 5th Kind is also working on integration projects with many hardware and software vendors and was recently invited to speak at the Siggraph conference in Vancouver as one of the members defining META data standards for production.

http://www.siggraph.org/s2011/content/need-standardization-within-global-visual-effects-productions-through-open-source-and-open-0

7. SUMMARY

Steve has been relentless and instrumental over the past decade in defining how digital productions and studios manage their data and workflows. Through his deep knowledge, understanding and innovative thinking, Steve has helped over 25 international productions save millions of dollars and thousands of hours. Steve’s unbridled commitment and passion for building powerful, intuitive and cross-platform digital workflow systems will continue to build out end to end solutions and push the limits of real time production. Going forward 5th Kind is branching out into Advertising, Toys, Automotive, Games... and applying our knowledge and experience with complex workflows to any industry and uniting business in a way that can only be dreamed of.

Nominated for: Best Strategy Ease of Use for End-User Interface

 

Canto partner, Vitras (Germany), has provided Newsday with a purpose-specific version of its SuduS mobile client for Canto Cumulus. Using Apple iPads, Newsday advertising sales personnel are able to make in-person visits to local merchants to discuss advertising, present ad drafts for consideration, and communicate change requests back to Newsday layout designers in real time.

 

This type of advertising, known as “hyper-local,” describes local merchants placing ads in local newspapers. These merchants typically include auto repair shops, pizza parlors and other small businesses whose proprietors are not likely to conduct business via email or other online options. The Vitras solution enables Newsday take avail itself of the real-time benefits of mobile wireless technology, while preserving the personal attention these local vendors expect.

 

Accessing a Cumulus backend through a beautiful, purpose-specific interface, Newsday sales personnel and their customers are able to make decisions more quickly, and improve the accuracy of the ads placed. Change requests are added within the context of the ad, making intentions clear. And, because customers are able to see the actual pages on which their ads will appear, they’re able to consider factors that are not ad-specific, such as page positioning and compatibility with other page content.

 

Benefits to Newsday include:

• Shorter turn-around for approvals – Field sales personnel are able to obtain and process approvals in real time, and they can stay in the field, where they provide the most value to Newsday and its customers. Previously, change requests had to be physically taken back to the Newsday office, often not arriving until after the close of business, delaying work for an additional day. Urgent requests that had to be taken to the office immediately would result in cancelled appointments and less face time with customers.
• Increased ad sales – In-person visits to the store fronts of customers enables Newsday sales teams to inspire shop owners to place ads that might not have otherwise been ordered. Newsday can show their customers previous ads, which helps generate ideas, and customers can easily visualize what they’ll get, which reduces hesitation.

Benefits to the users (ad sales teams and their customers) include:

• Ease of use – Because the SuduS interface offers a simplified, function-specific interface to Canto Cumulus, users are able to conduct business quickly and efficiently, without having to consider DAM system functions not related to the task at hand. The iPad provides an easy-to-share screen that’s not dependent on computer access or networking considerations perfect for the types of businesses Newsday serves through its hyper-local advertising.
• Personalized views of assets – Newsday customers see only their own assets, which increases security, and makes the browsing experience more personal. To customers, the iPad appears to contain only their files and ads, when in truth, the files and metadata are managed by a remote Cumulus Server that centrally controls access, permissions and change request communications for all customers.

Nominated for DAMMY of the Year

 

Thomas Schleu invented Canto Cumulus more than 20 years ago. He served as the product’s hands-on lead engineer for its first two decades, and is today Canto’s CTO. The core features found in virtually all DAM software applications today were seen first in Mr. Schleu’s early Cumulus builds. Given that more than 14,000 Cumulus Servers have been sold, with more than 1,000,000 user licenses distributed, it’s doubtful that the DAM contributions of any other individual have touched more people directly, or with such impact and influence.

 

Cumulus 1.0 brought to the Macintosh platform for the first time something very powerful: Thumbnail images that represented the content of the files. Before Cumulus, files were represented only by generic icons, requiring users to open the files to see their contents. Mr. Schleu envisioned a computer desktop that enabled users to actually see the files they worked with so that they could make better decisions with regard to storage and use—in essence, the origin of digital asset management.

 

In addition, Cumulus 1.0 gave the Macintosh the “find” power its Finder interface lacked, by enabling users to actually search for files based on custom values the users added themselves—a concept known commonly now as metadata search.

 

Within a few years, Mr. Schleu’s development team introduced the industry to the concept of “platform agnosticism” by releasing Cumulus on Mac, Windows, UNIX, IRIX, with SOLARIS and Linux support available shortly thereafter. What’s more, Cumulus made it easy for users to share files across platforms—a feature virtually unheard of in any other software at the time.

 

While other vendors were busy catching up to the idea of multiple platforms, Mr. Schleu’s team updated Cumulus so that live catalogs could be easily and securely shared across the then burgeoning World Wide Web—a first for any DAM system. To ensure users the world over could fully benefit from those newly shared collections, Mr. Schleu oversaw Cumulus localized into 5 languages to start, with support for scores more released since.

 

Before the term “open” was used to describe any sort of software architecture, Mr. Schleu built an application programming interface (API) into Cumulus, and published it for anyone to use. The result was the start of a global Canto partner network of Cumulus add-ons and services that now numbers well into the hundreds of members. Today, Cumulus easily integrates into other systems because of that rich, feature-complete API that Mr. Schleu has ensured remains open, published and supported by his team.

 

All the while, Mr. Schleu has remained at the helm of Cumulus development, reporting each day to a standard office he shares with another employee, and helping to navigate his company through the various trends and traps that have become the evolution of the digital asset management industry he played such a vital role in creating. No other individual has done more to influence the advance of digital asset management technology, and there is likely no more personable, respectful or brilliant coworker to be found at any organization.

 

The employees of Canto are honored to have Mr. Schleu in charge of our product’s continued evolution, and we respectfully submit him for consideration as the recipient of the Createsphere DAMMY of the Year, 2011.