Broadcast
The
cloud is now capable of handling many of the processes involved in TV
production, but can it be extended to include content management as
well?
The
basic advantages of cloud networks also apply to content management:
fewer operational issues, better use of resources, reduced capital
expenses, increased mobility and collaboration and the opportunity of
new business models.
Participating:
Hugo Bastos, project management office director at VSN; Julian
Fernandez-Campon, business solution director, Tedial; Andrea Winn,
sales and commercial director, TVT; and Paul Wilkins, CMO, TMD.
More
and more aspects of production and delivery are being moved to the
cloud. Why should content management follow suit?
Paul
Wilkins Precisely
because so many other processes are moving to the cloud, content
management should start migrating too. If a producer is delivering
programmes to a broadcaster via a cloud service, it makes sense for
transcoding, quality control, proxy creation and other asset
management functionality to be performed in the cloud as the content
passes. If the metadata created and used for cloud processing also
stays in the cloud, it is readily available to all users at all
times.
Julian
Fernandez-Campon Cloud
can provide media companies and content owners with further
management and storage options. These range from storage services
with additional backup in a separate location to full content
management providing complete search capability and the ability for
content to be managed by third-party service providers. In addition,
broadcasters can control investment and access on-demand services
that can adapt dynamically to meet their business needs.
Hugo
Bastos More
and more clients and projects require access to a content management
solution from multiple locations, and that should be reason enough to
consider a cloud or hybrid deployment. Users can access and submit
content from virtually anywhere, create new business models, such as
media exchange platforms and media marketplaces, as well as adapt to
different workflows and workloads due to the scalability of cloud
infrastructure.
Andrea
Winn The
key is operational flexibility, which is not possible when limited to
on-site infrastructure. For example, we can create proxies of
original content and make it available to our in-house compliance
teams and client promo teams. At the same time, we can create
multiple language files and extract EDL data for client use. From
ingest to playout, the entire workflow is visible to all registered
parties and can only be accomplished in the cloud.
Are
there any downsides?
JF-C Broadcasters
should carefully analyse and adapt their operation to minimise the
cloud service cost. In some cases, some local operation is required,
which makes a ‘pure’ cloud approach inefficient and means moving
to a hybrid approach instead. Some broadcasters cannot legally have
their content stored outside their country, which might impose
limitations on the cloud service provider.
AW Craft
editing is a big factor. You’ve got to assess how much you need to
do and whether you’re better off adopting a more traditional
storage solution. Cloud storage can be very expensive and the
movement of high-resolution files between regions is not necessarily
cost-effective all the time. Beware the costing models of some cloud
providers, which can be impenetrable. Broadly, deep archive in the
cloud is cheap, but moving content out or between clouds may not be.
HB For
several specific workflows and customers, an on-premise solution is
still the best. The two main factors that might prevent its adoption
are internet connectivity and cloud storage price. Unfortunately for
connectivity, nobody can offer a solution and the client/project will
need to wait until the proper connectivity infrastructure is updated.
To mitigate against the cost of cloud storage, we mostly recommend
hybrid solutions where high-resolution content is kept at the
customer facilities, or a local data centre, with low-resolution
proxies in the cloud for workflow processes.
PW The
only real concern is the challenges of moving big files to and from
the cloud. Connectivity needs to catch up. In particular, costs for
downloads can quickly mount. It’s important to have a robust means
of handling proxies so that downloads of full-resolution media are
minimised. Some users may also have security concerns, but in truth,
a business like Amazon S3 will have the best security teams
available. A single significant loss of privacy and a cloud firm
would be out of business. It is rumoured that the [US intelligence
agency] CIA uses Amazon Web Services, so it is probably good enough
for us.
With
multiple delivery channels and devices, programme rights are
increasingly
complicated. What is the media management solution?
PW Intellectual
property rights are hugely complicated and challenging, but
ultimately they can be expressed as metadata. Some of that metadata
will only ever be seen by the lawyers and IP specialists, but some
has to be fully embedded in the asset management platform because it
will be vital to ensure reliable operation of automated workflows.
JF-C Media
management solutions have to be rights-management aware, with
efficient integration with the scheduling/rights management systems.
But this is not sufficient. MAM solutions also need to evolve the
concept of content rights. This means assigning rights not only to a
piece of content and the dates in which that content can be aired,
but also to the destination, such as a premium channel. This concept
will allow broadcasters to manage delivery operations, such as
components, transformations and packaging, combined with the
availability per each destination.
How
can MAM help content owners use metadata to maximise revenue or earn
additional money?
JF-C Distributed
access better enables anyone within the organisation to access
content from any location. This high level of flexibility means that
it’s easier to evolve and amend media services. Time to market is
also reduced if the cloud infrastructure is already available. To
meet the demands of multi-screen distribution, broadcasters require
solutions that enable fast and secure access over the internet
protocol, providing automated workflows that package and present
content, which can then be delivered to the cloud, as well as to
other sites. This should remove the unnecessary complexity caused
when working between so many desktops and departments using a local
area network.
HB For
a MAM implemented to work as a marketplace, metadata has the obvious
role of allowing a client to search and get content as fast as
possible related to what he is asking for. In a different
implementation, metadata can be used to trigger automated, as well as
manual, processes or events, as soon as a specific piece of content
is detected. Certain metadata can trigger the system, for instance,
to send an email to a specific person, to automatically transcode and
publish on specified social media. Metadata allied to automation
opens an unthinkable number of options.
AW The
more metadata you have and hold, the more opportunities it enables.
One example: the value in being able to access footage in support of
a breaking news story is reliant on being able to locate the clip and
bring it into the workflow quickly. The converse is sometimes true:
you might need to pull something from the schedule that is suddenly
sensitive.
What
is the best way of assessing return on investment?
HB In
a word, time. Time saved by all the people and groups using the
solution by having a centralised MAM and due to the simplification of
the process of ingesting and retrieving content is probably the best
way to assess the ROI of any MAM implementation.
JF-C There
are several ways to measure ROI: compare current operational costs
with the time and resources saved; measure business growth as a
result of processes optimisation; check, in real-time, the
bottlenecks for a specific production. In all cases, MAM solutions
need to have reporting mechanisms to allow broadcasters to get all
this information, process it and take action.
AW It’s
either got to save money or generate money – a good solution should
be doing both. There will be, for example, knock-on cost savings in
terms of the ongoing operational cost of the technology
infrastructure.
PW A
MAM should not only be controlling most of the workflows for
management and delivery, it should be tracking equipment and staff
utilisation, telling the resource planning department precisely how
much each process costs. Only then can an enterprise make realistic
judgements about what services to offer, how to monetise them and how
to achieve strong and reliable revenue streams.
No comments:
Post a Comment