Wham Bam, Thank You Dam

Why Automated Storage, Management and Delivery of Your Media MAtters and How It Can Can Help You Make and Save Your Studio Money

When the subject of digital asset management comes up, do your eyes glaze over with that tell-tale look of confusion mixed with dread? It’s understandable. You’ve heard the horror stories, when even the best technology and systems couldn’t guarantee success. In fact, a series of failures at companies large and small during the past five years has shown that fancy technology often leads to obsolete solutions that no one, not even your own staff, wants to use because they add more steps to the production process.

But it doesn’t have to leave you screaming like a character out of a sci-fi/horror classic. When done right, the storing and efficient handling of "assets"— audio and video files, graphic elements and any type of content that could be sold or reused, adding value to the business — help streamline production workflows. That can be very good for business, not to mention production schedules. Establishing a secure asset management system that’s tied to your library of content (or that shelf of aging videotapes) helps editors and producers easily locate and retrieve clips and often makes the difference between a good and a great video production.

If the experts in this space agree on one thing, it’s that those deploying an asset management system, whether they are part of a large, international organization or a small production company, should think about their business first and the technology second.

Even the largest of media operations understand that implementing the right system can be an enormous and time-consuming job. The Walt Disney Company, for example, is in the midst of launching a company-wide database that describes a standardized way to log metadata associated with its content and streamlines the handling of assets throughout the company. Without such a system, according to Graham Allan, who is heading up Disney’s efforts to manage its assets more efficiently, time and money is wasted on duplicate copies and processes. "We need to position ourselves to be able to adapt to new technology platforms [i.e., sending video to iPods] as they come along, and an asset management system that works for everyone in production and marketing is key to that," he says. Unfortunately, he adds, Disney is "years away from such a system. Establishing a universal platform that benefits all of our various divisions is a monster task, but one that is entirely necessary to our future success."

WGBH, the PBS affiliate in Boston, in conjunction with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is also working on a universal platform to describe metadata called the Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary, or PBCore for short. Built on the basic structure of the Dublin Core, an international standard for resource discovery (dublincore.org), it has been developed by a diverse team of public radio and television producers and managers, archivists and information scientists. It is currently in version 1.0. It’s also providing a much-needed common language for everyone involved in production across the vast network of public television and radio outlets. As part of the required deliverables, producers and independent camera operators must include a Filemaker file with a detailed description of what’s on the tape. The PBCore Web site includes a useful user’s guide that details every term used to describe an asset ( www.PBCore.org); it will give you an idea of the kinds of common terms that you could use in a similar company-wide system.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting project is another example of why those considering an asset management system should involve the entire staff, not just production people, in deciding what the company’s business strategy is and how it wants to supply its customers in the most efficient way. This keeps costs down for both your company and the client. Investing in the necessary technology is the second step.

MAKING THE INVESTMENT

There is a growing number of companies that provide the necessary hardware and software you need to launch an asset management system, and each offers just as many options, depending upon the size of your company and how sophisticated you need the system to be. Some technology helps manage clips off a server and lets multiple users share those clips over a network. Others go a step further and track individual clips— via metadata— based on usage agreements, file type and distribution platform.

Companies such as Ardendo, Artesia Digital Media, Blue Order, Chuckwalla, EMC, Front Porch Digital, North Plains Systems and Virage, to name a few, all target the space with customizable software packages that, when tied to a media library and some type of ingest/encoding solution, can literally improve productivity.

The first step is to select an ingest system or standalone encoder to convert all of your videotapes to digital data. All of the companies mentioned above offer some type of solution that addresses this. In most cases they’ll recommend a few options. Having all of your clips in the same format is important to efficiently managing them down the line.

In addition, a quality DAM system is useless without a good multi-stream server. High-throughput video servers from Avid Technology, Grass Valley, Hewlett-Packard, Leitch, Omneon Video Networks and Sun Microsystems are all involved in large installations with DAM systems. Encoding technology from companies like TeleStream is also important to enable the on-the-fly transcoding of files as they are digitized into the system.

Virage, for example, offers a variety of systems, from simple to very complex, that automatically ingest content and let users search extensive video assets "at a granular level" with a high degree of accuracy. Clips can be retrieved using a variety of methods, such as search by audio, scene, speaker, location, key-frame, image, on-screen text, face, token and even concept.

The company’s SmartEncode solution is a combination of products that work simultaneously, in real time to control, automate and integrate any video workflow. The package includes: ControlCenter, VideoLogger, Media Analysis Plug-Ins, Database Plug-Ins and VideoLogger Software Developer’s Kit.

At the same time video is being encoded, VideoLogger’s capture and analysis technology works in real time to automatically create a structured index about the content. Time-synchronized to every encoded copy made, the index enables immediate, accurate search and retrieval of assets. In addition, because the video is data-driven, it can then be tied to applications for revenue generation, enhanced collaboration and expedited communication.

How you customize any of this readily available technology to your style of production becomes the "secret sauce" that makes your workflow sing. "DAM helps us get programs to air faster than ever before," says Frank Albano, vice president of operations at E! Networks, "because our internal review and approval process, as well as the physical development of programs, has been streamlined. It’s made a huge difference."

DAM ON A LIMITED BUDGET

Of course, for those who can’t afford the more than $100,000 investment necessary to put a large system in place, a number of smaller-scale solutions are available. In addition, many companies supplying the traditional video production industry, such as NLE makers, have built rudimentary DAM functionality into their products and systems. Adobe Systems, for example, offers VersionCue software within its Creative Suite of tools (bundled CS2 versions of Acrobat, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and GoLive) that helps users rank clips with stars, based on the value or potential reuse of that clip.

Pulse Digital’s DVDSelectNet, available in a $5,995 single edition and in an enterprise $12,995 version, goes one further and takes networked and managed content— either by a DAM solution like Artesia or with its own set of tools— and automates the production of a DVD for review and approval in minutes.

Other service companies have begun offering on-demand DAM services, for those who don’t want to lay out heavy capital or have to keep up with new technology. Getty Images, the veteran still-photo library company that also licenses video clips, has introduced a new service called Getty Images Media Manager. For a fee, Getty will upload all of your company’s clips onto a centralized server that can be accessed, via secure codes, by anyone authorized to do so. This makes your archive available to people all over the world.

Media Manager offers two Web-based interfaces to meet the different needs of production and end users. The Production interface offers all of the tools used by editors, producers and traffic staff. The End User interface enables users to easily find, collaborate on, download and deliver approved materials.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

Many post houses are finding that a DAM system brings benefits both internally and to their clients. Nice Shoes, in New York City, has deployed a system that makes clips available to every suite in the company and uses TeleStream’s FlipFactory to make their work available to clients via a new service called "Nice Spots" (see sidebar, page 46). Nice Shoes’ proprietary DAM system uses Grass Valley Profile servers and TeleStream’s Clip Mail Pro to encode files, while TeleStream’s Traffic Manager helps move clips, via IP, to the appropriate location in a timely fashion.

Not only is Nice Spots used for archiving and retrieval of advertising agency projects, thereby eliminating the need for costly storage and couriers, but, according to John DiMaggio, director of New Media Services at Nice Shoes, it can also streamline every aspect of production, including the review and approval stages. "It’s a whole new business and revenue stream for us," he says.

GTN, a post house in Detroit, is using North Plains DAM software for its own Web-based client review and project management service as well. Under a unique business model that keeps initial costs down, North Plains shares in revenue, based on usage. GTN developed the service for about $25,000. Doing a bit of research can help you identify systems that meet your budget.

While it’s clear that a good DAM system helps build branding, increases productivity, and automates manual processes, buyer beware: Not every DAM technology is right for your company. Likewise, not every company is right for a specific type of DAM system (although a salesman might tell you differently). In other words, a system that works for Disney won’t necessarily work for you. The question is, how do you like to work?

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

"Everyone recognizes that a change is underway and that people have a better understanding of DAM technology," says Magan Arthur, a DAM veteran and industry consultant who has helped many major corporations manage their assets more efficiently. "The big issue is‘where do I start?’ I recommend starting small with a specific project and scaling up from there."

David Furst, program manager of the Digital Archive at CanWest MediaWorks, one of Canada’s largest integrated media companies, says "don’t try to do everything yourself. Seek help from vendors and from others who have implemented a DAM system. Learn from their mistakes."

Furst recommends planning before implementation. Production companies should work to create a unifying document that describes all of the production process carried out every day. Then isolate the different area of production and identify specific technology that makes that job or process easier.

And make sure you discuss this with the actual people who are responsible for those tasks on a daily basis. Ask your editor how he or she likes to access clips; discuss file types with your colorist; assess what the billing department needs to generate revenue; and figure out how your existing technology and systems can be tied into the new DAM architecture.

By making video easy to identify, locate and re-use, productions can be assembled and repurposed faster and with greater accuracy than ever before. Whether you are a one-person project studio or a company with hundreds of employees, organizing your library and getting the most out of it just makes good business sense.

WGBH, with the help of Sun Microsystems, is going one step further. The station is inviting anyone interested to come visit their iForce lab in Boston and get a hands-on demo of various DAM systems. If you plan to be in the area, simply send an email to WGBH.org and set up an appointment. There’s also a good tutorial on how to pick a DAM system at www.digital-asset-mgt-advice.info/. Try them both, it’s free.

PRODUCT FINDER

NICE DAM SPOTS

While there are many turnkey software packages that can get a video production company up and running with a digital asset management (DAM) system fairly quickly, some media organizations have chosen to build their own systems from scratch.

Seeking new revenue streams, New York City post house Nice Shoes is one example. The facility has developed a proprietary DAM system called Nice Spots that serves as a central repository for ad campaign materials, as well as the finished master; everything is stored on networked servers tied to the Internet. The robust system gives Nice Shoes a cost-effective review and approval process, since client teams can access the servers at the studio from anywhere in the world.

Creating a system like this from scratch is not for the faint of heart. The road to Nice Spots’ full implementation, in November 2005, was long and arduous. The result of two years of, at times, painful code writing and network design, the system cost much more than a comparable off-the-shelf solution. But John DiMaggio, managing director of new media at Nice Shoes and the man who oversaw the project, says it was well worth it.

"It wasn’t an issue of cost for us, we felt like there weren’t systems on the market that could do what we wanted it to do," he says. "Because it was built from the ground up by us, we’re able to make changes to it, which is something we do quite often. Our clients provide feedback on what they need and we can incorporate that feature within a matter of weeks. That’s harder to do with off-the-shelf software."

Using the Nice Spots service, clients load a master file on the server and store it for an indefinite period of time. A client can then download it from anywhere in the world and collaborate (and make revisions) with others. The quality of the material never degrades, so that same file could be accessed three years from now and you’d be able to edit a new spot from it. The service also provides a low-resolution QuickTime or Windows Media file that can be used for preview.

Clips are stored on 4 TB of dedicated Network Appliance storage arrays, in any format the client requires, although most are saved as uncompressed QuickTime files and MPEG-2. The latter offers smaller file sizes, which are easier to handle for transmission. Nice Shoes has been experimenting with a number of new video codecs, such as MPEG-4 AVC, in its quest to find the best archival format for the future.

"The problem with MPEG-2 is that it is not as universal as QuickTime," says DiMaggio. "Anyone in the world can take an uncompressed QuickTime file and work with it. We want to find the best format that will maintain the highest image quality but in file sizes that are easy to work with."

DiMaggio says the experience of setting up an asset management system has been positive, borne out of much trial and error. "For the past 10 years Nice Shoes has always implemented new technology to solve our clients’ workflow problems. It’s never about the technology first," he says. "Nice Spots addresses a need among our clients to get high-quality material from point A to point B, or allowing teams to collaborate, no matter where they are located. The system does that and so much more, so I feel we were successful. But, as with any evolving asset management system, our work is never done."