Streamlining File-Based Islands Into A Connected Workflow

Processing video as files is nothing new for broadcasters. Digital files have long been the video format of choice for editing, and more recently for play-out. The challenge today is to link these two islands into a seamless workflow from acquisition to transmission, re-purposing, preservation and beyond.

Broadcasters worldwide are increasingly recognising the importance of multiple platform delivery, and gaining a perspective of the content’s life-cycle is necessary in order to effectively take advantage of the opportunities. However, to join together many file-based islands into a connected workflow is not a trivial task. The promise of lower costs, cycle-time reduction and increased speed to market keeps the discussion going forward, but overlaying file workflows onto existing processes should be avoided if the true benefits are to be realised. So what is the best approach? ‘Incremental’ or ‘End-to-End’? ‘Evolution’ or ‘Revolution’?

The incremental approach often seems applicable for workflow elements such as island connectors. Transport (acquisition or delivery) is one area where we have seen this happen. The availability of affordable Internet bandwidth, the logistical benefits of tapeless delivery and improved speed to market are helping drive this transition. Equally, when content originates digitally as a file, file-based archiving of content is considered a default choice.

The end-to-end adoption of file-based workflows can be applicable in greenfield projects, but is not commonplace yet. Organisational structures within companies also make the transition harder. The conventional thinking is that end-to-end adoption of file-based workflows would mean additional cost and multi-million dollar capital expenditure. The understanding of the return on investment is limited, and resistance to this migration is further accentuated by a lack of internal expertise and proven solutions. It is clear that this migration is inevitable. The pace of the migration will determine the competitiveness of broadcasters in the future.

Let us examine these issues in more detail.

Content life-cycle management – As content takes centre stage, managing the life-cycle of content and its activities from production, through post-production and multi-platform distribution to archiving is critical. Reducing cost of production and increasing monetisation opportunities will drive the theme of life-cycle management within content owners.

Content at the centre and not the platform – The file-based environment can put content at the centre with all the metadata, allowing the various platforms to leverage the content much like an organisation’s Intellectual Property – it is available for the various businesses to exploit. This should be done without compromising the needs of each of the platforms. This can call for technical and cultural changes within broadcasters. Technically, the media management layer will have to fulfill the integrations required in such circumstances.

Formats – Often finding the right file formats (proprietary or standards based) to operate in, that will not break the workflow, is an involved exercise. Especially in a heterogeneous news system environment, the interworking of the native formats within camera, ingest, editorial, play-out, archive partial restore and multi-platform repurposing is often a challenging issue.

Data Model & Metadata – Getting the data model right for the business is most critical in modern day media management. This can be challenging, as it requires upfront abstraction of the business requirements across multiple platforms. While we can rely on standards for guidance, developing an exhaustive data model upfront for managing the life cycle and its activities is a strategic requirement. Workflow management also demands a slice of the model for manual intervention. Media management systems should support for incremental additions to the data model to accommodate new workflow requirements. As a content owner, making the most appropriate decision on the extent of tagging and an ongoing management review of the adequacy of the tags is necessary. Adding the most suitable tags is as important as the content itself. This is often an area that is overlooked in implementations.

Media and workflow management – A number of manual operations can be managed in the file-based environment. Automation performs many such operations in the play-out area but it needs to be complemented by media management workflow capabilities in other areas. Rights, distribution, editorial access, security, repurposing, ingest, credit control, rules-based archiving, retrieval, conform etc - the list is only a representative sample of the management tasks. Since every deployment is unique, a programmable workflow engine is most essential. Without this, the implementation will take forever and be prohibitively expensive.

Timing – ‘When is a good time to start the transition? We’re currently doing fine’ can be a traditional refrain. However, if much of your content is already a file and you are backing up to tape for archiving purposes, you should adopt file-based archiving and start saving today. You can bring your legacy tape to the file environment based on need. Likewise, if you are currently distributing on tape, and as many end points of distribution can receive files, migrating now will mean quality, time and cost benefits. You can start leveraging these benefits today.

Multi-location and distributed storage – Given that many broadcasters have multiple production and play-out sites, file-based media management should manage media across distributed storage environments. This is necessary to avoid duplication of systems and the cost of such local media management investments. Finding such solutions can be challenging, but they do exist.

Security – For all the advantages of the file, security is paramount, whether in production, distribution, exhibition or archiving. From making sure that media is not accidentally deleted, to ensuring that the file is not being misused, these issues have to be addressed. The Media Asset and Workflow Management investment will need to play the role of security manager, with support from security tools, standards and operational and IT processes.

Reliability - It is commonplace to find a lone VTR in a play-out area. This can be used to play a tape that arrived too late for ingest, or it can be used as a fallback to play a tape to air if the server or automation systems were to fail. Before a broadcaster will part with that tape deck, a file-based system must offer the highest level of reliability. The business continuity for content, networks and media management systems will have to provide the utmost confidence before the transition can be made.

Media and IT skills – Most companies are faced with the situation that their staff either know the broadcast side or the IT side. The need of the hour is that our staff has both Media and IT skills. This is driven by the increase in IT and enterprise systems deployed in managing file-based operations. But equally, these IT skills have to be dovetailed with the required knowledge of media, formats, production and distribution workflows.

Proven solutions and time to deploy – The incumbents have a heterogeneous environment and manual processes for a few workflows. Finding a system solution and an implementer with a prior deployment record is essential. These are areas where migration lessons from some of our traditional supply chain and manufacturing industries can be very helpful. Seeking out a proven solution, and a company who can make it work in your environment, is not only smart but also prudent.

Cost and ROI – ‘Do I have to spend lots of money to start saving? Where do I spend? How much do I spend? How long before I start earning returns?’ The answers to such questions will be answered depending upon your environment and the approach you take. Spending on skill upgradation and cultural changes are inevitable and essential. Recently, in a sports production and management scenario, after grabbing the feed on the video server, the client transferred onto tape for archiving purposes. Immediate ROI was realised, just on savings in media and transfer costs, by archiving the file. The ROI calculations must include the efficiencies the file-based workflow offers in addition to the staff cost reductions possible.

Silos – Organisational structures exist to fulfill a strategy. File-based migration is a strategy and hence may require structural changes within large media/entertainment enterprises. If you were to put content right at the center of your business, business units would be able to leverage the content as required.

And finally, environment – Protecting the environment is becoming a major consideration – for countries, companies and individuals. Tapeless migration is a bold step in this direction. It is more environmentally friendly and it saves you money.

‘Evolution’ or ‘Revolution’? What’s on your mind?

Whether you approach the adoption of file-based workflows incrementally (evolution) or pursue it more aggressively (revolution) is a function of your business strategy and objectives. You must determine what works best for you.

What do we know? File-based workflows offer many advantages to the broadcaster / content owner, including the potential to lower costs, enable collaboration and simplify multi-format publishing. However, a file-based workflow should not be dropped on existing systems without due consideration of the implications. Staff members need training in a new approach to security, and IT procedures must reflect the level of potential threats. Media organisations will have to take precautions similar to those used by banks and government institutions. This is not easy, as media workers expect unfettered access to the Internet for research and communication. Plus, a great deal of file interchange is needed in the course of regular production workflows. Often, different departments, or even companies, will handle video, graphics and audio assets. All gateways must be carefully designed to reflect best security practices, but at the price point that the value of the content warrants. Getting a specialised outsourced solution to deal with all this is a good option to consider in addition to in-house and system integrator options.

The broadcast community is now in position to adopt files throughout the workflow, from acquisition to delivery to the consumer. We have all the pieces in place to build the content layer: broadcast-friendly file formats; cost-effective, contribution-quality file distribution networks; and secure management procedures. File operations need new, optimised workflows to realise the maximum cost-savings. These can be achieved through the use of methodologies such as business process management.

IT in Television is a given. The remaining issues are business and human including whether the migration should be an evolution or a revolution.

The reality is that the file revolution is already underway.

_The author is CEO, Advertising & Broadcast, India and President & CEO, Prime Focus Technologies.
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