Is Media’s recovery an “Indian Summer”?
Nothing like a hard dose of reality, administered by data.
This week media advisory Oliver & Ohlbaum bombarded guests at a briefing event with facts and analysis that give a fascinating numerical snapshot of where media businesses stand in the digital age.
The top tip for media companies? “Move to a multiplatform offering. People who need to get value from a one-price product -those days are over – all areas of media and internet will become multiplatform.”
3DTV…”overhyped and will be niche” says an analyst
Will 3DTV be the “next big thing” in broadcasting?
Not according to analyst NSR, as reported by Rapid TV News.
Paid Content: Spotify’s UK boss on how to make it work
How to make money out of online content is a massive issue for all kinds of enterprise. Some good pointers in this interview with Jon Mitchell, the UK Director of music streaming site Spotify:
See it here
IT Broadcast Workflows: remarks from the chair
Jeremy Bancroft of MAC recently chaired TVB Europe’s day-long Conference on IT Broadcast Workflows, held at BAFTA in London on November 30.
He summed up the conference with the following remarks:
“The television industry is in a state of change.
In truth, it always has been. We have seen a constant process of migration: from black & white to colour, from film to tape, from open reel to cassette, from terrestrial to satellite, cable and internet, and now from video on tape to files on disk.
We have seen IT vendors come and go from the media sector. Why? Because compared to many industries, broadcast is still very small. One storage vendor told me many years ago that whilst broadcasters had many terabytes of data to store, they all wanted something different and there just weren’t enough of them to interest him. He could earn more selling small tape robots to every travel agent on the high street than large tape robots to every broadcaster in the land.
The broadcast and IT mindsets just did not see eye to eye.
However, recently our experience is that we have seen many more IT professionals joining broadcasters in senior technical roles, bringing with them skills and experience gained in large IT integration projects.
So why is the integration of IT & Broadcast technologies still a challenge?
There may be vendors who will tell you it’s not. However, our experience is that most projects that run into difficulties (and this is most of the large projects, although this is usually kept quiet) are due to specific customer requirements (customisations) and software integration issues.
On top of this, the boundaries between the different systems used by broadcasters are definitely blurred. MAM – Channel Management – Automation – Workflow – Transcode – Delivery platforms: it is becoming increasingly difficult to see where one stops and the next starts.
And in this confusing sector, we see some new vendors, some mergers, and some old vendors, if not dropping out, becoming less visible. At least one MAM vendor is offering software platforms that integrators and developers can build upon, whilst another is offering MAM in the cloud.
So if you are interested in migrating your broadcast operation to a file-based environment, who do you contract? A systems integrator or a vendor?
Traditionally, broadcasters have contracted SIs as a single throat to choke. However, the realisation that the SI is powerless to deliver a software integration project, or system customizations, without the full involvement of the vendor has led to some customers entering into contracts directly with the vendors.
Total Cost of Ownership is becoming more visible. A large requirement for hardware means more power and aircon thereby increasing the broadcaster’s carbon footprint. And for those who think this is a minor consideration, it is reported by at least one vendor to be a major driver for US customers to purchase their systems, and BSkyB last year announced a goal to build a carbon neutral broadcast centre.
And with more hardware comes more support contracts, licenses, and greater demands on the already stretched engineering department to perform regular routine maintenance.
Some broadcasters, including ITV, have decided to outsource the hosting and management of media assets, potentially allowing service providers to benefit from economies of scale.
One thing is clear. Despite having been involved in MAM for some 15 years now, from where I sit it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier. Some customers still have unrealistic expectations on functionality, timescale and cost. However, there are more people with experience, and more broadcasters relying heavily on IT infrastructure to store, distribute and deliver their content. This is now becoming very much the norm.
Think about it this way. If you were to build a new broadcast operation from the ground up, would you seriously consider using large amounts of traditional broadcast infrastructure, or would you look to IT solutions to power the bulk of your facility? Perhaps we are still on the cusp for some broadcasters.
But think back to 26th January 1986. This was the start of the Wapping Dispute, almost 15 years ago. Those who think that traditional TV technology is going to be around for many years to come should look at the newspaper industry. Anyone who considered launching a new publication using hot lead technology would today be considered mad. Rest assured, our industry is going the same way.
I think that today’s conference case studies certainly support this statement. We have had a fascinating mix of projects being described.
• We have had a 250 year old newspaper publisher deciding to launch local TV news without any background in TV. They are running on a shoestring, but with a very impressive quality of output; at least as good as any regional rolling news service in Europe.
• We heard from a large public broadcaster who managed to migrate 2000 journalists from their old, tried and tested tape and plastic crate-based workflows to a new file-based workflow by gradually taking away the infrastructure that they were previously using. They effectively created what change management guru Cotter calls the ‘burning platform.’
• We heard how Sky has taken a totally file-based approach from glass to glass – camera to consumer and how they tackled the upgrade to HD.
• Chellomedia of the Netherlands decided that they did not need a MAM system to manage their workflows as their Pilat IBMS scheduling system provided all the orchestration and workflow management they felt that they needed. They are also predicting up to 90% of their long form content will be delivered digitally within the near future.
Speaking with one of the broadcasters present at the conference, they told me that they expect studios and programme distributors to start charging extra for tape-based deliveries rather than file transfer. The BBC already charges for tapes.
And to cap it all, we heard a German project manager telling us not to worry about the metadata schema. Horror of horrors! Instead, he said focus on metadata workflow. A new term, if not a new concept to those of us who have been involved in deployment of file based broadcast solutions.
One theme that ran through many of the case studies was uncertainty within the project scope.
Discovery Networks said that when you start a project, you might not know what you need (a strong argument for consultancy if I ever heard one), whilst several broadcasters are on their second or third MAM implementation, having learned valuable (and very costly) lessons from early implementations.
Don’t forget the humans, was the message from Red Bee, Discovery and Sky News. From training the users, to providing clear GUIs in order to reduce operator errors (particularly critical in highly automated environments where incorrect metadata can cause untold problems in transmission).
And for those that see broadcast and IT convergence as likely to happen in the coming years, I will leave the last word to Alastair Roriston from Isilon, who said “it’s already converged – deal with it”.
Jeremy Bancroft
Director, Media Asset Capital
4 ways video is fundamentally changing
A view from the man responsible for Google’s monetization strategy.
Google TV: not ready for prime time, now or ever?
Recent articles in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are quite rude about Google TV, casting doubt on whether it is or ever will be viable. “Google TV may be interesting to technophiles, but it’s not for average people” is a typical comment.
An interesting article about this is on appmarket.tv, a site offering analysis and news on media convergence.
Android to support mobile payment
Google’s next version of the Android smartphone software will support a technology that lets people use their handsets, instead of credit cards, to pay for goods at restaurants and stores. Possibly a new monetization strategy for digital content?
Inbound Marketing, Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
Great book on getting found using Google, Social Media and Blogs. Another must read for all entrepreneurs.
Glossary of TV 2.0 terms
1. Asset
Generally the “asset” being managed is collected and stored in a digital format. There is usually a target version of that referred to as “essence” and is generally the highest resolution and fidelity representation. The asset is detailed by its “metadata”.
2. Digital Asset Management (DAM)
Consists of tasks and decisions surrounding ingesting, annotating, cataloguing, storage and retrieval of digital assets, such as digital photographs, animations, videos and music. Digital asset management systems are computer software and/or hardware systems that aid in the process of digital asset management.
The term “Digital Asset Management” (DAM) also refers to the protocol for downloading, renaming, backing up, rating, grouping, archiving, optimizing, maintaining, thinning, and exporting files.
3. EDL (Edit Decision List)
A list containing the decisions describing where to edit material referenced to that materials time code. EDLs can be produced during an off-line session and passed to the on-line suite to control the conforming of the final edit.
4. Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
The more recent concept of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) often describes solutions which address similar features but in a wider range of industries or applications. Enterprise-level solutions often involve scalable, reliable, configurable products that can handle vast numbers of assets (files) as well as large numbers of simultaneous users, workflows, or use cases (multiple applications simultaneously operating against the system).
Enterprise systems may, but do not necessarily, include customized products or features added on to the base system or custom developed to match an organization’s workflow. Enterprise class systems are also applicable to small to medium businesses (SMBs), or departments or work groups within an organization. In many cases these systems enter a company in one department and eventually expand to others or the entire enterprise as its utility becomes proven, understood and valued.
5. Essence
Essence refers to the actual Media target file, usually video and audio, but it could also be still pictures, graphics etc.
6. Folksonomy
Folksonomy, also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing and social tagging, is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. In contrast to traditional subject indexing, metadata is generated not only by experts but also by creators and consumers of the content. Usually, freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary. Thus, Folksonomy is user generated taxonomy.
Folksonomies became popular on the Web around 2004 with social software applications such as social bookmarking or annotating photographs. Websites that support tagging and the principle of folksonomy are referred to in the context of Web 2.0 because participation is very easy and tagging data is used in new ways to find information. The term folksonomy is also used to denote only the set of tags that are created in social tagging
7. HDTV – High Definition Television
A television format with a screen aspect ratio of 16:9 and approximately twice the resolution in both horizontal and vertical dimensions of existing standard definition television (SDTV). There is no agreement for world HDTV studio standards. In Europe, 1250/50, with its simple relationship to 625/50 is favoured, while in the USA the ATSC describes different picture sizes and frame rates, not all of which are HD. The most talked about of these is 1080i (1080 active lines, interlaced) with some interest in the 720p.
8. Media Asset Management (MAM)
The term “Media Asset Management” is sometimes used as a sub-category of “Digital Asset Management”, mainly for audio or video content.
9. Metadata
Metadata (Meta data, or sometimes meta-information) is “data about data”, of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels, for example a database schema.
Metadata is the description of the asset and the description depth can vary depending on the needs of the system, designer, or user. Metadata can describe, but is not limited to, the description of: asset content (what is in the package?); the means of encoding/decoding (e.g. JPEG, tar, MPEG 2); provenance (history to point of capture); ownership; rights of access; as well as many others. There exist some predefined standards and template for metadata such as Dublin Core and PBCore. In cases of systems that contain large size asset essences, such as MPEG 2 and JPEG2000 for the cases of images and video, there are usually related “proxy” copies of the essence. Both the essence and proxy copies are described by metadata
10. Non-linear editing
Non-linear distinguishes editing operation from the ‘linear’ methods used with tape. Non-linear refers to not having to edit material in the sequence of the final programme and does not involve copying to make edits. It allows any part of the edit to be accessed and modified without having to re-edit or re-copy the material that is already edited and follows that point. The term has been widely used in association with off-line editing systems storing compressed pictures but on-line non-linear systems are increasingly on offer. Non-compressed systems, which have no compromise of picture quality, are becoming more widely used.
11. Off-line editing
The preliminary or rough edit, performed either on a low-cost editing system or remotely via the web, usually using proxies. This allows editors to make decisions and gain necessary approvals before making the more expensive and demanding on-line edit. Since the actual edit session in a professional video facility has been very expensive, it has been traditional to make all editing decisions in advance. This is called off-line editing or off-lining.
12. On-line editing
The final edit using the original master material to produce the finished high(er) quality piece. An on-line edit suite usually has a full range of high-end video devices which would normally be too expensive to use during an off-line edit session.
13. Open platform
A system designed around a powerful general purpose computer. The software then determines the functions being performed, e.g. video effects, compositing etc., without the need for many different and dedicated hardware ‘Black Boxes’.
14. Proxy
A proxy copy is a lower resolution representation of the essence that can be used as a reference in order to reduce the overall bandwidth requirements of the DAM system infrastructure. It can be generated and retained at the time of ingestion of the asset simultaneous or subsequent to the essence, or it can be generated on the fly using transcoders.
15. Post Production
The process of completing a production, including editing, audio sweetening, colour correction, etc. to a finished master videotape
16. Search-oriented architecture (SOA)
This term refers to the use of a search engine as the main integration component in an information system.
In a search-oriented architecture the data tier may be replaced or placed behind another tier which contains a search engine and search engine index which is queried in place of the database management system. Queries from the business tier are made in the search engine query language instead of SQL. The search engine itself crawls the relational database management system in addition to other traditional data sources such as web pages or traditional file systems and consolidates the results when queried.
17. Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
Service oriented architecture is a methodology for systems development and integration where functionality is grouped around business processes and packaged as interoperable services. SOA also describes IT infrastructure which allows different applications to exchange data with one another as they participate in business processes. The aim is a loose coupling of services with operating systems, programming languages and other technologies which underlie applications.
SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services, which are made accessible over a network in order that they can be combined and reused in the production of business applications. These services communicate with each other by passing data from one service to another, or by coordinating an activity between two or more services. SOA concepts are often seen as built upon and evolving from older concepts of distributed computing and modular programming.
18. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP )
SOAP is a protocol for exchanging XML-based messages over a computer network using HTTP. SOAP forms the foundation layer of the Web services stack, providing a basic messaging framework that more abstract layers can build on. It is an XML based protocol that consists of three parts: an envelope that defines a framework for describing what is in a message and how to process it, a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of application-defined datatypes, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls and responses.
19. Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software that is hosted (managed and maintained externally) and usually offered as a service or by subscription via the web.
20. SQL
Structured Query Language is a standard interactive and programming language for querying and modifying data and managing databases. Although SQL is both an ANSI and an ISO standard, many database products support SQL with proprietary extensions to the standard language. The core of SQL is formed by a command language that allows the retrieval, insertion, updating, and deletion of data, and performing management and administrative functions. SQL also includes a Call Level Interface (SQL/CLI) for accessing and managing data and databases remotely.
21. Taxonomy
Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are the practice and science of classification and are composed of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure. Typically they are related by type – subtype relationships, also called parent-child relationships. In such a relationship the subtype has by definition the same constraints as the type, plus one or more additional constraints. For example, car is a type of vehicle. So any car is also a vehicle, but not every vehicle is a car. Therefore, a thing needs to satisfy more constraints to be a car than to be a vehicle.
22. The Long Tail
The phrase The Long Tail was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article to describe the niche strategy of businesses, such as Amazon.com or Netflix, that sell a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities.
The distribution and inventory costs of these businesses allow them to realize significant profit out of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. The group of persons that buy the hard-to-find or “non-hit” items is the customer demographic called the Long Tail.
Given a large enough availability of choice, a large population of customers, and negligible stocking and distribution costs, the selection and buying pattern of the population results in a power law distribution curve, or Pareto distribution. This suggests that a market with a high freedom of choice will create a certain degree of inequality by favouring the upper 20% of the items (“hits” or “head”) against the other 80% (“non-hits” or “long tail”).
23. Timecode
Timecode is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing system. Time codes are used extensively for synchronization and for logging material in recorded media.
24. Video Server
A disk based machine capable of delivering multiple streams of real time video.
25. Web 1.0
For the most part websites between 1994 and 2004 were a strictly one-way published media, similar to the Gopher protocol that came before it. Personal web pages were common in Web 1.0, consisting of mainly static pages hosted on free hosting services such as Geocities and AOL.
26. Web 2.0
This term describes the changing trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. The term became notable after the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. According to Tim O’Reilly:
“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”
Web 2.0 is about building applications and services around the unique features of the Internet, as opposed to building applications and expecting the Internet to suit as a platform (effectively “fighting the Internet”). Web 2.0 elevates software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of the “Long Tail”, and with data as a driving force. The architecture is one of participation where users can contribute website content creates network effects. Web 2.0 technologies tend to foster innovation in the assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers. (This could be seen as a kind of “open source” or possible “Agile” development process, consistent with an end to the traditional software adoption cycle, typified by the so-called “perpetual beta”.)
27. Web 3.0
Web 3.0, a phrase coined by John Markoff of the New York Times in 2006, refers to a supposed third generation of Internet-based services that collectively comprise what might be called ‘the intelligent Web’—such as those using semantic web, micro-formats, natural language search, data-mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and artificial intelligence technologies—which emphasize machine-facilitated understanding of information in order to provide a more productive and intuitive user experience.
Sometimes defined as the third decade of the Web (2010–2020) during which several major complementary technology trends will reach new levels of maturity simultaneously including:
- transformation of the Web from a network of separately silo’d applications and content repositories to a more seamless and interoperable whole.
- ubiquitous connectivity, broadband adoption, mobile Internet access and mobile devices;
- network computing, software-as-a-service business models, Web services interoperability, distributed computing, grid computing and cloud computing;
- open technologies, open APIs and protocols, open data formats, open-source software platforms and open data;
- open identity, open reputation, roaming portable identity and personal data;
- the intelligent web, Semantic Web technologies such as semantic application platforms, and statement-based data-stores;
- distributed databases, the “World Wide Database” (enabled by Semantic Web technologies); and
- intelligent applications, natural language processing, machine learning, machine reasoning, autonomous agents.
Thanks to Wikipedia for much of the source data.
