Managing the storage transition
BY CARLTON SMITH
One of the key challenges in the
transition from traditional broadcast
architectures to new media is the
need to develop practical strategies
for the storage of content. The video
and audio formats we have relied
upon for decades are now obsolete:
no new VTRs are being made, and
the supply of parts to keep existing
hardware running is dwindling.
Content archives have to be
digitised. At the same time, new
content is coming in as files, and
needs to be thoughtfully handled,
in a way that ensures the material is
secure and, more importantly, can be
located when it is needed.
So even while broadcasters, media
companies and audio-visual archives
are developing asset management
strategies, there is a need to
implement file-based storage today.
To achieve any degree of efficiency in
the organisation calls for a means of
indexing and searching content that
is more sophisticated than a simple
file and folder structure.
To meet these applications, TMD,
the leading provider of asset and
workflow management systems
for digital and physical assets, has
developed a number of standalone
media service applications. These
can be used as an individual solution,
or combined to provide additional
functionality. Most important, they
are built on software elements from
TMD’s Mediaflex-UMS (Unified
Media Services) platform, ensuring
investment in one of these standalone
applications is protected as it can be
used as the foundation for a more
comprehensive asset or collections
management system in due course.
Paragon is an easy-to-use, proven
storage management and archiving
solution, allowing broadcasters,
content owners and production
companies to protect their assets
as digital files now. Running on
the Mediaflex-UMS platform, it
contains much useful functionality
as standard, making it ready to use.
It automatically generates, stores,
manages, and makes available browse
resolution proxies, for example,
allowing users who need it to provide
wider access to the material.
Paragon is supplied with a
standard metadata schema, but the
latest version — to be first seen in
12
TMD’s Paragon and Guardian solutions are both built on the company’s Mediaflex-UMS
platform, which offers a modular suite of business software applications.
Asia-Pacific at BroadcastAsia2017 —
adds the ability for users to customise
the database structure. Users can add
descriptive fields as well as technical
metadata, making the archive more
dynamic for multiple users and more
powerful searches.
It provides an ideal user interface
for standardised storage systems,
which otherwise are limited in their
operations. TMD has a Preferred
Partner status with Quantum, for
example, so a storage network can
be quickly implemented with the
StorNext 5 platform and Paragon
acting as its front-end.
The flexible nature of the
underlying Mediaflex-UMS platform,
and the ease with which interfaces
can be built, means that access to
storage can be implemented through
Paragon from other devices. Avid
users, for instance, can use Paragon
to search on Avid locators, making it
easier to search on and use content.
Paragon can also provide a long-
term archive layer. Most