Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) January 2015 Volume 32, Issue 1 | Page 19

MANAGEMENT January 2015 19 business growth With tools like its Mediaflex CI (content intelligence), TMD says broadcasters can design workflows that will look at the rich store of metadata and make automatic decisions based upon it. and preparation for playout and ar- chiving; while Screen’s MediaTrack controls and executes automatic subtitle quality control and feeds back any relevant information to MediaFlex. Both companies say that with the Mediaflex Fulfilment, broad- casters and facility companies can now define media fulfilment work- flows within Mediaflex based on individual business needs, calling as required on the Screen MediaTrack system, which allows the user to order language assets to later be fed back to MediaFlex. Because it is part of the Mediaflex workflow engine, access services provided through this integration are included in the reporting and business analytics, thus improving visibility and cost-effective management. While solutions like TMD’s Media flex and Snell’s Momentum do offer a myriad of possibilities for broadcasters seeking to gather more data from their content usage and deployment, the chal- lenge is to ensure that broadcast- ers know how to choose the busi- ness analytics solution that would help fulfil their requirements. Snell’s Mehring says true enterprise-wide gains can only be accomplished with enterprise- wide systems. “It is important therefore that such a system can span the entire media manage- ment ecosphere and not be solely focused on any one specific task.” Hence, having an enterprise-wide system such as Momentum can provide full visibility of all tasks, processes and resources, both human and non-human. He adds: “Accessibility is also an important factor: sys- tems should be available to al- low analytics to be understood at any geographical location, allowing core backend systems to be housed in locations other than in the business HQ.” TMD’s Taylor, on the other hand, says the decision-making in workflows can be as sensitive as broadcasters need it to be. “There may be different rights manage- ment considerations for different platforms,” he explains. “The way that user metadata is packed into delivery files will vary from de- vice to device. Some content may need to be edited into different versions for online and on-air.” All this and more can be managed automatically, he adds, with human intervention as the exception rather than the rule. “Indeed, as more content needs to be delivered to more platforms, manual operations will become largely impossible because of the time they take,” Taylor says. “Automation is the only practical [option], dependent upon the ac- cumulation of accurate metadata. This is all achievable today, and is in operation in broadcasters and production companies around the world. Such an environment allows you to define workflows in terms of the required outcomes, and use business analytics to understand how your infrastruc- ture is performing and if you are achieving your revenue goals.” For broadcasters interested in harnessing the power of a business analytics system, Snell’s Mehring has this to say: “As in all areas of life, knowledge is power. Using that knowledge to create efficiencies can unlock organisational capacity, allowing a lower cost base to operate new and exciting services, all of which have the potential to generate increased revenues.” 3-6 March 2015 Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur ENABLING CHANGE SMARTLY Conference Workshops Exhibition • Evolving Technologies • UHDTV • Integrated Broadcast-Broadband (IBB) • New Business Models • Spectrum for Broadcasting • Digital Switch Over To sponsor, exhibit or speak at the conference, e-mail Dr Amal Punchihewa Director ABU Technology [email protected] www.abu.org.my/dbsymposium Principal Sponsor Major Sponsors