Media Asset Management Databases The Heart of the System and Critical Decisions and Steps for Success Jim Mains Director of Business Strategy and Media Services Media Solutions Group, EMC Corporation
Agenda Overview Media Asset Management Databases MAM System Components Overview The Database - the Heart of the System MAM DB s vs. Traditional DB s Critical issues when deciding on a MAM DB System How to get started (Key Lessons Learned) Conclusion
Overview Media Asset Management (MAM) Databases What is IT? Media Asset Management, Content Management, Digital Asset Management, Digital Media Management, Enterprise Asset Management.. Whatever the definition one may choose, the The bottom line is that content creation, production, and distribution are increasingly becoming digital. We need to improve upon our ability to work in this new digital paradigm as we bridge the analog and digital worlds
Overview Media Asset Management (MAM) Databases What is IT? Systems and business processes that provide for enhanced business performance by capturing and/or digitizing, indexing and cataloging, storing, managing, accessing, retrieving, and distributing digital and analog rich media assets based on defined access privileges. The integration of rights and inventory management systems are an integral and essential part of MAM.
Overview Media Asset Management (MAM) Databases Why is it needed? A successful MAM strategy and solution provides for an integrated communication, collaboration, and workflow infrastructure. This infrastructure can unite people, processes, and technology to optimize an organization s day-to-day work-in-progress activities.
Some Benefits of MAM Facilitates digital collaboration to enable working across silos or breaking them down altogether (Reduces organizational fragmentation) Streamlines the process of making assets available faster to a larger number of people (Reduce time to market) Transform processes to cut costs and increase operational efficiencies (Saves time and money) Provides secure and controlled access to assets and library archives (Protects and preserves the economic value of the assets and its Intellectual Property) Reinforces consistent branding strategy Position for New Content Delivery Model Enabled by Digital Media to Reduce Rising Distribution Costs Facilitates an enterprise storage strategy that can be leveraged across multiple business needs for management of any information in an organization and not just relegated to video assets
MAM System Components MAM Components Digitize and Ingest Content Server Intelligent Storage Management Search and Retrieval Rights Management Media Transformation Workflow System Administration Content Admin Other Services MAM Database Digital Analog Live Ingest Ingest Ingest Video Audio Text Images Video Audio Text Images Video Audio Text Content Capture Devices Encoder (A/V) Digitizer (Text & Image) Transcoder (Any) Metadata Generator (A/V) Media Asset Management Components MAM Database Server Content Servers Telemedician/ Storage Management System Administration Search & Retrieval Engine E-Commerce Server Rights Management Medical Intelligent Data Management API Tools Workflow Corporate Mar/Com Storage Area Network Business Users Distance Learning Media & Broadcast Storage Platforms Online (Raid) Near Online (Raid) Nearline (Robot) Near Offline (Robot) Offline (Shelf) Transform Data Replication Watermark Distribution Server Access Control Electronic Digital Analog
The Database - the Heart of the System - MAM DB s vs. Traditional DB s A database is at the heart of the Media Asset Management System; however, an asset management system and a database are not one in the same. The primary difference lies in the value-added services to intelligently manipulate the stored assets
The importance of Metadata Metadata or information about the media assets is the key to unlocking the economic value of a company s media assets. Content attributes are stored in a database structure (or schema), which organizes and encapsulates the business logic and relationship of the assets. The schema or metadata model must be flexible based on business use and need. Designing the metadata model is one of the most challenging issues an enterprise takes when implementing a MAM system. Rights WIP Types Container Type Example Metadata Model Contracts / Agreements Budgets Ot her Program Documents Program or Show Program Metadata Projects B-Roll B-Roll Metadata Clips Clip Metadata Work Item WIP Folder Metadata Schema B -Roll Note Clip Notes Thumbnails Storyboard Proxy Renditions Thumbnails Thumbnails Storyboard Digital Assets Storyboard Proxy Re nditions Proxy Renditions Digital Assets Digital Assets Digital Asset Type
General review of OO DB, R-DB, OR-DB Object-oriented (OO) Databases Allow for defining of complex object structures of any type into the database Standard SQL tools cannot be utilized and the databases are mostly proprietary Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) Good for high scalability, performance, transactional processing, and mission critical functionality for thousands or even millions of users Without extensions, they have difficulty in managing complex media types Object-Relational Database Management Systems (ORDBMS) Combo of the above two Improve the usability issues, uses RDBMS to manage volume, performance, and scalability From a recent review of 97 MAM vendors the following databases were used : 41 use Oracle 12 use Sybase 22 use MS SQL Server 07 use DB2 12 use Informix 03 use Access
So where should assets be stored? Database vs File System Trade-off between providing control and protection of an asset from being accidentally deleted, moved, or renamed to providing improved database performance and scalability. The majority of enterprise MAM vendors have chosen to use the file system and database pointers approach for the asset storage method due to practicality. This approach makes the MAM database critical for maintaining referential integrity of the metadata and content objects.
Intelligent Data Management Defines how digitized assets are stored, retrieved, and/or migrated to and from the appropriate storage devices and locations. (raid), near online (raid), nearline (robotic), near offline (robotic), and offline (shelf) Business rules can be defined to trigger asset transfers to optimize storage platform resources. In the Internet environment, a digital asset may be stored in multiple locations based on where the users are located, the type of accessing device, the bandwidth between the edge of the network to the device, the server loads required for distributing the asset, and the cost of distributing the asset. Intelligently caching and managing the storage location transparently to users become increasingly important when serving them across departments or geographies.
Critical issues when deciding on a MAM DB System Why should a MAM system be implemented? Is the system being implemented on a department or enterprise level? Are new business processes required to implement the MAM system? What is the roll of the archive? Are the solution vendors stable and financially viable?
How to get started (Key Lessons Learned) 1. Determine the specific problem needed to be solved and more importantly, ask why it needs to be solved. 2. Develop a strategy that is not too detailed but provides specific goals with clear measurable objectives and defined metrics for the business case. (Avoid analysis paralysis) 3. Obtain top-level executive endorsement and a commitment to invest in the initiative. 4. Form a MAM steering committee with the appropriate members that will contribute to its successful adoption and implementation. 5. Educate MAM users early in the process and set expectations of what MAM will be for your organization. Identify change agents that are willing and patient to work towards success.
How to get started (Key Lessons Learned) 6. Implement in focused areas, quickly, and strive for quick wins. (Build the core MAM infrastructure for the enterprise, deploy at the department level in a phased approach.) 7. Address organizational implication issues quickly to maximize buy-in and minimize concern. 8. Prototype the business case and processes to correctly define solution requirements. 9. Extend the MAM solution across department, company, and partner boundaries to fully achieve financial benefits. 10. Work with viable and reliable partners committed to developing, deploying and maintaining solution in the MAM space.
How to get started Phase 0 Define Strategy MAM Solution Implementation Lifecycle Phase 1 Definition Phase 2 Development Phase 3 Implementation Phase 4 Support Strategy Assess/ Requirements Definition Design/Build Solution Integration/ Implementation Support Strategy workshop Visioning Scenario planning Initiative Prioritization Business Plan/Case Current State (Process, Organization, Technology) Rapid development prototype Future State Visioning Detailed workflow design Technology planning Prototyping Application coding and testing Applications and systems integration Pilot and user tests Maintenance upgrades Help desk Training Total Cost of Ownership ROI Organization design Requirements definition (Business/functional &Technical) Metadata model Application design System integration plan Training End-to-end systems testing Critical success factors Successful MAM implementations begin with a well define strategy. Skipping this phase typically leads to a derailed project with ill-defined goals, substantial delays, and poor user adoption. The strategy process enables the team to define and prioritize specific MAM initiatives based on business value and risk, and enables an organization to quickly and effectively determine where they should start their MAM implementation
Conclusion For content producers, owners and distributors, an integrated multi-channel MAM strategy for media production, programming, exploitation, and distribution across all platforms (wired and wireless) is critical for future success. Essentially MAM will become the ERP system (enterprise resource planning) for media and will tie together the business processes across an enterprises internal and external value chain using a unifying, cost effective infostructure (information management structure). Designing the right MAM database model using an end user buy-in approach and committing to an enterprise strategy for its phased implementation are some of the key decisions that an organization can make to put them on the path towards operational and financial efficiencies offered by a MAM solution