At the forefront of digital asset management and publishing

Ian Mottashed

Author: Ian Mottashed

Published 1st August 2014

by Ian Mottashed Issue 91 - July 2014

Endemol is the largest independent television and digital production company in the world. Within 30 countries it has a global network of around 90 companies which produce over 350 multi genre series a year. Across the 90 companies there are currently around 29,000 hours of content being distributed.

The production, management and archiving of such a huge range of content needed a solution as cutting edge as its programming. The tens of thousands of hours of content produced by these companies needed to be digitised, organised and accessible in order to keep up with growing trends in online video consumption. Previously, the company had to rely on retrieving DigiBeta and HDCAM SR tapes from an archive on site and at a separate storage facility, which was both expensive and time consuming.

As part of a larger project to implement an end to end fi lebased archiving and delivery system, Endemol was also looking for a branded solution that could provide its staff with easy access to the full catalogue from a single online portal. The online archive would also need to be structured to fi t into a future ambition to monetise the content: to allow its sales teams to be as proactive as possible in growing revenue and increasing brand awareness through footage/ programme sales and social media exposure.
Cambridge Imaging Systems Imagen Media Asset Management system was selected to manage online access to its archive. Imagen contains a number of modules that are designed to work together in a coordinated way, reducing the manual intervention required to manage very large-scale media archives. It includes a customisable web interface, automated workfl ows, fl exible storage options and easy integration via its API. The integrated Imagen platform also promotes digitisation efforts, working toward a fully available online catalogue for each subsidiary under the Endemol umbrella. When fully implemented, the system will play a vital role in monetising content from the likes of Tiger Aspect, Initial, Zeppotron, DSP and others.

With the Imagen MAM now in place, high resolution master assets are pushed from Endemols broadcast archive and are automatically transcoded into mezzanine and proxy formats using Imagens Transcoder module. Metadata is also transferred to the Imagen database. The company has implemented the DPP (Digital Production Partnership) schema as part of Endemols ambition to create a fully fi le-based workfl ow, which also incorporates DIVA archive, Aspera and Root6 ContentAgent within the company ecosystem.
Staff and B2B customers will now be able to search Endemols vast catalogue of programmes and stream the digitised video via a secure web interface. Imagens granular permission controls ensure that access to content is tightly managed and external users are required to register to view the archive. The systems confi gurable permission structures also enable Endemol staff to set up a range of features and controls for its internal and external visitors based on role, allowing users to stream, download, create collections, share, leave comments and update catalogue metadata online.
A major part of Endemols requirement was fi nding a solution capable of presenting its content in a fully branded application. Cambridge Imaging created a custom theme for Endemol, based on its existing brand guidelines. Website updates are easily managed; new pages can be simply added or updated using Imagens built in content management system. Searching the extensive catalogue is also made simple using the faceted search feature users can narrow large amounts of search results with a series of fi lters.
Mark Cotterel, Endemols Head of IT, says, The new system will provide a glossy, fully searchable and easy to use system that puts Endemol and our associated production companies at the forefront of digital asset management and publishing. Imagen has enabled us to build an archive system thats feature-rich with metadata, making it searchable and accessible.
Tom Blake, Managing Director, Cambridge Imaging Systems, says, Were delighted that Imagen has been chosen as Endemols digital asset management solution, selected for its vast functionality and its modular and scalable nature. The commissioned system will bring all Endemol companies in line with a high spec, fully searchable and easy to use platform that will prove to be an incredibly useful marketing tool as well as preserving valuable assets.

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