Over the last ten years, an industry that was mostly hardware based has been successfully transitioning to an IT world, bringing about huge change to technical workflows and business practices, and thereby enabling content owners to transition from tape to digital. In the past five years, we’ve developed a multi-screen, multi-channel world, where viewers can watch their favorite shows at home in HD on the TV, the internet, or anywhere they like on second and third screen devices.
Industry consultant and The Broadcast Bridge writer, Gary Olson, has released an in-depth tutorial book, Planning and Designing the IP Broadcast Facility, designed to help engineers and technical managers transition their facilities into the world of computer-based technology and file-based workflows.
Funnily enough, we’re all Media Asset Managers. There’s the pile of LPs under the record player, the CDs on the shelf, the MP4s you (legally no doubt) downloaded during the glorious years of widespread downloads, and then your iTunes collection. Then there are your photos. The ones nicely organized on your drive, the ones archived using 6 different directory schemes across 7 backup drives, and the 3 sets you promised to merge in from your spouse and kids. Let’s face it, it’s wonderful, but it’s a mess. Oddly enough, this is not too different from how media is managed in major media companies. Assets are distributed across multiple locations, organized following different schemes, and it can often be hard to find and use an asset in one place if it was created in another. This is because like at home, the organization has grown organically over time to accommodate different needs.
This paper gives an overview of the transcoding basics you’ll need to know in order to make informed decisions about implementing transcoding in your workflow. That involves explaining the elements of the various types of digital media files used for different purposes, how transcoding works upon those elements, what challenges might arise in moving from one format to another, and what workflows might be most effective for transcoding in various common situations
The most recent non-proprietary video compression standard, High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), also known as H.265, was placed into final draft for ratification in January 2013 and is expected to become the video standard of choice for the next decade. As with each generation of video compression technology before it, HEVC promises to reduce the overall cost of delivering and storing video assets while maintaining or increasing the quality of experience for the viewer.
As automation systems become smarter, they also become more complex.
A great question that deserves an effort at a really good answer. Speaking as someone who has spent their entire professional career as a consultant I believe the main reason to engage a consultant is for our wit and charm. Okay, let’s look at some better and more compelling business reasons. A consultant is sometimes called “someone who takes your watch and tells you the time”. That remark is shortsighted. David Sarnoff put it this way, “Always put someone between you and the problem”.
Today’s workflows often incorporate cloud computing, which can enhance efficiency, increase transcode speed and increase the number of channels a facility can support.
