New Momentum Workflow Manager is launched at NAB. Neil Maycock, chief architect, Snell, outlines its background and positioning
A KEYtechnology trend influencing both content providers and industry manufacturers is the tremendous growth in multi-platform content delivery, a trend Snell refers to as ‘TV Everywhere.’ This proliferation in the ways in which people consume content — online and mobile, as well as through traditional TV services — is forcing media companies to handle an exploding amount of content and metadata, and to deal with the varying format requirements associated with each consumption platform. The complexity of multi-
platform content delivery is simply too big a problem for traditional broadcast workflows to handle. If content providers are to launch such services successfully, they must have the means and flexibility to scale their businesses to accommodate the many new demands of TV Everywhere. To address this challenge, we utilised our extensive experience in managing file-based media to develop the new Momentum Workflow Manager. This web- browser based solution for media asset management (MAM), workflow automation, and capacity planning provides a single platform through which
providers can effectively manage and scale all elements that contribute to the production workflow: media assets, human resources, and technical resources (suites, devices and applications). What makes Momentum unique is its fresh approach to workflow. While MAM systems typically are focused on tracking and cataloging media, Momentum tackles the movement, manipulation, and repurposing of media. To make management of these processes simple, Momentum offers an intuitive GUI that enables administrators to create and manage workflows with straightforward drag-and-drop functions. Using Momentum to plan workflow, users can allocate available resources most effectively; orchestrate processes from ingest to delivery; and instantly find media assets, configure their metadata, and catalogue them. Staff then can edit a project, consolidate it, and process it through quality control and transcoding to deliver finished content on-time and in the appropriate standard.
More accessible content By empowering the content provider to plan, manage, and control sophisticated content
production processes, and by providing a high level of control and flexibility without the need for complicated customisation, Momentum makes content more accessible, allows for more efficient allocation of resources, and aids in reducing operational costs.
As it assists content providers in automating and scaling the processes required for multi- platform content delivery, Momentum captures a significant volume and variety of operational performance data that, in turn, facilitate reporting of rich business analytics. A built-in capacity- planning tool leverages the historical performance recorded by the system to offer real business intelligence that supports further optimisation of facility resources. While meeting market need
for a new, more flexible workflow-based approach to media management, Momentum also acknowledges the time and budgetary constraints under which content providers operate. The system can be deployed quickly and start very small, targeted at the automation of a very specific process, such as transcoding for a particular project.
Momentum Workflow Manager provides a single platform through which providers can effectively manage and scale all elements that contribute to the production workflow: media assets, human resources, and technical resources (suites, devices and applications)
The solution can grow out
from there to encompass the entire organisation, so content providers aren’t forced to take an all-or-nothing approach. Because users can create and manage workflows themselves, they can adapt Momentum workflows as their needs change. Rather than pay for upgrades over time, content providers can be more agile in optimising their operations — and reduce their cost of ownership.
Because Snell has a long history of working with video servers, the company has
employed a form of MAM for many years now. With the release of Momentum, we bring that expertise to customers. Enhancing and refining MAM technology from the world of linear realtime broadcasts for use in the realm of rich and varied multi-platform content delivery, Snell is enabling content providers to work with more diverse forms of media, publish to new platforms, and optimise workflows and business not only for linear TV, but also for new and emerging modes of consumption.