FEATURE
Broadcast TECH
often said that content is king but metadata is queen. It is becoming ever more important where you have this [file] variation.” Metadata doesn’t just include cap- tions and subtitles but descriptive data relating to an EPG, for exam- ple, or technical data relating to a set-top box. According to Digital Rapid’s Nann, there is also a big opportunity to use metadata to streamline the automation process: “We see metadata as a way of
automating business rules and proc- esses. Automation is huge because content providers/playout services are not going to be able to keep up on a manual basis,” he says.
Customised metadata As a case in point, he describes a transcoding workflow where one job has to go to a third device. “Rather than having a separate workflow, you could set up a workflow to watch for customised metadata to come along
TRANSCODING THE KIT
‘Key to pushing into new territories is the ability to create multiple versions of
material’ Bruce Devlin, Amberfin
Harmonic offers its ProMedia transcoders for live (ProMedia Live) and file- based delivery (ProMedia Carbon, pictured above) followed by the Origin server. Thierry Fautier, senior director, convergence solutions, at Harmonic, says: “In a classical implantation, the catch-up file is transcoded before broadcast with ProMedia Carbon. For streaming, the file is transcoded live and cached on the Origin server and stored as a VoD asset. This is done with ProMedia Live and ProMedia Origin.” Digital Rapids’ Transcode Manager software is used for file-to-file transcoding. An entry-level product comprises one server and four transcoders, although DR director of marketing and communications Mike Nann points out “your average installation would involve 20 or 30 engines”. The latest version of the system (V2) allows for a certain level of self-customisation, which has been built into its architecture. Digital Rapids also manufactures a live streaming transcoder, StreamZ HD, which can manage live-to-live, live-to-file and small volumes of file-to-file. Amberfin chief technology officer Bruce Devlin says the manufacturer’s intelli- gent content and ingest and transcoding (iCR) system was designed with versa- tility in mind. He explains: “Each portal may have a difference flavour of meta- data XML and a dozen different media file requirements for adaptive bitrate delivery. AmberFin engages with our media customers to deliver testable solu- tions that work on day one, but can be tested to keep working even when the end delivery specifications are changing.”
32 | Broadcast TECH | January/February 2012
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology
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