In association with


Harris for the Parliament. “The previ- ous solution handled only tapes and provided no workflow automation capabilities,” says André. “This was not just a migration, but a complete change in the way the archive depart- ment works. Now we can play, mark in or mark out, enrich the archive with user-directed selections and listen to video in multiple languages, handle audio or still images, and export meta- data to other systems if needed.” It has also given archivists access to a


broader spectrum of the collection than they have ever had, and helped to make more than 50 years of European history available to researchers and the media.


2 German Football League


Success in domestic football relies heavily on the income generated by TV broadcast deals, as evidenced by the impact that English teams have had on the Uefa Champions League since the English Premier League’s multi- million-pound pact with Sky Sports. The German Football League


(DFL), which runs the Bundesliga, has been keen to replicate that success, but has followed a slightly different route. “We realised early on that great economic potential lies in the media,” explains DHL head Tom Bender. “We did not just want to sell licences to broadcast matches, but to offer a top- quality media product, produced and marketed by ourselves.” Since 2006, the DFL has trans-


formed itself into a media group, launching Cologne-based production subsidiary Sportcast and DFL Enter- prise to handle marketing. “DFL is now a media company,”


says Bender. “We produce our own TV formats – more than 700 matches since 2006 – operate an internet portal and stream games to 36 million domestic viewers and audiences in 208 countries.” The operation also includes what


is claimed to be the world’s largest digital football archive, with 40,000 hours of matches stretching right back to the beginning of the league in 1963. Selecting the Ardome MAM system


from Norwegian developer Vizrt, the DFL and German Football Association devised a plan to ingest the entire tape archive, along with legacy metadata, and allow rights holders to access, view and download material through


www.broadcastnow.co.uk


3 Turkey TRT


Turkish public broadcaster TRT decided to rip out its existing MAM, which controlled access to a 10,000-hour archive, to imple- ment a more efficient, file-based operation, centralised in Ankara. Local systems integrator Datateknik and Spanish asset management developer Tedial were given the task of decom- missioning the old MAM system and replacing it with a new one. “TRT had implemented an ini-


tial MAM five years ago but the data model was no longer good enough for them to work with the archive across different areas of production and transmission,” says Tedial sales and marketing director Rafael Dubois. “The files were wrapped in a proprietary format that was mean- ingless outside of the legacy MAM. Understandably, the com- pany that had sold the previous system was not willing to co-oper- ate so we had to apply reverse engineering to rewrap the files to comply with a SMPTE published standard and ensure usability of the media across TRT’s systems.” The project also required grad- ual digitisation of an historic


TRT Ingest room: 100,000 hours of material to be digitised


archive of 100,000 hours of material stored on DigiBeta, Beta- cam, D3 and one-inch tape. Dubois adds: “One of the main challenges we faced was to ensure the continuous running of the exist- ing system throughout the project. This included the migration of 50,000 legacy workflows into the Tedial system – each requiring dif- ferent processes depending on the specific circumstances of the media to be restored, such as QC, editing, transcoding, water- marking or archiving.” The system is currently ingest-


ing and processing an average of 400 hours of video a week, a


combination of newly created media and legacy content yet to be digitised. Fikriye Berker, TRT’s chief engineer, digital archive systems, says: “The new technology has helped us improve our archive system with new functions such as HD, watermarking and QC, and allows us to be open to differ- ent media formats. In addition, we expect to significantly improve efficiency by automating and simplifying tasks in our produc- tion workflows.” The next phase of the project is


to link TRT’s centres in Istanbul and Izmir with the centralised MAM.


their own coaching or promotional use. “This is not only a MAM for archive but an important piece of media strat- egy for the whole Bundesliga, which is now established as a worldwide brand,” says Bender. “The great tradi- tion of German football lives on in his- torical footage. It is therefore of great importance that we make this treasure available to fans and ensure this is safeguarded for the future.” According to Henrik Nordstrom,


an online system developed in-house. The whole process took five years. All international and cup matches


are stored on the system, alongside Bundesliga games, adding up to 2,000 hours each year. Bundesliga clubs also have rights to access all the material for


vice-president of sales for MAM at Vizrt: “Traditionally, content owners who have invested in MAM have seen it as a means of eliminating tape from workflows and to preserve archives from tapes that are getting too old. “The DFL has realised that once


On the ball: the German Football League (above) is realising the economic potential of controlling its own media


you hold your content in digital form, consolidated in one place and with a consistent metadata structure, your business can be taken to a new level because you can remix content and feed a hungry fanbase.”


6 July 2012 | Broadcast | 11


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