Workflow and Collaboration:

Transcription

1 The Muddle in the Middle Series A Nativ Whitepaper/ Workflow and Collaboration: Working smarter, cheaper and faster

2 In the new world of multi-platform TV and film, harnessing content and cost-effectively managing its production and delivery offers huge opportunities for content owners and brands. Whether it is branded content or feature length films, it has never been more important to reach new and existing consumers any place, any time. Despite this, many media companies have a difficult time exploiting that opportunity. As demand for high quality content increases so too do the file sizes and the complexity of managing and delivering it to a myriad of platforms. Fortunately, new technological advances like file-based workflow and the cloud are revolutionising the way production, post-production and distribution companies manage, repurpose and deliver content. Although these advances by no means solve every problem, new platforms are maturing and stepping up to meet the challenge. 2 A Nativ Whitepaper/

3 What is Workflow Anyway? In the convergent world of digital production and Internet technologies, workflow is increasingly hyped but often poorly defined. Workflow is not a new concept and in its most abstract sense simply refers to a sequence of tasks carried out in a specific order. In terms of video it means the flow of content through well-known stages - ingest, editing, approval, transcoding, and so on. Effective workflow orchestration should ensure a sequence of steps is accurately followed to avoid confusion, remove errors and ensure that critical business processes can be tracked and optimised over time. In the world of TV and film, a meaningful workflow must seamlessly orchestrate the interactions between enterprise resources (storage, transcoding, network etc.) and groups of people. One without the other offers advantages in terms of operational efficiency but tracking people and resources together is critical to enjoying operational efficiencies, cost-control and ultimately savings. Laying the Groundwork for File Based Workflow A couple of long term technical trends have enabled the emergence of file based workflow in TV and film. 1. The 2. The switch from tape to file Improvements in video compression, cheaper storage and greater bandwidth have enabled the transition to multi-platform viewing. Although this transition has been gradual, these technology advances have revolutionised the TV viewing experience and in recent years we ve seen an explosion of cross platform VOD and OTT services. As these same technical advances mature, they are also offering huge advantages further up the supply chain and disrupting the old ways of working in production, post-production and distribution. Despite the hype though, not every element of production and distribution can be switched from tape to digital file overnight. As file sizes continue to grow, tapes and drives are often the only option for delivery and long term archiving, so physical media will be around for some time to come. However, many aspects of the content supply chain are now managed entirely through file-based workflows and there are options for seamlessly integrating tape-based and file-based workflows until the move towards tapeless is complete. switch from hardware to software Many tools for manipulating video and audio content that previously ran on expensive specialist hardware have now been transitioned to more cost-effective software, which runs on commodity hardware. This has been an important transition as video server software, which used to be cabled into a company s specialist infrastructure, can now be run on site or in offsite datacentres, with support for service orientated software integration. The combination of the switch from tape to file and the emergence of commodity IT over specialist infrastructure has meant that the world of video management is now open to thousands of software developers globally. Specialist video functions can now be integrated into wider business systems and can reside within commodity IT enterprises either offsite or onsite. 3

4 Why is File Based Workflow So Important? It s a No-brainer, So Why Does it Seem so Hard? During the time of tape and specialist physical infrastructure, workflow could be mapped by tracking a tape number or by the sight of people walking between different departments transferring content on tape and metadata on print-outs. In a digital world these workflow steps can be carried out automatically using software which removes the greater cost of manual labour, increases throughput and improves time to market. A number of factors make file-based workflows more important than ever: Economics There is less money around, so companies need to avoid overspend on media management and workflow. This can only be brought about by replacing expensive hardware and manual labour with automation software running on commodity infrastructure. Change The video ecosystem is going through rapid change. Not only are viewing habits changing but standards and formats are changing. From file formats and metadata to delivery mechanisms and video platforms - being able to adapt workflows quickly and easily is the key to survival. The holy grail of filed based workflow is a process that is automated as much as possible and orchestrates seamlessly between software and people. Tasks that were previously carried out manually, such as file transfer and encoding, should be fully automated and reference content and metadata in tandem to ensure that each workflow step has context and meaning. Once a workflow has been designed it can be run and refined completely automatically, thus offering lower operating cost, reducing the number of people required and increasing throughput. In the ideal world highly skilled people work on specialist, creative tasks and everything else is carried out by automated software. When implemented correctly, automated filed-based workflows lower the cost and complexity of handling greater volumes of content. They increase visibility, lower cost and improve time to market. They remove spikes in human resource and replace them with scalable software running on commodity hardware. This leaves more money for the creation of great content rather than the management and delivery of it. Such cost savings in the area of post production and distribution mean content owners can be more agile and benefit from smaller deal opportunities where previously high post production and distribution costs prevented them. Implementing file-based workflow automation should be a no brainer, but the cost-barrier for entry and the risk of implementation is often extremely high. Integrating workflow and asset management software into an organization often requires purchasing various specialist software components and then paying an integrator to do the work. Such a task can cost 100s of 1000s of dollars and roll on for months, if not, years. Also the risk of failure is extremely high as the market moves quickly and standards are not always adhered to. So although many companies want to benefit from file based workflow automation in order to cut costs and handle more scale, the upfront investment required is often unviable. The Dawn of Cloud: Marketing Hype or a Brave New World? In many ways cloud represents both hype and a brave new world. Although the name seems new the concept relies on a number of technologies that have been quietly evolving and maturing over a long period: IaaS and SaaS Technology shifts in the video domain have come at a time where data centre technologies have also advanced rapidly from hardware to virtual infrastructure. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) paradigms are springing up everywhere and bring with them interesting opportunities around managing video content workflows in the cloud. Virtualisation technologies These enable users to deploy software to data centres without worrying about physical location, hardware costs or network technologies. Investment in an expensive specialist solution is no longer the only option. Elastic computing These models offer interesting options to the world of video management. Some workflow elements can be processor intensive and long running but may only occur sporadically. So why have lots of expensive hardware hanging around for that once-a-year spike? Being able to ramp up on demand and then immediately ramp down is the way to go. This is the real Holy Grail: pay for the automated workflow processing on commodity infrastructure and only when you need it. 4 A Nativ Whitepaper/

5 Cloud and Collaboration: The Future of Media Management and Workflow Operations What s clear is that at the same time cloud technologies are Using cloud based media management and workflow services taking off, the world is becoming an increasingly flat place. In a that are accessed through a web browser and reside in the global marketplace, work often goes to the territory where skills cloud is clearly the way to go and in many circumstances offer are readily available and it can be done most cheaply. Many a multiplying effect. Where people are involved they can interact workflows span several organisations production companies, from anywhere in the world, whether that be Hollywood or post production houses, freelancers and because of this, Hyderabad. This offers huge cost savings by removing manual distance working is now a must. It s necessary to have a solution labour, automating workflow and scaling to meet demand. that can in some sense be owned by a single company but Leveraging a workforce that spans different time zones also accessible by many different people from other organisations offers huge advantages in terms of time to market. and geographical locations. A connected world means that people can use the internet to collaborate in near real time and different people in different offices can work together using web-based platforms. With this in mind media management solutions require more than just asset management and workflow, they need to offer collaboration the ability to communicate, share and connect through a single hub. 5

6 Making Cloud Work in the World of TV and Film With all the benefits offered by software based workflow and cloud computing, why isn t the entire TV and film supply chain running in the cloud? Many industries already benefit from cloud based computing but not so much TV and film. These industries are perhaps furthest behind in capitalising on cloud and there is good reason for this. The reality is that today this opportunity is hindered by a number of significant factors that need to be overcome: File Size As one moves up the supply chain from consumer video playback to film and TV production, the files get bigger in fact enormous. Often the cost and time constraints for moving media files from local storage into the cloud are so huge that it makes no business sense at all. Until network connectivity and costs improve, elements of the supply chain will be out of bounds to cloud services. Also, many media operations that work on large files require vast amounts of I/O and local connectivity. Many commodity cloud services simply can t offer this amount of throughput within their own infrastructure. Software There are many discrete software components (from transcoding and storage to simple editing and shot logging) in the cloud that offer benefits to video content owners. These components, although extremely valuable, are hard to harness as they represent mere islands of functionality that are hard to reach when considering intergrated workflow and advanced media management. In addition, to benefit from true economies of scale when it comes to SaaS licensing models, video software needs to be inherently multi-tenanted and support on-boarding of many customers. Many legacy video software solutions are not cloud-ready and simply installing them in the cloud results in non-scalable, incoherent solutions. Billing Many assume that the cloud means low cost computing. In fact cloud means you pay for what you use. If you use a lot of network processing and storage, you ll pay a lot of money. Many organisations don t like nasty shocks when it comes to billing so favour owning their own infrastructure rather than the unpredictable cost of cloud. Collaboration Few existing video software solutions support the notion of collaboration through a single hub. There are plenty of cloud collaboration solutions around but not many are truly video-centric. One-size fits all solutions Some existing cloud media platforms have limitations as they are somewhat hardwired applications. They offer one size fits all solutions that lack the configuration options to make them truly beneficial for every content owner, large or small. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is really in its infancy within the worlds of production and distribution. Fortunately, new technologies are removing some of these barriers and opening up opportunities for SaaS-based models in TV and film. 6 A Nativ Whitepaper/

7 Taking Control: The Need for a Single Software Platform Building workflow and MAM systems in house is expensive and risky. At the same time islands of functionality in the cloud are often difficult to embrace. Media management and workflow platforms, designed from the ground up to live in the cloud, have been developed to overcome these challenges. The answer is a platform that is completely configurable, where new applications and processes can be tailored within a generic platform and offer: Integrated remote ingest and delivery Enterprise asset management Social and collaboration features Workflow design and orchestration Content repurposing and distribution Frame-accurate, web-based logging Advanced VoD and OTT packaging and delivery These aren t mere islands of functionality but sophisticated end to end platforms that can be accessed from anywhere, any time. They enable media companies to capitalise on file based workflow automation and enjoy the costs savings of a more scalable operation. The customer can effectively start with a blank canvas and configure the platform to control access and roles; workflow design and task allocation; resource access (from transcode and QC to storage and network protocols); metadata structure and hierarchies; and events and reporting. Conclusion It is clear that advances in technology are offering huge opportunities for content owners, post production companies and distributors to lower costs and respond more rapidly. However attaining these goals is being held back by limited network connectivity and the lack of mature cloud based media management. Luckily, in both cases, things are improving and opportunities to work smarter, quicker and more cost effectively in the cloud are now emerging. 7

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