eMAM Case Study Ideas del Sur

eMAM provides a powerful front end management system for Ideas del Sur

managing content in Avid ISIS and IBM TS3500 LTO system using Avid Transfer Manager and SGL FlashNet.

Ideas del Sur is the largest broadcaster in Argentina With a staff of 400 producing original television content for its TV stations.   A local system integrator worked to develop a system using eMAM as a front end browse interface with media asset management tools to manage content storage between nearline Avid Unity ISIS storage and a IBM TS3500 robotic LTO archive system. 

Problem

The Avid system powered the editing workflow for 3 Avid Media Cutter and 2 Avid Symphony stations.   After a week of broadcast and production, the 12TB of storage was quickly filled.   The customer had no effective solution to find its legacy content, so a great deal of labor was spent finding media.  Sometimes it could be simply not be re-purposed for later usage.  

Solution

eMAM provided a web-accessible interface for search and browse of all of the legacy content.   Its media management tool set allowed easy movement of the content between current storage and archive.   Archive content could be easily found, and partially or completely restored as needed to repurpose.

Without expanding expensive proprietary storage, the customer has a robust, simple, and scalable solution to meet its current and future storage needs.

Details

Avid DNxHD OP1Atom content from the Unity ISIS storage was converted into DNX HD OP1A and dropped into FTP watch folders by the Avid Transfer Manager.   eMAM extracted embedded metadata and allowed for creation of additional customized metadata to power simple and advanced search features.   eMAM directly managed the nearline current storage system.

Automatically or manually, eMAM could push the content into the archive.  eMAM also offered a complete integration with SGL FlashNet for direct control of the IBM TS500 robotic LTO library system.   Even archived content can be used with the complete eMAM collaboration toolset, until delivery was required.   Archived content can be restored from the eMAM interface.  Using the sub clip functionality, users can make simple in and out marks to trigger partial restore of long high definition video files, to minimize server and storage requirements.     

The customer has been pleased with the responsiveness of the solution teams to meet any issues or concerns that have arisen over time for both initial response and final resolution.

 Return on Investment

The system provided a financial return on many different levels.

A large amount of unmeasured labor had been wasted in the past searching for lost media, ingesting, and clipping it for use.   Not infrequently, content needed to be re-shot and edited again when it could not be found.   In fact, the entire wealth of available content was now readily available, causing higher productivity and better programming.     The simple interface of the eMAM system allowed easy training and support for staff, with non-technical staff now able to manage content in the various locations.  

Finally, the system has a permanence and peace of mind for a non-financial return.   The eMAM system can scale in its current role, as well as powering additional workflows to help the organization.   Furthermore, the permanence of content stored on LTO tapes means the production investment of the organization will be permanently secured, never to be degraded on old media or failed hard drives. 

System diagram

 

About eMAM

eMAM™ is the asset management software solution produced by Empress Media Asset Management, LLC.  It has a complete integration with SGL FlashNet through its FlashBrowse module.  Empress Media Asset Management is a privately held company providing digital asset management and workflow management software and systems for broadcast, media, and corporate clients.   It is part of the Empress family of companies, which includes Empress Cybernetics System PVT, specializing in customized Microsoft software and database development and Empress Media Inc, one of the largest distributors of blank recording media and supplies.  Offices are in New York, California, and India.