An increasing competitiveness in the VOD market is currently driving the need for more content choice, to help platforms stand out in the eyes of consumers. Extensive media catalogues that cover multiple regions are fast becoming crucial for entertainment providers. It’s a no-brainer that companies need a system to index and manage catalogues of media more effectively. But not all platforms are created equal, and often legacy infrastructure cannot handle the increasing volume of assets.
So, how can entertainment providers manage content at scale? Today, we're diving into the world of Media Asset Management – or as the cool kids like to call it, MAM.
Metadata enables effective discoverability and monetisation of content from archives. It is stored within the system backend and helps with describing and cataloguing items, as well as groups of those items. Good metadata helps to manage assets at scale, by making search effortless. It serves a clear purpose and is useful for the end-user and media production process. A MAM that leverages metadata effectively, should group individual items of content into bundles that can be used or stored as needed. That way, teams can find collections of associated content (like episodes from the same series) wherever they are located, via a centralised interface. It’s the multi-functional way to handle both cataloguing and identifying your media goodies.
Picture this: you're a content operator needing to localise the latest hit show for multiple regions. Every episode you work on adds to the terabytes of storage to the requirements your team already has. You need to ensure that regional teams can easily identify the correct localised version and avoid any dreaded duplication. To keep track of everything, clear categorisation is vital and should be at the core of any MAM system. For consistency, the information that is associated with assets should be a key identifier that keeps everything together. A MAM system must offer customisation for different teams, so they can change the order of the results based on the searchable tags. This allows them to search for their specific requirements, whether that’s the type of asset, items, sub-clip, or collection.
Safety and flexibility often don’t go hand in hand. It’s important to keep your assets secure, but also have the adaptability to use them wherever and whenever you please. Well, that's where a system that protects valuable media files, while seamlessly integrating your everyday tools steps in. We all want the best tools for the job, right? The pick-and-mix approach is the way forward. Media organisations want best-in-class solutions for content processing, and they want to make sure those solutions are playing nicely with their MAM platform. A comprehensive MAM enables users to connect every step, from ingest through to content and metadata management, ready for media distribution. It should effortlessly integrate tools and infrastructure, so everything is at your fingertips.
Lastly, let's talk clouds, not the fluffy white ones, but the digital ones. A hybrid-cloud approach to MAM is a good way to go – offering the best of both worlds. Imagine using the cloud to manage and orchestrate your assets, while keeping them stored where they fit best. It could be on-premises, in nearline cloud storage, or taking a nap in the deep archive. Wherever the assets are located, the efficient tracking of key information about the files is essential for an intelligent MAM and should be built into any system you choose. These days there is more remote working than ever. So, MAMs have levelled up, offering solutions that provide on-demand infrastructure to meet the needs of a remote workforce. A consolidated MAM stops your assets becoming a scattered mess and maximises efficiency, wherever your team happens to be working.
So, there you have it! The modern MAM has escaped its dusty old image. It’s evolving like a Pokémon, gaining new powers, and transforming the media landscape. Cantemo, is a hybrid-cloud, media asset management system that supports more efficient, remote production workflows. It allows operators to run elastic searches, connect with their preferred post-production workflow tools, and set advanced archiving rules. Find out more about our solutions to manage content at scale here.
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