Understanding Media Asset Management
Steps to Success – Understand Your Needs and Take a Phased Approach
There is certainly no shortage of vendors who would love to sell you Media Asset Management solutions. As is common with any emerging technology, the MAM market is volatile and confusing. Larger companies have entered this market, pushing out the smaller but more innovative companies. Vendors who have traditionally sold products and services to broadcasters have embraced streaming media and Media Asset Management, making it seem easier for a MAM system to fit into a broadcast environment. The reality is that if you don’t fully understand the reasons why you want to purchase a MAM system in the first place, you may make some costly mistakes.
Your company—like every company—has its own unique needs. Understanding what problems you are trying to solve and focusing on those problems will guide you to the right products. For example, some MAM software products handle video, but the workflow elements are designed around a print publishing model. Will that work for you? Also, some video loggers can run elaborate speech-to-text engines, facial analysis, and other really cool things; but if you just need to extract time code and keyframes, wouldn’t it make sense to buy a different vendor’s logger at one-tenth the cost? Then you could spend the additional money on storage—where you know you can use it.
The Naval Media Center case is a great example of taking baby steps and envisioning a phased approach over time. They started their project by focusing on the major problem they wanted to solve—thousands of hours of historical footage and no good way to find it (except for Wilma). They knew the pressing need was for a system to log video and for a tool to search, preview, and locate tapes. They also knew they would have a greater chance of getting the funding if they asked for a simple MAM solution that accomplished these basic needs for under $100K than if they lobbied for the half-million dollar system that they really wanted.
Since deployment of their modest MAM, the Naval Media Center has had time to observe how users interact with the system, and they’ve found that it is being used to manage broadcast graphics and engineering documents—two things that they had not anticipated in the beginning. Armed with an understanding of how a MAM fits into their business environment, they now are planning their next phase, which will support more users, use a revised metadata schema, connect remote facilities, and provide the ability to publish video onto their popular Navy NewsStand Web site.
They also learned that the fancy speech-to-text engine they are using is not proving to be as valuable as they thought, so that will not be included on the new logging workstations. They also learned that their project was a great success. Video request turnaround times have been improved. Reporters and producers can now quickly find video to use in their productions. Time and money is being saved. These are valuable lessons that can only be learned through using a MAM system in your own environment.More Deployment Tips
Customization can be key to a successful MAM deployment. You will most likely need some degree of customization for your MAM system—especially if you plan on integrating with existing applications or legacy data. Most of the various vendors will provide a documented SDK or a set of APIs that will allow a competent software developer to write the necessary "hooks" and code to accomplish your needs. It is often much less expensive and more desirable to have your in-house tech team or a reputable integrator do the customizing rather than have the vendor’s professional services staff do it. In either case, make sure that your contract is written so that you own the code—not the vendor or the integrator. Before making purchase decisions, get a good look at all documentation and verify that the SDKs and APIs are comprehensive and that support is available from the vendor.
It is difficult to measure the value of having all your assets at your fingertips. However, the job is never as simple as merely installing a new piece of software. Think of your MAM deployment just as you would think of any other enterprise software deployment, because it will require the same amount of effort, and you will encounter the same problems as implementing, say, a brand new payroll system. You may encounter resistance from folks in your organization who like the "old way." Make your team a part of the process. Start on a small scale and work your way over time to "phase two" and beyond. Observe how the MAM is used, get feedback, and listen to the ideas that your users have. Do not underestimate the great amount of time it will take—not only planning, but actually getting your assets into the system. After all, remember the Golden Rule of MAM—a Media Asset Management system can only be as valuable as the information it contains.
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