Etere MAM: A Step Up for Rai Trade

ETERE enjoyed the challenge to set up RAI Trade MAM system.

ETERE is an Italian company redefining the broadcast business, providing cost effective and easy to use digital integrated solutions. To understand better the system we compare it before and after ETERE solution.

Before:
RAI Trade prepared a series of copies in VHS can contain the complete video or a simple trailer of it. They prepared more copies of the same VHS, in case of contemporary consultation.
During the exhibition, the potential customer had a VTR and a monitor TV to watch the video. The requested VHS, if available, must be demanded to the reception desk.

After:
Now, during the exhibition there is a disk system
that contains all files and metadata necessary for the consultation. The archive is connected with the streaming able to controls several clients. Like client instead of VTR and TV, they use a normal PC. There is the possibility to use web integration for the consultation of the catalogue. It will be able to carry out the vision of the video recalling in streaming the contents with possibility of Jog&Shuttle included the audio Scrub (with the possibility to listen the audio in advanced or inferior speeds to the normal).

System:
The video contents come digitize through a recording system, these come transform in digital format (files). Of every content the resolutions are generated that can be of common use, eventual other resolutions could be obtained from others process of transcoding. These contents are memorized in a disk system with adapted resolution to the consultation, and in a tapes system for the content in high resolution.

New Technologies:
The ingest system use E-VTR the IMX files are simply downloaded from the VTR without using an ingest encoding, this allows an easy to use system, less cabling and a less expensive system. All the IMX files are stored on a disk array, while they are transcoded to the Vision quality, then they go on a tape library for permanent storage and future use.
The ingest is based on Etere Automation FTP control and the transcoding also on ETERE Automation technologies. All the metadata of the RAI Trade catalogue are stored on Etere MAM database, including all the pictures and the trailers.
The system will allocate in the future also: internet quality video, a direct to DVD system to print DVD immediately and an e_commerce and catalog web system to propose the products also to the internet.

Some data of the system:
- 2 dual Xeon servers
- 4 Xeon servers
- 110 P4 clients
- 10 TB of raid5 storage
- One library on LTO technology

Etere President, Fabio Gattari, says:
It's one of the most advanced projects in this area, RAI Trade explore this technology only few years ago but the project does not start because the technology was not mature at that time. It was really nice to see how it was simple for all the users move from the analog to the digital MAM system.