Technicolor Australia Case Study

27 March 2017

This paper describes the customised Etere Media Asset Management (MAM) solution for Technicolor and the advantages it provides.

About Technicolor SA
Technicolor SA, formerly known as Thomson Inc and Thomas Multimedia, is a French multinational corporation and global leader that incorporates services and products for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Its expertise is in the creation, development and deliverance of digital life experiences for the digital video platform.

This paper describes the customised Etere Media Asset Management (MAM) solution for Technicolor and the key advantages and performance improvements it brings. Etere MAM allows users to integrate, store and manage files easily with low maintenance and upgrade costs. A special focus on the comprehensive workflow framework that allows Technicolor to customize their solution delivery will be featured.

The Challenge
Technicolor is an established digital media service provider with a full-suite of media services supported by a well-developed global network infrastructure. It provides highly customized solutions and the provision of innovative service solutions to meet the evolving industry and client service requirements, including workflow automation.

Unlike many of Etere’s customers, Technicolor is not a broadcaster and they do not provide any playout services. Instead, Technicolor delivers files and tape/HDD. Their customers are a mix of content providers and platform clients. Each content owner has their own asset types. The company is a global media services industry leader with over 100 years of experience with global presence in countries around the world including UK, Australia, France and United States. The multinational corporation is client focussed with a renowned track record for quality and on-time service delivery to content providers and platforms. Technicolor provides services including tape ingest, file acquisitions, broadcast QC and baton auto QC, on-boarding service, digital mastering, conformance editing, audio conformance, audio normalisation, standard conversions and ARC, DVD screener, transcode, complex workflow management, file delivery, tape encode, metadata, closed caption and subtitle conformance, origination and localisation services and digital library storage and management.

As a global leader, the French multinational corporation needed a robust, multi-platform, scalable and flexible media management solution that is custom fit to their dynamic environment and the requirements of their clients. Technicolor needed a system that is powerful enough to effectively manage media assets on a large scale, while at the same time having the flexibility of a scalable system. The multinational corporation needed a system that is not only highly effective but also future proofs their investments with easy maintenance and upgrades.

Etere has provided an ideal solution with Etere Media Asset Management.

Solution
Etere recommended a flexible, scaleable and customized Media Asset Management (MAM) solution that simplifies the process of content management by streamlining the content management workflows, bringing media to the market faster and in multiple formats.

Technicolor is also equipped with a specially designed Technicolor media library portal designed to fit the customized requirements of the company and its brand principles. Technicolor required a customized web-based portal with the ability to provide clear visibility of the content library including a flexible asset grouping system with the capability to group assets by TV titles, seasons, episodes and associated assets. Users are also able to use a full text search with thumbnail and quick preview for a quick and easy management of digital assets. The integrated features include:

■Customised client library rights with the ability to customise client access rights, including the configuration of rights for multiple clients’ library
■Optimised content management library with improved visibility of workflows and integration that provide better value than solo performances
■Search, filter and sort functionalities based on metadata
■Configurable metadata fields
■System generated technical metadata displayed alongside assets
■Record of location (online, archive and deep archive) of all digital assets
■Integrated interface with consistent branding and navigating principles that are consistent with Technicolor’s corporate client portals
■Ability to link to published subscription ScheduALL reports by clients
■Quality control status and access to associated QC report with the capability to view and download the reports for reference
■Ability to store and manage not only video but also audio, subtitles and other file types as well

Etere Media Enterprise Resource Planning (MERP)
Etere MERP framework is an ideal fit for a customized, cloud-based, workflow-driven, modular, integrative and scaleable Media Asset Management (MAM) solution. Etere Media Enterprise Resource Planning (MERP) empower users with the advantages of a single integrated database that is able to integrate all company’s information and facilitate the flow of information between all departments, even distributed ones. Etere MERP incorporates a total cost control and reporting service, providing real-time and powerful business information across distributed departments. Etere is able to save administrators time and effort in the deployment of a total cost control and reporting service, providing powerful and real-time business updates for executives and managers. Etere MERP helps with costs and budgets, reduces errors, connects workgroups, enhances communications, minimizes duplication, and improves decisions.

Etere equipped Technicolor with Etere Media Asset Managament (MAM) which facilitated content retrieval and automatic metadata association, thus greatly reducing the number of manual operations needed and improving operational efficiency across the entire workflow.

With Etere MAM, Technicolor is also able to manage content retrieval with streamlined and integrated QC workflows. During assets retrieval, Technicolor operators are able to find the files that they need in the shortest time with features such as full-text, asset filters and queries.

Content Library Visibility
Etere empowered Technicolor to enhance its content library system with Etere Media Asset Management’s customised workflows and seamless integrations across the entire enterprise.

The web based content library is categorized by TV titles, seasons and episodes, including associated assets such as QC reports. It features a user-friendly interface with full functionalities and buttons that are easy to use. The frame accurate, seamless proxy viewing tool comes equipped with video play control functions such as pause, stop, and scroll forward or backwards and full screen playback capabilities.

The content library is accessible with a unique asset ID and unique asset grouping ID. Users are able to view the associated QC statuses and access the QC reports. Organizing and managing assets is easy with configurable metadata fields including title, client and unique ID, thus enabling a complete integration with the Technicolor environment. Users are also equipped with a full screen playback.

Branding
The Technicolor portal user interface and appearance incorporates the Technicolor logo and navigations that are similar with other existing portals used in the company, thus providing a consistent and streamlined GUI that the existing users are familiar with.

Hardware
The installation includes Etere Transcoder, 3 Harmonic Transcoder, 1 Baton QC, HSM Library (SpectraLogic) with 4 LTO6 Drives as well as a customized web GUI and portal.

Workflows
Customized workflows designed for this project are able to store and manage not only video but also audio, subtitles and other file types as well, making it a truly versatile and multi-functional solution.

File Acquisition Workflow
The file acquisition workflows include incoming file, file acquisition for single audio, caption and other, file acquisition for bundle, file acquisition for upload, AV library acquisition, edit workflow, CST workflow, QC workflow and QC passed.

All incoming new AV files are contained in designated folder in the cloud device. The ActiveSync will search in this folder to identify new metafile and auto-start the workflow ‘Activesync’ if a new file is found. The content owner of the file is determined at the end of the workflow by a task.

The file acquisition workflow is triggered by Active Sync workflow when files or content folders are discovered in single AV file path, single audio path, and single caption file; single other file and container folder.

Copy File to Edit Source
Users are able to manually run the workflow, Copy File to Edit Source which copies files from original to OneLine Edit Source. If the file is not in original, restore from HSM is also available.

Legacy Archive
Legacy Archive workflow is triggered by Active Sync when a file or a container folder is discovered in one of the paths described in one of the paths described in Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) Storage Policies.

Export Copy
Export Copy workflows are divided into two macro areas.

HSM (Archive and Purge)
Archive library acquisition workflow starts when AV Library Acquisition workflow is completed. A MediaPool main and backup has been configured for each content owner. This keeps tape content divided by the media of content owner. According to the content owner requirements, HSM can archive in either LTFS or EXF format, allowing Technicolor to deliver the correct tape format seamlessly.

Purge Library Acquisition
Purge library Acquisition workflow is triggered by Archive library Acquisition workflow or when files are not correct during AV Library Acquisition workflow. Automatic Purge Workflow Execution is managed by Etere Monitoring Console according to the space limit decided by Technicolor following each content owner’s requirements.

Export Copy
Export copy workflows are divided into two macro areas, NEARLINE and ONLINE. All workflows check if the file is in ORIGINAL, if not, it restores from HSM.

Proxy Generation Workflow
Proxy Generation Workflow generates H264 Proxy files, thus allowing content preview and segmentation. Workflow read source HiRes Metadata and transcode contents to the correct format and frame rate, such as HD/SD or PAL/NTSC/24P. EtereWPlayer is installed in a distributed environment that is able to coordinate Geolocation for the best streaming server to be used for browsing. Currently EtereWPlayer is installed in internal Technicolor Network (Sydney) and in external server in Australia to allow users accessing and browsing contents across Australia and in UK to provide access to users in Europe as well.

Key Benefits
Reliability, streamlined workflows managed by a distributed system that is highly fault-resilient and fault-tolerant

Efficiency, with Etere MERP automated and workflow-driven management system, fewer manual processes and operations are needed. Etere MERP also streamlines the business processes exchange between distributed departments with its real-time updates and integrated SQL database

Security, customized client library rights with consistent and secured access to data with personalized rights management that provide client access to their library and reporting. The Technicolor portal also comes equipped with the capability to set client access levels based on functionality such as different access profiles, for example, administrator and operator. Not only that, users are able to create different types for each asset, thus, it will be easy to exclude customers from viewing other assets since each asset has only one type. For a fully customized experience, administrators can adjust the levels of access and enable/disable portal features easily. Technicolor Customer Service Representatives are able to access multiple clients’ library. Administrators are able to configure the levels of access and enable or disable portal features, thus ensuring a fully customizable and flexible security setup

Usability, designed with a unique asset ID and asset grouping ID that makes it easy for users to search, the user-friendly design also includes a functional user interface with frame-accurate full screen playback capabilities, full-text search and quick preview capabilities. Users are also able to perform search, filter and sort based on all or most metadata fields, in particular the title and client’s unique ID

Flexibility, Etere enable users to define navigation principles, configure and organize metadata, manage user account rights, user-defined workflows and tasks. Users are also able to create different association categories including film VS TV as well as the ability to navigate the asset hierarchy. Users are equipped with extensive and configurable metadata fields for a customized user experience

Accuracy, Etere solutions increase the accuracy rate with high business visibility, embedded reporting and a clear view of operational and performance metrics

Client visibility, The Technicolor portal features a record of association between digital assets and the ability to support different association categories including Film vs TV and the ability to navigate through the asset hierarchy. Users are also able to download reports of the association between digital assets for easy reference. Users are able to link to published subscription ScheduALL reports by client

Branding, The customized Technicolor portal features the Technicolor logo and navigation principles that are consistent with other Technicolor client portals, thus ensuring an integrative and seamless user experience

Since its beginnings in 1987, Etere has been preparing users to be ready for the future. Etere is a worldwide provider of broadcast and media software solutions backed by its mark of excellence in system design, flexibility and reliability. Engineered in Singapore, the revolutionary concept of Etere Ecosystem promotes real-time collaborations and enhances operational efficiency across the entire enterprise. Etere Ecosystem software solutions including Media Asset Management, Channel-in-a-Box, Newsroom, Ad Insertion, Airsales, Automation, Broadcast Management System, Censorship, HSM Archive, Logging, OTT/VOD Delivery, Radio-Live, Subtitling and Captioning software are built with an integrative Web and Windows architecture that are customisable to fit perfectly in any system. Etere system is developed by 4 different groups in different countries to ensure reliability and quality. Etere delivers on its service excellence commitment with its dedicated team and a 24/7 worldwide support. Its portfolio of digital technologies and market-proven remote/on-site solutions including consultancy, training, installation and demonstrations are ready to run with your business no matter where you are. Etere enhances your adaptability for the future and empowers you with the software tools to drive your business to greater heights. www.etere.com
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About Etere
Since its beginnings in 1987, Etere has been preparing users to be ready for the future. Etere is a worldwide provider of broadcast and media software solutions backed by its mark of excellence in system design, flexibility and reliability. Engineered in Singapore, the revolutionary concept of Etere Ecosystem promotes real-time collaborations and enhances operational efficiency across the entire enterprise. Etere Ecosystem software solutions including Media Asset Management, Channel-in-a-Box, Newsroom, Ad Insertion, Airsales, Automation, Broadcast Management System, Censorship, HSM Archive, Logging, OTT/VOD Delivery, Radio-Live, Subtitling and Captioning software are built with an integrative Web and Windows architecture that are customisable to fit perfectly in any system. Etere system is developed by 4 different groups in different countries to ensure reliability and quality. Etere delivers on its service excellence commitment with its dedicated team and a 24/7 worldwide support. Its portfolio of digital technologies and market-proven remote/on-site solutions including consultancy, training, installation and demonstrations are ready to run with your business no matter where you are. Etere enhances your adaptability for the future and empowers you with the software tools to drive your business to greater heights. www.etere.com