Digital asset management becomes a reality

Boston media outlet and the University of Michigan begin rolling out systems.

BOSTON - Two high-profile users last week joined with Sun and IBM respectively to announce programs that promise to more quickly and efficiently manage networked media resources.

WGBH, a Boston public television and radio station that produces one-third of PBS' prime-time lineup, is partnering with Sun, Artesia and Sony to build a digital asset management system that handles the organization's vast stores of video, images and other related content.

The system combines video I/O and transformation hardware, disk and tape storage (including a Sony PetaSite tape system capable of storing 4,000 hours of video), and a meta data/search system for finding and retrieving bits of content. A working version of the system serves as both a test bed for WGBH and an iForce Solution Center for Sun customers to visit and test any implementations before buying. IForce is Sun's partner program.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

BOSTON - Two high-profile users last week joined with Sun and IBM respectively to announce programs that promise to more quickly and efficiently manage networked media resources.

WGBH, a Boston public television and radio station that produces one-third of PBS' prime-time lineup, is partnering with Sun, Artesia and Sony to build a digital asset management system that handles the organization's vast stores of video, images and other related content.

The system combines video I/O and transformation hardware, disk and tape storage (including a Sony PetaSite tape system capable of storing 4,000 hours of video), and a meta data/search system for finding and retrieving bits of content. A working version of the system serves as both a test bed for WGBH and an iForce Solution Center for Sun customers to visit and test any implementations before buying. IForce is Sun's partner program.

WGBH's version of the digital asset management system still is being developed and integrated with the station's existing hardware mix. Currently, it stores graphics, text and other information used on the organization's Web site. Also the production team for the program "Frontline" has just begun using the system to store video of past shows. Currently five of 500 episodes have been converted and stored in the system.

"[Ultimately,] producers will get ready access to content created in the past, whether it was yesterday or a decade ago," says David Liroff, vice president and CTO at WGBH.

When fully implemented, the system will store video in its native format and smaller proxies - low-bit rate MPEG-4 videos - that can be streamed to a producer's desktop so he can preview clips for potential use in a show. Content also can be reused for Web sites (a growing distribution point for WGBH) or other delivery mediums.

Click to see:

Sun helped build the infrastructure that ties together the multiple vendor products. And WGBH, with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, developed its own metadata language called PB Core that is used to describe the content stored in the system. Tools from Artesia and Virage help collect and store the metadata.

All of the equipment in the iForce Center, including the $1 million worth of hardware, has been donated by the technology companies.

Big Blue steps up

A broader approach to digital asset management is being developed at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with help from IBM and Stellent where images, documents and videos from throughout the institution will be stored centrally. The university is piloting a system with six of its 19 schools and colleges where everything from instructional videos to art history images are stored and managed in a central repository.

For example, the business school is creating videos that explain basic corporate-finance concepts that students must watch before attending the first lecture. The School of Literature, Science and Art is planning to store information and images on its 400,000-piece collection in the system to make it more accessible to archivists, faculty and students.