New Application Services From Starfish, Softel, XenData, and Interra Systems are Introduced at IBC2010
SUNNYVALE, Calif -- Sept. 9, 2010 -- Omneon Inc. today announced a range of powerful new application services, provided by third-party partners including Starfish and Softel (captioning), Interra Systems (QC), and XenData (archive), that expand the functionality of the Omneon Media Application Server(TM) (MAS). Operating as specific media processing engines within the Omneon MAS, these application services enable automation of critical tasks associated with content production, verification, and archiving and, in turn, significantly reduce the time and complexity of media workflows.
Providing enterprise-wide visibility and coordinated management of content and metadata, the Omneon MAS automates workflow tasks and eases media management functions. Omneon MAS users can set rules that automatically trigger actions by these new application services and use Omneon ProXplore(TM) to view the status of these processing tasks. As these third-party services complete their actions, they pass metadata and job reports to the MAS server, which then can automatically move media through the next step in the workflow.
Captioning Service
Both Starfish and Softel are bringing captioning services to the Omneon MAS. Both captioning services automatically extract caption data and associate it with the appropriate clip. In addition to eliminating the need for manual entry of descriptive data, this service creates sub-clips on timecode boundaries of the text from the captions and automatically shows time-specific metadata from captions with the storyboard of the content. As a result, content owners can quickly find the right point in the right media clip.
"At Starfish we've always been committed to file-based workflows," said Peter Blatchford, director of sales and marketing for Starfish. "The Omneon MAS is so open and easy to work with, integrating the Starfish caption and subtitling solution was a natural move. Now our shared customers can include caption-oriented jobs in complex workflows directly in the Omneon environment."
"For many years Softel and Omneon have worked closely together to implement flexible and reliable solutions for our customers," said Sam Pemberton, chief executive of Softel. "Expanding Swift vTX to support the Omneon MAS extends that flexibility by easily enabling customers and applications to make caption and subtitle data viewable and searchable, regardless of source or destination formats."
QC Service
Baton, the QC service from Interra Systems, automatically checks content after each type of conversion and routes content to the next automated step based on preset rules and the outcome of the QC report. The service updates clip metadata to show current QC status, groups clips according to QC status, and flags issues that require attention. The QC report is linked to the original asset to enable rapid review.
"With the expansion of the media supply-chain and increase in content diversity, file sizes, and volume, there is a widespread need for an independent, scalable QC solution such as Baton to ensure content readiness," said Krishna Uppuluri, vice president of marketing at Interra Systems. "Baton integration with Omneon MAS as an integrated service further expands the efficiency potential for our mutual customers."
Archive Service
The archive service from XenData allows users to archive files, clips, assets, and groups of clips with a single click. The archive queue is managed by the Omneon MAS but executed by the archive service, which updates the metadata of each clip or asset to specify its current archive location. In addition to controlling the movement of content to and from archives directly from ProXplore, the archive service extends the Omneon system's storage management capability to include tiered storage and offline storage.
"XenData and Omneon systems work very well together," said Phil Storey, CEO of XenData. "The introduction of Omneon MAS third-party services allows us to provide customers with greater insight and access to the content in their archive and leverage rules-based workflows. Users are able to retrieve content down to a certain range of frames in a single file without having to restore an entire image. People are really looking for this type of solution."
"With functionality from best-of-breed third-party vendors available as integrated services for the Omneon MAS, customers are able to manage, coordinate, and automate more of the typical media workflow," said Geoff Stedman, Omneon senior vice president of marketing and business development. "In addition to realizing powerful media processing capabilities, users gain the ability to manage key processing tasks from a single, centralized interface."
The new services for the Omneon MAS will be demonstrated at the Omneon stand 7.A10 at IBC2010. More information about Omneon products and solutions is available at www.omneon.com.
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About Omneon Inc.
Omneon video file infrastructure optimizes workflow for the production, distribution, and management of digital media. The company's platforms are uniquely architected to deliver high reliability, quality, flexibility, and scalability, all while using standard IT components and open frameworks that support the industry's most respected third-party applications. The Omneon MediaGrid(TM) active storage system, Spectrum(TM) media servers, and related media processing and metadata management applications work together to provide an integrated, end-to-end infrastructure for file-based workflows. More information about Omneon is available at www.omneon.com.
