At last fall’s IBC, G-SAM — the asset management organization — interviewed 20 companies working with technologies for digital asset management and content technologies. The idea was to identify trends, main points and future directions of DAM users. The results are in a new 28-page report.
The report, which also serves as an industry directory, finds some vendors saying that DAM doesn’t yet offer a return on investment, while others see the market as entering a “second wave”— signaled by a shift from an archive-only application to using DAM for archive and production use.
However, “a lack of integration and the absence of generalized implementation processes” continue to hold back the market. “It’s not that simple to integrate technologies from different manufacturers; therefore, open standards become essential for the market to advance. For broadcast environments, the capability to integrate open and manufacturer-specific technologies is required,” the report said.
The report found that the move to tapeless production and archiving is far along. Some vendors are eyeing public broadcasters and smaller facilities as new markets for DAM automation. Broadcast users are generally seen as well on their way to becoming IT-savvy; however, there is an ongoing need for education.
Some respondants said that large broadcasters may have the most to gain by outsourcing IT, allowing them to re-focus on their core content businesses. IT technologies are near mainstream today, with broadcast equipment becoming IP-addressable and customers ready to move to file-based operations.
The full report can be downloaded at www.g-sam.org/library/gsam/.
