NAB, Las Vegas, #N4425: TMD, the leading provider of asset management systems for digital and physical assets, has implemented a Mediaflex® asset management system at BBC Studios and Post Production’s Digital Media Services facility in west London. The system will be used not just by BBC S&PP Digital Media Services, but by their clients who need production asset management facilities, either short-term or to include long-term secure archiving. The services will be provided by BBC S&PP Digital Media Services on a flexible basis including per-transaction, subscription and per-project.
“The digital era has brought about huge changes and new pressures for producers and content owners,” said Kevin Shaw, lead technologist at BBC S&PP Digital Media Services. “Low-cost digital acquisition makes it easier to have many more cameras on a show, leading to very high shooting ratios and a lot of content to be managed. They need a powerful asset management system to work efficiently, but it may not be practical or cost-effective to acquire and set up their own technology.
“Because our Mediaflex system is effectively infinitely expandable, we can offer production asset management as a service,” Shaw explained. “We have the technology, but we also have the core metadata schema established and the expertise to help clients get the best out of it. They rent capacity as they need it, either just for the duration of the programme or as a means of managing and preserving their archives, long term.”
Tony Taylor, CEO of TMD, added “BBC S&PP Digital Media Services is pioneering here, but I am sure that we will see more of this sort of service around the world. Virtually no productions today can keep track of their content with an Excel spreadsheet and crossed fingers. They need a proper extensible, accessible and powerful asset management system.
“What we are offering has the full capabilities of our Mediaflex platform, so can go from intellectual property management to workflow orchestration, as the client needs it,” he said. “This is a partnership between BBC S&PP Digital Media Services and TMD, and together we can provide a very cost-effective, scalable service which serves the real needs of the production community, easing the burden of keeping track of their content and freeing them up to concentrate on their real objective: making great television and films.”
Asset management as a service will be one of the talking points on the TMD booth, N4425, at NAB2015.
