Inside automation
Oct 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Granby Patrick
Your guide to achieving successful systems integration in a cross-platform, multipurpose digital broadcasting environment starts here.
Despite recent advances, the successful integration of systems over a network to enable efficient workflows in a cross-platform, multipurpose broadcasting environment continues to be a challenge. If we look at what's actually involved in this process, we can understand why this challenge remains and identify ways to achieve an efficient solution.
To begin, there are 14 parameters ranging from frame size through compression that need to be matched in order to move a clip between two boxes. And yet, this still doesn't actually improve our workflow. All this achieves is what we used to do by taking a tape from one VTR to another! File-based workflows start to pay dividends when the clip carries its own description, i.e., the metadata, so that the system can automaticallly file it, process it, index it and deliver it.
Metadata
The number of metadata variants is as great as the number of manufacturers' products multiplied by the number of different applications that the users require. Even if we find a standard way of encoding the metadata, there would never be a standard for the different pieces of metadata that need to be carried, as these are tied to the specific workflow we are trying to achieve. There have been a number of attempts at creating metadata frameworks such as DMS-1, Dublin Core, SMEF and most recently BXF. However, when made sufficiently flexible, they become very complex, making them difficult to use. This is unfortunate because a workflow often only needs a very simple but specific set of metadata.
Identifying the essential metadata — and ensuring that this is carried through the system along with the clip material — is key to the success of integrated workflows.
Workflow
A workflow can signify many different things. In this article, it's the human activity required to make the system deliver the desired output, whether it be a program, a news bulletin, a promo or a whole channel. Obviously the objective is to ensure that the people using the system add as much value as they can at each stage without having to perform repetitive tasks that reduce overall efficiency. Repetitive tasks should be automated. Information, once entered, is part of the system. And housekeeping tasks should allow the user to make critical decisions easily and then carry out the rest of the work automatically. It becomes clear that an important aspect of achieving this efficiency is to ensure tight integration between the different parts of the system.
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
