What is in this article?:
FIMS
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have been working jointly to develop a Framework for Interoperable Media Services (FIMS), as well as specifications for service adaptors, including transfer, transform and capture. The Transfer service copies or moves files and is typically used to deliver files, to archive them or to move them through a hierarchical storage system. The Transform service encompasses trancoding, transrating, rewrapping and change of resolution. The Capture service is the ingest of real-time video and audio streams, typically from HD-SDI.
These services lie at the heart of multiformat delivery. It is envisioned that further services will be added to the project over time.
An SOA is technology-agnostic, and the middleware can be obtained from any number of software vendors. The FIMS framework constrains the requirement for the middleware, and some vendors are already offering systems that comply with the framework and the service adaptors.
Part of the aims of FIMS is to move away from proprietary adaptors to reusable adaptors. This will save cost to the broadcaster, and save manufacturers the need for what is often unprofitable custom development.
Incentive to change
There may have been no incentive for broadcasters to change processes and operations, to ignore what other vertical sectors were doing. But the intensified global competition in the media marketplace, and the demands of multi-platform delivery, have focused the need to improve efficiency. Broadcasters must be more agile. If a new consumer device comes along, with a new way to view content, then the broadcaster should be in a position to capitalize on the opportunity, and at an optimum cost.
