- Today, television operations are truly global •  Broadcasters operate bureaus around the world •  Large sports events are both covered on-site and from the home base •  Entertainment companies have regional offices in many countries - Different missions, but common requirements •  Ubiquitous access to the corporate memory •  Add local value to global operation •  Seamlessly exchange assets between locations •  Collaborate globally

1. Distributed Asset Management Strategies
Peter Thomas, Sr. Director, Chief Solution Architect / Center of Excellence | October 2013

2. Introduction
§ Today, television operations are truly global
• Broadcasters operate bureaus around the world
• Large sports events are both covered on-site and from the home base
• Entertainment companies have regional offices in many countries
§ Different missions, but common requirements
• Ubiquitous access to the corporate memory
• Add local value to global operation
• Seamlessly exchange assets between locations
• Collaborate globally
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3. Challenges
§ Considering that in a distributed environment, assets could reside
• In a corporate archive on a main site (or more than one)
• In local archives on a remote site
• In an ingest or production system on any site
• Local to a user in the field or working from home
§ What do I want as a user working with the assets?
• Wherever I am I want consistent information around available assets
- Metadata consistency and access in a distributed environment
• Wherever I am I want fast access to the essence that I need
- Minimize latencies due to file transfers
• I want no surprises
- What do I do if there is trouble on the network…
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4. Why is this of interest for Archives?
§ Archives are
• The corporate memory
• A vital production tool
• A vital part of today’s diverse content distribution landscape
§ Archives have to
• Provide a timely and efficient service to their organizations
• Ensure consistent management of the knowledge around the corporate assets
• Ensure compliance with rules and restrictions around the use of these assets
§ This is a little bit more challenging in a distributed, file-based environment
§ Understand upcoming options, advantages and challenges
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5. Possible Set-ups
At Home
In the Field
At Home
In the Field
Remote
Sites
Remote
Sites
(Partial) Essence Replication
Main Site
At Home
Main Site
In the Field
Remote
Sites
Remote
Site
Remote
Site
Partial
Asset Replication
Partial
Asset Replication
Full Asset Replication
(Partial) Asset Replication
Main
Site
Main Site
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Main
Site
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Main
Site

6. Possible Set-ups
At Home
In the Field
At Home
In the Field
Remote
Site
Remote
Site
Centralization
Local Media Caching
(Partial) Essence Replication
Main Site
At Home
Main Site
In the Field
Remote
Site
Archipelago
(Partial) Asset Replication
Remote
Site
Partial
Asset Replication
Main
Site
Partial
Asset Replication
Hub and Spoke
Full Asset Replication
Main
Site
Main Site
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Remote
Site
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Main
Site

7. Centralization
Everything can be found in a single location
§ Advantages
•
•
•
•
At Home
Metadata is implicitly consistent
Consistent access to all assets
Easy to deploy and administer
Minimum hardware cost
§ Challenges
•
•
•
•
In the Field
Remote
Sites
Main Site
User experience heavily depends on the network
Network failures are fatal
Remote ingests have to go directly to the main site
If the central site is down, everything stops…
§ Potential
• Clever ingest and production tools that combine local and remote experience
• Translates easily to Cloud deployment models
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8. Local Media Caching
Locally required essence is available at the remote site
§ Advantages
At Home
• Metadata is implicitly consistent
• Consistent access to all assets
• Fast access to locally cached media
• Local media processing possible
In the Field
Remote
Sites
(Partial) Essence Replication
Main Site
§ Challenges
• Network failures are still quite fatal – loss of access to the metadata
• Remote ingest metadata has to go directly to the main site
§ Potential
• Clever ingest and production tools that combine local and remote experience
• Translates easily to Hybrid Cloud deployment models
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9. Archipelago
Loosely coupled sites that exchange assets as needed
§ Advantages
At Home
• Remote sites are mostly self-sustained
• Fast access to all local assets
• Local ingest, production, and archive,
capabilities
Remote
Sites
(Partial) Asset Replication
§ Challenges
•
•
•
•
In the Field
Main Site
Metadata may go out of synch due to conflicting updates
Ownership of objects needs to be defined, and may change
Replication strategies can be complex – what goes where, why, and when?
Higher hardware cost
§ Potential
• Clever ingest and production tools that combine local and remote experience
• Can be deployed in a Private Cloud or Hybrid Cloud model
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10. Hub and Spoke
Fully replicated main sites, partially replicated remote sites, field & at home users attach anywhere
§ Advantages
• Very resilient and flexible
• Fast access to all local assets
• Local ingest, production, and archive,
capabilities
Remote
Site
Partial
Asset Replication
§ Challenges
•
•
•
•
•
Remote
Site
Main
Site
Partial
Asset Replication
Full Asset Replication
Main
Site
Main
Site
Metadata may go out of synch
Ownership of objects needs to be defined, and may even be difficult to decide
Replication strategies probably are very complex…
Difficult to deploy and administrate
Highest hardware cost
§ Potential
• Clever ingest and production tools that combine local and remote experience
• Hybrid Cloud friendly, and allows companies to “breathe”
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11. Example: Event Coverage
NBC Sports London Olympics Highlights Factory – Setup
Archive Footage
London
• Highlights EDLs
• High Res Selects
Stamford
New York
City
High Res Selects
Archive Footage
Proxies & High Res
Archive Footage
High Res
Hialeah
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OPIS
Logs
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12. Example: Event Coverage
NBC Sports London Olympics Highlights Factory – Details
§ Archipelago with Local Media Caching
§ Event site in London with new content
• Event content replicated to New York and Hialeah for fast access
• Event content metadata retained in London for productive access
• Live logging and sports statistics import into system at the event site
• Content replicated to the Stamford Archive site for post-event availability
§ Archive site in Stamford
• Access to historic Olympic content
• Used to enrich the stories and highlights around events and athletes during the
games
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13. Example: Event Coverage
NBC Sports London Olympics Highlights Factory – Lessons Learnt
§ Major take-aways
• Object ownership was clear, hence no issues with metadata inconsistency
• Local media caching sufficient to overcome long distance network latencies
• Network outages are very unlikely
• Archipelago made the use of archive content somewhat cumbersome
§ However, the combination of in-depth background stories using archive
content and the current event footage made the coverage so successful
§ NBC decided to move to pure Local Media Caching for Sochi
• The main site will be Stamford
• Local media caching in Sochi and some sites in the US
• Ingesting content immediately replicated to the main site
• Local production and media processing capabilities on the event site
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14. Example: Enterprise Archive
YLE METRO
§ Centralization
• Single system in Helsinki
• Manages all kinds of media
• File ingest, file delivery to work-in-progress systems
• Network access for everybody, including remote sites and remote users
§ Major take-aways
• Network has proven to be very robust, no fatal outages
• File transfers introduce latencies, so News ingests into production systems
- No “Central Ingest”, the system manages finished goods
• For this use case, Centralization is a very efficient approach
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15. Example: Media Operations
Typically Hub and Spoke
§ Challenges
• Combination of branded or licensed content and local programs
• Transfer to sites that prepare content for local distribution (linear and non-linear)
- Local ingest & registration, QC, localization, compliance, segmentation, promotion, distribution
- Archiving of original (localized) masters and transmission masters
• A factory, primarily driven through planning and scheduling metadata
§ Media Operations companies tend to “breathe”
• Cycles of centralization (minimize footprint) vs. regionalization (use local talent)
• Local sites need resilience and a certain level of independence
§ Hub and Spoke is a good approach
• Also true for News organizations and broadcasters with global footprint
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16. Archive Specific Challenges
§ Metadata consistency and object ownership
• Who can modify which part of the metadata when and from where
• How do I avoid conflicting updates
• What are the strategies for reconciliation in case of conflicts
§ Making assets accessible to users
• Access to multiple systems vs. federated search vs. central index
• Pre-staging to remote sites – knowing in advance what will be needed
• Remote editing vs. file transfers – use local talent while minimizing latencies
§ Management
•
•
•
•
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Understanding what is where
Virtualizing business functions (e.g., “central ingest”)
Sensitive partial replication (who needs what, why, and for how long)
Housekeeping
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