Streamlining Your On-Demand Media Prep

At this week’s NAB Show in Las Vegas, Pilat Media Global plc, a supplier of business-management software to the media industry, took the wraps off of a automated metadata management and media preparation workflow solution for the company’s flagship Integrated Broadcast Management System (IBMS).

Now included with IBMS:OnDemand (an IBMS add-on module that provides centralized business management for multiplatform on-demand services), the new workflow streamlines preparation of media for content providers.

Here’s how it works: The metadata workflow enables IBMS:OnDemand to trigger APIs that automatically import metadata from outside services containing detailed information about programs, i.e.,  entertainment Websites like IMDB with such data as genre, plot synopsis and cast. The system then merges the metadata with another set of workflows for media preparation, including tasks like transcoding and quality control. IBMS:OnDemand then automatically re-links the programs, scheduling them as on-demand or catch-up offers. The offers then appear on a viewer’s service navigation menu, with the metadata enabling them to search for and purchase titles by genre.

"As media organizations prepare large volumes of content for delivery via multiplatform over-the-top (OTT) and on-demand services, they need to be able to automate many mundane, repetitive tasks such as metadata assignment and transcoding," says Ron Bar-lev, executive vice president/Product Strategy. "This new workflow draws on our unique understanding of the OTT environment and addresses our customers’ complex requirements — enabling them to bring new efficiencies to content preparation while deploying the streams as quickly as possible to all of the platforms their viewers demand."

Pilat Media customers include CBS, Corus, Discovery, SABC, Chello DMC, the BBC World Service, Media General, Sky Italia, ESPN Star Sports and Foxtel.