- Start: 31/12/2009
- End: 30/12/2010
Projectleader: Koen Segers
The ‘PMWoC’ project stands for Collaborative Personal Media WorkCenter.
Many broadcasting companies have realized the implementation of a file-based media production environment (e.g. Digital Media Factory for VRT), which offers a lot of benefits such as concurrent media access, faster than real-time media processing, cross-media productions and integrations, etc. ...
However, there are some points of attention and restrictions:
• specific choice for file and compression formats (e.g. MXF, DV25 en D10 for standard definition, …)
• specific choice for editing software (e.g. Avid or Apple)
• complex integrations with sometimes restricted functionalities (e.g temporal storage of a post production project and corresponding editing timelines in the central MAM system)
• restricted possibilities for visioning, selecting and pre-cutting material outside the broadcast centre.
• restricted possibilities to share media content outside the broadcast centre (e.g. external hard disks).
At the same time, we can observe a “consumerisation trend”, i.e. a clear evolution of the usage of semi-professional cameras as well as less expensive editing software (e.g. FinalCutPro, Adobe Premiere), and the quality is still rising.
Broadcasters are using such cameras and tools more and more, e.g. for producing extra content for new online platforms.
There is an obvious opportunity to expand this principle to high quality programs (also with smaller budgets) for TV as well as for broadband internet such that:
• Creative crewmembers can record, vision, select, upload media content, share it with other crewmembers, and edit and publish it, all in a flexible way.
• These creative people can do so also outside the company’s premises: at home, on location,… via their personal laptop or on a mobile media server.
• These creative workflows can be coupled to the traditional production environment in a more efficient way (e.g. re-use of archive content and the integration with craft editing tools) without being dependant on certain restrictions (tools, standards, formats,…) of the central production environment.
• The delivered quality is high enough.
The set of components that enables such an end-to-end production process, is called the “Collaborative Personal Media Workcenter”.
There are several options for organizing, sharing and editing of media on an easily accessible media server.
For purely sharing and viewing each other’s material, solutions such as online collaborative platforms (e.g. Sharepoint, Google Docs/Wabe) can be sufficient.
However, if collaborative editing of media is considered – e.g. during a project – specific media management functionality and services are necessary. The study of the capabilities of such a collaborative media server, based on available systems on the market, and the corresponding requirements (e.g. network, formats,…), cannot be underestimated.
The main purpose is to define and implement this component as open as possible, independently from e.g the technological and applicative choices during the program preparation phase. It is important to deploy added-value services on the collaborative media server (e.g timeline exchange between editing applications).
A collaborative media server can be useful as well in the broadcast company as outside it, each case bringing about its own specific requirements. A personal media workcenter is a simplified, special case where all tools for importing, editing and finishing media, are available on one machine (e.g. a laptop).
The impact of the CollaborativeMedia WorkCenter on the underlying network and storage infrastructure (within the company or on location) is another topic of investigation.
Finally, an adequate connection of the Personal or Collaborative Media WorkCenter to the traditional production environment is needed, and more specifically to the central MAM (e.g. required format conversions), such that archive content can be re-used, finished items can be stored and integration with high end post production tools can be established.
This project has the following main purposes:
- Architectural design of the concept ‘collaborative personal media workcenter’.
- The mapping and testing of possible options for the different components of the architecture, based on concrete use cases.
- Designing and building of a proof of concept for an end-to-end collaborative personal media workcenter, that can be used for television, radio and broadband internet.
- Studying of the possibilities and restrictions of media processing on a personal media workstation: tools, performance and integration possibilities.
- Study and implementation of the necessary connection of the ‘collaborative personal media workcenter’ with the traditional production environment.
- Study of the impact of the selected components (e.g. editing tools) on the underlying media network and infrastructure.