MediaFUSE - Automating the Content Repurposing Process

by Scott Matics, 02.16.2010

The MediaFUSE automated content repurposing and multi-distribution system is a hardware and software combination designed to make a broadcaster’s task of repurposing content for Web and mobile distribution a more efficient and profitable proposition through the use of a create once, publish everywhere workflow.

Multiple Distribution Channels

The prospect of online and mobile distribution of content presents an exciting opportunity for broadcasters, but also considerable challenges. The world of content consumption has rapidly evolved into a time- and place-shifted viewing experience: consumers now expect, and demand, that content be available for consumption in a number of formats and locations.

A significant challenge for traditional broadcasters in meeting these evolving demands is finding time- and resource-efficient solutions to repurpose existing content to the formats suited to the Internet and mobile devices.

To date, taking the over-the-air content and distributing it to a Web site and to a mobile content distribution network has been a labor-intensive and linear post-production workflow. It often starts when a finished program of 30 minutes or more is sent entirely, via tape or file, to an editor, who spends significant time segmenting the content into file-based clips. In a process that can take hours, these individual files are then encoded into the types used on the Web (Flash, Windows Media, etc.) and the broadcaster’s mobile delivery network (3GP, H.264, etc.). Broadcasters then must add critical metadata to each clip.

Figure 1 – Prior to the development of the MediaFUSE system, taking the over-the-air content and distributing it to the Web and to mobile devices has required a labor-intensive, linear post-production workflow. Even semi-automated tools in use today can do little more than create clips in limited formats and with very limited metadata.

Once the clips are segmented, encoded, and marked up, they are typically uploaded via FTPto a content delivery network (CDN) where they are stored and streamed to a viewer.

Some broadcasters are able to automate certain aspects of this workflow. Select application service providers (ASPs) and content management system (CMS) providers can take complete shows and run them through a semi-automated post-production process that produces segmented clips in limited formats, and with very limited metadata.

At best, a user taking this approach ends up with clips and limited metadata in an hour; at worst, it takes two or more hours to create, well after the original broadcast has aired.

Neither of these workflows—manual or semi-automated—is particularly appealing, especially for time-sensitive news content.

COPE – Create Once, Publish Everywhere

Anyone who creates content understands that it is a costly endeavor. The reward for this expense is having a repository of original and unique programming that can be freely distributed and associated with some form of advertising that will return a profit. For live broadcast, this was traditionally a one-shot opportunity, with advertising priced according to the potential audience size, with very broadly proportioned viewer demographics. Of course, most advertisers would rather work with actual audience views across highly targeted viewer groups. This is the appeal of online content, and that is why, since the beginning of 2007, promotional dollars spent online have eclipsed those spent in radio, and have begun to seriously challenge the expenditures for all traditional media outlets, including television.

The goal for broadcasters is to have the ability to leverage their investment in locally produced content across all platforms utilizing their existing staff, and with little, or no additional time delay. This workflow is referred to as COPE, or create once, publish everywhere. In this ideal workflow, the emphasis is on the production phase, and the professionals who touch the content early on are given tools that allow them to easily make edit and mark-up decisions that will dictate how, and where this content will be repurposed.

Until now, the COPEworkflow has been undeniably hypothetical. TheMediaFUSEsystem is a platform consisting of both powerful software and hardware that is designed to make the process of repurposing content fast, easy, and economical—and finally, enable a create once, publish everywhere workflow.

Another challenge for broadcasters wishing to build a successful online presence is having enough repurposed content to satisfy audience demand, and to effectively utilize their advertising avails.

Getting Web and mobile visitors to come to your site once or twice is trivial—getting them to regularly visit to your site (and consume your content) is the hard part—and that requires an amount of content that will appeal to a broad range of potential visitors. Many will come for weather and sports information—having additional content available, displayed, and linked will entice them to stay longer and view more of your content, and therefore ingest more advertising. The duration and regularity of site visits is what separates a successful Web operation from one that barely covers costs, and the delta between these can be significant.

So, agreeing that more content is better, the quandary for broadcasters is how to increase the amount of content that is repurposed without also adding layers of overhead, which lessens the attractiveness of the Web business model. The MediaFUSEsystem operates in tandem with the Grass Valley Ignite control room automation system to allow broadcasters to repurpose all or as much of their content as they wish. You can repurpose extended-play content, as well as material that never makes it to air, such as full interviews, archived material, sports material, etc. And you can do all of this with your existing staff. In other words, the MediaFUSEsystem allows your existing staff to become up to five times more efficient, based on the time they spend on today’s manual and semi-automated processes, all without making their jobs more difficult.

*Borrell Associates: “What Media Web Sites Earn” May 2008.

Improve Repuposing Efficiency By Up To 5X

Starting in the pre-production process, in the news room, the MediaFUSEsystem provides a tool, called FusePRODUCE, that is an ActiveX plug-in for the newsroom computer system (either Avid iNEWS or APENPS). This plug-in is offered on a per-seat basis, and provides a template-driven interface that allows the people who know the most about the content (journalists and producers) to quickly mark up the stories with rich metadata that will be carried forward automatically, and used to dictate how the stories will be repurposed during a live stream or as on-demand clips on the Web and mobile delivery network.

It should be stated that there are additional opportunities to mark the content up with metadata later in the process, should that be necessary, or desirable.

For an example of how content can be thought of as multi-purpose from the beginning, let’s consider a local interview segment. Areporter and videographer record a 20-minute interview with the local professional football coach. Returning to the station, the reporter prepares the segment for use on the evening newscast. Typically only a 30 to 60 second extraction will be used during the live telecast.

The remaining 19 minutes of the interview is likely to be appealing content for a person who closely follows this team. While the journalist or producer is marking the rundown for the shortform segment for use during the telecast, they can use the MediaFUSEsystem to quickly drag the entire interview media file into a watch folder, mark that segment up separately, approve it, and within minutes the entire interview could be available for viewing on the Web site. Ultimately, the shortform version can also be made available for online viewing.

The journalist can also link the full interview to the shortform version in FusePRODUCE, which can display a link to the viewer of the shortform version telling them that there is a longer version available. This progressive linking of content serves to increase the Web site viewer’s length of stay at the site, and increase the amount of content they consume per visit. Additionally, linking and association can be used to link archived material that may be relevant to a viewer of current, related material.

Using the rich metadata that is part of MediaFUSE-produced content, the MediaFUSEsystem can generate metadata that can be used by the content management provider to target ads to viewers based on the type of content they are consuming. Targeted ads are more valuable, and are more tolerated by viewers.

Figure 2 – MediaFUSE, or MediaFUSE-produced metedata, touches all aspects of the production workflow.

Live Streaming Considerations

Many broadcasters would like to stream their shows live, and technically, simply streaming a complete show is not that complicated of a process. However, there are some serious considerations that make it difficult for broadcasters to stream effective versions of their programs.

One consideration has to do with license restrictions on some content, such as sports-league programming, that is approved for showing over-the-air, but not for alternate distribution.

Another consideration is the suitability of content and ads in the on-line medium. Abroadcaster may wish to produce special Internet-only ads, which automatically replace the over-the-air ads.

The solution to these challenges is to repurpose a live stream while retaining the ability to alter the content, on-the-fly, with no human intervention. The MediaFUSEsystem makes this process possible.

Using the MediaFUSEsystem, broadcasters can send one version of a show over-the-air as they normally would, but replace it with an online-specific version for distribution to the Web.

Additionally, the MediaFUSEsystem can communicate with supported in-station advertising management tracking systems, via the BXF protocol, to replace over-the-air ads with specially produced, repurposed versions, and then reconcile the accounting back into a broadcaster’s ad traffic-management system. In keeping with the COPEmethodology, the MediaFUSEsystem performs these functions based on data specified in the pre-production phase, and does so in the background, automatically, during the live broadcast—again, with absolutely no human intervention.

Figure 4 – Only MediaFUSE makes it easy to change live, streamed content on-the-fly, with no human intervention.

Content Distribution Considerations

The MediaFUSEsystem is designed to implement a COPEworkflow during the production process—to greatly increase the amount of content that is repurposed, and to make the overall repurposing process much more efficient. Once the live broadcast is finished, the MediaFUSEsystem accesses a master show file that was automatically created—which is a high-quality encoded file that contains all stories, as they went to air.

This master show file also contains all of the metadata that has been created, both in the pre-production process, as well as during the live interaction between the MediaFUSEand Ignite systems. Following the live broadcast, this file is transferred to the MediaFUSEsystem post-production application, called FuseAPPROVE.

This application allows an operator to very quickly change the automatically generated thumbnail, check and edit the associated metadata as required, perform light editing of the content (if necessary), and then approve the show and segments for transcoding into the formats and bit rates specified in the template (Flash, Windows Media, H.264, 3GP, etc.). The MediaFUSEsystem then distributes the transcoded material into a content delivery and content management system. FuseAPPROVEallows an operator to approve and perform light markup editing on a 30-minute show in no more than five minutes. The FuseAPPROVEprocess is optional—segments can be pre-approved in the pre-production phase, to be immediately transcoded and sent for distribution after they air.

The MediaFUSEsystem includes a process for transferring content and metadata out to the distribution networks (via FTP). In addition, Grass Valley is working with select ASPs, such as WorldNow, to develop rich interfaces to accommodate the multitude of metadata that the MediaFUSEsystem combines with content—metadata that can be effectively used to customize the player, associate branding and advertising with certain targeted content and demographics, and to reconcile third-party advertising systems back into the station networks.

Conclusion

Implementing a COPEworkflow is a process that will touch on all aspects of production. It is essential that content creation personnel begin to think of their content not just in terms of how it will be presented over-the-air, but also how it will be sent to multiple points of distribution, in many different formats, for viewing on a wide range of mediums.

The key to bringing newsroom personnel on board with the COPEworkflow is in not adding cumbersome tasks to their already full workloads.

The MediaFUSEsystem is designed to simplify every aspect of human interaction that is required, and then to allow the software and hardware systems to do the bulk of the heavy lifting, operate in the background, and create as much content as a broadcaster desires to repurpose.

Figure 5 – The MediaFUSE system provides a link between the in-station ad traffic management systems and the content delivery system’s on-line measuring tools.

.