Products » Media Asset Management

As the broadcast industry evolves into technology driven businesses, an increasing number of companies are reaching a critical stage in needing to manage and control their vast amounts of digital media assets. Digital assets are proving to be valuable assets in terms of both productivity and company valuation. However, an asset is only an asset when you know that you have it in the first place, when you can find it, and when you know how you can use it to add value to your business.

Media assets are valuable. But only if you can store, search through, locate, retrieve and use them quickly, simply and efficiently. Their value can be maximized by making them available for internal and external purposes.

Media asset management (MAM) systems are database systems for storing and retrieving audio, video, and still images, making them accessible from almost anywhere on the globe, quickly, and simply. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, the World MAM market will grow from $327 million in 2003 to $1.37 billion in 2010, at a compound annual growth rate estimated for this period to be 20.2%.

When searching for a MAM system, the first thing to identify is the overall objective: What is the problem that needs to be addressed and what are the appropriate solutions to this problem?

10 good reasons for MAM

Do you simply want to:

• Find media content on demand?
• Create collaborative creative environments?
• Maximize workflow efficiency?
• Manage rights and permissions?
• Provide automated tracking and accounting?
• Implement e-commerce functionality?

The MAM solutions market offers a wide variety of approaches, ranging from individual workgroup-level to enterprise-scale solutions.

Today both entry strategies - workgroup-level and enterprise-scale - focus on workflow, circling around a centralized database of project management information that allows users to assign, prioritize, and track a project's progress across the entire production process. The systems can track the history of a file - including edits, conversions, etc. As workflow varies across different types of enterprises, process-centric solutions are often adapted to the needs of specific vertical markets.

Media Archive professional
A workgroup-scale solution is the system of choice if you have to share work-in-progress and finished media among a limited group of colleagues. The content itself can be stored on a central server or across individual workstations. The offerings include solutions for descriptions and keyword searches, sophisticated annotation capabilities and strong communications support for efficiently transferring files between remote users.

Media Archive enterprise
Enterprise-scale solutions extend the workgroup-scale solution by adding integration with customers' legacy equipment and systems, and implementing customized workflows based upon customer requirements.