Signiant’s Digital Media Galaxy

Signiant is proud to have played a role in the successful delivery of on-demand video for NBC’s coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games…

“With hundreds of highlights and more than a thousand hours of coverage, we needed an efficient workflow to bring the Games to Olympic fans,” said Perkins Miller, SVP, Digital Media, NBC Sports and Olympics. “Signiant has been a critical partner in making this process fast and error-free.”

Read the entire Signiant/NBC Olympic press release.

The Signiant team has been on the road for the past few weeks hitting London, LA and NYC next week – visiting with customers, sharing new ideas and discussing solutions to common problems. The events being held have consisted of  compelling speakers, our customers, who really spoke to the critical issues that we all face every day. You can see some of those presentations delivered by executives from Discovey and BSkyB at: www.signiant.com/customer-council-london.

“One of the most interesting things I’ve observed as I travel around the world visiting M&E companies, is how little they really know about the content that they own or that is passing through their hands. For example, during a visit with a major broadcaster, I saw row after row of cubicles with interns scanning videotapes in search of specific 1970s news footage. This particular broadcaster has an initiative to digitize this content and then produce a series of shows based on that decade. “

Read the entire story, authored by Tom Ohanian and published on MediaPost.com

There was a great article this past week in Broadcasting & Cable about NBCU’s coverage of the 2010 Olympic games and how it will actually be generated by a significantly smaller staff and a leaner technical operation, a reflection of current economic realities, technology advances and NBCU’s growing expertise in pulling off these massive events. The article can be found here.

And of course here’s an excerpt which includes the role Signiant will once again play in the Olympics…NBCU will again use MediaGrid servers and ProCast IP technology for the Highlights Factory. A MediaGrid in Vancouver will connect to EVS XT[2] production servers to enable fast access to HD media. Edited content will be sent as 50 Mbps MPEG-2 files over AT&T fiber to a second MediaGrid system in New York, which will pump content to new-media delivery outlets under the direction of NBCU’s MICAH internal distribution system (a combination of Rhozet transcoding and Signiant file acceleration technology).

Signiant recently released version 8.2 of its Content Distribution Management software which was developed for B2B collaboration. Rick Clarkson, Senior Director of Product Management, delivered a webcast outlining the new functionality, if you missed it, you can view the recording, go to:  http://www.signiant.com/82-webcast-0. At the end, Rick answered questions from the audience. Here’s a sampling of what our customers asked…

Q: With the new Media Exchange and Media Publish Point [in this release], are you saying that I can send any size files to anyone similar to e-mail?

A: Correct, that’s what I am saying. Media Exchange is a great alternative to e-mail or FTP. Most people are familiar with the pros and cons of FTP, and certainly with e-mail you are going to be limited in the file sizes that you can move. For the folks on the webcast today, I am pretty sure no one is going to tell me that they are not moving large files – and it just can’t be supported with e-mail. So the answer to your question is yes.

Q: With the new Media Exchange integration and with the Central Management function, unlike FTP, do I have a complete log of all files being sent and received by users?

A: Yes, this is really important because recently had a lot of customer meetings at IBC and this is what they asked for. What’s great is you have all these neat features with Media Exchange and Media Publish Point and there is a lot of great work that has been done there for the user interface, but the real key thing that we’ve done here, is now you can upload Media Exchange into a workflow. So you could preset a workflow. For example, if I want to send a file to a location, but before I send it I wanted to transcode it, QC it, watermark it, and then send it. With Media Exchange, used in conjunction with our central manager, we can actually put this all together. So a non-technical user in the field can upload content to this “workflow special,” and when it uploads into the workflow, the manager would grab it, run it through the various processes, and then deliver it to the end user. The end user does not need to know all the details of how this process works, they just need to know to select the file off their desktop and move it up.

Q: Can Signiant send a file to multiple recipients, but with different meta data for each location?

A: Yes, and this is all part of the power of integrating our interface from Media Exchange with our Media Manager. Prior to 8.2, you had a pretty locked down Media Exchange start component. Now you can actually customize that start component and it will prompt you for a lot more information, it’s a much more powerful thing. This is a big takeaway that sometimes people miss. They see the big fancy end user interface functions within Media Exchange, but one thing, if you are using the Central Managers and Media Exchange, there’s a lot of power in connecting those things together.

In 1987 AVID technology began life as a company and in the years that followed the entire workflow for editing film was to be changed forever. A core team of people were involved in the development of the AVID, from the initial idea by Bill Warner, to the technical creation of a system which still rules Hollywood today. Tom Ohanian was part of the AVID founding team, those who brought the Media Composer, the Film Composer and Avid Multicamera Systems into being.

Watch part 3 of this interview on MacVideo.

Listen in as Signiant’s Tony Lapolito and Robert Browne discuss cloud computing and the trends in the marketplace. Robert discusses the spike in interest and adoption of cloud computing that he’s seen with enterprise customers over the past 12 months. The discussion leads to how Signiant fits into the cloud to manage, automate and secure the movement of content to, from and between clouds. It’s a great conversation, have a listen.

 

 Cloud Podcast [9:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In part 2 of this interview Tom takes us back to the early days of AVID and talks about the reaction of the editing community to this new technology.

It’s an interesting interview/video, have a look.

Check out a recently published video of Tom Ohanian being interviewed on MacVideo TV. It’s the first in a two-part series. It’s a nice piece…

In 1987 AVID technology began life as a company and in the years that followed the entire workflow for editing film was to be changed forever. A core team of people were involved in the development of the AVID, from the initial idea by Bill Warner, to the technical creation of a system which still rules Hollywood today. Tom Ohanian was part of the AVID founding team, those who brought the Media Composer, the Film Composer and Avid Multicamera Systems into being.

Interesting blog string over at: http://rsgeo007.blogspot.com/, particularly this post: http://rsgeo007.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-might-hulu-be-showing-its-captions.html. Robert and Jamie bring up some interesting points and show some excellent detective work. The main issue – how to do Closed Captioning…specifically, the technical and cost issues associated with it.

Most of us are thrilled with time shifting or choice, while overlooking some of the things that these guys really value – Closed Captioning. Well, adding CC to video, especially streaming media with a somewhat unknown audience size – can be expensive and labor intensive. Why would you “over invest” in an asset by manually adding in CC if you don’t know who will be watching it – much less if someone that needs CC or SAP?

Putting the legal and regulatory issues aside, any business person probably would agree that the investment is dubious at best. However, how do you expect to become the first option in viewing if you are not as feature rich as the old technology.

In short – cost effective process automation needs to be implemented to deliver content in many flavors – this includes the ‘3 screens’ (today’s focus) as well as for people that like to ‘hear’ it in various ways. Robert and Jamie did some good detective work to find Signiant.

This video is a short overview of Signiant and its Content Distribution Management software; this was first delivered at NAB 2009 and there’s a lot of new information here. The video includes product information, use cases, value provided, solution overview and information about SIPP.

Fresh off of NAB and talking with many, many people about Signiant and how they are using the product to save and make money – it’s clear to us that almost anyone that is managing digital files absolutely needs to use Signiant to make their operation more nimble and efficient.

In the spirit of Hollywood and the infamous Top Ten List, we’ve compiled a list of what we didn’t hear at NAB this year.

1) We are happy shipping tapes and hard drives. Shipping tapes and drives meets your business needs and is cost effective – even though on average it costs $200 and as much as $700 for each one shipped. Some organizations that we have encountered are shipping as many as 130,000 tapes per year … yes $26M worth of tape shipments per year. Well, I bet their shipping company and tape suppliers are giving them a great discount. Not to mention, $0.45 per month to store each tape OR the environmental impact of all of those tapes in a landfill. Trivia fact: 130,000 tapes stacked up are 4Xs as tall as the world’s tallest building.

If you are shipping tape – check out the Tape ROI Calculator: http://www.signiant.com/tape-roi-calculator/ – the tool can show you how much money you can save.

2) We are happy with FTP in our organization. FTP is pervasive in many organizations and easy to use – even though it requires installing software on client computers, it is prone to mid-transfer failures without restart capabilities, is slow, represents a security hole of vital data without any auditing capability and finally is unmanaged. No wonder so many people are selecting Signiant to replace their FTP solution.

For more on Signiant vs. FTP, check out: http://www.signiant.com/FTP-White-Paper/ for a comparison.

3) We are already getting the most out of our WAN Bandwidth. Companies are using their networks to move all sort of files over networks and improving efficiency dramatically. However, over longer distances (e.g. Seattle to LA) as much as 95% of the bandwidth you are buying is lost due to network inefficiencies – having a dramatic impact on the value you are getting from your WAN. You could be wasting $9000 per month per location in your organization and not even know it.

Check out the Bandwidth Calculator to see how much bandwidth you are wasting: http://www.signiant.com/bandwidth-calculator-0

4) We are happy with our satellite and terrestrial file delivery services. Yes satellite is available and is effective in reaching globally but it is very expensive … over $25/GB for a file transferred. Same with Terrestrial Services – around $25/GB plus the cost of the bandwidth. Compare this with the cost of about a $1/GB for sending files over your network and the public internet. We regularly see companies shipping 200GB packages – shipping using satellite or a terrestrial service would be $5,000 vs. just $200 worth of bandwidth on your own network.

5) We are happy with our manual processes. Everyone is probably already trained on the current processes – the trains run on time and when problems are encountered, people know what to do. However, everyone time someone touches a file or needs to manually take action – it costs money. Automating tasks and especially multi-sequences tasks can save a tremendous amount of money and people’s time. Have your people interact with the exceptions – not the processes that are operating flawlessly. As one of our partners told me, his directive is pretty clear, “make more money, and don’t make any more people”.

6) We don’t plan to monetize our content internationally, digitally or non-linearly. Many companies main business today is not syndication of content – digitally, internationally or VOD. In 2008, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said, “We can’t trade analog dollars for digital pennies”. Well – the world is changing and Mr. Zucker would be the first to tell you to jump on board. Companies like Apple and NBC have already created $B revenue streams from Digital Distribution. It is not too early to start and only Signiant can scale to meet your business needs.

7) We don’t need to collaborate with other people globally. Many organizations are self contained and only collaborate to produce content with people in their own building. However, increasingly worldwide collaboration for editing, dubbing, special effects or just review is the rule not the exception – even small marketing organizations need to collaborate with people all over the world. If you are producing content – chances are you either are or will need to exchange files on deadline with someone across town, across the country or on another continent.

We don’t need to get content in from the field, remote shoots or from users quickly, reliably and securely and our clients are happy to have us send them tapes. In some cases, content is produced, edited and packaged at a single site. There is no need to get the news in from where it is happening, there is no location shoot or content that a citizen journalist captured and wants to upload to you and you have no desire to deal with user generated content. However, more and more content that is captured remotely professionally or on a cell phone has great value and getting that content from that device can provide the jump on your competitor who is vying for the same content.

9) We have complete visibility to where our files are at all times and when they arrive at their destination. Some small manual operations where a single person is responsible for all file transfers – it is easy to know what files have arrived, what files are in transit and what files still need to be moved. But for almost any organization, where more than one person is involved in the creation, management or distribution of content – being able to track all of the files, the formats and their destinations quickly becomes a logistics nightmare. Oh, has anyone ever called and said the file never got there? Try proving a file has arrived without a signed digital signature.

10) We are happy with the method and speed we can delivery big media files around the world. Whether it is a 15MB Power Point File, 50 MB viral video, 500MB iTune file or 5GB Digital Daily – no one can make this claim. Moving big files over networks to meet business deadlines is a problem we all face – whether you are using email, ftp or any other application. If you are trying to move many large files to many locations – well the problems grows from a simple file movement problem to a logistics nightmare. A problem Signiant can help you with … just ask many of the companies that we are managing the movement and transformation of millions of files to hundreds of destinations.

Has anyone in your organization muttered any of the above? We didn’t think so.

NAB is right around the corner and the Signiant team is on the way. Check out this trailer of a video we’ll be debuting at the show. Come see us in Booth SL 4508 to see the full video…

In this set of videos, Signiant’s VP of Marketing and Product Management, Tony Lapolito, discusses how to lower bandwidth cost, increase efficiency, get more for your dollars, and improve productivity. Each video is less than 10 minutes.

Listen in as the NHL’s VP of Technology, Grant Nodine, discusses why he chose Signiant on this recorded webinar. Grant discusses the digital media distribution challenges he sought to overcome, the solutions he evaluated and the results of his Signiant implementation. Grant also fields questions from the audience at the conclusion of his presentation. ***Click on the NHL logo to start the presentation.***

When you buy bandwidth, you’re buying a pipe…how big is the pipe you’re getting? Learn more about how you can optimize your pipe by watching this video with Signiant’s Tony Lapolito.

Have  a look at this Network World video featuring Signiant’s Tony Lapolito. He explains how customers, including the NFL, are using Signiant’s Content Distribution Management software to manage the movement of their valuable content.

Signiant’s CSO Tom Ohanian sits down with Tara Bartley to discuss what happened in 2008 for our media and entertainment customers and his predictions for 2009. Our New Year’s resolution is to provide you with more Podcasts! …and briefer Podcasts, we know you time is valuable! Have a listen.

 

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Below you’ll find the introduction to an article I wrote that was recently published in MediaPost…

AS A business traveler, I’ve witnessed a very interesting shift over the past two years. Business fliers, first to watch DVDs or videos on their laptops, are now watching movies and TV shows on their iPhones or iPod touch — while laptop playback is on the decline.

Now, this certainly isn’t a scientific study, but given how much I fly, it tells me that the ubiquity and ease of use of a mobile device will put more mobile media in the hands of more people faster than anything else thus far. This is worth noting since new technologies often find themselves in the hands of business travelers before they make the jump to the larger, more profitable consumer market.

So why should media professionals, Hollywood studios, wireless carriers (other than AT&T) and phone manufacturers (other than Apple) pay attention to this?

You can find the rest of the article on our web site at: http://www.signiant.com/company/news/apple-and-wal-mart/

Here you’ll find a captioned video of Signiant’s workflow canvas that allows you to easily build custom workflows.

At the start, the workflow builder simply chooses the appropriate “Start” component and places it on the canvas. In this case, a workflow is starting with a Media Exchange upload….to learn more, have a walk-through this three-minute tutorial.

 

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Does digital media distribution herald the replacement of satellite? In the session, Tony answers this question with what he describes as the “Any Dream”: any content, any time, anywhere on any device. Tony cites real world examples where digital media distribution is being used to reduce costs and fulfill the “Any Dream”.

 

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