How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
How does your organization wrestle with Digital Asset Management?
What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Transcript:
Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Tom Barnouw.
Tom [0:09], how are you? Tom Barnouw: [0:10] Good, thanks. How you doing? Henrik: [0:11] Good. Tom, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management? Tom: [0:14] Well, I work for WWE, been here about six years, and I retired as a
systems engineer. I’m involved with Digital Asset Management. [0:24] We have
many live shows a year, thousands and thousands of photographs are taken
at each live event, and those assets make their way back to our company for
processing. They are used for a variety of things from websites to publications
to any type of creative services project. As these photos come in, they’re processed
by our photo department and uploaded to servers, at which time our
asset management system catalogs all those. There is metadata written to each
asset so that everything is searchable easily.
[1:03] There are many layers we have on top of our assets that can satisfy different
work flows. We’ve got certain catalogs that are web enabled. Other things
can be sent out via email, with voting and approval processes that can take
place and things. We’re web enabled data where end-users can vote and actually
have metadata written back to the assets.
[1:30] A significant process is in place for easily sharing assets around the company,
without the need to duplicate the files or copy them to other storage
medium. My involvement is in managing that workflow and trying to find efficiencies
throughout the company and ways that we can leverage the asset
management system. Henrik: [1:51] How does your organization wrestle with DAM? Tom: [1:54] It’s been an interesting evolution over the last six years or so.
Working with Cumulus has grown tremendously over those six years, aside from
just doing the system administration of the backend infrastructure. I think one of
the most important and impactful things that’s occurred over that time is really
studying the workflow of our users, and I would say the lifecycle management
of the data that our asset management system tracks. [2:24] We’ve evolved into
a very nice system now. We have several million assets in our system and, as an
asset ages, we need to move it, not just from the asset management side, but
from the storage side, from disk to tape, how does that process?
[2:42] The first thing we wrestled with was how do we manage the lifecycle of
this data? As an asset becomes older it’s used much, much less frequently. Do
we need to keep it on disk? If we do move it to tape, how do we easily access
that asset on tape? We struggled on solving some of those problems.
[3:01] We’ve come to a very nice place with it now where it all works very, very
nicely, including giving the end-user the ability to manage those assets, to some
degree, to a much more limited degree than I can, but still, they have access to
things, even when they’re on tape, which is nice.
[3:18] Other challenges I’d say, we continue to work with is the various workflows.
It’s one thing to have an asset management in place, cataloging assets, but
there are so many different this is going to be different in every company but,
there are so many different workflows.
[3:35] One department or one person may have very different needs for those
assets than another, understanding those various workflows, and customizing
the asset management system to blend in well with those required workflows.
In most cases, improve on those workflows. We’ve been able to leverage our
system to create significant efficiencies in workflows for different people in different
departments.
[4:04] In terms of how we wrestled with that, I think, that process hasn’t stopped,
in fact, I feel like I’m just now at the beginning. Now that we’ve got a very solid
foundation for our system in place managing lifecycle, I can turn my attention
much more to tackling various workflows and creating efficiencies within
the company. Henrik: [4:23] What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals? Tom: [4:28] I think it would probably have to segue way from what I just talked
about, which is there are so many different things. Obviously, each company is
going to have different needs, various storage needs, depending on how much
data you’re actually dealing with. That can significantly impact what lifecycle
management you may or may not need to have in place. [4:53] I think, again, just
what I talked about. Try to think into the future, 1, 5, 10 years from now where
do you think these assets are going to live, what access do you think people will
need to them you can start with that foundation, then, trying to understand the
various workflows that may exist within a company.
[5:16] If you can do a lot of groundwork ahead of time, before deploying something,
even if you have deployed something, start at that 30,000foot view to try
to get a good understanding from the needs of the company as a whole, and
then you can begin to zero in on different topics and processes that you can
help with. Henrik: [5:36] Thanks, Tom. Tom: [5:37] No problem. My pleasure. Henrik: [5:39] For more on Digital Asset Management, log on to AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is available on Audioboom, iTunesand the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.
How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
How does an organization focused on entertainment television use Digital Asset Management?
Congratulations on winning the DAMMY Award for Best Strategy Ease of Use for End-User Interface. Tell us about this strategy.
What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Transcript:
Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Paul Nicholson. Paul,
how are you? Paul Nicholson: [0:09] Good, how are you doing? Henrik: [0:10] Good. Paul, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management? Paul: [0:14] I am in charge of amongst other things, at Showtime Network, I’m in
charge of Digital Asset Management here for our creative group that we call,
“Red Group.” Henrik: [0:24] How does an organization focused on entertainment television
use Digital Asset Management? Paul: [0:29] We use Digital Asset Management in many, many ways here at
Showtime. There are a couple of different systems around the company handling
different kinds of assets, whether it be the long form shows and movies
that we air on our networks or the creative assets that we create to promote
the various shows. The majority of my responsibility falls under the promotion
aspect. [0:52] We create all of the video commercials or promos that run on
our networks. We manage and maintain them in a Digital Asset Management
system so that we can find them, archive them, keep them organized, distribute
them, et cetera.
[1:06] We also manage and maintain all of the print assets, all the advertising, and
marketing materials that we create in-house logos, graphic files, various elements,
lots of photography those types of things. Henrik: [1:19] Congratulations on winning the DAMMY Award for Best Strategy
Ease of Use for End-User Interface. Tell us about the strategy. Paul: [1:28] Thanks very much. That’s a very, very important part of what we do
here with Digital Asset Management. We really think about the user interface
and the customer experience, if you will, using our DAM system. Our customers
are other departments around the company, not necessarily outside consumers,
but internal customers. [1:49] It’s very, very important that they’re able to
find things quickly, get to exactly what they need in a moment’s notice, so they
can put together either a presentation or distribute a file to a partner that we’re
using to create something, or just find the assets that they need to create other
assets from those assets.
[2:10] User interface is very important. We take a, what we call here, a Tonka
truck mentality with user interface. It’s got to be real simple, big, clearly laid
out buttons and features that people know exactly what they’re doing. We lead
them down the path to what they’re looking for, as opposed to them having to
hunt and shop for things in confusing ways.
[2:34] I think a lot of people take the other approach. They put lots of features
on the screen, lots of buttons, lots of widgets, lots of tools, and great capabilities,
but that takes away from the user experience because they can’t ultimately
navigate it as quickly. There’s lots of training involved when you do it that way.
We take a very simple approach. Henrik: [2:54] What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals? Paul: [2:59] I think the most important part, I always felt, with instituting a DAM
policy, or DAM application, in any organization is that it doesn’t replace the
business process. The business process needs to be there. It needs to be organized,
you need to have good policies and procedures for people to do their
jobs, and then the DAM system can complement that. [3:22] It’s not a replacement.
A lot of people feel like they’re going to buy a piece of software, they’re
going to install it, and that’s going to change and organize their entire operation.
It doesn’t really work that way. It’s just a complement to what you’re already
doing. Of course, it can enhance that, but it’s not going to replace good,
sound business policy and procedure. Henrik: [3:42] Thank you, Paul. Paul: [3:43] You’re welcome. Henrik: [3:44] For more on Digital Asset Management, log onto AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is available on Audioboom, iTunes and the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.
How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
How long does it take to implement Digital Asset Management within an organization?
Why does it take this long to get it working within the organization? What is involved?
What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?
Transcript:
Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today, I’m speaking with Joel Warwick. Joel,
how are you? Joel Warwick: [0:09] I’m good, and how are you? Henrik: [0:11] I’m good. Joel, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management? Joel: [0:14] I’ve been consulting in this field for almost 10 years now. Primarily,
I’ve done most of my work with end-use firms, firms that are implementing DAM
in one way or another. I’ve also done some work for the technology vendors,
both in DAM and in the auxiliary space, helping them with their strategy. [0:32]
Especially as the proliferation of SAAS-based services have come out there,
DAM vendors have had a challenge figuring out how to meet the needs of hosted type
implementations while still serving firms that are looking for the on site,
enterprise implementation. Henrik: [0:49] How long does it take to implement Digital Asset Management
within an organization? Joel: [0:53] That’s a loaded question. It depends on how you look at what
implementation means. If we’re just talking about implementing the software,
some organizations, it can happen in a few weeks. [1:06] I would argue when I
talk about implementation, the goal that I propose with my clients is, “When are
you going to actually be able to take advantage of new and improved business
processes?”
[1:20] What I mean by that is, “Why do we implement enterprise systems in the
first place?” It’s not because of some feature or function that they have. It’s because
we want to change our business processes in some way that benefits us,
whether it’s cost savings or lighting up a new revenue channel, what have you.
[1:36] In order to change those business processes, there are a lot of other
pieces, other than just implementing the software. Most of my work has been
helping clients through that. That takes a lot longer than just implementing the
software and training users on it.
[1:53] There are a lot of pieces that really have very little to do with the software.
These are issues of what I call “operational design,” which is a big catchall that
covers everything from organizational alignment, to detailed workflow planning.
[2:09] It really depends on the size and complexity of the organization. I would
argue that you’re looking at, at a minimum, a few months to be up and running,
where you say, “We used to do it this way. Now we do it this other way, with the
benefit of this new technology.”
[2:27] The technology itself doesn’t make that change happen. That’s a misconception
that a lot of people fall into. Even after doing this for a long time, I still
tend to fall into that, too. It’s so attractive to think, “We get this thing installed,
then we’ll be able to do this, this new way and it’s going to be great.”…
[2:45] Unfortunately, that change has to be programmatically implemented.
There’s a lot of upfront work that has to happen before the software actually
gets implemented. In some organizations, honestly, it takes years.
[2:59] That’s not to say that they don’t get benefit earlier on. They might get
benefit after three months or six months. But, the real change that they’re looking
for, and the ROI that they’re looking for when they decide to implement
DAM, may be a couple years out. Henrik: [3:15] Why does it take this long to get it working within an organization?
What’s involved? Joel: [3:23] When I talk about operational design…I’ve presented about this
quite a bit, as you know, and written articles about it as well. I’ll throw out some
components that are what people, especially an IT group, wouldn’t typically
think of as part of an enterprise system implementation. [3:41] Things like standards,
workflow design, digital rights models, organizational alignment, all the
capture and migration that have to go on, capturing assets and migrating them
from existing systems. Also, the appropriate scoping can be a real challenge in
figuring out, “What content are we going to put in this thing? What users and
what workflows are going to be included?”
[4:06] People oftentimes don’t have that much patience, especially executive
sponsors. You want to show value right up front, so you want to try to figure out,
“What content do we get in this thing now?” and, “What workflows do we light
up using this new system that are going to show some benefit, but at the same
time isn’t everything under the sun?”
[4:25] That’s how most organizations look at this. They go, “We’re going to throw
everything in here and we’re going to use it for everything.” Unfortunately,
you can’t do that all at once. Just the disruption it would cause makes business
impossible. Staging it appropriately by getting the right user and asset scope,
that’s an exercise in and of itself.
[4:44] In terms of where a lot of the time is, I would actually say that the organizational
alignment piece is the trickiest piece. That can be for a number of reasons.
It could be because you have an organization that’s very fragmented, and
you have groups that have been fairly autonomous up until this point.
[5:03] The model is, “We’re all going to start sharing stuff. We’ll be able to reuse
content.” If those groups aren’t already oriented towards that type kind of work,
there’s going to be a challenge redesigning those business processes.
[5:16] Sometimes it’s not political, at all. It’s just that the groups don’t know that
much about each other, or they’re sharing very little content and there’s an
expectation that that’s going to change overnight. We know how organizations
are. It doesn’t matter what the change is, that type of fundamental operational
change isn’t going to happen overnight.
[5:35] But the most important piece is actually having people working on that
specific problem, going in and understanding the workflows of both groups,
looking at where they interact, designing those interaction points and in particular
the standards, the policies, and the practices that have to change.
[5:51] Just to give you a very specific example, a lot of times let’s say that there’s
a print group, some kind of print publications, whether it’s marketing or publishing,
and there’s the web group. They say, “Why doesn’t the web group have
access to all the images that the print group has? They might as well. We’ll
figure out the rights issues and whatnot.”
[6:13] But the thing is, the web group has not been acquiring their content.
Suddenly, they’re being told, “You have to go look at the print group’s images
first before you go off and buy your other images.” What’s the policy going to
be? This is where you could get into a political issue. Even if it’s not political, you
still could just get into an issue of, “This isn’t the right content for us.”
[6:33] Someone actually has to do an assessment of whether that policy is going
to work. Then, once you’ve established it, there’s the actual enforcement of the
policies. Is this going to be a really hard rule where they really can’t go off and
buy new images as they have been? Or is it going to be more flexible as they
figure out how to do it? It’s just one specific example, but you can imagine in a
lot of organizations that that’s not a minor issue.
[6:59] Because it can get political, it involves people in those organizations at
more senior levels than just what you would look at normally for an implementation.
The head of the business unit, the print business unit for instance, probably
has to talk to the head of the web operations or the online unit to figure out
where that balance is going to be.
[7:20] That’s one of the reasons that involving the right people upfront in getting
that organizational support is really, really important because when you’re
way down the road in a project and you’re trying to figure out the metadata
model so you can get the system turned on in two months, that’s not the time
to run into that snag and say, “Uh-oh. We have to involve all these more senior
people” because you know what happens then.
[7:42] It goes into a bucket of conflict resolution. The solution that comes out of
it may not be the best one for the system or for the operations. It may just be
that someone’s trying to put out this fire so to speak. So getting them engaged
upfront is really important. Henrik: [7:57] What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals? Joel: [8:00] I think the challenges right now is that the space is so fragmented
and complex, even in nature. When people say “digital media,” that’s all over
the map right now. I think that’s the real trick, is to understand the space, who
the players are both in terms of the technology but also firms that can help
organizations whether it’s consulting firms or system integration firms or a professional
services group from the vendors themselves. [8:29] Then, understanding
how to leverage those without just dumping tons and tons of money into it
because that model just doesn’t work anymore. The big consulting firms come
in and say, “We’re going to hang out with you for two years, and it’s going to
cost $2 million.” Nobody has budgets for that kind of thing anymore, which is
probably all for the better.
[8:47] There are a lot of opportunities for people that have some experience like
yourself, managing content operations if you want to call it that, or digital media
services organizations to go out again to help other firms if that’s what they’re
looking to do. Henrik: [9:01] Thanks, Joel. For more on Digital Asset Management log onto AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is available on Audioboom, iTunes and Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.
How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
How does the largest broadcasting organization in the world use Digital Asset Management?
How does the organization deal with the long history of analog formats to be converted to digital form for future re-use?
What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?
Transcript:
Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today, I’m speaking with Ben Bloomfield.
Ben, how are you? Ben Bloomfield: [0:09] Very well, thank you. Henrik: [0:10] Ben, how were you involved with Digital Asset Management? Ben: [0:13] My own experience in Digital Asset Management is within the world
of video. I’ve worked for a number of broadcasters around the UK and the use
of Digital Asset Management is something which is becoming increasingly
important. [0:26] Where I really started to get involved was when I was head of
content management at ITV. We were looking at what was regarded as the lensto-
lens process. That’s about the point of capturing a program, capture it digitally,
capture it straight onto disk. It would then be edited on disk. It would then
be pushed through the transmission process through to the point of actually
being transmitted as a file.
[0:50] I’ve then moved onto BBC Worldwide where I’m Director of Global
Operations and where I have a team of 40 staff based in the UK, but also have
people dotted around in other parts of the globe who facilitate the distribution
of BBC Worldwide’s content for the sales and distribution division.
[1:09] Now, we manage the distribution of around 74,000 hours of content. We
have about 1,000 customers in over 100 countries around the world. As you
can imagine, you start doing the math, it’s ensuring that the right programs we
manage some very large kind of international brands like Dr. Who, Top Gear
ensuring that those versions are the correct version for that particular area.
[1:33] They may have a foreign language version associated to them. They may
have other additional attributes. There may be photographs, metadata, as in
editorial metadata. It’s to ensure that the deals that our sales and distribution
business make…Last year, we did in the region of 260 million pounds worth of business. We’re turning a profit around 52 million. It’s a responsible job ensuring that once those deals are done, the customers can then receive their content in the given format. Henrik: [2:07] How does the largest broadcasting organization in the world use
Digital Asset Management? Ben: [2:12] We are wholly owned by the BBC. Our job is to distribute the BBC’s
content on a worldwide scale. We invest in the content along with BBC or
we work with our co-producers and produce the content and we bring those
assets in and we digitize them into a large sound system, which is run by Deluxe
Media. [2:36] Deluxe is a global distal asset management fulfillment organization,
and we store the store the assets within a master file format. We have a master
mezzanine format, which is at the highest quality for the standard definition or
high-definition files. We will then forward it on, given the deal.
[2:58] If we’re sending it to a broadcaster or if we’re sending it to a VOD platform,
we will then use the Digital Asset Management platform in line with a
transcode platform to then deliver the end program onto a partner.
[3:12] Those partners could be Netflix, Hulu or any number of…we have over
1,000 customers globally, of which about 160 of those customers receive files in
a digital format. Those digital formats are varying in their complexity.
[3:31] We have the DAM, which really feeds the transcoding system, which then
gives us the ability to deliver to our customers in the given file format that
they require.
[3:39] We also have a separate area where we have an internal editing facility,
where we have a storage of around 300 terabytes. We will take those programs
in from our master DAM. We may take those assets in and this is where we may
cut promos or cut promotional material or additional sales packages, which we
then use to help sell our programs internationally.
[4:06] The final piece is we have an online platform called the OLC, which is the
online catalogue for BBC Worldwide. There we have in the reason of about
5,500 to 6,000 of hours, long form programs, but they’ve been condensed
down into viewable assets over the Internet. They’re streamable assets of any
low bit rate.
[4:27] The buyers are able to watch the videos online. If they like them, they will
go forward in their sale.
[4:33] Our businesses, we have around 23,000 hours digitized in a number of
different areas. We then sell in the region of 74,000 hours of content a year
that’s licensed. Of that 74,000 hours of material, around half of it comes from a
digital source.
[4:52] We may take a digital file, turn it into another digital file, send it to our
customer. We may take a digital file and put it onto a tape and send it to the
customer. That makes about 54-55% of our business.
[5:05] The Digital Asset Management plays a huge part of how we do business
and how we keep our costs down and help drive our revenues. Henrik: [5:13] How does the organization deal with the long history of analog
formats to be converted to digital form for future reuse? Ben: [5:20] It’s a very interesting question. It’s certainly one that is a hot topic
for us, because we’re going through an interesting stage at the moment where
we’re transitioning away from the certain tape formats. We either choose to
digitize those assets or we lose them. That’s the bottom line. [5:37] There’s a D3
tape format, there’s a 1 inch tape format, and in some instances, 2 inch tape
formats which we’re currently going through the process of evaluating, and to
say, what are the one, there are some instances where we have to digitize them,
because if we don’t we will lose them and we will lose that content forever.
[6:00] There are some instances where there are programs which are looked on
which are saying, actually we see no commercial value in keeping this program.
There’s no historical value in keeping this, so there will be a decision to not
encode those.
[6:13] It’s really a case of, one, if it’s going on a historical figure or an historical
value to it. We are now viewing budgets so we can actually then put forward
and preserve those assets. The other side is there are programs we’re going
through and we know that we can get a commercial sale against.
[6:32] So it’s working with our internal partners to say, if we work with…there’s 2E,
which is another part of the business. If they are willing to work with us, we can
cofund restoration and preservation projects where we could then do a joint
release, or we could remaster assets which would be then used for Blu-ray, DVD
sales as well as international TV sales.
[6:55] It’s a long process, as we’ve got about 120,000 assets, tape physical
assets, in our library at the moment, and as I said those are made up of 1 inch,
2 inch, Beta SP, DigiBeta, D3, and HD. It’s a very slow turning wheel. I’m sure
in 15, 20 years’ time we’ll be thinking about how we’re going to get rid of our
HDCAM SR tapes.
[7:21] At the moment, the idea is we digitize the asset. If it needs restoration,
there is some digital restoration work that can be carried out to remove some of
the older artifacts within the material. We then store an uncompressed version
of that. It takes up a huge amount of space. For an hour program, could take
anything up to 200 gigs worth of disk space.
[7:43] We’re then looking to store those assets on a non-spinning disk. We’ll put
them on an LTO5 type system. At that point, we will also create a working mezzanine
file, a file that is regarded as broadcast quality, either standard definition
or high-definition mezzanine file format, which we could then work with. We can
then take that mezzanine file and then transcode it onto a lower bit rate or to a
specific platform’s requirements.
[8:16] The other problem we have is that within BBC Worldwide, amazing as
it may sound, we don’t actually have a single vision of the truth. We have a
vast number of assets spread across a multitude of libraries. We’ve got library
storage in LA, New York, Germany, France, the UK, Australia, Japan, and
Hong Kong.
[8:37] We have multiple foreign language versions, so that could be a program
which has an English language track on it. It could also have a foreign language
audio dub on it. It may have subtitles associated to it. It may have a slight different
variation or a different edit compared to the main master that was originally
produced in the UK.
[8:57] We’re going through, at the moment, a huge piece of work which is about
looking at our assets across the globe and evaluating those lists and producing
a single vision of the truth.
[9:09] That’s to say, this is what our product catalog looks like. Let’s say we own
a 120,000 assets. Each asset may have a number of different versions relating to
that given title. We’re having to trawl through Excel spreadsheets, Word documents,
Access databases, and really do a huge data mining exercise to evaluate
and organize all that material together.
[9:34] There’s no easy way of doing it apart from drawing in all that information
and then finding common fields within that data to then help us evaluate
whether or not we should be keeping those assets, or whether or not we’ve got
duplications.
[9:49] The first exercise is to delete the duplication, but ensure that in deleting
the duplication, it really is a duplication. There’s quite a lot of manual thumbing.
Then it’s a case of evaluating the content in a world of sales. That’s what we’re
all about.
[10:05] BBC Worldwide is about selling content internationally, but at the same
time we have a role to play in terms of maintaining the historical assets to insure
that nothing is lost.
[10:16] I mean, it’s very interesting. We’ve just been looking at some David
Attenborough material which was shot on 16mm film that was shot. I think it was
about 30 years ago, on film. But when they transferred it onto videotape, they
did it in quite a crude manner. The action, what was broadcast at the time, and
what you look at now doesn’t look great.
[10:37] But we’ve gone back to the film, and we’ve gone back and we’ve cleaned
the film up, we’ve dusted it, they call it dust busting. But it’s the removal of any
foreign artifacts, and re-transcode it, re-telecine that, or scanned it into a far
system. The quality is phenomenal.
[10:53] By going through and actually trawling these assets, we really are finding
that we’ve got some gems hidden away. We’ve known they were gems, but it’s
only when you go back to the actual master source, do you realize that it really
is fantastic quality.
[11:05] In answer to your question, I guess, the organization, to how do we actually
deal with the long issue of it, we have to understand it first. That’s something
which we’re only just starting to do. At that point, we can then prioritize
what we absolutely must keep in terms of historical, what we can lose, because
it’s duplicated, or it doesn’t have a perceived value within the business.
[11:27] It’s a case of picking the content that is of the least quality first, really,
so we know that our 2 inch and 1 inch material, it really is falling apart. It’s old
magnetic tape that we need to capture and turn into a digital file as soon as
possible, or we do run the risk of losing it. Then working through the D3 and
then the B2SP, then, eventually, we’ll be moving on to our DigiBeta, as well. But
it’s a lengthy process. Henrik: [11:53] That’s an excellent example of how do you determine value
and what are valuable digital assets. [11:59] Lastly, what advice would you
like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM
professionals? Ben: [12:03] People wanting to become DAM professionals, certainly within
a broadcast environment, the details around the previous questions say a lot
about what it takes to become a DAM professional. That is, attention to detail,
and the process of reviewing data from multiple sources to come up with, as I
said, this idea of a single vision of the truth. It’s the accuracy needs to be applied
when reviewing content. [12:31] It’s the methodical, patient view, analytical,
as well, to insure that where trends are taking place, where irregularities are
taking place, where mistakes are being made, they’re being picked up.
[12:46] Having a great deal of patience with Excel at the moment is a good
place to start. Henrik: [12:51] Yes. Ben: [12:52] It’s amazing how many broadcasts, from my previous job, working
at ITV, where I was head of content management and now moving to the BBC
here. It’s amazing. ITV is the largest commercial broadcaster in the UK. BBC
Worldwide is renowned for being the Europe’s largest distributor of broadcast
material. [13:17] I’ve come from fairly weighty backgrounds, but those businesses
are driven by Excel at the moment. They are going into a world where we’re
building systems, building new platforms. We’ve just announced at IBC this year
that we are now partnering with Sony DADC, who are Sony Pictures’ chosen
partner for distribution of content globally.
[13:40] The relationships that are being forged are based on the fact that we’re
trying to get away from an Excel business. Which is laughable, to one degree,
but brilliant for Microsoft, certainly. [laughter]
[13:50] If they knew just how, the strength of those pieces of software for us.
[13:54] But for the professional who is, certainly, there is an understanding, as I
said, about the patience and accuracy. There’s also having a peripheral technical
view on the industry that they choose. I can’t talk for any other industry, really,
other than broadcast.
[14:12] There is a base level of understanding within digital and technology that
needs to be taken on board. Then, there’s the broadcast element, can talk
about digital broadcast, talk about editing, you could talk about transcoding.
You could also get very lost in the jargon.
[14:28] Some people, that’s suits them well, in terms of, they take a given career
within their industry. But being able to cut through the jargon and explain it
on a simple level, insure that what they’re saying is understood is, I mean, I
think it speaks for a lot of industries, I’m sure. But it’s amazing how complicated
it can get.
[14:49] But actually, it doesn’t need to be that complicated. Because you’re
crossing in so many different disciplines, it does become complicated. It’s how
to see the complication, but find the simplistic way of putting that information
across to insure that your point is being made. Henrik: [15:05] Well, thank you, Ben. [15:06] For more on Digital Asset
Management, log onto AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast
is available on Audioboom, Blubrry,iTunes and the Tech Podcast network.
Thanks again.
Another DAM Podcast 