IBM introduces Enhancements To Media Hub Solution

IBM today unveiled enhancements to its Media Hub Solution Framework that will enable broadcasters and media companies to increase production efficiencies while reducing costs.

Media Hub is an open standards-based solution for managing media companies' work processes and is based on the IBM Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Management platforms.


These enhancements include new, standards-based methods for connecting applications and web-services -- such as digital asset management, encoding and publishing -- to Media Hub, and the publication of technical guidelines to assist software developers looking to build these connectors. Additionally, IBM will be demonstrating the ability to seamlessly connect cloud computing resources and services to Media Hub at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention in Las Vegas, NV.

Broadcast companies, movie studios and online media networks use software tools and applications from various providers to create, manage and distribute news, entertainment and information. In today's ever changing, fast-paced marketplace, these software tools need to be integrated in the most flexible and dynamic ways possible to enable the work to flow efficiently.

By allowing media companies to automate and streamline core business processes, the Media Hub framework enables them to quickly adjust to changes in business priorities, the marketplace and resource availabilities.

For example, working with IBM, the BBC is capturing the benefits of end-to-end digital workflow using systems-based SOA approaches.

"The Walt Disney Company has embarked on a series of transformation

initiatives," said Jeff Mirich, senior vice president and chief

information officer of The Walt Disney Studios. "We have already begun

to implement workflows like digital dailies using these sorts of new

approaches."

To date, more than 25 leading media software developers have embraced Media Hub and dozens of back office application providers are already part of IBM's media and entertainment business partner ecosystem.

Open Standards-Based Connectors for Media Services

As part of the ongoing enhancements, IBM has developed the Abstract Service Definition (ASD) for media services. The ASD outlines how to efficiently create web-service connections that standardize media service connectivity. This brings consistency to the software development process by providing a high-level, common description of media services. IBM has defined 11 initial classes of services using the ASD construct for common media functions such as encoding, transcoding, watermarking, archive, playout and scheduling.


"Moving from a tightly coupled and rigid workflow environment -- which drains productivity and budgets -- to common standards will be beneficial for the entire industry," said Steve Canepa, general manager, IBM Media & Entertainment industry. "Having a 'smarter' software architecture that allows media firms to pick the best applications and solutions for their needs and connect them into their workflows is a tremendous step forward."


IBM is also publishing technical guidelines for software developers to write ASDs:

The guidelines will enable software developers to use the ASD classes as templates to build standards-based connectors for IBM's Media Hub Solution Framework and other open systems-based platforms.


Among the software developers already offering support of the ASD for media services are:

Inlet Technologies is building transcode and quality control ASD connectors. The transcode connector, built on Inlet's Fathom(R) and Armada(TM) products, will offer support for a vast array of input and output codecs as well as low-level compressionist settings to maximize quality. The quality control connector, based on Inlet's Semaphore(TM) software, will offer business-rule driven automated quality control integration, and allow for both format compliance and audio/video integrity to be checked in a common set of customizable rules.

ScheduALL : Drawing upon its expertise in enabling streamlined scheduling of resources and media assets, ScheduAll is working with IBM to enable the smooth integration of scheduling systems with other key systems in large enterprises that move and manipulate the digital content and data used in the broadcast and media production industries. The challenge today is about more than scheduling rooms, people and equipment; it's about making sure that the right media is in the right place at the right time to support efficient operations.


Metaglue is supporting this industry initiative with its experience in MXF, metadata and Service Oriented Architectures. Metaglue is providing test implementations and assistance in drafting technical standards and the firm's MXF source library is being employed to provide an efficient and flexible development environment.

NAB Demo Integrates Cloud Computing with IBM Media Hub

Consumers now expect to be able to access music, video and other media on a multitude of platforms and devices. In order to keep up with this proliferation of media formats, media and entertainment firms will need to be able to produce and distribute content at a much lower cost while quickly responding to fluctuations in demand. As storage, security, delivery and quality of service become even more key to survival in this environment, cloud computing has emerged as a smarter way to deliver and consume media, with unbounded scalability and lower costs than managing data center sprawl.

At the NAB Convention in Las Vegas, NV, IBM will unveil a technology preview integrating cloud computing with its Media Hub solution (Booth SU-3717). Not yet available commercially, the demonstration will run real-time work processes that take advantage of two cloud capabilities:

A virtualized IBM storage infrastructure that uses cloud computing technologies to seamlessly link in storage capacity in the IBM Research Lab in LaGaude, France.

Augmentation of Transcoding Resources -- Broadcasters typically maintain massive server farms that offer multiple back up capabilities for transcoding (the translation of digital files into other formats). But they often face transcoding challenges when the servers are maxed out or they have a rush job. The IBM demo will use a standards-based interface to integrate transcoding work processes with mPOINT, Inc, a public cloud transcoding solution provider. This will demonstrate how cloud computing can be used to augment existing transcoding resources to provide on-the-fly capacity increases for this time-consuming and computationally demanding process.