What can metadata do for you?

Metadata is an essential component of Media Asset Management (MAM) systems since it enables a more professional management of media assets. The term metadata refers to information about media assets, including information about their creation, usage, and distribution. This information is used to manage the lifecycle of media assets and to make them more discoverable and usable.

Using metadata in MAM systems can also help to improve the overall quality of media assets. For example, metadata can be used to ensure that media assets are properly tagged with keywords, making it easier to find related assets. Additionally, metadata can be used to automatically generate reports and statistics, providing valuable insights into the usage and performance of media assets.

Metadata exists in its most simple forms when you check the Properties or Details of any file or even a picture stored on your phone. When working with a MAM software, the more metadata a file contains, the more advanced and detailed/accurate the search of material uploaded to the system can be. In a MAM system you can see the search results as visual thumbnails or in preview formats, which for example a DAM software does not provide. One interesting feature of metadata that is not commonly known is that a user can encrypt metadata.

The amount of metadata has to however be kept to a limited amount of information since metadata naturally takes space. The amount of information related to a file varies depending on file format since each format contains different types and amount of metadata. Most online services or file transfer services use so called proxies which do not transfer any metadata and therefore elimiate the possibility for a more advanced use of the content.

What information does metadata provide?

Metadata are not only stored for descriptive reasons. With all available information you can search metadata with a broad range of parameters, such as time and date of creation and upload, versions, processing stages, picture and video styles or types, languages, technical equipments, digital rights managements, names of the production crew, production location (GPS locations), play duration, qualities, file size, codecs, name and content of clip (plus everything else that users manually stored as text in the MAM system). With this information or any combination of search details you can either manually or automatically find what you are looking for. This is one of the main functions and benefits of a MAM system.

The many benefits of using metadata in MAM systems include:

  1. Better organization: Metadata provides a way to categorize and organize media assets, making it easier to find and manage them.
  2. Improved searchability: Metadata can be used to search for media assets, making it easier to find the assets you need.
  3. Better collaboration: Metadata can be used to track the usage and distribution of media assets, making it easier to collaborate with others.
  4. Increased efficiency: Metadata can automate many processes, such as adding assets to a library, updating asset information, and generating reports.

When you are interested in a more advanced use of metadata, the Flow MAM software gives you the opportunity to manage and manipulate metadata in media files. In our software you can read, write, and edit metadata information in all media file types. Our features related to metadata can for example extract metadata information, such as image exif data, IPTC data, audio and video codec information. Users can add, modify, or delete metadata information in media files, such as changing image captions, modifying audio and video codec information, and updating document metadata. Users can also process multiple media files at once, making it easier to manage and manipulate large collections of media assets.

Metadata in photography

A camera adds a basic set of metadata by default; time and date of creation, the camera model, the firmware version of the camera, its serial number camera-/device specific metadata, photographer name (if added to the settings). In addition, there is content specific metadata that describes key technical parameters of the creation process such as ISO value (light sensitivity value). To each picture taken, there is alot of technical metadata that gives codec, file and quality aspects: resolution of pictures and videos, amount and datarates of the streams, codecs used, derivatives that were already made in the camera while shooting, DPI numbers of pictures and so on.

All such detailed metadata can become handy when you need to perform a detailed search of your content. As an example, if you are looking for pictures with a stylish bokeh effect, you could search for open aperture sizes of camera lenses, like f/1.4 or f/1.8 for example. So, even if the editor did not enter and save those details, you can search the auto-generated metadata of the files to find specific pictures and video styles, or low light/over bright shot scenes by their ISO number and the according shutter speeds, directly stored from the camera itself, to search for night or daylight scenes, whether a flash was used or blocked. This is an amazing feature to use when you have alot of content and need to quickly get access to specific material.

When content is being edited, a set of metadata can be added to the content to track the process. The editing stage of a media content during processing, post-processing, archiving and delivery can also be within the metadata, which gives clear overview of the latest versions or already shared files. Most editing softwares also automatically write metadata to processed files (ex. DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Photoshop, Avid ProTools etc.), and typically also versioning systems are generating metadata to a file, that can be used within MAM systems.

Additionally, DRM (digital rights management) can be included in the metadata which gives an overview of the rights management of content. For example, copyrights exist for using the file to be showed in cinema, radio stations etc.

Different types of metadata

  1. Technical metadata: This type of metadata includes information about the technical aspects of a media asset, such as its format, resolution, and file size.
  2. Descriptive metadata: This type of metadata includes information about the content of a media asset, such as its title, description, and keywords.
  3. Structural metadata: This type of metadata includes information about the structure of a media asset, such as its chapters, segments, and shots.
  4. Administrative metadata: This type of metadata includes information about the management of a media asset, such as its owner, date of creation, and copyright information.
  5. Temporal metadata: This type of metadata includes information about the time-based aspects of a media asset, such as its duration, frame rate, and timecode.
  6. Spatial metadata: This type of metadata includes information about the geographic location of a media asset, such as its GPS coordinates and location name.

In addition to these types of metadata, there are also industry-specific metadata standards that can be used in MAM systems. For example, the Motion Picture Industry Branch (MPAA) has developed a standard for descriptive metadata, called the MPAA Rating System, which is used to rate the content of movies.

In conclusion, metadata is an essential component of Media Asset Management systems, providing many benefits and enabling organizations to better manage and utilize their media assets. With the right metadata standards and practices in place, MAM systems can help to improve the efficiency, organization, and quality of media assets, making it easier for organizations to find and use the media assets they need.

January 30, 2023 Media Asset Management, Metadata No comments yet
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Media Asset Management for beginners

Are you new to Media Asset Management and wondering what it is all about? Media Asset Management (MAM in brief) is for most people an unknown term. We want to give a brief introduction into the world of Media Asset Management and explain a few great benefits of it for someone who is new to the topic and wants to get started with the basics.

Is your hard-drive(s) full and you already tried transferring digital material to the cloud, which still did not solve the issue since the storage quickly gets expensive? Are you storing your content on several USB sticks and/or hard-drives and struggling to stay on top of where specific files are stored and spending a lot of time on searching, moving and trying to manage versions of the content? Not to mention the problems related to sharing content or cooperating with others during production. Worried about back-ups? These are often some of the first problem that occur when the need of a MAM system starts to be topical.

What is a media asset actually?

Media Assets are simply put all digital picture, video or audio files – also simply called content in many contexts. We all produce such media assets when for example taking pictures with our mobile phone, a camera or a drone. When the quantity and/or size of media assets grows, or there is a need to work with media assets in business context, there is quickly a need for a software that can help keep order of all the media assets, optimize the use of them in various contexts, such as sharing them to others, saving them on a cloud or collaborating with others during production. We will glance through a few of the most relevant added values of Media Asset Management and why it matters to everyone, both private persons and companies, who produces media assets.

#1 A MAM SOFTWARE CONNECTS AN UNLIMITED NUMBER OF STORAGES AND PROVIDES ACCESS TO THEM THROUGH ONE SINGLE INTERFACE

Digital storage is a topic of its own, with multiple solutions available. We will not dig deeper into the actual storage solutions here. It is however a topic for anyone who works with a larger number of media assets. A typical situation is that the material cumulates over time, resulting in a jungle of hard-drives and USB sticks that are all their own entities and require resources to stay on top of. A NAS device (Network Attached Storage device) can offer several benefits related to for example back-ups or easy access to the material. However, to get the most out of any storage system or combination of multiple storage units, a Media Asset Management software provides a very easy and simple way to connect all storages and to access them through one single interface – for as many users as needed. This can be said to be the most basic added value that a professional MAM software can offer to anyone. The interface we talk about here is simply a browser-based user interface. Our software can be installed on any device that runs on Linux (x86_64 Intel or AMD) Architecture. The Flow can also be installed directly on selected NAS device from the producer QNAP.

#2 A MAM SOFTWARE WILL SAVE YOU ENERGY COSTS AND ELECTRICITY

Digital activity naturally consumes electricity, digital storage space and Internet lines. It therefore matters to use efficient hardware that minimizes the use of electricity as much as it matters to optimize the digital processes so that they in turn minimize the use of both hardware and cloud storage as well as the capacity of Internet lines. A professional Media Asset Management software, such as Flow, will optimize the use of all these three parts so that the user efficiently can manage its content from a cost and energy point of view. More about this topic in our previous article Green Tech concerns every organisation

#3 EASILY FIND CONTENT WITH METADATA AND PREVIEW IT VISUALLY

Metadata and the advanced search functionality related to it is one of the key features of a professional MAM software. This is also one main thing that sets a MAM software apart from for example a Digital Asset Management (DAM) software. With a MAM software you can “find your stuff” and visually preview it in the search field.

Metadata is basically various types of information about content that can be the name of a file, the length of a video clip, GPS locations used in production, language and the date when it was produced. In our coming articles we will dig deeper into the topic of metadata since it is such an interesting topic of its own. More advanced metadata becomes relevant when working with larger volumes of content or in a business context. The Flow software allows detailed metadata for each content that not only is useful related to search, but that can also be used to link together related material or to find materials from the Archive (storage place for material that is no longer actively used). In addition, metadata is important during the production phase when there are multiple versions to manage.

#4 OPTIMIZING FILE SIZE AUTOMATICALLY TO SAVE STORAGE SPACE AND ENABLE SMOOTH SHARING

Without getting into the highly technical world of Media Asset Management we want to introduce the automated transcoding function that the Flow software contains. This function is something the user does not have to interact with, it operates in the background without requiring any user activity, but it is another of its key functions that distinguishes a Media Asset Management system from several alternative solutions such as Digital Asset Management systems or online video services (focusing on sharing/distributing content) or file transfer tools. The transcoder will automatically optimize the format and size of any content stored in the system. The benefit of this is that you can send optimized file sizes without blocking Internet lines, share videos without them getting stuck while viewing and use a minimal storage space.

#5 WHAT SERVICES WILL A MAM SOFTWARE REPLACE?

While so many users are unfamiliar with Media Asset Management and how it could make their life easier, they instead turn to different online services that do small parts of what a complete MAM system does, and that mostly also with poorer performance than a MAM system. This quickly gets expensive compared to working with a MAM system that eliminates the need for many smaller services. Such services are:

  • online video services focusing on only streaming or distributing video content
  • collaboration tools that only store a derivative (proxy) of the file, which makes the file unusable for future post productions. This type of a service also does not enable deep archiving, making it impossible to access the original files when needed.
  • file transfer tools do not offer any media management services with basic features such as previewing, transcoding or with metadata mostly not being available. Files are therefore transferred with unoptimized format and size, without important file information that is needed for basic MAM functions.

#6 A MAM SOFTWARE OFFERS UNLIMITED SCALING POSSIBILITIES AND FUNCTIONS AS A CONNECTING POINT TO OTHER SOFTWARES

When you get started with Media Asset Management and want to dive deeper into all its possibilities, the next level includes automated functionalities that are set up through workflows as well as integration of numerous other systems and platforms (such as Edits, QC, existing Transcoders) or specialized online services (such as file exchange or CDNs). The modular DNA of the Flow software allows the user to scale the system without limitations and to do this step-by-step as new additions are needed. Contact us to hear more!

January 13, 2023 Media Asset Management No comments yet