HITS

NAB 2017: Wazee Upgrades Digital Media Hub; Prime Focus Unveils Mobile Production Management Solution

LAS VEGAS — Harris Morris, chairman and CEO of Wazee Digital, couldn’t be more pleased with how the technology behind his company’s cloud-native video management and licensing services has progressed.

And the group maybe most responsible for Wazee’s advancement are the customers the company works with, he said at the NAB Show.

“Any time you try to do something disruptive, it’s hard finding customers who are bright, progressive, and willing to confront challenges,” Morris said. “There have been a lot of fits and starts in digital asset management … but we test and learn, test and learn.”

His comments came along with the unveiling of upgrades to Wazee Digital Media Hub, the company’s centralized, web-based system for the capture, publishing and syndication of content, especially content from sports rights holders and media and entertainment companies. A new gallery view — geared toward simplifying content organization and search — and the integration of Aspera Direct-to-S3 to accelerate file downloads, are the highlights of the new upgrade.

Using Digital Media Hub, content is ingested directly into Wazee Digital Core (the company’s cloud-native DAM solution), with the process occurring in near-real time. Once the content hits Core, approved users can work with it in Digital Media Hub immediately.

“Rights holders using Digital Media Hub already benefitted from having a single location for acquiring, processing, distributing, and storing media gleaned from live events. And users needing content already benefitted from being able to search and download from anywhere in the world through a central portal,” said Brian Eldredge, director of product line management
and live event services for Wazee Digital. “Now, thanks to this upgrade, all of those users will notice even more flexibility, simplicity, and speed in organizing, finding, and downloading content.

“And as rights holders deal with distributing an ever-increasing amount of content these days, they’ll be able to retain control of how it’s distributed and to whom.”

Also at NAB:

Source Digital

Source Digital CEO Hank Frecon is quick to suggest people substitute the term “second screen” with “omni-screen,” and for good reason: any screen can be the first screen for consumers today, and that’s the approach content companies need to have with delivery, he said at the NAB Show.

That’s the thinking behind a new partnership between Source Digital and video Platform as a Service (PaaS) company dostudioPRO. Embedded into dotstudioPRO’s offering, Source Digital’s SourceSync.io service — which interfaces with existing production data sources and asset management systems, in order to sync data associated with digital video — will help dotstudioPRO clients offer more details around programming for viewers, launch branded apps, and create new VOD services across every screen: mobile, web and those connected to set-tops.

“The solution helps enterprises and brands define an experience, and then build a solution specifically for any format needed,” Frecon said. “The evolution toward more personalized use of content in the broadcast industry commands brands to enable information for discovery wherever and whenever. [We] have the right combination of content monetization and self-publishing tools for unlocking opportunities to create new outlets for distributing and viewing content.”

Joe Pascual, CEO of dotstudioPRO, added: “Our clients are always looking to add more functionality to engage their audiences beyond transactional media buys and ad serving. Source Digital steps in and provides a completely non-intrusive path towards enhanced monetization.”

Part of the partnership appeal with Source Digital, Pascual added, was the content metadata offerings the company brought to the table, opening up the ability for consumers to find and shop for items seen in video.

“A lot of people think of metadata as these simple blocks of information, but it’s so much richer,” Frecon said. “This collaboration with dotstudioPRO is great for us … we’re always looking to prove out the ways that content brands can move beyond the traditional OTT defined platforms and open up a world of self-managed and self-published experiences.”

Adobe

Just ahead of NAB, Adobe announced an update for its filmmaker- and producer-centric Adobe Creative Cloud offering, with new artificial intelligence capabilities (powered by Adobe Sensei), support for 4K and virtual reality formats, and a motion graphics template addition.

While an announcement regarding upgraded cloud services may have been enough to carry Adobe through NAB week, the company saved another announcement to kick off the show: the results of its “State of Digital Video” report, which includes data from more than four billion TV Everywhere (TVE) authentications in North America. The report found that the mobile share of TVE views dropped below 50% in January, a first since Adobe’s been tracking.

Campbell Foster, director of product marketing for Adobe Primetime, attributed the shift to increased availability of single sign-on among hardware products, and better TVE products from broadcasters.

“TV consumption is moving back to the living room, but also more and more consumers are sharing their TVE passwords, something MVPDs (multichannel video programming distributors) need to start more attention to,” he said. He suggested that MVPDs begin limiting the number of devices that can be used with one subscription, and that they begin charging a little more each month for the availability of more.

The report found that more than 30% of TVE consumption is now on devices connected to TVs, up from 20% two years ago.

Prime Focus Technologies

Prime Focus Technologies used NAB to launch CREATE, a mobile app for end-to-end production management, one that covers everything from the screenplay to production in one software solution.

A production arm of the company’s CLEAR Media ERP Suite, the new offering aims to help creators digitize end-to-end every phase of content creation, with solutions for every part of the process (writers, creative, cast, vendors, art directors, make-up artists, etc.).

Script and screenplay review, audio script breakdown, approvals, location review, casting and more are covered in the CREATE app.

“CREATE is a natural extension of our Media ERP vision and the outcome of our conviction that extreme digitization of the production process is the need of the hour,” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, founder and CEO, Prime Focus Technologies. “It will help digitize end-to-end the pre-production and production phases involving hundreds of stakeholders and usher in never before efficiencies and a renewed focus on the creative product.”

Dell EMC

Dell EMC showed off its latest storage solutions at NAB, including its Isilon All-Flash and Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) platforms for TV broadcasters, content creators and content delivery providers.

The new solutions take into account the added elements of content creation today, including higher frame rates and resolutions, high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (WCG), the company said in a statement.
At NAB, Dell EMC showed demonstrations of high speed uncompressed 4K editing with Dell EMC’s partner Autodesk, and compressed 4K multi-stream editing with Adobe Premiere Pro CC, an element of Adobe Creative Cloud. And with its partner Brevity, Dell EMC demonstrated workflow enhancements using cloud protocols, enhancing workflows like high-speed transfers and transcoding to object-based storage.

The company also unveiled its first UHD Alliance-certified monitor for HDR 10 display.

“We’re thrilled to return to NAB to showcase our high-performing IT foundation for media and entertainment workflows so that the media industry can create, manage and deliver their best work. We look forward to collaborating with our customers, partners and media organizations to uncover new opportunities for media monetization and growing market share,” said Tom Burns, CTO of media and entertainment for Dell EMC.

Dolby

Mathias Bendull, head of consumer audio playback for Broadcast at Dolby, couldn’t be more pleased with how Dolby Atmos as progressed.

The next-gen, object based sound technology is seeing wider adoption not only among hardware companies, but broadcasters as well, with companies like BT Sport airing dozens of live sporting events with Dolby Atmos as an option. Bendull said that since BT Sport has offered Atmos, it’s seen its 4K UHD subscribers jump 25%.

“People have been very positive about the experience, and it’s become something consumers will actively look for,” he said. “We’re on a clear projector of Atmos becoming mainstream.”

Additionally, Bendull expressed excitement of the approval of AC-4 as part of the standard for ATSC 3.0, the next-gen, over-the-air technology in the pipeline for the U.S. Dolby’s AC-4 audio format “addresses the current and future needs of next-generation video and audio entertainment services including broadcast and Internet streaming,” according to the company.

“It’s led to a number of partners integrating AC-4 into their products in 2017,” he said.

On the video front, Dolby Vision — the company’s HDR offering — was demonstrated via live signals on set-tops from Broadcom at NAB, and  Roland Vlaicu, VP of Dolby Vision, touted numerous milestones for the technology: top UHD 4K sets are offering Dolby Vision, mobile devices are integrating the technology, and external playback devices like Google ChromeCast and Ultra HD Blu-ray players are doing the same.

“Dolby Vision momentum is growing and our ecosystem deployment is full steam ahead,” Vlaicu said. “Dolby Vision is the preferred HDR mastering workflow for major studios and growing number of creatives. Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, MGM, Universal, and Paramount currently deliver titles in Dolby Vision for OTT, and Lionsgate has committed to deliver titles in Dolby Vision soon.

“More than 100 home titles are available in Dolby Vision via VUDU, Netflix, and Amazon Video, and more than 100 hours of original content are available on Netflix and Amazon. At CES, Warner Bros, Lionsgate, and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced commitment to deliver Dolby Vision on Ultra HD Blu-ray disc in 2017.”