The next phase of media asset management: automated production and delivery of customized DVDs

Post, July, 2004 by Mark Hirsch

Having been actively involved with digital asset management for more than five years, I have had both the pleasure and pain of consulting with organizations to determine how current technologies can address their needs. It is surprising that so many clients come to the table wanting to manage their media without truly considering how they might re-use their assets once contained in a MAM system. Clients are starting to understand that delivery is a vital aspect of the asset management proposition.

Convenient and effective delivery of assets has been the missing piece for fulfilling the promise of MAM for many organizations. Recent developments have enabled DVDs (and DVD/CDs) to become the output format of choice for media-oriented asset management professionals. The key development is the ability to automatically generate professional-quality, fully-authored DVDs directly from a browser-based MAM system.

THE POPULARITY OF DVDS

A few years ago I was one of five digital video experts interviewed by Post Magazine to predict the adoption of DVD technologies. The consensus, that DVD would become a popular format for both consumers and professionals, could not have been more stunningly under-predicted. The adoption rate of the DVD technology has amazed supporters and pundits alike, and DVD players have become the most rapidly adopted consumer technology in history.

Hollywood studios quickly embraced this delivery format, resulting in a significant change in their entire revenue model. Now approximately 50 percent of the revenue that a major studio obtains from a film release is derived from the DVD sales. As a result of this newly found revenue stream, there is currently a hot debate in Hollywood between studios and creative personnel about the sharing of these revenues, especially since the cost of a DVD is remarkably low relative to the profit, which has become enormous.

Corporate America has adopted the use of DVDs for training purposes, new product releases and distribution of instructional videos. Major boardroom and conference centers now include a DVD player as standard equipment for A/V productions. This enables presentations to include high-end video and audio, and marketing departments are quietly adopting the format for event-related productions and takeaways.

For creative individuals, tools from companies like Sonic, Apple and Adobe have enabled even greater access to create high-end DVD productions. Unfortunately, authoring these professional DVDs is a time-consuming process. However, the result is a stunning visual presentation, in many cases rivaling the quality and creativity of a Holly-wood release. Appreciating the high-quality, companies are now pushing their creative groups for faster delivery of more comprehensive DVD projects.

Advertising agencies, eager to proclaim the end of 3/4-inch tape machines, have embraced the use of DVDs for presentations, delivery of client materials and demo reels. Agencies have begun to make the wholesale adoption of this digital technology, even though the development process can be complicated and time consuming.

All of these companies are experiencing the production bottleneck associated with increased demand for the high-quality DVD. There's only so much a DVD artist can accomplish in a day, and budgets do not allow for additional hirings. Fortunately, there are two products that attempt to automate the production of DVD projects. The first is a hardware product from Pioneer called the PRV-LXI. The second is an integrated hardware/software system from Pulse Digital called DVD SelectNet.

The Pioneer PRV-LXI is an appliance that records video onto DVD media without the need for a PC. The user captures video to the internal hard-drive and then, when ready, triggers the recording to the disc media. The PRV-LXI allows for the use of custom menus designed on another computer. However, that requires a separate software conversion tool. The PRV-LXI includes a single DVD recorder, but a second drive may be added for some additional throughput. For creating single DVDs by an editor or engineer, it's definitely worth investigating.

Pulse Digital's DVD SelectNet system is an integrated system that completely automates the production of highly-customized, authored DVDs ... without any human involvement. By integrating digital asset management with automated DVD production technologies, DVD SelectNet enables a company to maintain a centralized library of media for easy searching and retrieving of all assets. Using a standard Web browser, any user with permissions logs in from the network or the Internet to select media and request DVDs to be created.

The DVD SelectNet system automatically obtains the media, transcodes to MPEG-2, authors the disc with selectable features (including motion video buttons, custom titles and subtitles, transcoding bit rates, etc.), records the disc, prints the face of the disc in full-color magazine-quality and then sends an email notifying the user that the disc is ready. The turnkey system, in several configurations, includes a robotic DVD recording device that can accommodate several hundred discs for unattended production of customized DVD discs.