Archive of the Metadata Category

Back from the show. I like taking a day or so after my last postings to look through everything I’ve collected, selecting some last items to include in a final wrapup. While that’s not a lot of time for deep reflection, I am at least far enough away from the hype of the moment to enable a bit of perspective.

At the NAB press office earlier this week I overheard an NAB official talk to the editor of one of the leading trade mags. He was asked about what he thought would be among the most exciting developments of the show. Instead, he begged off answering, stating that as far as he was concerned it was all just a rehash. He could find nothing new or interesting worth commenting on. more

With the increasing use of capable high-end digital cameras, the ability to manipulate data as soon as possible looks to yield great benefits in speeding production as well as ensuring delivery of the directors vision. UK-based FilmLight made a move in this increasingly competitive space–Arri, da Vinci, and LaserPacific are just a few of the companies working on products and proposed solutions–with the introduction of Truelight On-Set at the show.

The company has made a name for itself as one as the leaders in color management technology in post. On-Set takes that capability to the earlier stages of a production, enabling the director and DP to set a look during the shoot that will serve as the foundation for color correction in post. more

After three days of looking at multiple enterprise encoding systems, I decided that I couldn’t meaningfully tell them apart by a features and benefits approach. I had to look at the high level product philosophy. Fortunately, I was meeting with two companies that couldn’t have been further apart. Briefly, Anystream wants to be a soup to nuts provider, while Rhozet wants to provide the best darn encoding tool available, and that’s it.

Note that neither approach is right or wrong, just more or less well suited for what you’re looking for in an enterprise encoding system. Between the two companies, you’ll see the extremes of this type of product offering.

In this post, I’ll discuss Anystream, where I met with Russell Zack, Anystream’s VP of Product Management, and Ken Haren, a technical representative who helped me during a recent review of Anystream Agility. I started the conversation by asking Russell why a customer should choose Anystream over any other system. Check out Rhozet’s pitch more

As HBO’s Christian Wilson urged me to do on Sunday, I stopped by the Aspera booth (SU15509) this morning to learn more about that company’s high-speed file transfer software suite. I was fortunate to run into Michelle Munson, Aspera’s president and co-founder, while I was there, and she filled me in on the company’s story.

While the technical explanation of how Aspera’s “fasp 2.0″ software suite addresses the twin issues of speed and ultra-security for major entertainment clients like HBO, Technicolor, Ascent Media, EFilm, and many others–most of whom are building Aspera, one way or another, into their larger digital asset management suite of tools–is interesting and important, I was most struck by another part of the story Munson addressed. more

The Adobe press dinner is always a lot of fun for me; a chance to hobnob with the product folks I talk to all year round, meet with some of the higher ups and drink really expensive single malt scotch (Lagavulin last night for those who care about such things).

And, of course, you get to hear what the product folks are working on for upcoming versions. One item I can talk about is an audio-to-text capability that I’ll see demonstrated in Adobe’s booth this afternoon at 2:00. I couldn’t help but think about the devastating Doonesbury comics lampooning the handwriting recognition capabilities of Apple’s Newton. But even if the Adobe software only successfully converts 75-90% of speech to text, the implications are immense. more

Back from Avid (see Jan Ozer’s earlier post). And if Dan Ochiva doesn’t fill you in on the new PCI Express-enabled harware upgrades to Mojo and Nitris I will. I didn’t get to ask about the non-future of Xpress Pro, but I’ll try to when I next talk to Avid here at the show they did not attend.

So, by way of segue, Avid certainly gets the metadata concept, and I expect a lot more from them along those lines upcoming. It’s the new black and with good reason.

Metadata is another topic at the Adobe booth–part of their so-called sneak peeks. more

One of the best things you can do with your time here is digest the presentations at the Adobe booth. Not so much the usual stuff–features of Premiere Pro and After Effects, etc. It’s more important to take in the demos related to distribution (Adobe Media Player/Adobe Flash Player) and Flash-related content creation. That means in all tools; for example, look at what an interactive SWF file looks like coming out of Encore DVD. Also take in the Sneak Peek presentations–all to help visualize the metadata driven future. Whether for traditional, linear film resolultion projects or production for web and mobile, Adobe’s put forth some ideas that are helpful to consider.

I got the nickel tour from Simon Hayhurst. Some highlights: more

After years of hearing about it, we’ve learned that we at least aught to be open to using metadata, even if we’re not too clear about what it is or where it fits in with our day-to-day work life.

At the show, a number of new and upgraded products are making us think we better get with the program.

GridIron Software’s GridIron Flow offers a pretty slick solution. Due to hit public beta in a few months, it still managed to win a Best of Show at Macworld 2008. It’s digital content management software for those working on graphic design, web, and video projects. The software (Mac and PC) tracks the design process by creating a graphic image file to represent the relationship between the software on a computer and the files that software creates. more