After spending a week in Las Vegas at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show it’s clear that the demand for managing video – often referred to as “Media Asset Management” (MAM) and for managing all kinds of digital files “Digital Asset Management” (DAM) — has grown substantially in the past year.
NAB historically has been the show for media & entertainment companies to meet with technology vendors, see what’s new and plan their future. And while the crowd still has a large proportion of broadcasters, cable operators, media and entertainment executives, advertising agencies and the expected military/intelligence government agencies, NAB has, over the past 5 years, become much broader, more diverse, and now includes companies and organizations outside of these typical media & entertainment fields. Increasingly its attendees include consumer brands, manufacturers, publishers, financial & insurance companies, religious organizations and healthcare/medical companies as well. What’s behind this expansion?
Digital video. Lots of it.
Over the past few years, companies have been rapidly accumulating digital video. And in many cases, they’ve been growing that on top the base of archived analog video (tapes, and other forms) they’ve accumulated over the years.
But, while the major theme (hype) at this year’s NAB was “3D”, two others trends seemed more applicable and concrete:
1. “Video everywhere” – Open support for providing video on across all kinds of devices — mobile, smart, handheld, and the new iPad class of devices. From educational tracks as part of the NAB conference to vendor’s products on the exhibit floor, this appeared as increasingly real, and important, with money starting to flow towards technologies across the ecosystem that enable people to distributed and consume video everywhere.
2. “Media Asset Management … NOW!” — This trend grew out of several hundred conversations with visitors. When speaking with people from these kinds of companies, all of them instantly stated in one way or another “I have a video management problem.” That was to be expected. But, surprisingly, it didn’t end there. As the conversations went on, a majority of them would state something along the lines of: “Well, it’s actually more than that. You see, we have video AND…” followed by other types of file types or media including images, photographs, cover art, scripts, transcripts, shot lists, related documents, advertising layouts or designs, audio files, cover art, graphics…. “that we need to manage, share, work with and distribute.”
In the course of these conversations, what many of them began to realize is that they didn’t have just a video management problem… They had a digital asset management problem. Either they had archives of video and other files they needed to manage better, or in most cases, they had all these files lying around unmanaged that were related to the video, or were needed by other groups in their organization or outside their organization (e.g., an ad agency, distributor, or partner). So while it was important to be able to work with video – to preview it, clip it, make a rough cut for output to Final Cut Pro (FCP) or Avid, and do all of this via a browser (from anywhere in their extended organization) — it was equally as important to be able to do the same thing with all of their “other” media – preview their brochures, cover art, images, pictures, graphics, audio files, PDFs, InDesign and Quark layouts, package them up, or share, distribute, or make them available in the right format for specific people to work with.
And it went beyond “management” of these digital files — that’s always the first step. The need was mostly concerned with supporting or enabling creative, production and distribution “workflows” or business processes that would save them time, speed their process up, save them money, or make them more nimble and agile in the use of thier digital media, their digital files.
This was honestly refreshing to hear. For years, most companies have ignored the quiet stockpiling of digital files. While the digital media elephant in the living room ate and grew, and grew and ate, no one seemed to take much notice of it’s presence. Now they are. And it’s an immediate concern. Companies that can more quickly and easily manage their video AND all the other related files, can more quickly and easily reach their customers, constituents or followers wherever they are. They can adjust their message or tailor it for each audience more easily, across geographies and devices. Doing so, means increased loyalty, increased opportunities — for engagement, brand awareness, sales and revenue. While “content is king”, “agility is queen”. Being able to manipulate, manage and move that media … will be a competitive advantage.
It makes me wonder: What are you doing about the elephant in your living room?