When Australia’s leading subscription television operator Foxtel had a requirement for a smart media asset management system the evaluation and assessment process resulted in the use of Media Room from Silver Trak.
Foxtel Networks Australia Head of Content Operations Rachel Thorley explained, “Media Room serves two purposes, the Production Portal and the Publicity Portal. The purpose of the Production Portal is to enable Foxtel’s production department to store and archive production content, production houses to share content with Foxtel’s production department and Foxtel’s production department to deliver commissioned content to other parties. The purpose of the Publicity Portal is to replace the DVD delivery service where previously Foxtel publicity made DVD copies of key programs and posted them to journalists for review. Both these portals are now part of our daily workflow.”
Silver Trak’s Media Room smart media storage, management and delivery service is used by some of Australia’s largest free to air broadcasters, streaming companies and content providers including Foxtel, Transmission Films and Entertainment One. Media Room addresses the specific needs of any broadcaster, production house, post production house or distributor who has media assets they want to store, manage and deliver from the convenience of any web connected device. In simple terms it gives the user 100% control over their assets and the ability to use Silver Trak’s services such as QC, file storage or Aspera fasp™ high speed data transfers without paying any licence fees and without leaving the comfort of their seat.
Thorley continued, “When we did our evaluation and assessment of available systems on the market we found that Media Room met our objectives. Media Room is also particularly easy to use.”
At Foxtel when using the Production Portal ‘rough cuts’ are sent from external production house to Foxtel’s internal production team for review and approval, then stored and archived. In the Publicity Portal ‘screeners’, promos, and synopsis are shown and incorporated into a campaign at Foxtel Publicity which is then made available to other external parties to view online.
Thorley added, “Media Room has been custom-built to Foxtel’s requirements and meets our needs. Media Room is simple to use and as it is completely outsourced, does not require additional hardware or storage.”
Media Room’s latest feature is the system’s unique per-campaign per-delivery watermarking solution which enables users to upload their own watermarks and apply them in campaigns and deliveries. This new level of security sits alongside the already successful HLS-encrypted screeners and passcode protection offered by Media Room.
Media Room’s offering doesn’t end with storage and management of media assets. The system has been designed to allow for assets to be viewed in customised ‘media rooms’ where users can decide on access and viewing rights thereby enabling a personalised viewing service for their clients. Once viewed the assets can also be delivered anywhere in the world at the click of a button. Assets are automatically transcoded into five proxies and data selection is automated for any browser enabling a superior viewing experience irrespective of viewing device or speed of Internet access.
Silver Trak MD Christian Christiansen said, “Media Room works so well for Foxtel because it is unlike any other asset management and delivery service. We developed Media Room in-house, in Australia and it is still fully owned by an Australian company. There is no charge to upload or populate your own Media Room and aside from your small monthly subscription, you only pay when you use any of Media Room or Silver Trak’s services. All assets are stored redundantly and all are easily accessible at anytime. This means Foxtel, indeed all of our clients, many of whom are dealing with their own international clients, can upload, view, amend and deliver those assets 24/7. No one need be restricted any longer by office hours, plane schedules or expensive courier deliveries. Also all assets are all QC’d via the industry-renowned Interra Baton system with the QC reports readily available. When you’re ready you can send proxies as well as the high res assets using the infrastructure we’ve built on the world-class and industry standard Aspera platform. It really is as easy as that.”
Media Room allows the seamless flow of content between Foxtel’s external partners and Foxtel’s production team. This is something Thorley sees as a bonus as she concluded, “The seamless flow of content enabled by Media Room saves us time and money, which has helped us to be more efficient. Media Room also allows the creation of programming campaigns and distribution to external publicity parties with the added bonus of easily viewed usage statistics. In addition, Silver Trak’s sales, service and support that backs up Media Room is excellent.”
For more press information contact Salvatore Di Muccio on +61 412 64 99 64 or at salvatore@wellabove.com