In Broadcast - July 2013 - 64

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 21 - JULY 2013

N E W S

InMEDIA

Blue Lucy Media Launches Revamped
Asset Management Browser Interface
B

lue Lucy Media (BLM), a UKbased provider of advanced
video processing modules and
asset management, has announced
the launch of an all-new, browserbased user interface to Blue Lucy
Asset Manager (BLAM) and the
other BLM Service components.
Blue Lucy Media’s new browser
offers global accessibility to its
media management tool set,
which means that all workflow
management operations – from
ingest, through sub-clipping to
fulﬁlment can be managed through
its highly customisable interface
from anywhere in the world.
BLM CEO Julian Wright said:
“The new interface really comes
into its own when enriching
essence catalogue metadata and
syndicating content. BLAM’s built
in web server allows private and
public clouds to be created, which

64

decentralises content cataloguing
operations and greatly extends the
reach of syndication – and therefore
monetisation – of digitised content.”
BLM has also continued to
reduce the cost and complexity
of automated tape archive
digitisation and featured its new
VTR Status Monitoring software at
BroadcastAsia. The BLM VTR Status
Monitoring plug-in is designed for
use with BLM’s Ingest Service to
ensure video tape (VT) issues, such
as dust/debris on a tape or low RF,
are minimised.
Utilising Sony’s Interactive Status
Reporting (ISR) protocol, the plug-in
monitors VTR channel status during
ingest operations and records any
VT ‘amber’ or ‘red’ conditions
against time-code. The output from
the plug-in can be used to stop and
restart, or stop and abort, ingest to
ensure VT errors are not retained

on the written file. Alternatively
the plug-in can create a quality
control report during ingest, which
is saved to the BLAM and ﬂagged
for visual inspection using BLM’s
Baseband Video Player Service, also
new this year.
The BLM Baseband Video Player
Service provides a simple way to
play back media ﬁles on a broadcast
monitor by decoding to baseband.
Operationally, the desktop player
application provides frame accurate
random seek access to a media ﬁle,
which can be stored anywhere on
a network. In workﬂows that utilise
BLM VTR Status Monitor plugin the baseband player timeline
is populated with visual markers
that highlight reported errors for
rapid assessment.
Wright concluded: “These new
video processing components are
designed to support unattended

bulk digitisation operations and
ensure that the highest levels of
quality control are maintained with
minimal operational intervention.
“We believe this further afﬁrms
our status as the ‘go to’ company
for archive digitisation and
preservation.”

The Shift To Live Streaming – But Who Is Monitoring It?
By
Hiren Hindocha,
CEO,
Digital Nirvana

T

oday in the media industry, there
is a lot of buzz surrounding
4K, the cloud, and streaming
technologies. There’s a demand
for ‘TV Anywhere and Content
Everywhere’. Consumers want
access to high-quality content on
all of their devices, and content
owners are scrambling to provide
this for them.
While media consumption has
changed rapidly over the past
few years, streaming media has
particularly accelerated thanks to
broadband’s increased penetration
and the faster bandwidth speeds
it enables. Companies like Netﬂix,
Google, Amazon, Redbox, Hulu
have capitalised on the availability
and speed of broadband delivery.
And content owners (whether
broadcast or print) are all video
producers. Every major market TV
station is live streaming or on the
verge of live streaming its content.
Some even stream live 24/7.
In addition to the traditional
broadcasters, print publications
such as the Wall Street Journal,
have moved to video streaming producing video and publishing it
on the Web. The distinction between

print and broadcast in the online
space is quickly deteriorating.
What of the future for the muchdiscussed mobile TV? In my opinion,
mobile TV is dead or at least
terminal. By mobile TV, I refer to the
ability to receive broadcast signals
on a device like phone and tablets
using a mobile DTV receiver that’s
either plugged into the device or is
embedded within the device. For the
widespread adoption of mobile TV,
the receiver needs to be embedded
into phones and tablets. And the
industry is just not there yet.
In the US, telecommunications’
technologies are dictated by the
large carriers. There is no advantage
to the telcos to embed these chips.
Instead they would rather promote
streaming that consumes bandwidth,
which they can monetise.
Streaming currently represents the
brightest future for media delivery.
Not only does it allow providers to
reach their audience, it also presents
a way for them to gather rich data
about their audience and their
content (viewership details, etc.)
In this context, the monitoring of
streamed programming becomes
important in terms of complying
with FCC regulations, advertising
verification, and checking the
streaming quality.
This past April, Digital Nirvana
was first to introduce its new
product, Anystream IQ, at the NAB
convention. AnyStream IQ records
live streams, extracts the closed

Digital Nirvana’s Anystream IQ records live streams, extracts the closed captions,
and provides alerts on the loss of captions, audio and video

captions, and provides alerts on the
loss of captions, audio and video. As
a cloud-based solution, there’s no
need to install hardware or software.
All that’s required is a web browser.
While we expected a strong
reaction to Anystream IQ from local
stations that stream live and need
a service like AnyStreamIQ to log
streams and ensure compliance
with FCC regulations, we were
more surprised by the response
from content distributors that stream
video online. Think of them as “cable
providers” for the Internet or content

aggregators for the Web.
Until now, there hasn’t been any
product available that enables
content distributors to monitor
their “online channels”. One NAB
attendee mentioned a Network
Operating Centre where teams
of operators with iPads monitor
the streams manually and report
on discrepancies. AnyStream IQ
automates that process, removing
the possibility of human error from
something so critical to a station’s
bottom-line.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0. http://WWW.INBROADCAST.COM http://www.bluelucymedia.com/documents/BLAM_web.pdf http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NdAz6mPhAyU#at=12
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