Empowering file-based radio production through media asset management systems

In recent years, IT-based production and archiving of media has matured to a level which enables broadcasters to switch over from tape- or CD-based to file-based workflows for the production of their radio and television programs. This technology is essential for the future of broadcasters as it provides the flexibility and speed of execution the customer demands by enabling, among others, concurrent access and production, faster than real-time ingest, edit during ingest, centrally managed annotation and quality preservation of media. In terms of automation of program production, the radio department is the most advanced within the VRT, the Flemish broadcaster. Since a couple of years ago, the radio department has been working with digital equipment and producing its programs mainly on standard IT equipment. Historically, the shift from analogue to digital based production has been a step by step process initiated and coordinated by each radio station separately, resulting in a multitude of tools and metadata collections, some of them developed in-house, lacking integration. To make matters worse, each of those stations adopted a slightly different production methodology. The planned introduction of a company-wide Media Asset Management System allows a coordinated overhaul to a unified production architecture. Benefits include the centralized ingest and annotation of audio material and the uniform, integrated (in terms of IT infrastructure) workflow model. Needless to say, the ingest strategy, metadata management and integration with radio production systems play a major role in the level of success of any improvement effort. This paper presents a data model for audio-specific concepts relevant to radio production. It includes an investigation of ingest techniques and strategies. Cooperation with external, professional production tools is demonstrated through a use-case scenario: the integration of an existing, multi-track editing tool with a commercially available Media Asset Management System. This will enable an uncomplicated production chain, with a recognizable look and feel for all system users, regardless of their affiliated radio station, as well as central retrieval and storage of information and metadata.