GLENDALE CA, March 11, 2008--The television and media industry‘s increasing integration of IT workflow solutions for improving content production and delivery methods poses special challenges for technology professionals tasked with implementing these systems. Although such IT-derived approaches as Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA, a design methodology used to connect media systems as services), and Business Process Management (BPM, the art of orchestrating these services), are being successfully adopted by television and media facilities, industry-specific roadblocks remain. These include the need for IT systems to provide nonlinear, flexible workflow in television and media facilities, as well as mission-critical performance when handling large amounts of real-time data, and other unique requirements.
Now, a new book titled The Service-Oriented Media Enterprise: SOA, BPM, and Web Services in Professional Media Systems (published by Focal Press) is available that clarifies these IT challenges and solutions for television and media technology professionals. Written by John Footen, the NTC Vice President in charge of the company‘s Software Solutions Group, and Joey Faust, an NTC Consultant, the book provides essential information for improving current media-enterprise technologies and operations.
"Every organization in the television and media industry--in one form or another--must examine how they approach their need for greater agility and visibility in their technical systems and business processes or workflows,” Footen explains. “Agility is essential for exploiting new-revenue opportunities in the deployment of next-generation DTV, HDTV, and new-media services. This agility and visibility can be achieved with SOA and BPM. This new book is intended to show that there are approaches to these issues that have been being adopted in the IT space that are directly applicable to media. The book also examines how the special characteristics of the television and media business can be accommodated by SOA and BPM."
"Media organizations are beginning to adopt SOA-style architectures, but they still face hurdles unique to the media/entertainment industry,” adds Faust. “We wrote The Service-Oriented Media Enterprise: SOA, BPM, and Web Services in Professional Media Systems to encourage media technologists, broadcast engineers, and other professionals to move past the ‘exploration phase‘ with SOA and BPM and onto a productive era of detailed service definition and process formalization."
“John Footen has more than 20 years of experience in the operation, design, and installation of media systems around the globe and has led the Software Solutions Group at NTC through a number of projects with these techniques,” states Chuck Phelan, an NTC Managing Partner. “Joey Faust has distinguished himself at NTC as a ‘technology evangelist‘ for new software architectures in media and the use of open standards and federated, workflow-based integration technologies. Together they have the combined expertise to provide television and media professionals with a clear understanding of the benefits of SOA, BPM, and other IT-derived solutions--and how the special needs of the television and media industry place unique requirements on such solutions.”
The Service-Oriented Media Enterprise: SOA, BPM, and Web Services in Professional Media Systems includes such special features as:
• A complete overview of SOA and BPM, specific for media-based organizations.
• Technical information about SOA and BPM standards and how they are used.
• A How-to Guide for jump-starting SOA projects within the media enterprise.
• Complete service-example code and descriptions.
Published by Focal Press with a list price of $59.95, the book is available from Amazon.com and other major booksellers. For review copies please contact Sheri Dean Allen, Focal Press Senior Publicity and Marketing Manager, at Sheri.Deanallen@elsevier.com.
About National TeleConsultants: National TeleConsultants (NTC) is the United States‘ largest independent media systems consulting, design, and implementation firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York. NTC specializes in strategic technology consulting, media-related facility design and engineering, and systems integration. For more information, visit www.ntc.com.
