During the Olympics, Norway’s national broadcaster NRK (Norsk Rikskringkasting) put together a multilevel asset management and logging operation using a customized scheme based on the metadata handling capabilities of OmniBus Systems' OPUS system. NRK’s separate HD Olympic production team also used the metadata for quick identification of material from each of 12 incoming feeds.
With the system in place, NRK's 12 regional production centers were able to rapidly locate clips with detailed search criteria in more than 140 data categories and gain instant access to material as it was logged in Oslo.
Each day, up to 15 simultaneous Olympic feeds were recorded using OmniBus Ingest Manager at NRK’s main Oslo site, with a team of eight loggers working in shifts to add metadata. Using the OPUS system’s search tools, staff at NRK's 12 regional production centers could immediately access the material and view copies of required clips. Logged events were used for shot selection to help build highlights packages quickly or to trigger media transfers to any of the NRK sites across Norway.
To ensure operators would be able to keep abreast of the workflow, NRK’s technical staff devised a custom metadata schema that allowed operators to define material by each event classification and by key points of interest within the event (such as break points in a tennis match). Each event had its own further level of specific, custom data. To speed the logging process, the metadata fields were linked to a database of keywords, providing automatic completion of frequently used names and terms.
Leveraging the OPUS G3 technology, NRK created tailored interfaces for each event and, as a result, increased the efficiency of data entry. An additional "kuriosa" event feature allowed operators and producers to identify amusing or odd moments in the action that did not fit into any of the other categories.
OPUS made systemwide searches available to users across all 12 of NRK’s regions, using either the OmniBus SmartClient, a Web-based technology, or the OmniBus G3 desktop applications for intranet searching, browse and keyframe viewing across the varied platforms comprising NRK's installations. In addition, staff at an OmniBus G3 desktop could control routing and machine operation via consistent and unified user interface, whether ingesting, browsing the archive, or making shot selections and exporting content to a craft editor.
For more information, visit http://www.omnibus.tv/.
