MIAMI—Primestream has introduced updates to its Xchange media asset management platform, which enable it to access and log “growing files” from live broadcast feeds as the content is being recorded. Xchange is designed to specifically help with news and sports production efficiencies.

The new Xchange ingest access feature lets users start creating a rough-cut edit of the program in real time as the live content is being captured in SDI- or IP-based operations, and then deliver the sequence immediately to air. A live clip can be reviewed, with timeline tools in Xchange being able to mark beginning and ending points of segments, as well as add metadata with descriptive comments to help with content search and retrieval.

Once a rough cut is done, the new Xchange features allow for transitions and graphics to be added for inclusion in a later scheduled program. The edit is also instantly available to editors working in the Xchange shared environment. Integration with NLE tools like Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro is also possible.

Primestream says that Xchange can be integrated with content distribution networks and more than 100 third-party providers for maximum MAM flexibility.

For more information, visit www.primestream.com.  

BOSTON—Primestream and storage company Wasabi have announced a partnership that will integrate Primestream’s Xchange media asset management platform with Wasabi storage for global asset management, archiving, content contribution, production and distribution.

The hybrid platform will combine Xchange’s ability to organize media libraries across various storage environments with Wasabi’s cloud storage. This is meant to allow media professionals to manage more content quickly, leverage AI, increase collaboration and provide a holistic view over an entire media library.

The new combination provides scalable cloud storage at a low-cost, according to Claudio LIsman, president and CEO of Primestream.

“Primestream’s Xchange media asset management platform enables production from anywhere and combined with Wasabi hot cloud storage provides an affordable hybrid solution for artists to work quickly and efficiently,” added David Friend, CEO of Wasabi.

For more information, visit www.primestream.com.  

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Like multinational organizations everywhere, Cisco Television started 2020 with one set of goals and expectations in mind, and then woke up to a harsh reality when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Almost overnight, we had to transition from producing major, high-profile, in-person events to an almost completely remote operation. Here’s the rundown on how we’ve accomplished that and the enabling technologies that have come into play.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

Nested within the Cisco sales and marketing ecosystem, Cisco Television provides video production, creative services, engineering and connectivity for the company’s internal and external meetings and events. With main studios and control rooms based at Cisco’s main campus in San Jose, Calif., we also operate from four other geolocations: Research Triangle Park, N.C.; Bedfont Lakes, U.K.; Bangalore, India; and Singapore.

Globally, Cisco Television produces about 1,500 broadcasts a year including around 250 external productions—ranging from our Cisco Live tradeshow, Cisco Partner Summit and Impact national sales meeting to product launches, webinars and events such as those for the Cisco STEM program.

Cisco is already well-known for its technologies and product lines enabling collaboration and remote workflows. Two great examples are the Webex video conferencing platform and the TelePresence SX80 product line, which works almost like an extremely low-latency “satellite in a box” for video collaboration. Another important element is our Primestream infrastructure, which includes comprehensive ingest, automated master control playout, and the Xchange media asset management platform.

At our San Jose hub, we operate with 18 record and 16 playback channels in Primestream. The Xchange MAM acts as a “single source of truth” for our entire operation—providing a centralized archive for all content produced by each Cisco region and giving our teams at the other four geolocations immediate access to the assets they need.

Pre-pandemic, Cisco TV was already using these tools to produce around 20% of its shows either as partially or fully remote events, including a mix of on-premises and off-premises presenters. When COVID hit in early March (California was one of the  rst states to go into quarantine), we were therefore well-prepared to transition to an almost 100% remote operation.

THE CURRENT SETUP

Within a week of pivoting to our new COVID reality, we jumped right in with a weekly, 90-minute “COVID Check-in” presented by Cisco executives to employees worldwide. These early presentations were very basic, but as we have continued to build out our remote studios, our shows have become more elaborate, incorporating elements like PowerPoint graphics, lower thirds, and roll-on videos. We’re now able to leverage our TelePresence SX80 units to include multiple presenters on separate outputs of the same box, enabling back-and-forth interaction like banter and Q&A sessions.

We are now operating nine virtual studios and six control rooms that run shows concurrently. The remote setup is powered by the TelePresence SX80s, Blackmagic ATEM live production switchers, and the Primestream master control playout and Xchange MAM based on-premises in San Jose. For a typical show, the full complement of staff—TD, producer, technical manager, Primestream operator, graphics operator and audio engineer—all work and collaborate remotely.

Reaching this capability was relatively easy; it involved making sure the remote Primestream operators could easily access the on-prem control points, providing an easy means for remote editors to perform ProRes editing, and making a minimal capital purchase of additional ATEM systems. As we mentioned, the single source of truth already in place and powered by the Xchange MAM made it easy to expand our remote capabilities as needed.

REMOTE WORKFLOWS FOR THE LONG HAUL

More than six months since the onset of the pandemic, we’ve produced more than 1,000 shows remotely—and we just wrapped the 2020 edition of the Cisco Impact national sales meeting. Over the course of three days, our teams played out more than 180 pieces of content to an audience of 22,000 people.

Impact was a ringing success, but it begs the question: Do we see ourselves staying with mostly remote work ows even after the danger of COVID has passed? In the short term, our company has adopted a shelter-in-place policy until June 2021 and possibly longer. In the longer term, we do see a return to in-person events like Impact and Cisco Live, because there’s no getting around the fact that these events are more effective when people can meet face to face.

One thing is certain: as a video operation, we’ve all learned just how much is possible with remote workflows and how little actually needs to be done on-premises. It’s valuable insight, accelerated and sharpened by a short-term, acute need. Cisco has always been a very video-centric company, with top-level leadership committed to connecting over video. That commitment, coupled with our mature technologies and product offerings for seamless collaboration, means our remote capabilities will continue to grow and evolve into the future.

John Williamson is a senior manager at Cisco TV for the Global Engineering Worldwide Sales and Marketing Team. For more information, visit www.cisco.com.

For more information, visit www.primestream.com. 

MIAMI—Primestream and Blackmagic Design have worked together to integrate the Xchange media asset management and production asset management platform with Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve 17. Blackmagic President Dan May says that this is the first true integration of MAM/PAM with an advanced color grading and NLE platform.

The integration of the two units is meant to drive advanced content creation workflows by giving DaVinci Resolve users direct access to Xchange libraries and by enabling full round-trip content exchanges between the MAM/PAM system and DaVinci Resolve.

By using the DaVinci Resolve integration SDK, Primestream has developed an Xchange Creative Panel for Resolve that allows content editors to perform content management tasks without leaving the DaVinci Resolve environment. Users can search for media and projects held in Xchange. They can also import media with markers and subclips from Xchange to DaVinic Resolve, as well as export a media sequence from DaVinci Resolve and register it to Xchange.

For more information, visit www.primestream.com.  

MIAMI—Newsmax TV is deploying Primestream’s Xchange and Media IO software for a comprehensive media asset management (MAM) system and video recording and playout solution, Primestream said.

The Primestream technology will link Newsmax’s facilities in New York City and Boca Raton, Fla., bringing greater efficiencies to the broadcaster’s local and remote video operation and enable full-HD broadcasts with higher quality and greater flexibility, the company said.

"Primestream is well-known as a premier provider of asset management and automation software solutions for media production, and its solutions were the ideal choice for our operation," said Walter Raps, senior vice president, broadcast operations and engineering, Newsmax TV.

The Primestream Xchange enterprise MAM platform enables NewsMax production teams in New York City and Boca Raton to collaborate on media assets and distribute content both online and over the air. Integrated with the Newsmax newsroom computer system, Media IO enables simultaneous recording and editing of content from both IP and SDI sources. It also offers fast, easy real-time transcoding to enable integration of these sources into live production workflows, the company said.

The Newsmax TV cable news channel reaches nearly 70 million U.S. MVPD homes. It is also available for free through 150 million OTT devices and platforms.

More information is available on the Primestream website.

MIAMI & WASHINGTON—The Organization of American States, a regional organization that is made up of 35 member countries, is aiming to improve its capability to deliver its media assets, and to do so has tapped Primestream’s Xchange platform to help catalog the assets.

Xchange will be integrated with AI so that it can recognize every representative speaker within any video generated from a session of the OAS. The audio will also be transcribed from multiple languages. Xchange will operate in a cloud-based architecture so that it can extend access to its video content to its offices across the Americas and have the content be searchable using metadata, as well as facial and text recognition.

OAS reports that its previous manual process could take up to 30 days to deliver materials.

MIAMI & MUMBAI, INDIA—Tata Communications, a digital infrastructure provider based in India, and Primestream, a provider of dynamic media management, have joined forces to launch an enterprise-grade Media Asset Management (MAM) solution in the cloud that enables broadcasters, content owners and enterprises to capture, produce, manage and deliver media content.

Since it combines a cloud-based version of Primestream’s Xchange MAM solution, with Tata Communications’ cloud storage and high-performance Video Connect network, the companies claim the new media management platform enhances metadata-driven workflows—including video production, file sharing, editing and publishing—while supporting seamless global collaboration. It also enables advanced file acceleration and an expandable object storage solution, which permit disaster recovery or content archiving.

[Read: NAB Show Exhibitor Viewpoint—David Schleifer, COO, Primestream]

“Sports, entertainment and news organizations are under pressure to bring their global audiences more and more content, live, 24/7, across different digital platforms, and in new formats, such as UHD and live 360-degrees,” said Brian Morris, Vice President and General Manager, Media & Entertainment, Tata Communications.

“In this high-pressure environment, it’s no longer viable for production teams to work in silos, with files scattered around on different hard drives across geographies. Our joint offering with Primestream unifies and simplifies Media Asset Management from capture to distribution, helping to meet audiences’ insatiable appetite for new video content, and more powerful viewing experiences.” 

MIAMI—Primestream is having its Xchange Suite system get in on the virtual reality trend, announcing that it will now carry asset management support for VR/360 content. These new features will enable capture, production, management and delivery of VR/360 assets in the Xchange system.

The VR/360 dynamic media management offers features that include proxy video generation at preselected qualities; the ability to preview content in 360-degrees; search for reference markers by keyword; navigate in X/Y mode; zoom in with Xchange 360-degree; and the capability to search within a 360-degree video and locate metadata specific key points with Xchange.

Xchange’s new VR/360 capabilities are now available.