ROOT6 LAUNCH HAMMERHEAD AT IBC

ROOT6 launched 'hammerhead' at IBC 2001, a new root6-developed software application designed to automate the production and distribution of media content.
It was further announced that root6 and BEAM.TV, The Mill's new global resource for the distribution and archiving of video and film material for review and approval, are using hammerhead; and that the two companies will cooperate closely on further technical developments.
The hammerhead Task Management System provides an extensible toolset that can be used to capture, encode, transcode and manage media for all player types via an HTML interface.
The software application orchestrates multi-stage processes using an XML based template system and enables work to be distributed amongst an expandable network of computers. Users can define configurations for hardware encoding, distributed processing and SAN storage solutions that suit immediate needs but remain completely scalable as requirements change.
Hammerhead controls individual processes through a modular plug-in interface enabling new software applications to be easily supported.
Incorporating new Microsoft .NET and SOAP technologies, hammerhead provides an innovative and elegant solution to media content transcoding and distribution, now employed in an ever-growing number of industry applications including review and approval processes; web streaming and corporate Content Delivery Networks. Integration tools such as the hammerhead WebLogger and hammerhead Avid Check-in Tool (ACT), provide additional integration into established workflows.
With its web-based user interface, hammerhead ensures secure systems operation through HTML allowing multiple users from both Intranet and Extranet sources to access and manage media encoding and distribution. A SOAP interface enables hammerhead to be automated by external systems, enabling the application to be embedded in third party applications such as that provided by BEAM.TV.
BEAM.TV provides a global resource of more than 25 world-wide leading post-production partner facilities to distribute video and film material via the Internet. Material may be uploaded from anywhere, and shared with anyone using password protection.
The service is designed both for the review and approval process, and for the final delivery of material, which can range from broadcast masters to casting tapes, CDs and DVDs. (CD)