BBC Broadcast builds on DAM system with Ardendo components

BBC Broadcast, one of the commercial companies of the BBC, has announced that the Swedish company Ardendo AB will provide an enterprise quality asset management system for its new Broadcast Centre in West London.
The digital asset management system (DAM) will be the final key component of BBC Broadcast's 'ingest once, use many' architecture, called MOMS (Media Object Management System).
Building on existing DAM developments, the package will provide the integration, workflow and management layers for BBC Broadcast’s ‘end to end’ business process. It will provide VTR ingest and ‘live’ lines record facilities, integration with a large Quantel post production workgroup and with subtitling & audio description systems. Also provided are high-performance multiple-transcode engines, quality check and cataloguing services for archive use. The system has been specified for a minimum of 1000 users and includes desktop browse of assets and playback to multiple display devices.
The Ardome suite of asset management products from Ardendo will be layered onto existing components including storage systems from SGI, a hierarchical Storage Manager (HSM) from Front Porch Digital and a datatape library from ADIC. It will provide the tools to ingest, store, manage, transform and deliver all broadcast assets, irrespective of format, as required by clients, such as BBC Television.
Ardome will deliver assets for upwards of 50 linear TV channels originated in BBC Broadcast’s Broadcast Centre. It will also deliver to non-linear platforms and meet the demands of emerging consumer platforms and technologies, including specialist formatting for mobile phone and broadband applications.
Chris Howe, Chief Technology Officer, BBC Broadcast said: "With the building of the Broadcast Centre, the most advanced playout facility in the world, we re-engineered the business putting digital asset management at the core of all our processes. Our processes have converged as the platforms consumers demand content from are diverging, enabling us to re-purpose and deliver content to any platform in a cost-effective and efficient way. Ardendo is the final component in our media asset management system."
Howe continued: "Following an extensive review of DAM products we chose Ardendo because they could demonstrate large scale systems working in significant broadcast environments. They understood our requirements and offered a flexible package of off-the-shelf solutions and custom development to meet our exacting specifications. We look forward to working with them to add extra value to our current and future client portfolio."
BBC Broadcast Limited, www.bbcbroadcast.com
(SP/GB)