Transferring S.I. Skills To The Corporate Sector

Leading OTT platform and multiscreen solution provider Visual Unity is internationally acclaimed for delivering high end system integrations projects for broadcasters such as Al Anan in the Middle East, Tanzania Box in Africa and RSI in Switzerland.

However, the company has been expanding its remit to the corporate sector by delivering key projects to companies such as Czech News Center, formerly Ringer Axel Springer CZ, the largest publishing company in the Czech Republic, and ČEZ, a joint stock company that specialises in electricity production and the sale and support of power systems.

"Producing and managing audio and video content for on line use is now just as important to major corporations as it is to broadcasters," says Visual Unity CEO Tomas Petru. "Our expertise in providing broadcasters with complete media asset management solutions based on our internal vuMedia™ platform and third party systems is now being recognised by the corporate sector, which wants to employ similar technology so that it can organise the material it already has and digitise it for ease of use in the future."

Czech News Center, which has over 36% of the Czech Republic's market share in printed media, also has a significant share of online business and operates print houses, various web projects and applications, and a virtual phone operator.

The company turned to Visual Unity when it decided to install a media asset management and digital archive/storage system so that it could centralise the management of media materials into a new media department. It also wanted to create a reliable and easily accessible environment to store all media materials.

Visual Unity delivered a solution based on scalable cluster storage Isilon (EMC), media asset management software CatDV (Squarebox), archive solution SX-10 (Xendata) and LTO tape library Scalar i80 (Quantum). The core part of the system is based on a Windows environment, with clients being both Windows and Mac users. To access the system, users are equipped with a client application featuring tight integration to their editing software (Adobe Premiere/FinalCut). Part of the project is integration with the current CMS, allowing users to export their materials directly from an MAM environment.

"A key part of this project was delivering a reliable and secure environment to store, manage, browse and archive all of Czech News Center's media content," says Tomas Strnad, Project Specialist at Visual Unity. "Part of the solution involved the definition of business processes related to media files, including metadata models, archive rules and the overall workflow of media production. We also provided training for administrators and key users and assisted during the system launch – and we continue to cooperate with Ringier by offering pro-active support and solution maintenance."

The benefits of the new system are apparent to everyone – from journalists and editors who can now easily find archive content and prepare material on their computers, to management who can use archived content to prepare reports and access a much faster workflow allowing them to be first online with news. Viewers also benefit because news generated by Czech News Center is much more attractive and interesting.

Similar results have been achieved at ČEZ ICT Services, which is a joint stock company 100% owned by ČEZ, and which was founded in order to provide complex ICT services anywhere in the Czech Republic. ČEZ had amassed a large video archive on tape covering various projects it had undertaken in connection with power plants, charity events, management meetings and so on. Its goal was to organise this huge amount of material and make it easily accessible by digitising it. It also wanted to save costs by using its content to produce marketing spots and other short videos in house.

"Our goal was to deliver a universally flexible and scalable solution that would satisfy the largest range of customer needs possible," Strnad says. "We effectively founded a media department for ČEZ, thus enabling them to securely archive, smart manage, edit and deliver all their media material independently."

The system Visual Unity delivered consisted of NAS storage, an archive server, a tape library and an MAM application server. It also involved a powerful workstation boasting an MAM client, editing software and a I/Os signal on the user side.

"The challenge was to integrate all this new technology with ČEZ's highly complex IT environment," Strnad adds. "The result was a solution that respected all of their IT and security policies while providing the power and functionality they desired. "It has also reduced outsourced video production costs and made the archive much easier to search and use. "

Jana Mazurová, ČEZ's Manager of Production, Unit Marketing and Communication, said: "We finally have a solution that organises all of our media material and preserves it for the future. We owe Visual Unity a big thank you for their professionalism and patience while dealing with a client who is not involved in media business on a daily basis."

Visual Unity also provided training to ČEZ's staff and, as with many of its System Integration customers, it remains involved offering ongoing technical support and consultancy services.

The article is also available to read in BFV online.

(IT/JP)