Marquis announces Medway support for KONAN Digital’s DigitalArc MAM Systems

Marquis Broadcast, specialist in broadcast workflow operations and software solutions, has announced a major leap towards true end-to-end interoperability of broadcast workflow systems, enhancing its Medway media exchange solution by adding support for the KONAN DigitalArc series of componentised media asset management (MAM) solutions from KONAN Digital.
KONAN Digital, a leading MAM provider to the broadcast, corporate enterprise and content creation markets, and Marquis Broadcast, will showcase the benefits of this new functionality in live demonstrations at NAB 2006 (April 22-26, 2006 in Las Vegas), at the Konan Digital booth SL1835.
Marquis and KONAN have successfully integrated and tested these new capabilities in several multi-vendor broadcast and production environments, using Medway to seamlessly transfer media files between the DigitalArc MAM solutions and other manufacturers’ broadcasting systems. The tests were conducted using a range of files formats and protocol standards, including MXF, AAF and OMF, as well as Konan Digital EDLs.
“By extending Medway’s support to complementary ‘best of breed’ products like KONAN DigitalArc, Marquis enables broadcasters to implement standards-based, vendor and format-agnostic systems, confident in the knowledge that their digital workflows will operate effectively without compatibility issues,” said Granby Patrick, CEO, Marquis Broadcast.
Richard Eberhart, VP of Americas/Europe for KONAN Digital, added: “Despite the increasing adoption of open standards, there are still bottlenecks in digital workflows when broadcasters use equipment from multiple manufacturers.
“Using Medway as a media exchange highway, broadcasters will now be able to benefit from our MAM solutions operating within a tightly integrated broadcasting environment using a range of diverse systems.”
Broadcasters are no longer ‘locked-in’ to proprietary systems in order to achieve end-to-end interoperability. Medway manages both media files and their associated metadata in a format-independent manner, enabling media to be exchanged and utilised seamlessly by components across the entire range of broadcast equipment, from ingest servers to emission – eliminating unnecessary format conversions and overcoming the restrictions of a single-source environment.
The KONAN DigitalArc for News, Production and Archive represent the latest in MAM technology design, incorporating open standards architecture to broaden third party compatibility while eliminating interoperability issues, a scalable componentised architecture that grows as user requirements grow, and the ability to seamlessly integrate and enhance existing workflow environments. The KONAN DigitalArc components allow broadcasters to either replace the entire infrastructure all at once with a fully file-based digital MAM-centric environment or to integrate one or more stand-alone DigitalArc components to improve specific workflow processes used to manage the complete life cycle of assets.
Format independent, with flexible APIs and broadcast-centric functionality for rapid integration, Medway and KONAN DigitalArc combine to give broadcasters the tools to build facilities that realise both the technological and economic benefits driven by open standards based interoperability.
(GB)