In a recent statement the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) – perhaps best known for their work on the AAF format – and the EBU announced that they are co-publishing a Request For Technology through a joint working group called the Framework for Interoperable Media Services (FIMS) Task Force. The Task Force’s overall aim is to address interoperability issues in digital workflows and the purpose of the RFT is threefold:

• Define an overall architecture for integration of reusable components
• Validate this architecture by applying it to three services
• Develop a list of appropriate services for the entirety or part of the media industry

As background to the need for a standardised set of services the RFT raises two key sets of issues for our consideration (describing them as justifications would be too strong a phrase at this point):

• Limitations of current (or traditional) approaches – these include problems surrounding interoperability, maintenance, scalability, dynamic discovery, dependence on vendors for customisation and implementation of solutions, etc.
• Media industry characteristics – this lists issues believed to be unique to media technology such as large file sizes, highly collaborative workflows with significant “human” task elements, streaming, multiple resolutions, special time requirements, etc.

Both of these lists make familiar reading for industry professionals as being representative of issues that we have to deal with on a regular basis. The implication of the lists is that they describe the set of issues that a collection of reusable and standardised industry services can address, and this is where AMWA/EBU’s view differs from mine.

Firstly, the limitations of current approaches as expressed aren’t incorrect, but they are generic IT system complexities that are simply becoming more common in the media industry as the scope of IT-based media systems, their complexity and associated integration requirements grow. Some of these limitations need to be addressed with better implementation methodologies, and others will require a shift in thinking from vendors - to provide external interfaces that are as rich and robust as those available internally, for example. Some of the issues seem to be somewhat misplaced - for example, it is hard to see how a set of standardised media services will be able to address issues around the availability of appropriately skilled technical talent (the point on “dependence on vendors, above”).

Secondly, the media industry characteristics correctly identify key issues affecting system implementation in the media industry, but I can’t see how standardised services will solve, for example, network-related issues surrounding the transfer of large files. In fact, real world experience shows that although the management of transfer requests can be service oriented, the actual transfer of large files should be kept outside the SOA infrastructure.

Lastly, there is a more general problem with this approach. I believe that there is a risk that the Task Force will get plenty of responses, each of which being a version of the interface method that the respective vendor has or intends to implement, which is specific to the needs and world-view of their product. The Task Force will then have to face the choice of choosing to support one vendor's view of the world, or mixing definitions from several vendors that will end up as a least common denominator of functionality that ultimately no vendor will be prepared to implement.

I believe that AMWA/EBU have identified the appropriate architecture and building blocks that organisations need to adopt to simplify future media systems integrations, as shown in the figure below extracted from the RFT.

Taken from Section 10 of RFT from joint EBU-AMWA Task Force on FIMS

However, what is needed as a first step is an adoption by vendors of open IT standards and, as mentioned above, robust and rich service-oriented interfaces that are well documented, that are exposed using standard IT protocols such as SOAP or XML over HTTP, and that can be easily accessed using widely available integration tools. Attempting to get vendors to implement a rigid, standardised set of service interfaces that could remove their ability to differentiate their products by providing their own features is taking the standardisation efforts too far and risks distracting attention from the fundamental issues in my opinion. But maybe it should not be a surprise that the solution to these problems is seen by standardisation bodies as an opportunity to create a new standard. All this said, I would encourage all vendors to have a look at the RFT and think about how their interfaces would fit into the landscape described. It’s the right technical direction regardless of the success or otherwise of the standardisation process.

Over the past few weeks, when not distracted by such minor trifles as the General Election, the media have been getting themselves into a bit of a tizzy over the tax domicile disagreements between multi-millionaire entrepreneurs Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan of Dragons' Den fame.  As the Dragons' production team head back into the Den to record another series of the BBC2 hit, I’m reminded of a time when things were a little more harmonious in the den - and the story even has a tenuous connection to digital production workflows...

It was the spring of 2007 and I was working with the Dragons' Den production team to implement a trial of BBC R&D's Ingex automated tapeless production system. Ingex is an open-source software solution that runs on commodity PC server hardware and provides anyone that cares to implement it a cost-effective file-based HD/SD studio recording solution. We knew that introducing this (then) very new technology would not come completely without teething troubles, but it was an honour to be working on such a well known and established BBC brand with the kind of technology that fundamentally changes the production landscape.  However, in a prudent bit of risk-mitigation, the first three outings of Ingex on DD were run in parallel with a tape-based workflow, with all of its inherent foibles, as well as at least one misunderstood advantage…

It is easy to forget that part of the television magic of DD lies in the fact that pitches are delivered in real-time, with few (if any) interruptions.  Pitches in the Den can run for hours, necessitating multiple tape changes.  These tape changes were generally a source of consternation in the Den.  They would often break up the natural rhythm of a pitch and were typically put off until the last possible moment as the gallery PA’s clock wound down and the camera operators began to get a "tape end" warning in their viewfinders.  Of course, the file-based Ingex kit was largely immune to such stoppages, and other hiccups notwithstanding, could be comfortably left to record for hours on end until the internal disk cache filled up.  As it was a trial, we were recording using a low-end Avid codec, so our 1 TB internal cache was not likely to fill up in a hurry - a distinct advantage over the much more finite resource of a 43 min Digi...

However, one of the inherent and often overlooked benefits of a tape-based workflow is that a tape change marks an ideal time for Dragons, punters and production crew alike to, ahem, unleash their personal dragons and take a much needed comfort break. During one particularly intense web technology related pitch, in which the crew had already done the first tape change with barely a slow down in proceedings, the second tape change came as a great relief to many of us.  The punters were carefully sequestered from the Dragons during these mass excursions, but the crew could use one of two loos, the closer and less crowded of which was the one frequented by the (male) Dragons.  I made my way into serpent-infested territory and stumped up to do the needful. Duncan and James were already there, taking care of their respective business requirements. An innocuous conversation began between the three of us in which I offered up a couple of throw away generalities on the dos, don’ts and what-fors of technology implementation projects. Then, with business taken care of, we were back in the Den taking up our respective posts, James and Duncan in front of the cameras and me behind a trio of screens displaying the Den cameras’ output.  As I watched the next stage of the pitch ensue, both Duncan and James proceeded to quote, verbatim, my throw away technology lines. I beamed brighter than most of the studio lights, and had something juicy (pun intended) to relate to my fellow geek compatriots as we watched the action and tinkered at command lines.

The DD production team are now in the next evolutionary stage in their use of file-based workflows.  Under the able guidance of BBC Studios and Post Production, who are now providing Ingex as a managed service to internal and external productions after having made extensive operational enhancements to the system, DD will be completely file-based this series with nary a tape back up to be seen.  While this undertaking is not entirely without risk (what worthwhile technology implementation is ever completely without risk?), Ingex has grown into a robust and reliable technology, which delivers consistent results - and which, thanks to the open approach taken by the BBC, is free for download and use by anyone who wants it. As hard disk technology continues to grow in capacity and file-based recording technologies become more and more ubiquitous, my concern for the DD team, as well as the broadcast industry as a whole, is this: when will we next get to use the loo?

It seems like the transition to "tapeless" or file based working has been a long time coming, but most companies and individuals we talk to seem to agree that 2010 is the year that it's really becoming real for them. With two major tapeless production initiatives on the road for delivery this year (BSkyB and the BBC), time apparently running out for tape-based cameras, and increasing numbers of companies opting for file-based production, now is the time where the prototypes and the promises end, and the real day to day delivery has to start. See - I knew I could complete that paragraph without using "where the rubber hits the road" if I tried hard enough!

Mediasmiths is actively supporting a number of our clients through their transition to file-based working, and what we've noticed is that even the most forward-thinking and best prepared of organisations still encounter practical challenges and issues. Those issues can be anything - from realising that the level of training and change management to really bed in new workflows needs to a bit more than budgeted for, or simply that two pieces of equipment that have been guaranteed to work together and seamlessly exchange MXF files... just don't, quite. 

 Along the journey we've also noticed that although the traditional vendors are doing their bit to help move the industry into tapeless working (and help mop up minor additional requirements like HD and 3D along the way), there is a quiet revolution happening, with a number of innovative and cost effective solutions emerging from non-traditional vendors to help address problems like how to track how assets are used across the business, or put in place post-production storage solutions that support Avid, Apple and Adobe editors, all at the same time. As Mediasmiths we're pretty well known for being technology agnostic and vendor independent - but we're also known for our love of smart technology and innovative products, and we like our clients to know about them as well.

Taking all of this into account, and following chats with clients and our friends at Object Matrix, Vidispine, GridIron and ERA, we've decided to host a gathering for anyone that wants to come along and spend some time talking about challenges with digital workflows, meet up with other folks who may well be encountering some of the same issues, and chat through some practical solutions. We'll have some of those innovative vendors there as well, but the idea is that it's a conversation and an opportunity for some networking, not somewhere you'll be getting the hard sell or a bunch of vendor waffle. We're going to call it the Workflow Innovation Group - and if it's useful, helpful, and anyone bothers to turn up, we'll look to run similar sessions on an irregular basis throughout the year. We might also rename it if anyone can come up with a snappier title.

We've (royal we've - thanks to Nick at Object Matrix!) prepared a flyer for the meeting - feel free to click here to download for reference and give it to anyone you think might be interested. Key details though - When? 29th of June, lunchtime onwards.Obligatory raffle with prizes? Oh yes. Where? Cardiff, at the Millennium Centre, right on Cardiff Bay. For those who are Doctor Who or Torchwood fans, that's the big building behind the plaza where the Tardis lands from time to time to refuel, and the lift comes up from the Hub. Shameless stereotypical geek? Me? Never....

RSVP to wig@mediasmiths.com and we do hope you can join us there.

The BBC coverage of the Winter Olympics this year was extensive compared to that provided previously, but most of the events are considered to be fringe sports in Britain, that get little coverage outside of the Olympics - even the ones that Britain has a reasonable chance of winning a medal in. In Sweden however, winter sports are part of the national tradition and events such as cross country skiing and biathlon (cross country skiing with guns) are covered live every weekend in shows that run, in some cases, for hours.

Reflecting this level of national interest, in order to provide maximum coverage of all events at the Winter Olympics, the Swedish state broadcaster, SVT, gave web viewers direct access to the host broadcaster's video feeds and delivered them, over the Internent, without commentary directly to anyone in Sweden who wanted to see them. The image below shows the web stream of the live main event shown on terrestrial TV, but also has links to two events, an ice hockey semi final and a biathlon race, that are shown live online without commentary, marked with "okommenterad".

The idea of letting web viewers get access to feeds that normally would have been deemed too fringe to make it to broadcast combines two interesting ideas, one borrowed from retail and made famous in a book by Chris Anderson called the Long Tail, and the second being the Good Enough Revolution coined in a Wired article by Robert Capps. In short, the Long Tail theory describes a strategy where selling a large number of niche items in relatively small quantities can provide a customer base as large and lucrative as a traditional approach of selling fewer popular items in large quantities. The Good Enough Revolution puts a name on the idea that the most expensive, complex and professional way of doing things is not always the best, sometimes it is just as good, or better, to move towards a simplified and easier product or service.

Obviously the Olympic ice hockey semi final in the example below is not a cheap and simple production, but from SVT's perspective the additional cost of providing another raw stream online is low and from a viewer's perspective a match without commentary is simplified and "good enough". Despite this simplification the content can still be attractive to a small number of viewers and if many events can be provided this way at low cost, then the effect can be likened to the Long Tail. Taking the idea a bit further, it is easy to see how something like the Sky Sports FanZone commentators could be combined with a web-only stream that otherwise would not have professional -- or dare we say, traditional -- commentary to provide a "good enough" experience to viewers.

It will be interesting to see how keen other broadcasters and content companies will be on ideas like this one. Indeed, it is instructive to think about how approaches like this might be able to enable new business opportunities. Looking back to consider the core reason behind the success of media groups such as ESPN in the USA and BSkyB here in the UK, we get a very simple answer - access to sports. Admittedly those powerhouses are built on the back of billion-dollar licensing deals for incredibly popular Premiere League and NFL content, but both also provide access to a lot of niche and specialist material which has a small, but significant viewership - an effect of the Long Tail at work again.

Consider for a moment the three unrelated factors of - the enduring popularity of local sports such as Sunday local-league football; the speed of technical innovation which allows simple but powerful, remote operated cameras to be used for near-broadcast quality acquisition; and a local and regional press which everyone believes to be in rapid decline. Perhaps as well as bringing a greater variety of international sporting coverage to our screens, this kind of "good enough" approach could also be used to good effect by local media groups by enabling them to engage with their customers by providing a new level of access to something that many local communities are passionate about - their local teams, and their local sporting heroes.

This year should have seen the pilot launch of a new type of local/regional news service, in advance of fuller rollouts in later years. The aim of the Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC) was in effect to provide a replacement for ITV's regional news service, after Ofcom decided to accept ITV's assertion that the benefits it received from its public service obligations were considerably lower than the associated costs. However, last Tuesday the FT reported that the Conservatives would scrap the IFNC concept, and force an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill that introduced the idea. The Tories claim that a more market based approach would provide a better solution, and we believe that this view is a welcome, refreshing and timely take on local media.

The whole IFNC circus over the past year has been a pretty unedifying spectacle for anyone not believing in public subsidy as the future of media - and it's worth remembering that with so many organisations pushing for revenue from a top sliced licence fee, the amounts of public money involved could be substantial. The plan was to create a patchwork of IFNC regions, potentially with different consortia operating in each region. This approach seems to have missed any serious critical analysis, possibly due to the sheer number of media organisations and their consultants lining up to try to get access to public money, and partly because commercial organisations are generally too busy running businesses without public subsidy.

The fundamental reason for the IFNCs is hardly compelling. Ofcom has argued that local and regional services are highly valued by viewers, which begs the question why ITV are so keen to get rid of them. The whole experience highlights the lack of any significant analysis on what the real value of local and regional services is, and indeed what the difference is between the two. There is a lot of media angst over the loss of local and regional newspapers, but no real assessment of the impact of loss of local news outlets. Perhaps Ofcom would have recommended a very different tack if, rather than doing ITV's corporate strategy work for them, it had focused on two key questions:

• What is the value of local and regional news, and is there a market failure in the provision of those services that may require some public intervention?
• If there is a market failure, then what is the best means of addressing that failure?

The real nub of the issue may be the distinction between local and regional content. One could argue that local news is of very high value in that it may be most pertinent to peoples' lives, be more useful in practical logistics such as travel and may encourage and enable more genuine community building. Good examples of "hyper-local" news are school newsletters, blogs and emails and parish newsletters. The problem of course is that the cost of traditional news gathering and distribution is comparatively high, and the willingness to pay a high, or in some cases any, price for local news is low - and possibly paradoxically, given the level of targeting that might be possible in a local context, it would appear relatively unattractive to advertisers. While I would value some good information about whether the W7 bus service is actually running during heavy snow, I am not going to regularly pay £10 a week for a hyper-local news service which covers that kind of information. There are examples of higher quality local production - Roger Parry in his insightful policy work for the Conservative Party points to examples in Canada, and recent Westminster Forum debates on the issue have highlighted the work of Universities and voluntary organisations. However, it is difficult to see how a voluntary based model is really going to scale in a consistent way that will fill the gap.

By contrast, regional news can tap into more advertising revenue due to the mass-market economics of TV and newspaper advertising but it is arguable whether it is actually of as much value and relevance as local news. Regional news sits in an area that sub-national, so the stories are not major, but well abstracted from most local issues. I frankly don't care that much about local issues in Peckham (or Chelsea or Luton) unless they have national news significance. The existence of regional news may really only be a function of the lack of any decent local news - or indeed it may be the result of the consolidation of news organisations at a regional level for reasons of cost and required efficiencies, as we have seen with Trinity Mirror in the Midlands. In other words, it is a second best solution to demand for some local news, as it is thought to be more commercially viable than pure local news.

So is the market failure that the current economics of news gathering and production are such that we do not get good local (and hyper local) information, and that regional news has emerged as an inferior substitute? If this were the case then the IFNC will be no more successful than its ITV predecessor. Although some of the early discussions have focused on exciting and innovative use of new technology, one suspects that the reality of IFNCs is that they will really be good old fashioned news telly, and as the providers quickly realise the constraints of their budgets then all of the nice but not entirely well understood social media technology will be pushed aside in a frantic attempt to keep making acceptable TV. And IFNC TV production staff will view it the same way that regional news TV staff historically saw it, namely as a stepping stone to national TV rather than a rewarding career in its own right.

So the market failure will remain unaddressed, and worse still we will be in the position where publicly funded organisations are determining what is relevant rather than commercial organisations who have a more direct and intimate relationship with consumers.

But there is an alternative to consider, and one that relies on relaxation of media ownership controls, something that Ofcom and the current government do appear to be seriously considering. Allowing cross-media ownership at a local level would allow the creation of Local Multi Media Conglomerates (LMMCs). Cross media ownership could enable economies of scale for local news and entertainment organisations - the technology is there that would allow radio stations, newspapers and web-based local information sites to share the most costly element of local news production, namely the news gathering. This could allow market driven commercial organisations to deliver local news, information and entertainment without the need for public monies. A LMMC would also be in a stronger position to offer a locally co-ordinated and cross-promoting multi platform advertising market that would be greater than the sum of the whole. Furthermore with location based targeted marketing and review technologies such as www.weezat.com, this could be enhanced through the re-invention of an old form of local marketing - the use of stamps and vouchers. The weezat.com model is a clever one, focusing on people's preferred locale and enabled highly targeted services aimed at encouraging local trade, precisely the sort of function that would be ideally backed and promoted by a LMMC.

Whether the Conservatives fully kill the idea of IFNC, or even present a viable alternative, the time is surely right for more imaginative and market based ideas on how best to deliver local content for a hungry local audience.