LAS VEGAS – Microsoft Corp. is using the NAB2007 gathering to showcase new products, including Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft Interactive Media Manager, and new services that will give it a key role in a broadband gaming venture with Showtime.
Silverlight is a new cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. It integrates with existing Web technologies and assets, the company said in a press release, to provide higher-quality experiences with lower costs for media delivery.
The Interactive Media Manager is a next-generation digital content management solution that combines digital workflows and media application integration with a collaborative front-end environment, it said.
The solution, an extension of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, is designed specifically for the media and entertainment industry, including film and post-production studios, broadcasters, game developers, publishers, and advertising and marketing agencies.
“As the digital era continues to alter the industry, we’re seeing the walls between previously disparate functions beginning to crumble as the strengths of IT are increasingly relevant and needed in the creative side of the house,” said Gabriele Di Piazza, managing director for Media & Entertainment in the Communications Sector at Microsoft.
“Interactive Media Manager is a solution that spans those two formerly distinct worlds, automating the gaps that exist in the workflow process to create a fluid handoff between tasks and individuals.”
Interactive Media Manager is a server-based product that provides a Web-based interface for accessing and interacting with media files. The solution provides powerful tools for quickly building complex workflows, monitoring the performance of those workflows and facilitating the reviews and approvals in the workflow process by pushing tasks and forms directly to the recipient’s Microsoft Office Outlook inbox or to an RSS feed.
Interactive Media Manager supports Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari on Windows as well as Mac OS.
The collective components that comprise Interactive Media Manager help media and entertainment organizations bridge the gaps in process that exist between content production and business departments, eliminate unnecessary manual workflow, and provide management with real-time insight into production details.
It also addresses the emerging space of digital content aggregation and management, enabling service providers to simplify the acquisition, management, protection and publishing of digital content in services such as Internet protocol television (IPTV), video on demand and broadband portals.
It includes components of existing Microsoft solutions, including the new Silverlight, previously called Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E).
Microsoft offered some examples of how it’s working:
The edit bay at Starz Entertainment was getting crowded. Instead of shuttling tapes back and forth, many of the stakeholders involved in creating, editing, finalizing and approving trailers and promotional materials would gather in an edit bay that was starting to become cramped for viewing video footage. Apart from frustrating the editor, the process was losing efficiency and was threatening to add delays onto the process of airing new programming assets, such as a movie bundled with a Starz-branded and -produced trailer and promotional package.
“Microsoft has made our infrastructure about as simple as a complex environment can be,” said Stephen Smith, manager for Automation & Systems Integration at Starz Entertainment. “It’s enabled us to speed up operationally the time it takes to launch new on-air graphics and interstitial packages to almost overnight. Microsoft provides us with 90 percent of what we need out of the box so we can focus on improving the quality of the products we deliver and not on writing code.”
SyncCast is utilizing Interactive Media Manager in the processing and deployment of movies, television shows and trailers from Warner Bros., Lions Gate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures and MTV Networks Co. into the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The biggest obstacle the company faced in processing more than 1,500 hours of content was the downtime between steps in the workflow process.
“SyncCast has utilized Microsoft Interactive Media Manager to link all our tools together into one operation, removing much of the human intervention that was required in between steps in the workflow process,” said Ezra Davidson, executive vice president of SyncCast. “We can now process 35 percent more content with 20 percent less staff. Moreover, it helps decrease complexity in our workflow and allows us to spend more time improving the quality of the content we produce for our clients.”
Ascent Media Group, with a long list of clients involved in creating and producing world-class commercials, utilizes a platform that connects stakeholders across geographical and organizational boundaries. Interactive Media Manager integrates with Ascent’s current file-based services to provide a variety of in-production media capabilities for advertisers, agencies and media channels to globally access, transform and distribute finished images and print assets.
“Interactive Media Manager provides the tools we need to improve information sharing and collaboration for our geographically diverse clients,” said Jose Royo, CTO of Ascent Media Group. “With this solution, we will be able to ingest and archive thousands of photos and still images, allowing our customers to review and collaborate on their work immediately. While this can create efficiencies, such as eliminating the need to ship and store hard drives, more importantly it allows our customers to focus on what’s most important — creating the best end product possible.”
Microsoft also announced it is providing a wide range of software solutions and consulting services for On Broadband Networks LLC’s new turnkey, private-label game download service. On Broadband Networks is a joint venture between Showtime Networks Inc. and game publisher Broadband Libraries.
“Microsoft has been instrumental in helping us execute on the vision we had for transforming the way games are distributed,” said Peter von Schlossberg, executive vice president and general manager, On Broadband Networks. “We’ve been able to design and build the service in a fraction of the time and cost of other similar ventures, largely because of Microsoft’s commitment to driving this effort forward.”
On Broadband Networks aims to change the way games are distributed. The service provides a client-based application that, when downloaded to a PC, allows the user to access a wide collection of full-feature games – new game titles on the day of commercial release in brick-and-mortar retailers, as well as games that may have only a niche audience or that have lost retail shelf space to newer titles.
Users have the option to purchase games they’d like to own, or can subscribe to a variety of game offerings supporting both online and offline game play.
On Broadband Networks will operate the service as a turnkey, fully integrated, private-label service targeting cable and DSL broadband providers. The service offers broadband providers the ability to drive triple-play bundles and realize new revenue opportunities.
“The convergence of the media and entertainment world with cable and telcos is creating exciting new business models and distribution channels,” said Microsoft’s Gabriele Di Piazza. “Our collaboration with On Broadband Networks highlights how media and entertainment companies can use technology to rapidly capitalize on new market opportunities that will enable them to differentiate themselves in a very competitive and dynamic environment.”
