Content Delivery ModernisationA Media Logistics Approach

BVE 2015 - Broadcast Technology and Workflow

David Hornsby - Content Technology Lead

In August 2010, ITV announced its strategy to transform the business over five yearsbased on key priorities. In July 2014, renewed strategic priorities were announced,these priorities are a natural evolution of the current strategy and focus the businesson the largest areas of potential growth

Content and its distribution is key to the success of ITV’s strategic priorities

2010

Linear Broadcast - 100% Tape Based

Asset Management - No file capability, only tapes

Media Workflow - No capability, only tracking

Transcode - No long form capability

Volumes - 5 Linear Channels, 4 Catchup Partners taking <20 Hours per week

Why Modernise

Distributed workflows

Lack of Visibility

Growth

2015

Linear Broadcast - >90% File based

Asset Management - MAM housing >18,000 DPP based file records

Media Workflow - Automated linear and non-linear workflows, order to fulfilment

Transcode - 2 Transcode farms, outputting up to 2000 files a day

Volumes - 7 Linear Channels, 30 Catchup & Archive Partners taking 300 hours of content a week

Small Steps...

By early 2012 we’d built simple ‘off the shelf’ systems that utilised our existing storage and networks and were capable of processing low volumes of content for linear and non-linear platforms.

In order for ITV to reach its vision and be ready for fully file-based future workflows across all content we started thinking about handling much larger volumes and many more distribution channels

Content Delivery Modernisation

● Established products (v4,5,6)● Depth in core strength, but also breadth● APIs● Domain specific Microservices connecting

everything

TranscodingLogic

WorkflowOrchestration

Asset Management

Microservices

June 2013Within a 6 week POC we’d proven we

could get these systems working together through microservices to

process content

Content Delivery Modernisation

Scheduling Rights

VOD Selection/Tracking

Vidispine

MIO Everywhere

VantageStorage

ITV Microservices and RabbitMQ Messaging

Content

Preparation

Transmission

Online Platforms and

Partners

DPP Files

WOs

Content Delivery Modernisation

4 Workflows carry out tasks required by ITV to raise, requests with our partners and deliver content under automation

● Handle Workflowo A pre-processing workflow that determines which type of workflow

needs to process the incoming request

● Content Acquisition Workflowo A workflow that raises requests to our content preparation partners

● Update Workflow o A workflow that updates information when required

● Partner Delivery Workflowo A workflow that processes and delivers content

Content Delivery Modernisation

All Deliveries, linear or non-linear have the same ‘Partner Delivery’ workflow and are tracked in the same way

Partner Delivery Workflow

Whether content is destined for an iPhone or an International Broadcast it’s prepared the same way

● Extract key information from incoming request; Production ID, Required by Date, Partner Name

● Check MAM for existing transcodes/output● Check MAM for source content● Check if content has already been requested● Raise Content Acquisition Workorder● Wait for content to arrive, sleep.When content arrives….● Check key information, AFD, Format ● Call for partner profile details● Call for partner EDL● Call for partner transcode● Import transcodes

What we’d learnt from our POCs and wanted to continue

Users are key, involve them, real ones.

Buy what you can, build what you can’t

There’s no problem thinking big,

but be prepared to start small!

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Pain Points - Reflection

Distributed workflows

Lack of Visibility

Growth

● All assets made visible at the desktop via MAM● All workflows mapped in an easy to read workflow, stating

progress and failures● Updates taken from points in the workflow and displayed in

existing tools● Infrastructure issues flagged to relevant technical support staff

within seconds

● All workflows (linear and non-linear) fed from single DPP files● All workflows run from standardised (partner delivery) workflows● All metadata input using DPP Schema (with some additional fields)

● Changes limited to as few systems as possible● All specific partner logic externalised

Questions?