ESPN Streamlines Content Exchange for ACC Network, SEC Network with NEP's Mediabank Cloud-Based MAM System Customized exchange of video content is provided for 32 geographically separated entities By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, November 6, 2019 - 8:49 am
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When ESPN was preparing to launch the ACC Network, one of the broadcaster's most significant challenges was determining a way for the conference's 15 member institutions to easily share video files with one another. ESPN's media-asset-management group was already juggling the content-exchange needs for 14 SEC schools as part of the SEC Network, which launched in 2014, and this workflow was not sustainable with more than double the schools. With that tall task, ESPN began searching for a cloud-based media-asset-management (MAM) system that could serve 32 geographically diverse entities: 29 colleges, two conference offices, and ESPN itself.
ESPN began using NEP's Mediabank MAM system for ACC Network and SEC Network prior to the 2019 fall season.
This was a solution to a problem that we absolutely needed to solve: we have 32 entities that were trying to share video and files more efficiently, says Rex Arends, senior director, remote production operations, ESPN. In the past, it was all funneled through ESPN, so, if one school needed a melt from another school, ESPN would have to set up a feed and [transfer] it manually. We knew we needed to find a more efficient way, so we started to look for a cloud-based media-asset-management system that would provide accelerated [file-transfer] speeds and transcoding in the cloud [to provide] all the different codecs being used. That led us to NEP and Mediabank.
A Match Made in MAM Heaven
In advance of the ACC Network launch, ESPN selected NEP's Mediabank cloud-based MAM system, which allows users to search, process, and distribute content from the entire ACC Network and SEC Network media library using a standard web browser.
ESPN had already had experience with the Mediabank product during its interactions as an international rightsholder with UEFA, which uses the system for its own media-management operation. However, the college conferences' needs were quite different from other projects, so ESPN worked closely with the Mediabank product team to customize the system.
All 32 schools want in a particular way, Arends explains. Without a cloud-based system like this, there really isn't any way to make that happen.
ESPN and NEP held a pair of seminars for the ACC schools in Bristol, CT, and for the SEC schools in Nashville to introduce them to the system and user interface. Then NEP sent out online forms requesting each school's current requirements for codecs, delivery services, formats, and so on. With that information in hand, NEP set up templates for each school and brought all the schools online.
Mediabank has dramatically changed the way ESPN and ACC/SEC schools share content.
The system was beta-tested by ESPN and four schools from each conference during the month of August before going live across all 29 schools in September.
With our 24/7-support help-desk team, we managed to onboard all the users at all the schools very smoothly, says Mediabank Head of Sales Engineering Marius Borge. Mediabank is a true software-as-a-service solution and is 100% cloud-based, which means that you don't have to install any software [or hardware] locally. You work off a webpage accessible via the public internet, and that means that we could be very [agile] in deploying the service [for ESPN and the conferences].
Inside ESPN's Mediabank Workflow
Mediabank significantly streamlined the ACC Network/SEC Network content-exchange process, which was previously handled manually by ESPN's MAM group in Bristol or Charlotte, NC. Each school is able to record melts, or highlight reels, from live games using the replay system of its choice - be it EVS, Evertz DreamCatcher, or DVSport - and send it directly into Mediabank cloud storage, where it lives in its native format. Through administrative rights, other schools (as well as ESPN and conference offices) are able to ingest that melt - either in its entirety or just clips - into their own library.
NEP and ESPN also worked with the schools to set up predetermined M-Box engines for each school, which automatically transcode files into the format and codec of their choice.
It's much less hands-on, and our [MAM] team doesn't have to send everything [manually], which is where the efficiency is enhanced, says Chris Strong, senior remote operations specialist, ESPN. We are at the point where each school can see what everything they]re allowed to see in Mediabank and are able to pull it down in their native codec. And the M-Box workflows are already set up for each of the schools. Rather than a series of dropdown menus [to determine] format, codec, wrapper, audio, and so on, it has all been set up by ESPN, Mediabank, the schools, and the conferences, so it's just a click of a button.
Although Mediabank doesn't usually feature traditional file folders, NEP created a Collections View that merges all assets from a specific sport or school.
Users have the ability to view and edit clips in the cloud as low-resolution proxy files without having to download the full clip into the local library. As a result, schools can easily preview melts, choose the specific portions they want, and quickly receive the file via Signiant or Aspera high-speed file transfer.
Everything that goes into the system is also created in a low-res [file], says Strong. And that low-res file will live in perpetuity, whereas the mezzanine-level file will eventually go into a deep freeze as it starts to age, which is a big efficiency in terms of storage. It could be restor
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ESPN Streamlines Content Exchange for ACC Network, SEC Network with NEP's Mediabank Cloud-Based MAM System Customized exchange of video content is provided for 32 geographically separated entities By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
