
Media companies entire business is about creating or acquiring content, manipulating it, managing it, archiving it and distributing it. It sounds so simple - but, of course, it's not. And for this, the content/media asset management system have become the beating heart of the businesses. The overriding question is: How can I ensure I efficiently extract the maximum value from my media assets and content? . In this comprehensive article, at VSN we take some time to review it. VSNExplorer MAM module was selected by Imagen TV in Mexico for file location and recovery.
Today, almost everyone is familiar with the phrase Content is king . Not so many people know, however, that the phrase was invented by no less a person than Bill Gates in 1996, in which he describes the future of the Internet as a marketplace for content.
How prescient he was! Content is everywhere - and consumers have a voracious appetite for it. Businesses too. For consumers, it's about everything from instructional videos on YouTube to podcasts - and, of course, entertainment. Content is perhaps the single biggest asset that any broadcaster has. It is the value on which companies like Netflix have grown from zero in 1997 to an astonishing $16 billion.
And: it's not just broadcasters. Content owners, news agencies, public institutions, universities and so on - all have content that has inherent value.
The content lifecycle In fact, if you think about it, a media companies entire business is about creating or acquiring content, manipulating it, managing it, archiving it and distributing it. It sounds so simple - but, of course, it's not.
Content almost exclusively comprises media - but of innumerable types, from news archives to soap operas, from advertising to stock footage. Many individuals with different responsibilities within an organisation will touch' the content - and, in today's distributed/remote world, those individuals are unlikely to be located in the same place. Content needs to be archived such that it's easily accessible yet secure (a good permissions/rights management system is essential) - and efficient. Distribution was once to a simple TV screen - but no more: today, more than half of us consume content on our smartphones. And: where once content was exclusively linear in delivery, consumers now require it to be available on demand.
Given how fundamentally important these media assets are to broadcasters, choosing a way of managing them requires very careful consideration. The content/media asset management system is the beating heart of the business. The overriding question is: How can I ensure I efficiently extract the maximum value from my media assets?
At the FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2019, VSN took part in the presentation Semantics, how good are you? about an ontology for using Semantics in the description of scenes to expand the reach of Archives and maximize the findability of content. VSN's CTO, Manuel Escribano, took part in this research project.
Scalable, upgradable First and foremost, the chosen system should be open - easily able to interface with the multitude of other systems within the organisation. That openness will also make the system more scalable, and facilitate future upgrades and enhancements as business needs change and technology develops. AI, for example, has significant potential to transform media asset management.
And, as no two organisations are the same, it should also be simple and straightforward to customise for specific business needs.
The optimum asset management system should allow the simple insertion of the comprehensive metadata that ensures content is easy to find and associate with other content. (And, if automatic extraction of certain types of metadata from a file, such as duration or format, is possible - so much the better.) How easy is it to search for the content you need? There is perhaps no aspect of an asset management system more important than how it handles metadata, if the value in content is to be unlocked. More information on VSN's work in metadata can be found here.
The ideal system will also facilitate not only content management, but also process management as organisations look to streamline, optimise and sometimes automate their workflows.
Belgium-based Videohouse, part of the Euro Media Group, chose VSNExplorer MAM for its archive and media management needs.
There are many, many other questions that a prospective buyer of a media asset management solution should be asking - such as whether the proposed solution can handle transcoding? How adept is the system at cataloguing? You'll find a very useful white paper here that provides you with far more ideas on the subject.
Specifically, you might want to ask a supplier:
With your solution, is it easy to distribute files once they are catalogued and archived?
Is your solution capable of being simply yet powerfully integrated into third party systems?
Does your solution feature AI to ease and speed the workflow?
And speaking of easing and speeding the workflow - does your solution provide automatic metadata detection and cataloguing?
Is your solution web-based?
We think there's only one solution that can answer yes to all those questions - and that's VSNExplorer MAM.
Back in 1996, Bill Gates may not have foreseen the rise of social media influencers or cat videos. He may not have predicted the advent of fake news either. But when he foresaw that the future was all about the value of content, we can perhaps forgive him for those omissions.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...