New Features & Enhancements Unveilled for ContentAgent at IBC

New Features & Enhancements Unveilled for ContentAgent at IBC 01 Sep 2014

Automated camera card ingest workflows for multiple users and Insert Edit capabilities for AS-11 UK DPP deliverables workflow are among new tools to streamline operations.

ContentAgent, the workflow management and automation tool from ROOT6 Technology, will be seen with a number of new features and enhancements at IBC. In all cases these are designed to save time and effort in the production and postproduction environment by automating commonly applied processes and reducing the need for human intervention.

ContentAgent's popular automated camera card ingest workflow is now augmented with CardAgent, a tool designed for multi-user ingest intensive environments such as news or reality shows. CardAgent features a simple user interface enabling non-technical operators to initiate a variety of workflows from commonly used cameras. Operators are able to browse, select, and playback media. Automated workflows can be triggered for transcoding and re-wrapping for the creation of proxies, high resolution copies and backups and the subsequent delivery to editorial. Associated clip and card metadata is extracted and stored in ContentAgent's database. Avid integration, in both standalone and Interplay environments frees up resources, as ContentAgent automates the transcoding of ingested clips into Avid compliant MXF files, checking them into the Avid Interplay Production Asset Management database, if required.

root6 is an official member of the Digital Production Partnership's (DPP) compliance programme and ContentAgent is already widely used to automate the creation, QC and delivery of AS-11 UK DPP files. Two important new enhancements have been added in the form of a Metadata Update feature enabling production or technical metadata to be updated without the need to re-wrap the entire file, and an Insert Edit function. Using Insert Edit, users are able to make last minute changes either creative or corrective without the time-consuming need to re-transcode or re-wrap the entire file. Prior to delivery, ContentAgent users can benefit from the system's integration with third party automated file-based QC, and visual QC via SDI/HDMI playback monitoring.

Also featured at IBC will be resolution independent, motion compensated standards conversion, the result of ContentAgent's integration with Tachyon from Cinnafilm and the deployment of GPU acceleration. This technology obviates the need to return to base band for standards conversion and was used widely by BBC Sport for its recent coverage of the FIFA World Cup. At the tournament BBC Sport converted over 3,500 separate clips totalling nearly 8 TB of media for use in editing. ContentAgent was also used to convert a further 37TB of media during the event so it could be added directly the BBC Sport Archive in Salford.

Other new features for ContentAgent include the provision of automated ProRes workflows and integration with Minnetonka AudioTools Server for Dolby E. A new Queuing Engine interface is also provided to streamline third party process monitoring.

About ROOT6 Technology

ROOT6 Technology was established by industry professionals in 1997 at the heart of Londons post-production and new media communities in Soho. The close association with the media industry lead to the development of ContentAgent, the globally-installed, scalable, software-based tool for managing and automating file-based workflows. Transcoding the files you receive into the files you need to work with and deliver, ContentAgent automates the processes in a seamless transparent manner, maximising available resources, reducing the need for human intervention and significantly streamlining operations.

LINK:	http://www.theiabm.org/article.php?group_id=12504...
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