| Inside The Intelligent Library System
By Bruce Hollinger
Over the past decade, digital technology has proliferated and
established a firm foothold in the film industry - particularly in
film-to-tape, 1080p/24 acquisition, digital effects and post
production processes. In addition, new digital production
technologies coupled with the emergence of high-speed computing,
Internet and broadband network infrastructures have helped to move
the film industry toward a new era in digital cinema. Crucial to the
success of this burgeoning frontier will be the protection,
management and preservation of content as the number and size of
digital assets rapidly expand as media formats and technologies
continue to evolve. Coupled with sophisticated archive management,
efficient distribution schemes are needed to help the industry to
exploit additional revenue streams while curbing non-essential
expenses.
The Perfect Combination
Taking a leadership role in digital archiving and distribution
for this evolving market, Liberty Livewire has engaged Advanced
Software Resources, licensee of Lockheed Martin's Intelligent
Library System (ILS), in a project that exploits the sophistication
of this technology with Liberty Livewire's expertise in providing
services to the entertainment industry. The result will be Liberty
Livewire's Digital Asset Management & Distribution Center,
opening this November in the Liberty Livewire facility in Hollywood.
In the Center, Liberty Livewire will offer their customers (film,
post houses, content owners and film studios) end-to-end solutions
including digital archiving, search/retrieval and distribution as
they transition to digital media and expand into new revenue
streams. At the heart of the Center, will be Lockheed Martin's ILS
technology, which will provide the asset protection, management and
preservation and distribution solution of the industry's valued
media assets in a single integrated system.
The ILS Advantage
The ILS technology, having evolved over 15 years of development
and deployment demanding the highest standards of security,
reliability and digital asset protection, is unique in its focus on
digital content preservation and security -- key factors for the
film and digital cinema industries. Equally important, the ILS
engineering team integrates its own software in flexible end-to-end
hardware / software solutions designed to adapt to new technology,
formats and workflow scenarios. This will ensure that Liberty
Livewire's Center stays current and supportive of its customers'
evolving business needs. The ILS offers this future-proofed
customization in addition to its state-of-the-art security features,
virtually unlimited storage capacity, sophisticated workflow
automation, flexible content-retrieval options for easy searching,
previewing and reviewing of assets, transparent asset monitoring and
preservation processes.
Asset Protection
Two key issues that have kept the film industry from migrating
their valued film stock to a video or digital tape archival format
have been security and the potential for copying. To address this,
the ILS security system operates on a customer-definable multi-level
security scheme. For example, users' access privileges can be
fine-tuned to differentiate by content source, content resolution,
viewing vs. editing or whatever suits the customers' needs. To
augment the ILS's electronic access control -- and the incorporation
of encryption technologies -- physical security at the Center's
building will be provided by Liberty Livewire. Livewire anticipates
future enhancements to the facility to include the use of
biometrics. These extra security measures will reinforce Livewire's
commitment to providing the ultimate in security for concerned film
and studio executives.
Asset Preservation
In addition to protecting access to digital content, ILS protects
the integrity of the content over time. The ILS technology has
proven its ability to preserve the bits and bytes of digital content
through automated backup and monitoring of both the utilization and
age of tape media, including those stored on physical shelves. Asset
preservation directives are automated to avoid potential human
error. Coupled with the ILS' open architecture to accept future
storage technologies and formats, this results in an unlimited
lifespan for the system. Further, content quality from generation to
generation is guaranteed while the asset-preservation process
remains transparent to the customer, due to the ILS' automated
backup and monitoring processes.
Scalable Storage
Knowing that the storage needs of the entertainment marketplace
vary dramatically, the ILS was designed to be completely scalable --
from centralized online cache for quick searches to dispersed
networks that can handle thousands of terabytes of static and
dynamic imagery and data in a multi-tiered storage architecture.
This allows the Digital Asset Management & Distribution Center
to handle a myriad of storage needs, from full resolution HD
programming and high-resolution digitized feature-length movies, to
theatrical stems and digital effects elements, to streaming media
files for Internet broadcasting. As the Center's archive grows in
size, three elements of the archive subsystem will be seamlessly
integrated to include on-line storage, near-line storage, and
off-line storage. On-line storage consists of multiple commercially
available disk devices, and is the central staging point for the
dissemination of all digital media assets. Digital assets located in
the other storage devices are copied to on-line storage prior to
dissemination. Near-line storage includes devices such as a robotic
tape library system (small to large "jukebox") using multiple DLT or
19mm data tape drives. The tape library system loads media from the
jukebox slots when required to write data from on-line storage to
near-line storage, or to read data from near-line storage to on-line
storage. Off-line storage includes media such as tapes stored on
shelves. Operators retrieve media for near-line storage when stored
digital media assets are requested.
This three-tiered system not only makes storage cost-effective,
but allows the system to handle a myriad of customer applications
simultaneously. For instance, any number of customers can be
accessing the system to pull elements from the online cache for clip
creation, repurposing content for Internet streaming or DVD
encoding, while others are accessing the tape archive for reviewing
film dailies. ILS's integrated suite of software tools, combined
with its hardware-based image/video processing subsystem makes
multiple-user access seamless.
Customizable Customer Interface
The ILS' graphical user interface screens, accessible remotely
through any IP based network or the Internet, are completely
customizable to accommodate the individual customer. The HTML
web-based user-interface affords unprecedented design freedom for
the customer to develop their own graphical user interface. JAVA RMI
(Remote Method Invocation) application programming interfaces
throughout the system provide quick access to its data structures
and services. This is a significant boon for the film and post
industries since it allows each facility to program an interface
that is instantly recognizable to its staff, minimizing ramp-up time
for both creative and administrative personnel. The system also uses
Unicode so the user can choose character sets from several different
languages.
Smart Retrieval Options
Migrating digital media assets quickly and seamlessly between the
three tiers of storage while keeping retrieval latency low was a
major challenge since "time is money" in the fast-paced film
entertainment arena. The ILS combines an open architecture with
automated search tools to streamline retrieval and workflow. The ILS
optimizes retrieval ballistics with database software Intelligence
by creating metadata "Profiles" for each dataset, stored in a server
that integrates multiple databases, and by the use of smart
retrieval algorithms.
The "Profile" is a multidimensional tool which provides the
capability to specify who should be notified when the new data
enters the system, how the data should be processed/distributed, and
what processes should be performed when the data arrives. The
Profile can also be used to specify routing of specific data to a
single or multiple group of customers. Based on customer-specified
"Profiles," the system automatically distributes any imagery, video
and related data that matches the Profile, whether it is a derived
product entered into the system, or just retrieved from a remote
locale. Profiles enable the system to know the user's data needs and
proactively "push" the data to the user with minimum delay.
To further decrease retrieval times, the ILS makes efficient use
of online disk storage by selecting algorithms and tunable
parameters for each user environment. For example, reduced
resolution or proxy files may be kept online for rapid browsing
alongside frequently used -resolution files.
Seamless Production Environment
The Livewire Center will be able to accept customer content in
any format, whether it be still imagery,text, HD or standard video,
telecine output, DVD or digital media files -- and be able to
receive it via electronic (Internet or broadband) and physical
means. Not only can the system handle a wide variety of data
formats, but the ILS can add new formats at any time without having
to upgrade the system software. Once received, the customer's
content is digitized, indexed and cataloged with its associated
metadata and a user-specific database is created. The database and
profile are then ingested and managed by the ILS management system,
comprising of four interlinking modules: Workflow Management;
Library Management; System Administration; and Access Control.
The Workflow Management module is the main process-management
mechanism for importing, exporting, connecting and archiving of
files. The Library Management module performs archiving functions
such as tape migration and statusing of customer orders. The System
Administration module manages essential process monitoring like
startup, shutdown, event logging, etc. Last, the Access Control
module ensures authentication of users at login, assigns user
privileges and monitors so that users are not permitted to perform
operations outside of their allocated privilege set. Access to the
Digital Asset Management & Distribution Center, via the Access
Control module, is afforded by the user-specified custom interface
that allows authorized users to search and retrieve files and to
order content to be repurposed and distributed to any facility or
medium worldwide.
After accessing the digital media files, users can then schedule
and direct the data to various processing and distribution
subsystems for final dissemination. The distribution of data can be
in any format, from DVD to native telecine output stream to
MPEG-based streaming media. Distribution to multiple sites is
achieved through the intranet/Internet-broadband paradigm via
various transmission mediums. ATM, Ethernet 100 BaseT and 1000 BaseT
are used for intranet, while the Internet and broadband
infrastructure are used to disseminate information to the outside
world.
ASR's installation of Lockheed Martin's ILS at Liberty Livewire's
Digital Asset Management and Distribution Center will be a key
enabling tool in revolutionizing how the film and digital cinema
industries think about digital asset management, preservation and
distribution.
> Diagram
of Digital Media Solution
ingest, store, preserve,
transform and deliver diverse rich media |
