Anystream has launched Anystream Avalon, a metadata packaging and distribution system for content production and video networks that provides seamless integration with existing metadata sources; comprehensive metadata enhancement and validation; and “painless” distribution to mobile, internet and VoD destinations.
According to Anystream President and General Manager Bill Holding: “Encoding video properly is not enough. Increasingly, the challenges also involve metadata. The key is to ensure that metadata associated with media is pristine, comprehensive and flawlessly delivered, along with the media itself. That is what we provide with Avalon, a next-generation metadata and workflow management system that perfectly blends content production and packaging; multiple outlet delivery; and flexible distribution requirements.”
With Avalon, content can be highly customised with automated packaging of metadata, videos, images and other content files for distribution to meet the requirements of each distribution outlet.
Avalon supports most popular distribution outlets through its flexible ADM framework, which supports many industry standard specification formats (CableLabs, MRSS) as well as outlet-specific formats such as iTunes, Hulu, YouTube and many others.
Users frequently need a customised framework tailored to their own business requirements. Avalon can easily be configured to match an existing specification or create a customized metadata format.
Adaptation to custom workflows and navigating ever-changing format specifications are also critical to business success. Avalon can be programmed through a service oriented architecture (SOA, web services API) to create customised workflows to address evolving business needs.
When distributing to a wide variety of outlets, the required metadata elements can increase dramatically. Avalon empowers users to customise values so they are only inputting data that is absolutely needed.
Status, event, error, and user interaction events can also be logged to a centralised utility. Administrators can access all logging data from a browser at any time to determine the overall health of the system.
Anystream Avalon is accessible through a new web-based user interface that provides a simple and intuitive interface for all administration, submission, status and management tasks, and which runs in most popular, standard web browsers to provide qualified users with remote access to all systems functions at all times.
Other Anystream Avalon benefits include stateless management, which ensures that processes continue even after individual failures; floating licenses which improve system redundancy and reduce costs; screens that are XML-driven enable dynamic UI customizations; web services API provides vital customization; standard profiles for a wide number of common distribution outlets get content into correct formats; and an extensible framework allows for easy customization of existing profiles, or creation of a new profile.
