Three Media, a specialist media company in workflow and technology management, has added important functionality to its flagship XEN:Pipeline software suite.
The business process platform, used to manage OTT, online and on demand services, now also covers linear channels, making it the ideal single-point content supply chain solution.
XEN:Pipeline is an end-to-end solution for managing content and monitoring the workflows and processes required to enable distribution.
It works with any storage sub-systems, discovering files and identifying them to catalogue content providing global visibility described by abstracted, embedded and technical metadata.
Workflows based on business rules determine when, where and how the content is to be distributed, managing transfers, transcoding and delivery.
Because it draws on and creates very rich metadata, it is able to automate all tasks, reporting only by exception and thus reducing manpower requirements and increasing commercial efficiency.
The new module adds functionality to integrate linear schedules and playlists into the process. Because it can track content all the way from the supplier to distribution, it can identify missing items, flagging them with the first use whether that is for linear or non-linear.
By pulling content into the enterprise, and from shared storage to playout, it eliminates the need for a traffic layer.
“With this latest enhancement, we give media companies complete visibility to their assets right across the estate,” said Three Media founder and managing director Debra Slater.
“That applies to any asset, whether they are on a standalone drive or in large archives. Most important, XEN:Pipeline looks at those assets, discovers all the relevant information and enables automated workflows to process the content without disrupting any other operations.
“There is no risk to any aspect of the business.”
XEN:Pipeline is offered as software as a service, generally implemented in the cloud. That means all the functionality can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, a key requirement in an industry where remote and home working is becoming a norm.