HITS Exclusives

When the main stage closes at the May 25 “Holly-wired: Where IT and Entertainment Meet” event in Los Angeles, attendees will have four different innovation and technology showcase tracks to choose from.

For “Holly-wired” attendees looking for workflow presentations, the track “Efficiencies, Systems, and Workflow” will be the ticket, with FilmTrack, Adobe and Prime Focus Technologies among the presenters:

• Jason Kassin, co-founder and CEO of FilmTrack and Clay Epstein, president of Film Mode Entertainment, teaming up to talk about the new distribution models for VOD, and the new solutions available for contract administration, rights management, and tracking and delivery, to better enable any film’s monetization strategy, in the presentation “New Distribution Models and the Impact on Systems.”

• Todd Burke, principal solutions consultant for Adobe Systems, will lead the discussion “Connected Assets Improve Productivity by 700%,” a look at how Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries allow clients to store and share assets across their Creative Cloud (CC) desktop and mobile applications.

• ‘One Software for the Enterprise: Abandoning Islands of Automation” sees Ramki Sankaranarayanan, founder and CEO of Prime Focus Technologies, sharing how centralization of software can reduce the discordance often found in company silos, promoting better collaboration within creative and broadcasting or production systems.

And if metadata is your thing, there’s no question which HITS breakout session track you’ll be headed to. The “Metadata & Assets” track will feature laser-focused metadata presentation from both V2 Solutions and Rovi Corp., and kicks off with a unique presentation by Disney, MarkLogic and the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC): “Unpacking ETC’s ‘The Suitcase’ Project.”

The short film — debuting May 24 at The London in Hollywood, Calif. — was produced by ETC@USC, and focuses on cloud technologies and network-based workflows around metadata, and how data can be better managed from the divergent systems that were actually used during the film’s production.

“I think it’s a hugely significant piece of work,” said Matt Turner, CTO of media and entertainment for MarkLogic, who will be on the metadata track panel with Anthony Accardo, director of research and development for Disney/ABC Television Group and Erik Weaver, project lead for production in the cloud for ETC@USC. “The project illustrates the new cloud principles of the C4 (Cinema Content Creation Cloud) process to link assets during production and shows how production data can be integrated into the final film version with an augmented viewing experience driven by data.

“This could impact consumers but could also enable production teams to monitor the data that is generated during filming and research teams to see the dynamic data behind each scene including plotlines and locations (in addition to characters and actors).”

“The Suitcase” presentation will see the trio of panelists looking at the process of upstream authoritative metadata extraction, making sure that the same metadata doesn’t have to be recreated downstream. Also included will be a review of the benefits and use of the MarkLogic NoSQL semantic database platform, and the C4 ID system.

Other metadata breakout session tracks at the Hollywood IT Society (HITS) event include:

• “Managing Supply Chain Metadata for a Global Marketplace,” a presentation by Teresa Phillips, SVP of V2 Solutions, where she’ll tackle the differences between basic search and deeper discovery, where robust metadata can make sure consumers actually get the content they want. In today’s global media marketplace — where language, genres and cultural interpretation can interfere with getting viewers what they desire — metadata has never been more important.

• “Who’s Writing Your Resume? The Power of Metadata to Effectively Monetize your Content Catalogs” has Michael Jeffrey, VP of market solutions for Rovi, looking at what’s being done right and what’s being done wrong when it comes to content owners using metadata to make the most out of their deep catalogues of content, especially when it comes to descriptive information for VOD and OTT content.

The May 25 gathering of the Hollywood IT community will see speakers from major studios, technology companies, distributors and more. Entertainment Partners and FilmTrack lead a list of event sponsors that also includes Avanade, Cognizant, Expert System Enterprise, MarkLogic, MediaSilo, Avere, Qumulo, Rovi, SalesForce and Slack.

To register, click here.

Coverage of HITS breakout sessions will continue next week.