M+E Daily

Avail-TVN Taps Signiant’s Workflow Manager For New Digital Supply Chain Solution

By Mel Lambert

Digital media services company Avail-TVN has announced the availability of its Content Prep Solution, a metadata creation, asset management and workflow automation system for content providers that distribute digital media. The system integrates the Signiant Workflow Manager to orchestrate the movement of valuable digital assets between customers and distribution partners.

As consumer demand for digital media increases, content providers are tasked with managing an ever-increasing amount of metadata in support of media files. Avail-TVN’s Content Prep Solution eliminates time-consuming manual workflow processes related to metadata input and management, and allows content providers to manage an array of license windows and asset packages and their syndication paths from a single interface.

Current Avail-TVN partners include Bloomberg and Sportskool, with plans to bring the new Content Prep service to additional content providers over the next several months.

”As media and entertainment companies continue to adopt file-based workflows, they need comprehensive and powerful tools for prepping content in different formats to support multiplatform delivery,” says Tony Lapolito, Signiant’s VP of Product Management and Marketing. “We are very pleased that Avail-TVN — the largest digital media services company in North America — has chosen to standardize on Workflow Manager to automate content-preparation workflows for their groundbreaking new service.”

Signiant offers a range of software solutions for streamlining content management from production through distribution and digital upload. “More than simple file transport systems,” Lapolito says, “we automate, accelerate, manage and securely control the movement of high-value digital content within and between organizations and ecosystems. We enable our customers to build new business models, reduce costs and integrate with existing investments.”

To ensure a high level of IT security for leading film studios and TV production companies, Signiant provides advanced software to the entertainment and media space that protects all forms of digital content. “Our products were utilized to protect digital assets during the Summer Olympic Games in China, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and for the worldwide releases of director James Cameron’s ‘Avatar,’” Lapolito states.

”The supply chain for content has changed forever; organizations must adapt to that change,” he says. “The global exchange and transformation of content among many organizations is essential to the new models. As the supply chain changes so must the company; access to a fully-articulated content supply chain management strategy is essential for a successful adaptation to those changes.”

Content supply chain management, and the servicing of new supply-chain economics, are described as key elements of Signiant’s expertise. “All content should be considered an asset,” Lapolito advises. “But in today’s digital media environment its true value will only be realized if you have extremely precise, up-to-the-second knowledge of what assets you have, where it all is, who needs it, when it will be delivered, what form is required, and finally that it has arrived. All of this information about our clients’ content needs to be visible at any time from a single viewpoint. Broader availability and better utilization of all the information about content translates assets directly into profits.”