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NAB 2017: 5th Kind to Unveil All-New DAM System

Marvel, Warner Bros., Disney, Illumination … Hollywood’s top content companies have long relied on 5th Kind and its digital asset management (DAM) solutions, using the company’s product as a workflow backbone to sync projects securely, on a global basis.

But that doesn’t mean 5th Kind is resting on its laurels.

In addition to revamping its web site (5thKind.com), the Culver City, Calif.-based company this month is debuting a new version of its DAM application, which includes a streamlined ingest, distribution and review workflow for dailies work across desktop, mobile and even Apple TV.

In the works for more than two years, the updated 5th Kind offering features a ground-up rebuild and redesign, according to company CEO Stephen Cronan, offering a streamlined, dynamic user experience, with advanced security, “super-fast” performance, drag-and-drop functionality, an event-driven framework for advanced integration through its APIs, and a contextual sharing module, allowing for a streamlined experience for dailies review, distribution, photo kills, bidding workflows and more.

“A streamlined, easy-to-use design — along with addressing the metadata needs of productions today — were at the forefront in the upgraded 5th Kind solution: the new version handles infinitely configurable meta structures, which can be used for everything from streamlined access controls, easy searching across millions of files, or intelligent tiered storage management,” Cronan said.

Along with advanced version management features and Wizard tools to simplify advanced workflows, the upgraded offering also layers on new security tools, including encrypted upload and download to mobile (with new mobile design), and multi-factor authentication.

Data and security aside, the latest version of 5th Kind’s DAM solution includes layers of automation with facial and object detection, speech-to-text conversion, IMDb and Google Maps integration.

Cronan said the challenge for the application over the years has been balancing the amount of functionality with a simple streamlined user experience. “We have spent the last couple of years researching and fine tuning both the front and back end of the application so that user experience of either the interface or the APIs are as intuitive as possible,” he said.

Cronan added that every feature request over the past decade was kept in mind while 5th Kind built the new version of its offering.

“All layers of the application have been researched to use the most modern design patterns, deployment automation and quality assurance automation for fast user experience, deployment and upgrades,” he added. “We’ve been receiving a lot of positive reactions as we’ve started to demonstrate the new product. We’re excited about the road ahead.”

At this month’s NAB Show, 5th Kind will be showing off its latest offering in collaboration with Aspera, at booth SL8124. To book an appointment, visit 5thkind.com/appointments/, or email [email protected].